Authors: Matthew Raidbard
Corresponding Author:
Matthew Raidbard, Ed.D.
9501 South King Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60628
mraidbard@gmail.com
847-826-2827
Matthew Raidbard has been a men’s college basketball coach for the past twelve years. He has also served for the past three years as a senior level college athletics administrator. His research focus is determining the best leadership style and leadership behaviors for athletic coaches to practice in order for them to be successful.
College Basketball Coach Leadership Perception: A Review and Recommendations
ABSTRACT
A quantitative design was used by this study to determine how Division I, II, and III men’s college basketball head coaches perceive themselves as leaders. A leadership survey was emailed to all Division I, II, and III men’s college basketball head coaches, and the head coaches who chose to complete the leadership survey comprised the population for this study. The head coaches who met the study’s definition of a successful head coach were sorted into a separate sub-population. Data analysis was conducted on the data collected from the completed leadership surveys and the best leadership style and leadership behaviors for athletic coaches to practice were determined based on the head coaches’ responses. This study determined that transformational leadership was the best leadership style for athletic coaches to practice when the autocratic leadership behavior that athletic coaches should centralize their authority and be the sole decision-makers was also practiced. Additional analysis conducted on the data determined that there was a small degree of correlation between the perceived and actual leadership styles of the head coaches who completed the leadership survey, which indicated that athletic coaches could benefit from leadership training that taught them the best leadership style and leadership behaviors to practice, and how to practice them.
Keywords: college basketball coach, athletic coach leadership, ncaa, college coach leadership
Athletics is an integral and part of colleges across the United States. The role athletics plays on a college campus varies for each institution based on the amount of resources and emphasis the institution chooses to allocate for its athletic department; however, regardless of the investment made by the institution in its athletic department, a successful athletic program (hereafter used interchangeably with “athletic success”) can have an enormous impact on the institution at large. Due to the amount of mainstream exposure an athletic department can generate, successful athletic teams can greatly increase an institution’s alumni and booster donations, external sponsorship and branding opportunities, and increase the number and quality of applicants. These benefits of “athletic success” all serve to increase the profile, funding, and resources of the institution.
Many colleges devote an extensive amount of resources to athletics; however, that does not guarantee a successful athletics department. Furthermore, the athletic teams that are judged to have the most talent do not always achieve success; and in both cases, the question of why some teams achieve success, while others do not, must be addressed. There has always been curiosity and speculation about why certain college athletic teams achieve success year in and year out, even as star athletes come and go. Resources and great athletes are often identified as being two of the primary reasons; however, the coach’s leadership style and ability to maximize the effort and effectiveness of his or her players is often de-emphasized. In order for college athletic teams to succeed, the coach must practice the right leadership style and best leadership behaviors in order to inspire and motivate his or her athletes.
Tutko and Richards (1971) suggested that the athletic coach’s main job is to assist the athlete in achieving his or her highest physical, psychological, attitudinal, and motivational development. They also found in their research that the right leadership style employed by athletic coaches resulted in greater than expected individual as well as team results. Leadership is an essential element in promoting a positive team atmosphere, and motivating individual athletes to work hard and support a team-first culture. While much has been written about the importance of college athletic coaches as leaders, and what leadership style is theoretically best for college athletic coaches to practice, an in-depth study to determine the best leadership style and leadership behaviors for athletic coaches to practice, based on how the coaches perceive themselves as leaders, has yet to be conducted.
Such a study would determine the best leadership style and leadership behaviors by examining the difference between the responses of successful and unsuccessful athletic coaches. The results of such a study would also help to inform the hiring practices of administrators who are responsible for hiring athletic coaches. With the information from this study, administrators would be able to more accurately determine if prospective coaching candidates practice the best leadership styles and leadership behaviors to successfully lead their team. Once the right athletic coaches are in place, athletic teams have a better opportunity to achieve success and positively impact the institution as a result of that success.
The purpose of this research is to determine how NCAA Division I, II, and III men’s college basketball head coaches perceive themselves as leaders, and was designed to attempt to answer five research questions:
- Is there a leadership style that men’s college basketball head coaches practice most often?
- Are there specific leadership behaviors that men’s college basketball head coaches practice most often?
- Is there a leadership style that successful men’s college basketball head coaches practice most often?
- Are there specific leadership behaviors that successful men’s college basketball head coaches practice most often?
- Is there a correlation between the perceived practiced leadership style and actual practiced leadership style of men’s college basketball head coaches?
Definition of Terms
- Autocratic Leadership: A leadership style where the leader is the sole decision-maker, and the leader draws a clear distinction between the role of the leader and the role of the followers. Within the autocratic leadership organizational structure, followers understand that all decisions are made by the leader in order for the leadership to be effective (Lewin, Lippit & White, 1939).
- Democratic Leadership: A leadership style where the leader actively seeks the input and advice from followers in order to make organizational decision. The leader engages followers by listening to their ideas and opinion, and treats followers as equals in order to create an organizational culture where followers are motivated by their equality to work harder and share in organizational success (Lewin, Lippit & White, 1939).
- Laissez-Faire Leadership: A leadership style where the leader consciously decides to take a hands-off approach to leadership, with the belief that followers understand their particular role within the organization, and, therefore, active leadership and oversight is unnecessary (Lewin, Lippit & White, 1939).
- Leadership: The ability of an individual to positively influence and transform his or her followers’ desire to maximize their effectiveness and ability to achieve their potential (Burns, 1978; Bass, 1985).
- Success: Winning an average of one conference regular season or conference tournament championship every four seasons, or appearing in the NCAA Tournament an average of once every six seasons, or appearing in the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, or Final Four an average of once every eight seasons, or winning at least one NCAA Tournament Championship in a career (Cote & Gilbert, 2009; Horn, 2008).
- Transactional Leadership: A leadership style where the leader focuses on the supervision and organization of his or her followers. The leader also promotes a contingent rewards and punishments system to influence and motivate followers’ performance (Burns, 1978; Bass, 1985).
- Transformational Leadership: A leadership style that is defined by the leader’s approach to inspiring and motivating his or her followers to achieve more than the followers believe they can achieve. This style of leadership is centered on the leader establishing value in his or her individual followers, and establishing a clear vision and goals for followers to work toward achieving (Burns, 1978; Bass, 1985).
Review of the Literature
Introduction
Athletic team coaching is an act of leadership; athletic coaches exhibit various leadership styles and engage in specific leadership behaviors, to lead their teams to overcome adversity, foster team effectiveness, and pursue collective team goals (Hackman & Wageman, 2005). Athletic coaches are often given a majority of the credit for cultivating team success and individual team victories; however, athletic coaches are also the ones who are usually singled out for blame when a team loses or fails to meet assigned expectations (Stornes & Bru, 2002). The choice of leadership style by an athletic coach can have a significant impact on the coach’s team’s level of performance, as well as the team’s ability to relate to the coach and form a cohesive team identity (Wells & Aicher, 2013).
Athletic coaches play a crucial role in the development of athletes who participate in both individual and team sports. Coaches are responsible for helping to improve athlete’s physical abilities as well as psychosocial well-being. In order for athletic coaches to be successful in this task they must possess the suitable leadership style and practice the best leadership behaviors that are most conducive to the needs of their athletes (Kim & Cruz, 2016). The most successful coaches are committed to leadership styles and behaviors that work toward developing an effective player-coach relationship, and are able to inspire their athletes to work toward accomplishing team goals and achieving collective success (Vella, Oades & Crowe, 2012).
Building a strong coach-player relationship has been determined to be a central component of player development, and positive player development has also been found to be a key factor in athletic team success (Vella, Oades & Crowe, 2012). A critical aspect of the coach-player relationship is dependent upon the coach giving the players positive feedback and providing them with social support (Chelladurai & Saleh, 1980). By providing positive feedback and social support, athletic coaches are leading players; however, the leadership style used by coaches is not static.
