Good leaders in Team Sports

1621 Words4 Pages

Introduction
The argument has been made that sports teams, whether they are college-level teams, professional teams, or club teams, have a unique culture that is dictated and directed by the coaches who lead them (Johnston, 2014). The idea that sports teams have a unique culture that can be dictated by a coach has become a topic of great interest in recent years as more people, both in and out of sports, have argued that a negative organizational culture within athletic teams breeds violence, misconduct among players, and causes a lack of motivation for a sport for players (Turman, 2003; Johnston, 2014). However, if the orgnizational culture within a sports team is negative, the question that must be asked is how can a coach influence and motivate players in a way that creates a positive organizational culture.
The purpose of this paper is to describe how a good leader can influence, motivate, and change a negative organizational culture in team sports. Using the leader-follower-situation framework, an explanation is provided about how coaches can indeed change a negative organizational culture within a sports team. The model will be used to demonstrate that coaches can have a profound impact not only on the actions and attitudes of players toward their sports, as well as actions and behaviors within the team environment toward each other. In turn, the actions and attitudes of the players ultimately impact the longer-term organizational culture of the team, which, in turn, breeds additional actions and behaviors that further impacts the organizational culture of the team.
Leader-Follower-Situation Framework
Before using the leader-follower situation framework to explain how a coach can change a negative organizationa...

... middle of paper ...

...er outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 373-394.
Jones, R. L. (2006). The Sports Coach as Educator. London: Routledge.
Johnston, L. M. (2014). Sports, Peacebuilding and Ethics. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction
Publishers.
Kidman, L. (2010). Athlete-Centered Coaching. Worcester, UK: IPC Print Resources.
Lussier, R. N. & Kimball, D. C. (2009). Applied Sport Management Skills. Belmont, CA: Human
Kinetics.
Reinboth, M., & Duda, J. L. (2006). Perceived motivational climate, need satisfaction and indices of well-being in team sports: A longitudinal perspective.Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 7(3), 269-286.
Taylor, J. & Wilson, G. S. (2005). Applying Sport Psychology. Belmont, CA: Human Kinetics.
Turman, P. D. (2003). Coaches and cohesion: The impact of coaching techniques on team cohesion in the small group sport setting. Journal of Sport Behavior, 26(1).

Open Document