Exploring the Perceptions of High School Basketball Coaches on Employing Different Leadership Styles

Leadership strategies of high school basketball coaches and its influence on early adolescents' athletic outcomes was not well understood. The transformational and transactional leadership theory underpinned this qualitative descriptive study, exploring how high school basketball coaches who believe they are enacting transformational or transactional leadership style describe their experiences coaching high school basketball players in Texas. Two research questions guided this study (1) How do coaches who have transformational leadership style describe their experiences coaching high school basketball players in Texas?; (2) How do coaches who have transactional leadership style describe their experiences coaching high school basketball players in Texas? Data was collected from both 12 individual interviews and a focus group, Five themes emerged from the data: (a) Enacting transformational leadership involves embracing growth and individuality, (b) Enacting transformational leadership involves engaging with each other, and (c) Enacting transformational leadership involves intrinsic love for basketball and teaching, (d) Enacting transactional leadership involves structures and rules, and (e) Enacting transactional leadership involves motivating students extrinsically. Participants believed enacting transformational leadership involved embracing growth, engagement, and individuality, while enacting transactional leadership involved structure, rules, extrinsic motivation, a love for basketball and teaching. Therefore, it is important to consider different leadership styles when teaching high-school sports, as high school athletes are developing and differing leadership styles may provide them with better guidance and improve their own leadership skills. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]