Relationship Between Athletic Coach Leadership Style and Athletic Success
Coaching an athletic team is a uniquely challenging occupation. The relationship between an athletic coach and his or her athletes has always been, and remains to this day, an integral aspect of the development of both the athletes and the coach (Rocha & Chelladurai, 2011). Athletic coaches seek to enhance their athletes’ athletic abilities and the overall performance of the team, and through this process, athletic coaches who are concerned with practicing the best leadership behaviors should seek to learn from their athletes’ responses to those behaviors. By a coach evaluating how his or her athletes respond to certain leadership behaviors, and then using that information to adapt or adjust his or her behaviors accordingly, a coach can increase the chance of achieving team goals (Phillips & Jubenville, 2009).
In the world of college athletics, the relationship between the leadership style and behaviors practiced by athletic coaches and team success has been debated for decades (Kao, Chen, Watson & Halbrook, 2015). Leadership by an athletic coach is necessary at both the individual and team level (Hoigaard, Jones & Peters, 2008). An athletic coach’s leadership characteristics and behaviors play a significant role in the coach’s ability to build relationships with his or her athletes, as well as maximize each athlete’s sports performance ability.
Athletic coaches hold a great deal of influence over their athletes. The leadership characteristics they possess and behaviors they exhibit are key elements in determining whether the nature of the coach-player relationship is positive and able to achieve team goals (Surujlal & Dhurup, 2012). In order to achieve this goal and level of individual commitment to team success, the athletic coach must use the right leadership behaviors in order to positively influence his or her team (Acet, Gumusgul & Isik, 2017). One of the main ways that athletic coaches are able to bring individual athletes together in the pursuit of team success is through strong training and instruction, and by exhibiting the positive leadership behaviors of teaching and organization in order to efficiently direct athletes and build team cohesion (Sullivan & Kent, 2003). Athletes have been found to be most responsive to leadership behaviors that are positive, and which include positive feedback from athletic coaches. Recent research supported past studies that demonstrated that coaches who possess the best leadership characteristics and practice positive leadership behaviors are able to develop a healthy coach-athlete relationship (Surujlal & Dhurup, 2012; Chelladurai & Saleh, 1980).
Athletic Coaches as Leaders
Athletics is viewed around the world as being a vehicle for youth to learn important life skills and behaviors. Through the leadership practiced by athletic coaches, athletes are able to not only learn important skills relating to their athletic pursuits, but also to transfer what they have learned from their coaches to face life’s challenges and roadblocks (Holt, Tink, Mandigo & Fox, 2008). When athletic coaches are hired, a key component of the hiring process is determining that they possess the required sport-specific knowledge. Without possessing sport-specific knowledge, an athletic coach would not be able to organize instructional activities and implement the strategies that are necessary to help players develop and the team to succeed. However, in order for athletic coaches to impart knowledge effectively to their players, they must possess not only sport specific knowledge, but also the necessary leadership skills (Hackman & Wageman, 2005).
The best leadership style for athletic coaches to practice is a subject that has been extensively studied. Over the past six decades, as the times have changed, and players and coaches have evolved, research on what leadership style is best for athletic coaches has shifted from supporting certain styles in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, to determining that others are more suited for today’s coaches to practice. In its simplest form, the effectiveness of an athletic coach is largely based on the quality of the leadership decisions that the head coach makes, as well as the leadership behaviors that the head coach exhibits and whether those decisions and behaviors are accepted by the athletes (Chelladurai & Haggerty, 1989). If the athletic coach’s leadership style and behaviors are not accepted by the athletes, a dysfunctional culture may be cultivated and exposed, which could lead to a poisoning of the coach-player relationship, as well as the coach’s relationship with the entire team. When this occurs, a team’s chances of success and achieving its goals are usually sabotaged (Schroeder, 2010).
Methodology
To identify how men’s college basketball head coaches perceive themselves as leaders, a quantitative study was designed, and descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data set. This study was a cross-sectional study. In this study, men’s college basketball head coaches were the population, and the head coaches who responded to the survey were the subset of the specific population analyzed. The subjects for this study were National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, Division II, and Division III men’s college basketball head coaches. The unit of analysis was each individual head men’s basketball coach in this research study, and the total number of head coaches who respond to the survey constituted the study’s population. Since this is an introductory study, assistant coaches can be included in future studies.
A link to complete the leadership survey via the Survey Monkey website was emailed to head coaches. All men’s college basketball head coaches have a school email address that is publicly available through the school’s athletic department directory, located on the athletic department’s webpage. An introductory message explaining the study and why the head coaches’ participation were needed, was emailed to each of the 351 Division I, 317 Division II, and 451 Division III men’s college basketball head coaches. At the end of this introductory message, there was a link to participate in the study. The head coaches who clicked on the link were directed to a Survey Monkey webpage where they could complete the leadership survey. After head coaches completed the leadership survey, it was automatically returned to the researcher via Survey Monkey.
All coaches were sent an adapted version of the Vannsimpco Leadership Survey (VLS), which consisted of thirty-three questions relating to behaviors practiced in transactional, transformational, laissez-faire, democratic, and autocratic leadership (Vann, Coleman & Simpson, 2014). Questions on the original survey that related to a workplace setting were adapted to the college athletics setting. Adapting the survey from the workplace setting to the college athletics setting primarily consisted of adjusting the workplace specific terms “supervisor” and “employees” to refer to “men’s basketball head coaches” and “athletes.”
Once the completed leadership surveys were returned, the answers given to the statements on each leadership survey were analyzed. Statements 1-6 on the survey are background questions. The remaining statements each represent key leadership behaviors that correspond to one of nine leadership styles. Statements 10-12 represent transactional leadership, statements 13-15 represent democratic leadership, statements 16-18 represent autocratic leadership, statements 19-21 represent autocratic-transformational leadership, statements 22-24 represent autocratic-transactional leadership, statements 25-27 represent democratic-transformational leadership, statements 28-30 represent democratic-transactional leadership, statements 31-33 represent transformational leadership, and statements 34-36 represent laissez-faire leadership. For each statement, a Likert Scale was used, and coaches were asked to indicate whether they strongly agree, somewhat agree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree. Each response on the Likert Scale was matched with a number for data collection; strongly agree (5), somewhat agree (4), neither agree nor disagree (3), somewhat disagree (2), or strongly disagree (1).
Results
The population for this study contained 1,093 NCAA men’s college basketball head coaches. Currently, all men’s college basketball head coaches are male so he or his will be used hereafter instead of his/her or she/he. The population consisted of 351 Division I men’s college basketball head coaches, 315 Division II men’s college basketball head coaches, and 427 Division III men’s college basketball head coaches (NCAA, 2017). Of the 1,093 men’s college basketball head coaches who were emailed the leadership survey, 211 completed the survey, with 208 respondents answering all of the survey questions. Table 1 shows the number of respondents who completed the survey and percentage by NCAA Division.
Table 1 :Number and Percentage of Respondents by NCAA Division
| NCAA Division | Number of Respondents | Percentage |
| Division I | 35 | 16.83% |
| Division II | 50 | 24.04% |
| Division III | 123 | 59.13% |
| Total | 208 |
This study had 211 respondents, 3 of whom were discarded using Listwise deletion because of missing data. Of the 208 respondents analyzed in this study, 94 of them met this study’s definition of success. For this study, success was defined as a men’s college basketball head coach winning an average of one conference regular season or conference tournament championship every four seasons; or appearing in the NCAA Tournament an average of once every six seasons; or appearing in the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, or Final Four an average of once every eight seasons; or winning at least one NCAA Tournament Championship in a career. Based on this study’s definition of success, 94 of the respondents were found to be successful men’s college basketball head coaches. Table 2 shows the number of respondents by NCAA division who met this study’s definition of success.
