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This study examined youth student-athletes' perceptions toward their coaches' behaviors in Singapore, upon the conceptual framework of the Multidimensional Model of Leadership (Chelladurai, 1978). The specific focus of enquiry was to compare differences in perceived leadership in terms of an individual characteristic (i.e., gender), a situation characteristics (i.e., task dependence), and their interactions (i.e., gender by task dependence). A total of 544 athletes completed the perception version of the Leadership Scales for Sports developed by Chelladurai and Saleh (1980). A multivariate analysis of variance was conducted in the study. For task dependence, the athletes of interdependent sports perceived their coaches to be more socially supportive than their counterpart. For gender by task dependence, first, the female interdependent sports athletes had a significantly higher mean score than the male interdependent sports athletes for training and instruction. Second, the male interdependent sports athletes reported a significantly higher mean score than the male and female independent sports athletes for social support. The female interdependent sports athletes had a significantly higher mean score than the male and female independent sports for social support. Lastly, the female interdependent sports athletes had a significantly higher mean score than the male interdependent sports athletes for positive feedback. Understanding the athletes' perceptions on leadership behaviors will help coaches and sport administrators increase athletes' satisfaction and performance and eventually achieve sporting excellence in Singapore.
Leadership is one of die most significant components in human resource management in corporations as well as in sports teams. Leadership in athletics refers to the process of inspiring or influencing athletes of a team to perform their tasks enthusiastically and competently to meet the team's goals (Bridges & Roquemore, 1 996), and it has been often considered as a main reason for success and failure of an athlete or a sport team (Ch 'ng & Koh-Tan, 2006). Accordingly, leadership has been heavily studied by sport management scholars (e.g., Beam, Serwatka, & Wilson, 2004; Chelladurai, Imamura, Yamaguchi, Oinuma, & Miyauchi, 1988; Jambor & Zhang, 1997; Riemer & Chelladurai, 1995). One of the most popular approaches to study sport leadership is die Multidimensional Model of Leadership (MML) framework developed by Chelladurai (1978).
Multidimensional Model of Leadership
Chelladurai's (1978) MML synthesized several traditional situation theories to the athletic context, such as...