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Evaluating coaches' servant leadership style and how it affects young athletes' word-of-mouth communication about their club (Master thesis)

Εξαδακτύλου, Μαρία/ Exadaktylou, Maria

The servant leadership style is built upon three factors, which are "Trust/Inclusion", "Service", and "Humility". It is a leadership style that has also been introduced to sports, and has been adopted by sports coaches. There is evidence that sports coaches have decided to make use of this leadership style due to the highly positive effects that it has on the psychology of athletes, as well as on the latter's performance and development. The aim of this research study was to carry out a thorough examination of the impact of servant leadership style, and more specifically, to investigate whether it is possible, by evaluating sports coaches, to predict how athletes interpret their oral communication for the club. In order to achieve the aim of the assignment, research was conducted on 240 young athletes who play in the football and volleyball teams of MAKEDONIKOS S.C. Data collection was carried out by using the questionnaire, and, in specific, in order to evaluate the Servant Leadership Style in Sports, the Revised Servant Leadership Profile for Sport (RSLP-S) questionnaire was chosen, while, in order to evaluate oral communication, three different variables were used, as indicated by Oliver (1999). The results showed that children in the academies and competitive teams of the club under investigation evaluate the following factors positively: "Trust/Inclusion" and "Service" of the servant leadership style, whereas they evaluate "Humility" moderately. Moreover, they evaluate positively their willingness to express to others their satisfaction from playing for the club in question. Last but not least, it was found out that the factors of "Trust/Inclusion and "Service" of the servant leadership style can predict the oral communication of young athletes positively.