Table 2 : Number and Percentage of Successful Respondents by NCAA Division
| NCAA Division | Number of Respondents | Percentage |
| Division I | 16 | 17.02% |
| Division II | 22 | 23.40% |
| Division III | 56 | 59.58% |
| Total | 94 |
Analysis of the Research Questions
To answer research question number one: is there a leadership style that men’s college basketball head coaches practice most often, the head coaches’ responses to each survey statement were used to calculate the mean for each leadership style. The leadership style with the greatest mean was determined to be the leadership style the head coaches practiced most often. Table 3 shows the calculated mean for each leadership style, based on the sample (n=208), for the respondents’ responses to the survey statements.
Table 3 : Respondents’ Leadership Style Response Means
| Leadership Style | Mean |
| Transformational | 4.441 |
| Autocratic-Transformational | 4.221 |
| Democratic-Transformational | 4.184 |
| Transactional | 4.075 |
| Autocratic | 3.865 |
| Democratic | 3.787 |
| Autocratic-Transactional | 3.709 |
| Democratic-Transactional | 3.520 |
| Laissez-faire | 2.709 |
The survey data showed that there was a difference in the calculated means between the reported leadership styles practiced by the head coaches. The results determined that transformational leadership (M=4.441) was the leadership style the head coaches perceived themselves to practice most often. Autocratic-transformational leadership (M=4.221), followed by democratic-transformational leadership (M=4.184) were the second and third most commonly practiced leadership styles by the head coaches. This data indicates that, based on the mean responses to the survey questions, transformational leadership is the style that the head coaches perceived themselves to practice most often. The data also indicates that head coaches who do not perceive themselves to be practicing solely transformational leadership, do perceive themselves to be practicing leadership styles that strongly incorporate transformational leadership behaviors.
The only other leadership style that was not a combination of two leadership styles (such as autocratic-transformational) that had a respondent mean above 4.0 was transactional leadership. Transactional leadership had a response mean of 4.075, which indicates that the coaches did perceive themselves to be practicing transactional leadership, although not as strongly as transformational leadership, or both autocratic and democratic leadership when both were combined with transformational leadership behaviors.
To determine if there is a statistical difference between the leadership styles that the respondents perceived themselves to practice, a Kruskal-Wallis H test was performed. The null hypothesis for this test was that there is no significant difference between the leadership styles that the respondents reported to practice. The dependent variables were the head coaches, which were all men’s college basketball head coaches, and the independent variables were the nine leadership styles tested for on the survey. Figure 1 shows the results of the Kruskal-Wallis H test, which was run in order to determine if there was a statistically significant difference between the respondents’ responses to the nine leadership styles on the leadership survey.
| Leadership Style | Significance | Decision |
| Transactional | .190 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Democratic | .013 | Reject Null Hypothesis |
| Autocratic | .407 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Autocratic-Transformational | .473 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Autocratic-Transactional | .189 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Democratic-Transformational | .018 | Reject Null Hypothesis |
| Democratic-Transactional | .528 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Transformational | .238 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Laissez-faire | .047 | Reject Null Hypothesis |
Figure 1. Kruskal-Wallis H Test Results for Head Coaches’ Leadership Styles
The medians and mode were the central tendencies, and the significance level for the test was set at .05. Based on the results of the test, it was determined that the distribution of respondents’ responses for democratic leadership (significance = 0.013), democratic-transformational leadership (significance = 0.018), and Laissez-faire leadership (significance = 0.047) rejected the null hypothesis. Therefore, this test indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the respondents’ responses for the three leadership styles that were determined to reject the null hypothesis.
To answer research question number two: are there specific leadership behaviors that men’s college basketball head coaches perceive themselves to practice most often, the head coaches’ responses to each survey statement were used to calculate the mean for each individual statement. The leadership behaviors with the greatest means were determined to be the leadership behaviors the head coaches practiced most often. Table 4 shows the perceived leadership behaviors practiced by the respondents, corresponding leadership style, and mean based on the respondents’ responses to the individual survey statements.
Table 4 : Respondents’ Leadership Behavior Response, Corresponding Leadership Style, and Mean
| Leadership Behavior | Leadership Style | Mean |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should look for ways to develop the strengths of their athletes. | Transformational | 4.571 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches are responsible for the operation of the Men’s Basketball program and team, which includes the development of team standards, and establishing a level of commitment for the athletes. | Autocratic-Transformational | 4.498 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should develop strategies to develop the athletes’ performance and commitment to team improvement. | Transformational | 4.488 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should make it a point to reward their athletes for contributing to the achievement of team goals. | Transactional | 4.322 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be open to others’ ideas, yet they should guide athletes to become stronger and more focused basketball players. | Democratic-Transformational | 4.307 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should rely on personal influence and relationship building rather than on position or title to get athletes to complete basketball related tasks. | Transformational | 4.263 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should provide opportunities for their athletes to be involved in decision making, while also serving as mentors during times of initiation and change. | Democratic-Transformational | 4.171 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should provide goals for the team, and allow their athletes to work towards achieving the goals, making sure to offer the athletes feedback concerning their efforts. | Autocratic-Transformational | 4.161 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches’ are ultimately responsible for whether their team achieves its defined goals. | Autocratic | 4.093 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be highly concerned about developing their athletes’ ability to contribute to making important team decisions. | Democratic-Transformational | 4.073 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should set deadlines and clearly state the positive or negative consequences for their athletes’ not meeting defined goals. | Transactional | 4.015 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should retain control of decision making, but they should encourage high morale so their athletes do not feel negatively affected during times of change. | Autocratic-Transformational | 4.005 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches make the key decisions for the team and get most of the credit or blame, but they should make sure that their promises for rewards and disincentives made to their athletes are kept. | Autocratic-Transactional | 4.005 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should assign specific tasks to key their athletes in order to achieve specific goals. | Autocratic | 3.898 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be comfortable working with athletes, and be able to seek their input in making decisions while providing incentives and disincentives for the quality of their performance in basketball related activities. | Democratic-Transactional | 3.898 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should let their athletes know what to expect as rewards for achieving defined goals. | Transactional | 3.888 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should give their athletes authority to make, or have significant input into, important team decisions. | Democratic | 3.873 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should seek input from their athletes when formulating policies and team rules, and procedures for implementing them. | Democratic | 3.756 |
| To solve problems, Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should have meetings with their athletes to obtain their input before taking corrective action. | Democratic | 3.732 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should make quick decisions in times of urgency, and be more deliberate in making decisions during times of less urgency. | Autocratic | 3.605 |
| In addition to having responsibility for decision-making, it is essential for a Men’s Basketball Head Coach to provide incentives and disincentives for their athletes with respect to their performance during basketball related activities. | Autocratic-Transactional | 3.571 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should state clearly the incentives and disincentives to their athletes, while maximizing oversight on the most critical team decisions and issues. | Autocratic-Transactional | 3.551 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be concerned about building consensus among all athletes on the team, while making sure their athletes understand the timelines, benefits, and penalties associated with team goals. | Democratic-Transactional | 3.434 |
| In order to make decisions, Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should discuss issues with all of their athletes, while considering which incentives and disincentives should be used in response to the quality of their athletes’ performance during basketball related activities. | Democratic-Transactional | 3.229 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should recruit high performing and committed athletes, which relieves the “coach” from making all of the day-to-day team-related decisions. | Laissez-faire | 3.073 |
| Athletes should be recruited who possess the skills necessary to help make team decisions. If athletes need direct and constant supervision, they should not be part of the team. | Laissez-faire | 2.776 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches’ job is to make big picture decisions on behalf of the Men’s Basketball program and team, and nearly all of their work should involve little or no direction from the athletes. | Laissez-faire | 2.278 |
Based on the survey responses, the data showed that there was a difference between the leadership behaviors head coaches perceived themselves to practice. The results indicated that the transformational leadership behavior that head coaches should look for ways to develop the strengths of their athletes (M=4.571), was the leadership behavior the respondents reported to practice most often. The autocratic-transformational leadership behavior that head coaches are responsible for the operation of the Men’s Basketball program and team (M=4.498), and the transformational leadership behavior, that head coaches should develop strategies to develop the athletes’ performance and commitment to team improvement (M=4.488), were the second and third most often practiced leadership behaviors by the head coaches.
