Transactional or Transformational? Leadership Preferences of Division III Athletic Administrators

Leadership research within sport management has yielded inconsistent results when examining transactional and transformational leadership. In addition, there has been a paucity of research comparing leadership behaviors between men and women based on leadership style. Therefore, this study examined whether leadership style (transactional, transformational) led to more positive perceptions of organizational outcomes in intercollegiate athletic administration and whether gender of the leader influenced these perceptions of leaders. Ninety-eight Division III athletic directors evaluated either a male or female transactional leader or a male or female transformational leader on extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction. Findings indicated transformational leadership was related to more positive organizational outcomes, specifically extra effort and satisfaction. However, gender of the leader did not influence these perceived outcomes

Organizational Culture Mediates the Relationship Between Transformational Leadership and Work Outcomes

The objectives of this study were to examine the mediating effect of group and developmental organizational culture types on the relationship between transformational leadership and three outcome variables—affective organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and job search behaviors. Senior administrators (n = 188) working in NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic departments completed a survey assessing perceptions of leadership behavior of their athletic directors, the culture of their athletic departments, and their affective organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and job search behaviors. Results indicate that group culture partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and affective organizational commitment, and fully mediates turnover intentions and job search behaviors. Developmental culture partially mediates affective organizational commitment but has no influence on turnover intentions and job search behaviors. Findings contribute to the understanding of the important mediating role of organizational culture on the relationship between transformational leadership and outcome variables in the intercollegiate athletics context

Sport-for-development: A comprehensive analysis of theoretical and conceptual advancements

© 2019 Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand Over the past decade, the field of sport-for-development (SFD) has experienced significant growth and diversification across research and practice. In this review paper, the authors provide a comprehensive analysis and discussion of the theoretical and conceptual developments within SFD, addressing a gap in the literature. Following a sport-focused review of SFD literature, the authors first identify five theoretical and conceptual frameworks that have emerged from within the SFD space. As a second step, they analyze and discuss scholarly work that has utilized these theories and frameworks. Building on a comparison of key messages, themes, and concerns, the authors highlight that to date, limited SFD scholarship has truly applied, extended, or challenged existing frameworks and conceptualizations. Motivated by this review, they posit several conceptual advancements, and offer directions for future research and theoretical development

Re-engaging local youth for sustainable sport-for-development

© 2018 Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand Despite increasing evidence that sport-for-development (SFD) programs can contribute to community development, there remains a lack of empirical inquiry into different socio-managerial aspects of SFD. For example, in attempts to achieve locally sustained SFD programs, the roles, responsibilities and potential impact of re-engaged youth need further investigation. The authors define re-engaged youth as previous program participants who have maintained strong links with the organization and who return to the program at a later stage as volunteers or staff members. In this paper, the authors examine ways in which Re-engaged youth of the Blue Dragon Children Foundation's SFD program contribute to sustainable management and indirectly to community development within a disadvantaged community setting in Hanoi, Vietnam. Following an interpretive mode of inquiry, the authors conducted and analyzed two focus groups (six participants each) and 12 in-depth interviews with re-engaged youth (n = 7) and key program stakeholders (n = 5). Overall, re-engaged youth represented key drivers for organizational success; they served as program culture experts, role models, leaders and mentors, and creators of a family feel in SFD and beyond. The authors argue that re-engaged youth are demonstrating a number of important change agent capabilities that enable them to uniquely gauge and best respond to the needs of program participants and local communities in complex sociocultural environments

Sport for Social Change: Bridging the Theory–Practice Divide

Theory development around sport for social change agendas has received greater attention from scholars over the past 10 years. Yet, it remains underdeveloped when compared with theoretical advancements and innovations in other aspects of the sport industry. In this special issue, we bring to light some of the most recent conceptual and empirical work exploring the theory–practice connection in the field of sport for social change

The Impact of a Sport-Based Service Learning Course on Participants’ Attitudes, Intentions and Actions Toward Social Change

Framed in the context of a sport-based service learning program that engages in interdepartmental university partnerships (including athletics), the current study focused on addressing the need to analyze the long-term impacts of service learning on students’ intentions and actions toward social change. Service learning courses have been shown to facilitate positive outcomes such as increased cultural competency and future intentions toward civic engagement (Bruening et al., 2010, 2014). Building on this knowledge, the current study used in-depth interviews to investigate the social justice-related attitudes, intentions, and behaviors of alumni of a college service learning through sport course. Individual interviews (n = 22) with participants who had completed at least one semester in the course indicated that the course was influential in developing their ability to recognize social inequities. Furthermore, participants indicated future intentions and current involvement in initiatives that address social inequities in their given areas of life. Theoretical and managerial implications for effective academic and intercollegiate athletic partnerships, helping to increase impactful civic engagement and learning opportunities for student-athletes and non-student-athletes, are provided