Personality and Leadership Behavior Preference

Purpose

Leadership has been defined in many different ways, covering different aspects of behavior. In sport, leadership consists of making decisions, motivating athletes, giving feedback, and confidently directing the team. This study primarily examined athletes' preferences for leadership behavior. Also of interest was the effect of personality on leadership preference. A third purpose was to examine whether male and female athletes, as well as team and individual sport athletes, differed in personality and leadership preference.

Methods

In their study halls, 22 male and 26 female Division I athletes completed the Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS) and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. Athletes were from a variety of team and individual sports; however the individual sport group was composed entirely of females. The LSS is a leadership behavior instrument used to measure the most meaningful dimensions of coaching behavior: Training and Instruction, Democratic Behavior, Autocratic Behavior, Social Support, and Positive Feedback. The Keirsey Temperament Sorter placed athletes into 1 of 4 temperaments: Idealists, Rationals, Artisans, or Guardians. Athletes additionally completed two other personality measures: Locus of Control and the SCAT, a trait anxiety measure. However, the SCAT was not found to be internally consistent and subsequently was not used.

Analysis/Results

Of the athletes that could be classified by personality, the majority (25) fell into the Guardian category. This category was labeled “Security Seeking” by Keirsey and is characterized by trusting in legitimacy and needing membership. Because the athletes were not spread out across all categories, no further analyses were performed using that personality scale. Several analyses were performed examining the five subscales of the LSS. Because Training and Instruction was highly correlated with Positive Feedback, this variable was examined separately; however, no significant differences were found in any analysis. A Gender x Locus of Control MANOVA was conducted on the remaining four scales, resulting in a significant Multivariate F for Gender. Univariate tests showed that males scored higher than females on the Autocratic Behavior scale and the Social Support scale. Separate ANOVAs were conducted comparing female team sport athletes with female individual sport athletes. Female team sport athletes scored higher on the Democratic Behavior and the Social Support scales than did their individual sport counterparts.

Conclusions

Admittedly, this study was hindered by a small (and homogeneous) sample, at least in relation to personality type. While gender and sport type differences in leadership preference are not surprising, examining personality types with larger samples may yield interesting results.