Transformational leadership behaviors were the first and third more often practiced behaviors by the respondents. This is consistent with the findings from the first research question that determined that transformational leadership was the leadership style that the respondents perceived themselves to practice most often. The word “develop” was a common thread found in the three leadership behaviors that the respondents reported to practice most often. Development of skills, strengths, character, performance, commitment, and other qualities are key aspects of transformational leadership, and, based on the results, the respondents identified that it was the head coach’s job to develop these and other important qualities in their players and teams.
The concept of development aligns with this study’s definition of transformational leadership, which focuses on the leader’s approach to inspiring and motivating his or her followers to achieve more than the followers believe they are capable of achieving. In order for a leader to accomplish this task he or she must be committed to developing his or her followers’ strengths, skills, commitment, performance, and character. The development of these key characteristics will help the followers achieve more than they thought they were capable of achieving, and therefore, collectively, help the team achieve more than it appeared to be capable of achieving.
To determine if there is a statistical difference between the leadership behaviors that the respondents reported to practice, a Kruskal-Wallis H test was performed. The null hypothesis for this test was that there is no significant difference between the leadership behaviors that the respondents reported to practice. The dependent variables were the respondents, which were all men’s college basketball head coaches, and the independent variables were the twenty-seven leadership behaviors represented by the statements on the survey. Figure 2 shows the results of the Kruskal-Wallis H test, which was run to determine if there was a statistically significant difference between the respondents’ responses to the twenty-seven leadership behaviors on the leadership survey.
| Leadership Behavior | Significance | Decision |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should make it a point to reward their athletes for contributing to the achievement of team goals. | .735 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should let their athletes know what to expect as rewards for achieving defined goals. | .160 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should set deadlines and clearly state the positive or negative consequences for their athletes’ not meeting defined goals. | .949 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should give their athletes authority to make, or have significant input into, important team decisions. | .522 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should seek input from their athletes when formulating policies and team rules, and procedures for implementing them. | .079 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| To solve problems, Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should have meetings with their athletes to obtain their input before taking corrective action. | .244 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches’ are ultimately responsible for whether their team achieves its defined goals. | .995 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should make quick decisions in times of urgency, and be more deliberate in making decisions during times of less urgency. | .940 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should assign specific tasks to key their athletes in order to achieve specific goals. | .550 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should provide goals for the team, and allow their athletes to work towards achieving the goals, making sure to offer the athletes feedback concerning their efforts. | .842 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should retain control of decision making, but they should encourage high morale so their athletes do not feel negatively affected during times of change. | .893 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches are responsible for the operation of the Men’s Basketball program and team, which includes the development of team standards, and establishing a level of commitment for the athletes. | .836 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| In addition to having responsibility for decision-making, it is essential for a Men’s Basketball Head Coach to provide incentives and disincentives for their athletes with respect to their performance during basketball related activities. | .533 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should state clearly the incentives and disincentives to their athletes, while maximizing oversight on the most critical team decisions and issues. | .568 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches make the key decisions for the team and get most of the credit or blame, but they should make sure that their promises for rewards and disincentives made to their athletes are kept. | .729 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should provide opportunities for their athletes to be involved in decision making, while also serving as mentors during times of initiation and change. | .280 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be open to others’ ideas, yet they should guide athletes to become stronger and more focused basketball players. | .417 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be highly concerned about developing their athletes’ ability to contribute to making important team decisions. | .189 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be comfortable working with athletes, and be able to seek their input in making decisions while providing incentives and disincentives for the quality of their performance in basketball related activities. | .183 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| In order to make decisions, Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should discuss issues with all of their athletes, while considering which incentives and disincentives should be used in response to the quality of their athletes’ performance during basketball related activities. | .934 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be concerned about building consensus among all athletes on the team, while making sure their athletes understand the timelines, benefits, and penalties associated with team goals. | .796 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should rely on personal influence and relationship building rather than on position or title to get athletes to complete basketball related tasks. | .692 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should develop strategies to develop the athletes’ performance and commitment to team improvement. | .576 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should look for ways to develop the strengths of their athletes. | .260 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches’ job is to make big picture decisions on behalf of the Men’s Basketball program and team, and nearly all of their work should involve little or no direction from the athletes. | .239 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Athletes should be recruited who possess the skills necessary to help make team decisions. If athletes need direct and constant supervision, they should not be part of the team. | .183 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should recruit high performing and committed athletes, which relieves the “coach” from making all of the day-to-day team-related decisions. | .638 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
Figure 2. Kruskal-Wallis H Test Results for Head Coaches’ Leadership Behaviors
The medians and mode were the central tendencies, and the significance level for the test was set at .05. Based on the results of the test it was determined that all of the leadership behaviors retained the null hypothesis; therefore, this test indicates that there was no statistically significant difference between the respondents’ most often reported leadership behaviors.
To answer research question number three: is there a relationship between successful men’s college basketball head coaches and a specific leadership style, the same procedure was followed as was used to answer research question number one. However, instead of all of the survey respondents’ responses being used in the calculations, only “successful” head coaches’ responses were included. With this information, whether or not a head coach qualifies as being “successful” was determined. Using this study’s definition of success as guide, the respondent’s years of experience were divided by his answers to statements five, six, seven, and eight. Therefore, if a respondent was a head coach for 3 years and made 1 NCAA Tournament appearance, that respondent would be deemed successful. This respondent would be labeled successful because he met the condition that he make 1 NCAA Tournament appearance on average at least every 4 years. Of the 208 head coaches who completed the survey, 94 of them met the study’s definition of success. Based on the survey responses of those 94 respondents, the means were calculated for each leadership style. Table 5 shows the sample (n=94) and mean based on the successful respondents’ responses to the survey statements.
Table 5 : Successful Respondents’ Leadership Style Response Means
| Leadership Style | Mean |
| Transformational | 4.405 |
| Autocratic-Transformational | 4.201 |
| Democratic-Transformational | 4.165 |
| Transactional | 4.025 |
| Autocratic | 3.875 |
| Democratic | 3.738 |
| Autocratic-Transactional | 3.681 |
| Democratic-Transactional | 3.505 |
| Laissez-faire | 2.613 |
Based on the survey responses, the data showed that there was a difference in the calculated means for each leadership style the successful head coaches perceived themselves to practice. The results indicated that transformational leadership (M=4.405) was the leadership style practiced most often by successful head coaches. Autocratic-transformational leadership (M=4.201), followed by democratic-transformational leadership (M=4.165) were the leadership styles practiced second and third most often by successful head coaches.
Of the nine leadership styles represented in the leadership survey data was collected on in the leadership survey, only autocratic leadership had a higher mean for the population of only successful respondents (3.875) when compared to the mean for the entire population (3.865). Based on this data, it was concluded that successful respondents did not feel as strongly to either agree or disagree with the statements on the survey as the entire sample of respondents did, except for autocratic leadership. From this evidence it was concluded that autocratic leadership was the only leadership style that successful head coaches perceived themselves to practice more often than unsuccessful head coaches. The phrase “unsuccessful head coaches” will hereafter refer to the population of head coaches who completed the leadership survey but were not labeled as successful. Additionally, when considering this study’s established definition of autocratic leadership, it can be concluded that successful head coaches consider themselves to be the sole decision-makers in their basketball programs, and to draw a clear distinction between the role of the leader and the role of the followers, while unsuccessful head coaches do not.
