Abstract
High-level sports teams in universities are crucial for cultivating high-level athletes in China. Currently, coaches are the most direct managers of university (including colleges) sports teams in China, with their management styles and approaches having a direct impact on athletes’ psychology. This study focused on high-level university football teams and explored the impact of transformational leadership on athlete turnover intention. The mediating effect of the “coach–athlete relationship,” which helps establish and develop high-level university sports teams in China, was also examined. Overall, coaches with a transformational leadership style were found to have a significant effect on reducing athlete turnover intention and enhancing the coach–athlete relationship. In fact, the effect of coaches’ transformational leadership behavior on athlete turnover intention is mediated through the coach–athlete relationship.
Highlights
Integrating sports and education, using the science and technological advantages of universities to develop competitive sports, and including competitive sports in universities to cultivate high-level athletes, are key strategies that have been used to develop the competitive sports industry in China (Hu & Yao, 2015)
The research results indicated that the transformational leadership behaviors of high-level university football team coaches have a negative effect on athlete turnover intention; in other words, coaches’ transformational leadership behaviors reduce the development of athletes’ desires and intent to leave a team
The results indicated that the Cronbach’s α coefficients for transformational leadership, the coach–athlete relationship, and turnover intention were 0.96, 0.85, and 0.65, all of which were greater than 0.60 and reliable
Summary
Integrating sports and education, using the science and technological advantages of universities (including colleges) to develop competitive sports, and including competitive sports in universities to cultivate high-level athletes, are key strategies that have been used to develop the competitive sports industry in China (Hu & Yao, 2015). These strategies are indicative of the main direction in which competitive sports in China will continue to develop: namely, with universities undertaking more tasks in athletic talent cultivation. The Ministry added that these universities’ future high-level football teams will usher in “the golden period” for athletic talent development
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