Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences ETDs

Publication Date

Spring 5-16-2020

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between leadership behaviors and organizational culture across selected university soccer teams in Saudi Arabia. The primary focus of the study was to address (1) the student-athletes’ perceptions of head-coaches’ leadership behaviors and team culture, (2) the relationship between leadership behaviors and teams cultural functions, and (3) the effects of head-coach leadership behaviors on team culture across the selected teams.

Among the fourteen selected Saudi university soccer teams associated with the Saudi University Sports Federation (SUSF), 243 student-athletes participated in this study. The participants completed the translated version of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Bass & Avolio, 2000) and the Organizational Culture Assessment Questionnaire (OCAQ) (Sashkin, 1990). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, and conical correlation analysis (CCA).

Analysis of the data revealed four key findings. First, coaches were perceived to demonstrate more transformational leadership behavior than transactional leadership behavior. Second, organizational culture across Saudi university soccer teams is oriented toward cultural building activities of both “coordinated-teamwork” and “achieving goals.” Third, all transformational leadership behaviors and the transactional leadership behaviors of contingent reward and active management-by-exception were significantly and positively correlated with all organizational culture functions. Particularly, coaches who exhibited transformational leadership behaviors and contingent reward leadership behavior involved in more achieving goals and managing change activities than cultural strength, customer orientation, and coordinated teamwork activities. Fourth, although both transformational and transactional leadership sets had an influence on the organizational culture set, the effect of transformational leadership on organizational culture was greater than the effect of transactional leadership. Furthermore, the findings showed that the leadership behavior of intellectual stimulation with the augmented effect of contingent reward and active management-by-exception was predictive of the organizational culture activities of managing change and achieving goals.

Keywords

Leadership, Organizational Culture, University Sports, Saudi Arabia

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Physical Education, Sports and Exercise Science

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences

First Committee Member (Chair)

Dr. Todd Seidler

Second Committee Member

Dr. David Scott

Third Committee Member

Dr. John Barnes

Fourth Committee Member

Dr. Luke Mao

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