Additionally, democratic leadership and laissez-faire leadership were the two leadership styles with the greatest differences between the mean calculated for the sample that included all head coaches and the mean that was calculated for the sample that included only successful head coaches. The difference in the two sample’s mean averages for democratic leadership was (0.49), and for laissez-faire leadership it was (0.96). What these differences indicate is that unsuccessful head coaches perceived themselves to practice transactional, democratic, and laissez-faire leadership more often than successful head coaches. It was established by the data that successful head coaches perceive themselves to practice autocratic leadership more often than unsuccessful head coaches; furthermore, this data indicates that while successful head coaches are more likely to consider themselves the sole decision-makers in their programs, unsuccessful head coaches are more likely to practice democratic leadership.
This study’s established definition of democratic leadership is that of a leader who actively seeks input and advice from his or her followers in order to make organizational decisions. This definition indicates the clear distinction between autocratic leaders centralizing their authority and decision-making, and democratic leaders who are more willing to decentralize their authority and decision-making to their followers. Unsuccessful head coaches also reported that they practiced laissez-faire leadership more often than successful head coaches. This finding further solidifies the argument that unsuccessful head coaches are more willing to decentralize their authority, or more specifically in the case of laissez-faire leadership, to take a hands-off approach to leadership, as compared to successful head coaches.
To determine if there is a statistical difference between the leadership styles that the respondents perceived themselves to practice, a Kruskal-Wallis H test was performed. The null hypothesis for this test was that there is no significant difference between the leadership styles that the respondents reported to practice. The dependent variables were the respondents, which were all successful men’s college basketball head coaches, and the independent variables were the nine leadership styles tested on the leadership survey. Figure 3 shows the results of the Kruskal-Wallis H test, which was run to determine if there was a statistically significant difference between the respondents’ responses to the nine leadership styles on the leadership survey.
| Leadership Style | Significance | Decision |
| Transactional | .158 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Democratic | .082 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Autocratic | .530 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Autocratic-Transformational | .342 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Autocratic-Transactional | .432 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Democratic-Transformational | .022 | Reject Null Hypothesis |
| Democratic-Transactional | .287 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Transformational | .274 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Laissez-faire | .123 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
Figure 3. Kruskal-Wallis H Test Results for Successful Head Coaches’ Leadership Styles
The medians and mode were the central tendencies, and the significance level for the test was set at .05. Based on the results of the test, it was determined that the distribution of respondents’ responses for democratic-transformational leadership (significance = 0.022) rejected the null hypothesis. Therefore, this test indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the respondents’ responses for the one leadership style that was determined to reject the null hypothesis.
To answer research question number four: is there a relationship between successful men’s college basketball head coaches and a specific set of leadership behaviors, the same procedure was followed that was used to answer research question number two. However, instead of the entire sample of head coaches’ responses being used in the calculations, only successful head coaches’ responses were included. The same coaches, based on the study’s criteria, who were determined to be successful for research question two, were used to calculate the mean for each of the twenty-seven leadership behaviors. The leadership behaviors with the greatest mean were determined to be the leadership behaviors most often practiced by successful head coaches. Table 6 shows the leadership behaviors that successful men’s college basketball head coaches perceived themselves to practice most often, corresponding leadership style, and mean based on the successful respondents’ responses to the individual statements on the leadership survey.
Table 6 : Successful Respondents’ Leadership Behavior Response, Corresponding Leadership Style, and Mean
| Leadership Behavior | Leadership Style | Mean |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should look for ways to develop the strengths of their athletes. | Transformational | 4.559 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should provide opportunities for their athletes to be involved in decision making, while also serving as mentors during times of initiation and change. | Democratic-Transformational | 4.426 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches are responsible for the operation of the Men’s Basketball program and team, which includes the development of team standards, and establishing a level of commitment for the athletes. | Autocratic-Transformational | 4.419 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should develop strategies to develop the athletes’ performance and commitment to team improvement. | Transformational | 4.409 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should make it a point to reward their athletes for contributing to the achievement of team goals. | Transactional | 4.280 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be open to others’ ideas, yet they should guide athletes to become stronger and more focused basketball players. | Democratic-Transformational | 4.258 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should rely on personal influence and relationship building rather than on position or title to get athletes to complete basketball related tasks. | Transformational | 4.247 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should provide goals for the team, and allow their athletes to work towards achieving the goals, making sure to offer the athletes feedback concerning their efforts. | Autocratic-Transformational | 4.172 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches’ are ultimately responsible for whether their team achieves its defined goals. | Autocratic | 4.043 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should retain control of decision making, but they should encourage high morale so their athletes do not feel negatively affected during times of change. | Autocratic-Transformational | 4.011 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be highly concerned about developing their athletes’ ability to contribute to making important team decisions. | Democratic-Transformational | 4.011 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should set deadlines and clearly state the positive or negative consequences for their athletes’ not meeting defined goals. | Transactional | 3.968 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should assign specific tasks to key their athletes in order to achieve specific goals. | Autocratic | 3.903 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches make the key decisions for the team and get most of the credit or blame, but they should make sure that their promises for rewards and disincentives made to their athletes are kept. | Autocratic-Transactional | 3.892 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be comfortable working with athletes, and be able to seek their input in making decisions while providing incentives and disincentives for the quality of their performance in basketball related activities. | Democratic-Transactional | 3.871 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should give their athletes authority to make, or have significant input into, important team decisions. | Democratic | 3.849 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should let their athletes know what to expect as rewards for achieving defined goals. | Transactional | 3.828 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should seek input from their athletes when formulating policies and team rules, and procedures for implementing them. | Democratic | 3.731 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should make quick decisions in times of urgency, and be more deliberate in making decisions during times of less urgency. | Autocratic | 3.677 |
| To solve problems, Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should have meetings with their athletes to obtain their input before taking corrective action. | Democratic | 3.634 |
| In addition to having responsibility for decision-making, it is essential for a Men’s Basketball Head Coach to provide incentives and disincentives for their athletes with respect to their performance during basketball related activities. | Autocratic-Transactional | 3.591 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should state clearly the incentives and disincentives to their athletes, while maximizing oversight on the most critical team decisions and issues. | Autocratic-Transactional | 3.559 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be concerned about building consensus among all athletes on the team, while making sure their athletes understand the timelines, benefits, and penalties associated with team goals. | Democratic-Transactional | 3.452 |
| In order to make decisions, Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should discuss issues with all of their athletes, while considering which incentives and disincentives should be used in response to the quality of their athletes’ performance during basketball related activities. | Democratic-Transactional | 3.194 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should recruit high performing and committed athletes, which relieves the “coach” from making all of the day-to-day team-related decisions. | Laissez-faire | 2.957 |
| Athletes should be recruited who possess the skills necessary to help make team decisions. If athletes need direct and constant supervision, they should not be part of the team. | Laissez-faire | 2.699 |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches’ job is to make big picture decisions on behalf of the Men’s Basketball program and team, and nearly all of their work should involve little or no direction from the athletes. | Laissez-faire | 2.183 |
Based on the survey responses, the data showed that there was a difference between the reported leadership behaviors the successful head coaches perceived themselves to practice. The results determined that the transformational leadership behavior that head coaches should look for ways to develop the strengths of their athletes (M=4.559), was the leadership behavior the successful respondents reported to practice most often. The democratic-transformational leadership behavior that head coaches should provide opportunities for their athletes to be involved in decision making, while also serving as mentors during times of initiation and change (M=4.426) was the second most often practiced leadership behavior. The third most often practiced leadership behavior was the autocratic-transformational leadership behavior that head coaches are responsible for the operation of the Men’s Basketball program and team (M=4.419).
