•  
  •  
 

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Abstract

As we enter the year 2007, more and more organizations are beginning to see that traditional, autocratic, and hierarchical models of leadership are failing to provide the framework necessary for productive work environments. According to McGee-Cooper and Trammell (2002), servant-leadership is one model of leadership that can help turn those traditional notions of leadership and organizational structure upside down and provide the needed context for a more satisfied and productive workforce. The servantleader model (Greenleaf, 1977) is one based on teamwork and community, one that seeks to involve others in decision making, one strongly based in ethical and caring behavior, and one that enhances the personal growth of subordinates while improving the caring and quality of our institutions (Spears, 1998). One such institution, intercollegiate athletics, and more specifically the leadership methods of athletic coaches operating within that institution, should be well suited to the application of the servant-leader model. However, the academic fields that influence the practices of athletic coaches, most notably physical education, sport psychology, sport philosophy, and exercise science, have been slow to adopt this new paradigm (Westre, 2003). Further, athletic coaches are a group of leaders who could benefit greatly from the servant-leader model because of their strong potential to influence the emotional, social, and moral development of young sport performers. While coaches' role in enhancing athletes' motivation and satisfaction is well known (e.g., Amorose & Hom, 2000), the relationship between servant-leader behaviors and these performance-based psychological variables is not. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine how servant-leader coaching behaviors impact collegiate athletes' intrinsic motivation, sport satisfaction, and athletic coping skills.

Download

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.