EVALUATION OF COACH LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR - CASE STUDY OF KENYAN SWIMMING COACHES

Abstract

The leadership behavior exercised by a coach is key to athletes’ effectiveness. The study sought to evaluate the leadership behaviours employed by swimming coaches in Kenya and examine whether their leadership behaviours were similar to what other studies have found to be effective coaching leadership styles across various contexts and situations. The Leadership Scale for Sport (LSS) questionnaire was used to collect data on leadership behavior among the respondents. The study population comprised 28 swimming coaches (n = 24 males; n = 4 females) based in Kenya SPSS was used to analyse the data collected, where Mann-Whitney U test did not establish any significant difference across gender on the five types of leadership styles at p< .05. From the results, the most common leadership behavior among the swimming coaches was the use of Positive Feedback (x̄ = 4.5786), followed by Training and Instruction (x̄= 4.4588) then Social Support (x̄ = 3.5804) followed by Democratic (x̄ = 3.3690), while Autocratic (x̄ = 2.2571) was the least type of leadership style used. There was no significant difference across gender on any of the preferred leadership styles, with the ranking of the leadership styles being similar for both male and female coaches, as positive feedback was ranked highest and autocratic style ranked lowest. Kruskal Walli's test conducted across age groups of the coaches and the five leadership styles found no significant difference (at p = .435 for Democratic leadership style; p = .763 for Autocratic leadership style; p = .172 for Social Support leadership style; p = .698 for Training & Instruction leadership style). Studies done on coaching leadership styles preferred by athletes and have improved athletes’ performance have shown Training & Instruction and Positive Feedback as the most preferred type of leadership style. The autocratic leadership style has been viewed to have negative influence and the athletes do not like this style of leadership from their coaches. In comparison to the Kenyan swimming coaches, they employed the most preferred styles of leadership with emphasis being on Positive Feedback, this was attributed to the fact that most swimming coaches trained children below 12 years who value positive reinforcement even as they are instructed on corrective strategies. An effective coach is capable of motivating athletes to do well and achieve their maximum potential, thus the preferred leadership styles by athletes of Training & Instruction and Positive Feedback that have been shown to assist athletes to improve on their performance should be adopted by coaches.

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