While both the sample that included all head coaches and the sample that included only the successful head coaches reported to practice the transformational leadership behavior that head coaches should look for ways to develop the strengths of their athletes, there was not agreement as to the second and third most often practiced leadership behaviors. Successful head coaches reported to practice the democratic-transformational leadership behavior that included that head coaches should provide opportunities for their athletes to be involved in decision-making. This was the second most frequently reported leadership behavior by successful head coaches and is contradictory to the idea discussed in the answer to research question number three that successful head coaches were more likely to centralize their authority and decision-making. However, the second part of the democratic-transformational leadership behavior included the concept that head coaches should serve as mentors to their athletes during times of initiation and change. This transformational leadership concept could have been the driving force behind why the successful head coaches reported to practice this leadership behavior more frequently, even though the first part of the behavior contradicted the head coaches’ autocratic leadership tendency to centralize authority and decision-making. Head coaches serving as mentors for their athletes does align with the concept that head coaches are teachers or educators who are responsible for fostering the development of their athletes.
To determine if there was a statistical difference between the leadership behaviors that the respondents perceived to practice a Kruskal-Wallis H test was performed. The null hypothesis for this test was that there is no significant difference between the leadership behaviors that the respondents reported to practice. The dependent variables were the respondents, which were all successful men’s college basketball head coaches, and the independent variables were the twenty-seven leadership behaviors on the survey. Figure 4 shows the results of the Kruskal-Wallis H test, which was run to determine if there was a statistically significant difference between the respondents’ responses to the twenty-seven leadership behaviors on the leadership survey.
| Leadership Behavior | Significance | Decision |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should make it a point to reward their athletes for contributing to the achievement of team goals. | .246 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should let their athletes know what to expect as rewards for achieving defined goals. | .093 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should set deadlines and clearly state the positive or negative consequences for their athletes’ not meeting defined goals. | .371 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should give their athletes authority to make, or have significant input into, important team decisions. | .195 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should seek input from their athletes when formulating policies and team rules, and procedures for implementing them. | .058 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| To solve problems, Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should have meetings with their athletes to obtain their input before taking corrective action. | .093 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches’ are ultimately responsible for whether their team achieves its defined goals. | .257 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should make quick decisions in times of urgency, and be more deliberate in making decisions during times of less urgency. | .585 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should assign specific tasks to key their athletes in order to achieve specific goals. | .356 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should provide goals for the team, and allow their athletes to work towards achieving the goals, making sure to offer the athletes feedback concerning their efforts. | .353 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should retain control of decision making, but they should encourage high morale so their athletes do not feel negatively affected during times of change. | .089 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches are responsible for the operation of the Men’s Basketball program and team, which includes the development of team standards, and establishing a level of commitment for the athletes. | .382 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| In addition to having responsibility for decision-making, it is essential for a Men’s Basketball Head Coach to provide incentives and disincentives for their athletes with respect to their performance during basketball related activities. | .374 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should state clearly the incentives and disincentives to their athletes, while maximizing oversight on the most critical team decisions and issues. | .275 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches make the key decisions for the team and get most of the credit or blame, but they should make sure that their promises for rewards and disincentives made to their athletes are kept. | .376 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should provide opportunities for their athletes to be involved in decision making, while also serving as mentors during times of initiation and change. | .054 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be open to others’ ideas, yet they should guide athletes to become stronger and more focused basketball players. | .177 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be highly concerned about developing their athletes’ ability to contribute to making important team decisions. | .033 | Reject Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be comfortable working with athletes, and be able to seek their input in making decisions while providing incentives and disincentives for the quality of their performance in basketball related activities. | .199 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| In order to make decisions, Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should discuss issues with all of their athletes, while considering which incentives and disincentives should be used in response to the quality of their athletes’ performance during basketball related activities. | .307 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should be concerned about building consensus among all athletes on the team, while making sure their athletes understand the timelines, benefits, and penalties associated with team goals. | .261 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should rely on personal influence and relationship building rather than on position or title to get athletes to complete basketball related tasks. | .193 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should develop strategies to develop the athletes’ performance and commitment to team improvement. | .434 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should look for ways to develop the strengths of their athletes. | .140 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches’ job is to make big picture decisions on behalf of the Men’s Basketball program and team, and nearly all of their work should involve little or no direction from the athletes. | .243 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Athletes should be recruited who possess the skills necessary to help make team decisions. If athletes need direct and constant supervision, they should not be part of the team. | .107 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
| Men’s Basketball Head Coaches should recruit high performing and committed athletes, which relieves the “coach” from making all of the day-to-day team-related decisions. | .380 | Retain Null Hypothesis |
Figure 4. Kruskal-Wallis H Test Results for Head Coaches’ Leadership Behaviors
The medians and mode were the central tendencies, and the significance level for the test was set at .05. Based on the results of the test, it was determined that the distribution of respondents’ responses for statement number twenty-seven on the leadership survey, which was the democratic-transformational leadership behavior (significance = 0.033) that head coaches should be highly concerned about developing their athletes’ ability to contribute to making important team decisions, rejected the null hypothesis. Therefore, this test indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the respondents’ responses for the one leadership behavior that was determined to reject the null hypothesis.
To answer research question number five: is there a correlation between the perceived and actual leadership styles of men’s college basketball head coaches, the actual leadership style the head coaches practiced, based on their responses to the survey statements, was compared to the leadership style the head coaches self-reported in statement number six on the leadership survey. Statement number six on the leadership survey asked the head coaches to indicate which of the leadership styles (definitions were provided for each leadership style on the survey below statement six) they perceive themselves to practice.
Figure 5 shows the results of the Spearman’s rho test, which was run in order to determine if there was a statistical dependence between the leadership style the head coaches perceived themselves to be practicing, and the actual leadership style they were determined to be practicing based on their responses to the survey statements.
| Perceived Leadership Style(s) | Actual Leadership Style(s) | |||
| Spearman’s rho | Perceived Leadership Style(s) | Correlation Coefficient | 1.000 | .017 |
| Sig. (2-tailed) | . | .813 | ||
| N | 208 | 208 | ||
| Actual Leadership Style(s) | Correlation Coefficient | .017 | 1.000 | |
| Sig. (2-tailed) | .813 | . | ||
| N | 208 | 208 |
Figure 5.
Spearman’s rho Test Results that Determined Degree of Dependence Between the Respondents’ Perceived and Actual Leadership Styles
Based on the results of the Spearman’s rho test, which determined the correlation coefficient to be 0.017, there was a very small degree of correlation between the perceived and actual leadership styles of the head coaches. A correlation coefficient that is 1.0 is perfectly positively correlated, while a correlation coefficient of 0.0 would indicate no positive correlation. Therefore, a correlation coefficient for this study of 0.017 indicates that there is a very small degree of dependence between the perceived and the actual leadership style of the respondents.
This finding of the Spearman’s rho test indicates that the leadership style the head coaches in this study perceived themselves to be practicing had a very small degree of correlation to the actual leadership they were determined to be practicing based on their answers to the statements on the leadership survey. This finding could mean that head coaches do not understand the specific leadership behaviors that correspond to the particular leadership style they wish to practice, which could lead to the coaches not practicing their intended leadership style. This finding could also mean that the head coaches perceived themselves to be practicing one leadership style, but their perceived actions or behaviors, either intentionally or unintentionally, ended up corresponding to a completely different leadership style.
