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Self-perceived leadership styles of collegiate athletic directors: A gender and NCAA divisional level comparison
Abstract
The concept of leadership has intrigued the interest of researchers over the decades. As more and more studies have been performed in various organizational environments using a variety of different research techniques, conflicting information has been found. This dissertation consists of a comparison between two schools of thought surrounding leadership: an analysis of Kanter's (1977) organizational role theory and Sargent's (1981) androgynous manager theme is compared to Gutek and Morasch's (1982) gender-role spillover theory and Eagly and Johnson's (1990) meta-analysis research on sex differences in leadership. This was a nationwide study of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I (N = 144) and Division III (N = 220) collegiate athletic directors. The questionnaire used in this study consisted of the Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) developed by Hemphill and Coons (1957) through their work with the Ohio State Leadership Studies, along with the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) developed by Bem (1974). As predicted, male and female athletic directors did not differ significantly as to their leadership styles and sex-types regardless of NCAA division classification. Division I and Division III female athletic directors also were found to possess no difference in their leadership styles and sex-types. An interesting finding from the study, though, was that the leadership style and sex-types were affected by the type of institution and athletic department variable. Female athletic directors who led both men and women possessed a more initiating structure leadership style than female athletic directors of just women. Also, female athletic directors possessed a more Masculine sex-type than male athletic directors. The college athletic department as an organization is finding itself in congruence with the majority of management organizational studies regarding leadership style--that of no differences in leadership styles between men and women. Kanter's (1977) organizational role theory seemed to be upheld. The androgynous category, though, contrary to Sargent's (1981) androgynous manager theme, was not one of the dominant sex-types among the college athletic directors.
Subject Area
Management|Recreation
Recommended Citation
Barr, Carol A, "Self-perceived leadership styles of collegiate athletic directors: A gender and NCAA divisional level comparison" (1994). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9434451.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9434451