Relationship between leadership style and performance of Perak SUKMA athletes and coaches

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between leadership style and performance of athletes and coaches in Malaysia. One hundred and thirty seven athletes and 47 coaches from 12 sports participated in the study. Leadership Scale for Sport (LSS) questionnaire was utilized to assessed athletes' preference, perceived and coaches' perception of their own leadership style. Result showed athletes most preferred coaching styles were training and instruction followed by democratic, positive feedback and social support.Autocratic behaviour was the least preferred. However coaches' self-evaluation showed majority were keen on autocratic leadership style. Overall, the results of the study proposed that coaches should emphasis on training and instruction and less autocratic leadership style.Coaches also need to practise more positive feedback which proven can enhance athletes performance.

Coach Leadership Styles and Athlete Representative Level among Uitm Handball Athlete

“…Coaches can help the athlete with their problems, congratulating the athlete after performing games and adapting the coach leadership style. Moreover, this research result supported by Chee, Rasyid, Tengah et al (2017) showed that female athletes perceived training and instruction coach leadership styles more than male athletes. These findings suggested that coaches should apply different coach leadership styles for both genders in male and female athletes.…”

“…According to research, Nizam, et al (2016) found that the athletes most preferred coach leadership styles are Positive feedback. This statement contradicts Chee et al (2017) who found that the most perceived coach leadership style was autocratic style. However, an autocratic coach makes decisions independently and working stresses personal authority while working with the decision making.…”

“…This multidimensional theory showed three important positive determinants in coach leadership; 1)actual leader behaviour, 2)leader behaviour preferred by the athlete and 3)required leader behaviour. It is also supported by Chee, Rasyid, Tengah et al (2017), showing that positive feedback can support the athlete's performance. Moreover, Weinberg & Gould (2003) showed that particular coaching styles are connected to performance improvements when the real and desired coaching styles are congruent.…”

“…The relationship between coaches and athletes play an important role in the athlete's development of performance and perceived success. According to Chee, Rasyid, Tengah et al (2017), leadership can be defined as the behavioural process of controlling the actions of individuals or organization groups towards specific objectives and also the achievement of those goals. Leadership styles are a dynamic social mechanism in which coaches have to be a good communicator since they have an impact on athletes and social perception.…”

“…Thus, sports leadership includes not only regulating sports organization or management commitment but also more significantly the position of coaches who are directly responsible with the athletes. Problem statement; Coaches with an autocratic style independently make decisions, authoritarian control over a group and emphasize personal authority in the decision-making process (Chee et al, 2017). Autocratic coaches are less likely to provide athletes interpretation of their performances.…”