8: Leadership in Sport Flashcards
what is leadership
“the process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal”
problems defining leadership:
- 1000s of different definitions
- some refer to power, some refer to influence
- there is good and bad leadership, but definitions mostly refer to good qualities
- perspective of the focal theory - researchers use the definition which backs up their point the best
how to choose a leader
two types of leaders:
emergent leaders = come from the group itself (emerge and take charge) either because of their skill/ability or if they are nominated by the group e.g. captain
prescribed leaders = appointed by an outsider organising body e.g. an appointed manager
emergent leaders tend to gave the confidence of the group behind them, but prescribed leaders have to gain trust and have to work to get people to listen to them
basic leadership model
leadership –> psychological outcomes –> behaviour/performance
psychological outcomes such as commitment, confidence, motivation
autocratic / task orientated leaders
dictate - don’t care about athlete’s opinions, do what they want
inflexible approach to the group
cold and impersonal
task needs to be completed as quickly and effectively as possible
advice ideas or comments not welcome
group members tend to stop/slow down if leader is absent
aggressive towards each other when things do wrong
however effective when quick decisions need to be made
democratic / social or person orientated
make decisions after consultation process with group
actively encourage involvement of group
adopt more informal relaxed approach to leadership
leader makes final decision but based on information collected from group and own thoughts/ideas
group members continue to work on tasks when leader is absent
effective in co-active sports e.g. hockey, football, rugby
not as effective in time crunch situations
laissez-faire leadership
no leadership - the leader stands aside and allows group to make its own independent decisions
group members get on with things their own way
leaders may help members get out of difficulties but offer no direction/involvement
group goals less likely to be achieved
group members tend to be aggressive towards each other when things go wrong and give up easily
studying leadership: trait approach
the great man theory
idea that leaders are born not made
successful leaders have certain personality characteristics that make it likely they will be leaders no matter what situation they’re in
however no definitive set of traits that characterise a good leader
behavioural approach
idea that good leaders are made not born
anyone can be taught to be a good leader
links with social learning theory which suggests people learn to be good leaders by observing behaviours of other good leaders in a variety of situations, reproducing those behaviours in similar situations and then continuing them should reinforce them
interaction theory
considers other factors that could effect the effectiveness of leadership, mainly the interaction between the individual and their situation
relationship-centred leaders
focused on developing relationships with the people in the group
work hard to maintain communication with members
help maintain levels of social interaction between members and themselves
develops respect and trust with others
generally more effective with experienced, highly skilled athletes as they are already highly task-orientated
task-centred leaders
more concerned with meeting goals and objectives
tend to create plans and decide on priorities
assign members to tasks
ensure members stay on task - with overall focus on increasing overall group activity
tend to be more effective with less experienced, less skilled performers who need constant instruction and feedback
which is best leader
different athletes will prefer task orientated or relationship orientated leaders
a leader who gets the right balance between providing a supportive environment and focusing on getting job done is most effective
leaders role to know their performers to know where to concentrate their efforts
people can change from relationship to task and vice versa depending on situation
effective leaders can match situation to style
sport specific research didn’t support the theories derived from outside sport contexts
the unique characteristics of teams are not considered with leadership theories
multidimensional model of leadership
conceptual framework allowing leadership effectiveness to be studied in sports domain
effective leadership is dynamic and based on complex series of interactions between leader, group members, and situation
behaviour does not occur in vacuum - factors such as leadership and member characteristics will influence both actual behaviour of the leader and group preferences for leadership behaviours
leader behaviour
actual = what leader does in a situation - often determined by coaches experiences
preferred = behaviour that followers would like to see in a leader - determined by the group
required = behaviour required by situation or task
antecedents (factors that influence the behaviour)
situational characteristics: environmental conditions, number in team, time constraints, strength of opposition, social-cultural characteristics
leadership characteristics: skill, qualifications, personality, experience
member characteristics: age, gender, personality, motivation, competence, experience
with the multidimensional model of leadeship:
if coach’s behaviour is what is required by the situation and what players prefer, this should leader to good performance and high satisfaction in players
congruence hypothesis: satisfaction and performance are a function of the congruence between all three states of leadership behaviour (required, actual and preferred)
if coaches behaviour is incongruent with what is required and preferred, poor performance and low satisfaction
when actual coach behaviour is congruent with what is required but not what players prefer, performance good but dissatisfied
when actual coach behaviour is congruent with what players prefer but not required, performance poor but high satisfaction
with development of model, member characteristics started to feed into required behaviour as players understood certain leadership may be required but not necessarily preferred
an effective leader should be reflecting on teams performance and satisfaction to help improve themself
transformational leadership
all about inspiring those you are leading
“transformational leadership takes place when leaders go beyond their own self-interests and inspire, encourage and stimulate others to exceed minimally expected standards”
and transformational leader is a person who stimulates and inspires followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes
inspire others to invest effort beyond the realisation of reward and punishment
transformational leaders enhance the motivation, morale and performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms
connecting the followers sense of identity and self to the project and the collective identity of the organisation
being a role model for followers that inspire them and make them interested
challenging followers to take greater ownership for their work
understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers
all allows the leader to align followers with tasks that enhance their performance
transactional leadership
involves a series of exchanges between leader and follower
whereby leaders make use of rewards and reinforcement to faster compliance and encourage followers to meet previously agreed upon standard
reward and punishment based
meta analysis
studied another variable that relates independent variable to dependent variable indirectly
indirect effect of transformational leadership behaviours on sports performance due to mediating role of intrinsic motivation
indirect effect of transformational leadership behaviours on group cohesion due to mediating role of intra team communication
meta cognitive model of vision, support and challenge
first developed in a military context
investigated how leaders influenced the troops
model posits that great coaches inspire their athletes by
- creating an inspirational vision of the future (inspirational motivation, appropriate role modelling, fosters acceptance of group goals)
- providing the necessary support to achieve the vision (individual consideration, contingent reward)
- providing the challenge to achieve the vision (intellectual stimulation, high performance expectations)
athletes perception of vision, support and challenge are a direct consequence of coach behaviours
issues with transformational leadership
reliance on correlational data - we cannot infer causality between transformational leadership and performance (don’t know which affects which)
overemphasis of theory on leadership process at the dyadic level - much research explains leaders influence on individual follows not as a group
insufficient specification of situational variables in transformational leadership - we assume transformational leadership outcomes are the same in all situations
theory does not explicitly identify any situation where transformational leadership is detrimental
challenging single leadership assumption
rather than assuming leadership is a single-handed, heroic performance that is the property of one individual
should be thinking of leadership as socially-constructed with followers in context
athlete, manager, coach and captain all provide leadership, not one person
one leader in sport is an oversimplification
leadership distributed across many induvial in sport
distributed leadership
wide rage of individuals and groups are brought into leadership - not just one coach
leadership practice is thought of as a product of the interactions of leaders, followers and the situation
therefore interactive rather than leader-based perspective
little empirical evidence (more research is required)
