Leadership in Contemporary Canadian Podium Performance Sport: A Solution-Focused Process

Date
2013-06-20
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation is to develop an in-depth understanding of leadership in the contemporary Canadian podium performance sport context. It includes a critical synthesis of theoretical frameworks from leadership research and presents a new integrated model for the study of contemporary sport leadership in the performance-driven context. The empirical work and leadership theories that inform the theoretical framework that guides this dissertation are reviewed. This discussion builds support for the heuristic value of the integrated research model of podium performance (Din & Paskevich, in press). Semi-structured interviews guided by this theoretical framework were conducted with 10 coaches and 13 athletes from Canadian individual and team winter sports who together achieved world championship and Olympic podium outcomes. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Bass & Avolio, 2004) was used to study individual coach behaviour and its impact through the prism of full range leadership (FRL) theory (Bass & Riggio, 2006). FRL includes transformational, transactional and passive leadership behaviours. Together, survey and interview data sources developed a mixed methods portrait of leadership in the performance-driven sport setting. Leadership was found to be a demanding, relational and solution-focused process in this study. The podium performance coaches in this study were perceived to be both transformational and constructive transactional leaders. Recommendations for stakeholders in the performance-driven sport community are presented. Future research in this unique leadership context based on findings from this study is proposed.
Description
Keywords
Psychology--Industrial, Psychology--Industrial, Psychology--Industrial
Citation
Din, C. S. (2013). Leadership in Contemporary Canadian Podium Performance Sport: A Solution-Focused Process (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26735