Discussion and Conclusions
Implications for Athletic Coach Leadership
The mean for the sample that included all head coaches was calculated for each leadership style based on the responses of the head coaches who completed the survey. The mean for the sample that included only successful head coaches was calculated for each leadership style based on the response for only the head coaches who met the study’s definition of success. For comparison purposes, and to draw a distinction between the two samples of data analyzed in this study, the head coaches who completed the survey but did not meet this study’s definition of success are referred to as unsuccessful head coaches in this section. This distinction is being drawn because the sample that included all head coaches who completed the survey includes the head coaches who both met and did not meet the study’s definition of success. When the successful head coaches are extracted from this sample only the head coaches who did not meet this study’s definition of success are left, and if a head coach is not successful then they are considered unsuccessful in this study.
A comparison of the calculated means for the practiced leadership styles of both samples of head coaches indicated several interesting implications for athletic coach leadership. First, the means for the practiced leadership styles for the sample that included only the successful head coaches were all lower than the means the sample that included all head coaches’, except for autocratic leadership. The implication of this finding is that successful head coaches perceive themselves to practice autocratic leadership more often than unsuccessful head coaches. Additionally, this finding indicates that unsuccessful head coaches more strongly perceived themselves to practice eight of the nine leadership styles on the leadership survey. The data implies that unsuccessful head coaches perceive themselves to more strongly practice all of the leadership styles on the leadership survey except for autocratic leadership. This finding not only indicates that successful head coaches perceive themselves to more often practice autocratic leadership, but also that unsuccessful head coaches perceive themselves to more often practice various leadership styles. It also indicates that unsuccessful head coaches might not be certain which specific leadership style they wish to practice and instead practice certain aspects of different leadership styles. This implies that a key component that helps head coaches achieve success is that they are more intentional about their leadership choices compared to unsuccessful head coaches.
Two of the largest disparities in the calculated means for the two samples were for democratic leadership and laissez-faire leadership. The mean for democratic leadership was 0.049 greater, and for laissez-faire leadership 0.096 greater, for the sample that included all head coaches versus the sample that included only successful head coaches. This finding implies that unsuccessful head coaches are more likely to seek input from their athletes in order to make organizational decisions, treat their athletes as equals in the decision-making process, and listen to their athletes’ ideas and opinions. Additionally, unsuccessful head coaches were found to more often take a hands-off approach to leadership with the belief that their athletes do not need active leadership and constant oversight. This is in stark contrast to successful head coaches whose responses indicated that they take a more autocratic approach to leadership where they are the sole decision-maker, and draw a clear distinction between their role as a leader and the role of their athletes as followers.
Transformational leadership was found to have the highest calculated mean of the nine leadership styles on the leadership survey for both samples. Interestingly, the sample that included all head coaches had a higher mean for transformational leadership (M=4.441) than the sample that included only successful head coaches (M=4.405). This indicates that unsuccessful head coaches perceive themselves to practice transformational leadership more often than successful head coaches. When this finding is viewed with the previous finding, that successful head coaches perceived themselves to practice autocratic leadership more often, the conclusion can be drawn that practicing autocratic leadership along with transformation leadership is a key factor in head coaches achieving success. Transformational leadership being the most often practiced leadership style by both samples indicates that the major differentiating factor between unsuccessful head coaches and successful head coaches is that unsuccessful head coaches practice transformational leadership combined with a democratic leadership behavior, while successful head coaches practice transformational leadership combined with an autocratic leadership behavior. The practiced democratic leadership behavior was that head coaches should seek input and the opinions of their athletes when making decisions, while the autocratic leadership behavior was that head coach should be the sole decision-maker for their team.
There are several key implications from this interpretation of the data that must be pointed out for athletic coaches. The first implication is that athletic coaches should centralize their decision-making and strive to make a majority, if not all, of the decisions for their team and athletes. Additionally, athletic coaches should draw a clear distinction between their role as the leader of the team and their athletes’ role as the followers. Decentralizing athletic coaches’ authority by seeking input from their athletes in order to make team decisions, and treating their athletes as equals, has not been shown to lead athletic coaches to be successful. A possible explanation for successful head coaches practicing autocratic leadership more often, while unsuccessful head coaches practice democratic leadership more often, could be the result of successful head coaches having a better understanding of what decisions and actions they need to make in order to help their team achieve success. As a result of having this knowledge, successful head coaches do not seek any additional input from their athletes that could influence their decision-making. Additionally, unsuccessful head coaches might not be as confident that their decisions are correct, and as a result they seek input from their athletes. However, a possible issue with this democratic leadership approach is that the athletes may not have a good grasp of what the right or best decisions should be in order to achieve success. As a result, if head coaches make decisions based on the athletes’ input, this could lead to the team, and as a result the head coach, being unsuccessful.
A Kruskal-Wallis H test was performed on the medians and modes for the leadership style data collected from both samples of head coaches. The Kruskal-Wallis H test determined that there was not a statistical difference between the leadership styles the head coaches perceived themselves to practice most often. While there are implications for athletic coach leadership that were drawn from the calculated means of the leadership styles; in order to gain a clearer understanding of why specific leadership styles were practiced most often by the head coaches, additional analysis was conducted on each individual leadership behavior that corresponded to the nine leadership styles on the survey.
When the calculated means for the twenty-seven leadership behaviors on the leadership survey for the two samples were compared, several implications were made based on the data. For both samples of head coaches, the transformational leadership behavior that stated that head coaches should look for ways to develop the strengths of their athletes, was practiced most often. This behavior is the central component of transformational leadership, and its practice by athletic coaches reinforces transformational leadership as the prevailing leadership style for athletic coaches to practice. However, based on the fact that the difference between the calculated means for the two samples was very small (.012), practicing this leadership behavior does not appear to be the differentiating factor between a successful and an unsuccessful head coach.
Interestingly, an autocratic-transformational leadership behavior was the second most often practiced leadership behavior by the sample that included all head coaches, while a democratic-transformation leadership behavior was the second most often practiced leadership behavior by the sample that included only successful head coaches. This finding appears to contradict the earlier finding from this study that unsuccessful head coaches practice transformational leadership combined with democratic leadership more often, while successful head coaches practice transformational leadership combined with autocratic leadership more often; however, when the specific behaviors in question were analyzed this apparent contradiction was not supported. The autocratic-transformational leadership behavior was not related to the autocratic behavior that head coaches should be the sole decision-makers, which is a driving autocratic characteristic. The democratic-transformational leadership behavior stated that head coaches should be responsible for the development of team standards and establishing a level of commitment for their athletes. This behavior does not relate to the democratic leadership behavior that head coaches should give their athletes input into team decisions. However, the caveat to this was that head coaches should also serve as mentors to their athletes during times of initiation and change, which is related more to transformational leadership then democratic leadership.
Transactional leadership was the only leadership style that was practiced often by head coaches, besides transformational leadership, that was not a combination of two leadership styles. Additionally, the transactional leadership behavior that stated head coaches should make it a point to reward their athletes for contributing to the achievement of team goals, was the most often practiced leadership behavior, after transformational leadership, that was not the combination of two leadership styles. Additionally, this transactional leadership behavior, like the transactional leadership style, was practiced more often by the sample that included all head coaches then the sample that included only successful head coaches. While this is a decidedly transactional leadership behavior, it reinforces the importance of transformational leadership in athletic coach leadership. This specific transactional leadership behavior includes the key concept of athletic coaches working to develop their athletes and increase their commitment to the team, which is a key component of transformational leadership. The main difference that makes this behavior transactional is the idea of a reward being introduced as a mechanism for motivating athletes to work toward contributing to the achievement of team goals. Practicing this transactional leadership behavior could help athletic coaches who are transformational leaders by giving them a method for developing their athletes’ strengths, performance, and team commitment.
Another interesting implication for athletic coaches from the data was that the three leadership behaviors that corresponded to democratic leadership all had a mean below 3.99 and were amongst the least often practiced leadership behaviors by the sample that included all head coaches. This finding contradicts the earlier finding that this sample of head coaches practiced democratic leadership more often than the sample that included only successful head coaches. This contradiction could indicate several implications for athletic coaches. First, it could indicate that the unsuccessful head coaches perceived themselves to be practicing democratic leadership, but when they were asked about whether they practiced certain democratic leadership behaviors they either did not know they were democratic leadership behaviors or were unable to draw the connection democratic leadership and those specific behaviors. This could also indicate that a reason why head coaches are not successful is that they either do not practice the leadership behaviors that correspond to the specific leadership style they wish to practice, or that they do not know what leadership style they wish to practice and either guessed or randomly choose a style for the purposes of answering the statement on the survey. This is important to note for athletic coaches because it indicates the importance that, first and foremost, athletic coaches must know and understand how to execute the leadership behaviors that are key to the leadership style they wish to practice in order to have the opportunity to achieve success.
By contrast, the mean for one of the three autocratic leadership behaviors based on the data that included only successful head coaches had a calculated mean above 4.0, and was reported to be amongst the most often practiced by this sample. Additionally, only one autocratic leadership behavior was amongst the least often practiced leadership behaviors by successful head coaches. Furthermore, that behavior regarded the amount of time that head coaches should take to make decisions, and not who should be making the decisions or whether athletes should have input into the decisions or the decision-making process. This finding indicates that the successful head coaches were more likely to be aware of the fact that they were practicing autocratic leadership behaviors that were related to head coach authority, control, and responsibility. This is in contrast to unsuccessful coaches who were more likely to be unaware that they were practicing democratic leadership behaviors related to giving their athletes input, and listening to their athletes’ opinions regarding team decisions.
These findings on athletic coach leadership style and leadership behaviors have several implications for the leadership style and leadership behaviors that athletic coaches should practice in order to achieve success. Based on the data, both samples of head coaches practiced transformational leadership most often; however, analysis of the data also indicated that unsuccessful head coaches were less apt to practice one specific leadership style. This implies that an athletic coach should focus on practicing transformational leadership, and the transformational leadership behaviors related to developing the strengths of their athletes and working to increase their athletes’ performance and team commitment. Additionally, the data indicates that head coaches should practice autocratic leadership behaviors where head coaches exercise more control and authority over team decisions by not seeking their athletes’ input, and they should draw a clear distinction between their role as a leader and their athletes’ role as followers. Lastly, the data indicated that the reward-focused transactional leadership behavior should be included with the performance, commitment, and development-focused transformational leadership behaviors.
The head coaches also reported that they did perceive themselves to practice this transactional leadership behavior; however, it is unclear whether this was in combination with transformational leadership behaviors. The data also implied that head coaches should practice a predominantly transformational leadership style with the opportunity to incorporate the transactional leadership behavior that focuses on rewarding athletes to increase development. Finally, the data indicated that autocratic leadership was the best leadership for head coaches to practice when it came to determining how decisions are made for their athletes and the team.
These findings imply that transformational leadership is the best leadership style for athletic coaches to practice in order to achieve team success when combined with the decision-making authority of autocratic leadership that draws a clear distinction between their role as leaders and their athletes’ role as followers. Transactional leadership can be used in order to support the transformational leadership behavior that athletic coaches should develop their athletes’ strength, but the data did not indicate that athletic coaches practice this behavior often enough for it to be included as a behavior that athletic coaches must practice in order to achieve success. Additionally, these findings add to this study’s definition of success because it was determined that successful head coaches perceived themselves to practice autocratic leadership behaviors more often, which indicated that successful head coaches understood themselves to be the unquestioned leader and took responsibility for all decisions that effected the team. Since this study defined success based on the idea that successful head coaches won at a more frequent rate than unsuccessful head coaches, the concept of head coaches being the unquestioned leader and making all team related decisions without athlete input can be added in future studies to support the original definition.
The implications of the data analysis for research question number five were very interesting because they gave insight into whether there was a correlation between the leadership style that the head coaches perceived themselves to be practicing and the leadership style they were actually practicing based on their answers to the statements on the leadership survey. The fact that the Spearman’s rho test found there to be a very small correlation between the perceived and actual leadership style of the head coaches has several important implications for athletic coach leadership. First, it could imply that athletic coaches either do not know the specific leadership behaviors that correspond to the particular leadership style they wish to practice, and therefore, are unable to practice that leadership style. Secondly, it could also imply that athletic coaches know what leadership style they wish to practice and what the corresponding leadership behaviors for that leadership style are, but they either intentionally or unintentionally do not follow through on practicing those leadership behaviors.
Additional implications from this finding are that head coaches have not received any, or have received very little, specific leadership training, and therefore, they have obtained only basic classroom or experiential knowledge from which they can draw from when deciding which leadership style they wish to practice. Furthermore, this finding implies that athletic coaches could benefit from leadership training designed to help them understand the differences between the various leadership styles and which leadership style and leadership behaviors were the best for them to practice in order to be successful. Lastly, the findings of this research question imply that athletic coaches may lack an understanding of why leadership knowledge is important to their success as athletic coaches, and why the follow through of specific leadership behaviors is crucial to their role as leaders.
Significance of the Research for Athletic Coach Leadership
Leadership is a central aspect of the athletic coaches’ job. It is essential that athletic coaches practice the most effective leadership style in order to help their team maximize performance and achieve success (Pratt & Eitzen, 1989). In order for head coaches to have the opportunity to help their teams achieve success, the most effective leadership style and leadership behaviors must be determined. Nine leadership styles and twenty-seven leadership behaviors were tested in this study in order to determine the best leadership style and leadership behaviors for athletic coaches to practice. This study determined that transformational leadership was the best leadership style for athletic coaches to practice when it was combined with the autocratic leadership behavior that states that athletic coaches should be the sole decision-makers and draw a clear distinction between their role as leaders and their athletes’ role as followers. The key transformational leadership aspect that athletic coaches should focus on is the development of their athletes’ strengths, performance, and team commitment. Practicing this fundamental component of transformational leadership in combination with the autocratic leadership behavior that centralizes an athletic coaches’ authority and decision-making was determined by this study to be the leadership style and leadership behavior that athletic coaches should practice in order to give themselves the best opportunity to achieve success.
The importance of athletic coach leadership, and athletic coaches practicing the most effective leadership style and leadership behaviors, has been extensively researched and reinforced through studies over the past several decades. However, this study’s finding is significant for athletic coaches because it establishes the best leadership style and leadership behaviors for athletic coaches to practice in order to achieve success. Additionally, the finding of this study is significant for athletic coaches because the finding was based on data obtained from a leadership survey that current athletic coaches completed. The athletic coaches’ responses on the survey were based on their perception of themselves as leaders, and the analysis of this data determined the best leadership style and leadership behaviors for athletic coaches to practice based on their perceptions of their leadership practice, and not an athlete’s or a researchers’ perception. This is significant because only athletic coaches who are actually in a position to practice a leadership style and leadership behaviors can respond to statements regarding what leadership style and leadership behaviors they perceive themselves to be practicing.
Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to determine how men’s college basketball head coaches perceive themselves as leaders, and to use the data based on those perceptions to determine the best leadership style and leadership behaviors for head coaches to practice in order to achieve success. The data analysis determined that transformational leadership was the best leadership style for head coaches to practice because it focuses on head coaches developing the strengths of their athletes. This study also determined that the transformational leadership style is most effective for head coaches to practice when it is combined with the autocratic leadership behavior that head coaches should be the sole decision-makers and draw a clear distinction between their role as leaders and their athletes’ role as followers. This study determined that head coaches practicing the transformational leadership style in combination with this specific autocratic leadership behavior, forms the best leadership style for head coaches to practice in order to achieve success.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to the men’s college basketball head coaches who participated in this research project.
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