Leadership in Sport Context Essay

Leadership is hard to specifically define, roles and attributes change to adapt to the environment and context needed. George and Jones define leadership as ‘ the exercise of influence by one member of a group or organization over other members to help the group or organization’ (2002,pg. 375). This definition can be broken down with two definitions; Firstly exerting influence over other members and second aiding in a group or organization achieve its goals. ‘Leadership is something everyone would like to claim as a personal attribute, but it is very difficult to get any consensus on quite what it means’. (Weightman, 2004, pg. 129) Many theories and models have been developed to discover different approaches to leadership aiming to identify different traits and characteristics thought needed to be a good leader. In this portfolio I am going to explore different leadership approaches and attributes within the context of sport. Through examples of current lead ers in sport I hope to identify similarities to theoretical evidence. Sport is a disciplined activity that demonstrates a lot of role models for leadership, not just athletes, a lot of jobs within the sport sector include leadership qualities. What makes a leader? The debate between is a leader born or made has opened up a lot of questions to what the attributes of a good leader are. Agreeing that a leader is influential and needs to inspire through organizing change makes us ponder weather traits of a leader are in their personalities or a skill you can acquire over time. Often leaders are associated with having certain personality traits that highlight them as an admirable person. Davis (1972) found the four general traits related to leadership success were: * Intelligence- leaders are found to have high intelligence than their followers * Social Maturity- self-assurance and self- respect and can handle a wide variety of social situations * Achievement drive- found to have a strong drive to get things done * Human- Relations attitudes- leaders know that they rely on other people to get things done, and therefore interested in their team members This traits model focuses on the personality that the leader has on contrast to the job that needs to be done. Agreeing that traits above would aid an individual to take control and lead others in order to influence, further research found the context in what your leading was equally as important. Building on Davis’s model it is important for a leader to be a people person that can withhold authority in a variety of situations, but also with the ability to display their views to a variety of people in intention to influence and inspire. Davis amongst others were previously unsuccessful in showing theoretical evidences that proved common personality traits or qualities. It was soon found more realistic analyses would be to consider the functions a leader demonstrate in order to fulfill his task specific to the context. Sport can be individual or team based but will still involve numerous people. A leadership model discovered in 1982 demonstrates the need of three leadership functions I found present in most sport leaders. These are: the task to be accomplished together, maintaining social cohesion of the group and individual needs of team members. This model shows the three independent functions and how they overlap to form a leadership style that focuses on achieving the outcome of the leader in this case success for a sports team or individual. If the task fails or performed badly, there is diminished satisfaction for the individual and the group tends to fall apart. If the group lacks unity, this will also affect performance. If the individual is discontented, then he or she will not give his or her best performance. This emphasizes the essential of unity of leadership, demonstrating a single action by a leader may influence all areas, and is specific to a sport context. Example Sven- Goran Eriksson- team manager of various football teams (including England) (www.guardian.co.uk) Sven admirable leadership displays most of Davis personality traits alongside achieving success for himself and various teams. Sven’s cosmopolitan background gives him an advantage within a wide audience of players and is well known for his expertise within football. Despite not getting too attached to people, that enforces authority; he creates empathy and trust within all he leads. A strong attribute is his diplomatic approach, he is seen to support and value the work of others. Demonstrating his ability in leading various teams to success he relates to Adair’s model. Maintaining a good cohesion between the team is very important within football but he doesn’t neglect the individual players needs. He implements their opinion into making good decisions for the team as a whole to lead them to success. Transformational Leadership Transformational leadership is best describes a leader who effects followers who are intended to trust, admire and respect. They are known for following and seeing through a personal vision whilst gaining trust of supporters. James Macgregor Burns introduced a concept of transformational leadership in his book Leadership in 1978. He defines ‘leaders and followers make each other to advance to a higher level of moral and motivation. Through the strength of their vision and personality, transformational leaders are able to inspire followers to change expectations, perceptions and motivations to work towards common goals’ (pg. 203, 2012). A sporting example of a transformation leader is Paula Radcliffe. Paula relates heavily to a later theory developed by Bernard M. Bass. Bass’s Transformational Leadership Theory He suggested leadership is defined as the impact it has on followers Burns identified 3 ways in which leaders transform their followers * Increasing their awareness of task importance and value * Getting them to focus first on team of organizational goals, rather than their own interests * Activating there higher-order needs Agreeing that people will follow a person who inspires them. Such individual needs to have a vision and passion and quest to achieve great things. ‘She puts all her energy and time in quest to be the best distance runner in the world’ (www.bbcsport.com) (www.sportsjournalists.co.uk) Yet to win an Olympic medal, all due to injury, she has brought the women’s marathon running to a new level and pushed the limits where no other women have gone. Paula supported many charities, alongside the progression of keen runners during her career. In 2004 she inspired many when joining Jonathan Edwards on an Olympic Special Millionaire, raising  £64,000 for charity. Excluding her physical achievements but she has been recognized for her personality and good sportsmanship through a number of awards. (Taken from my presentation) Ethical Leadership â€Å"Rowe (1997) points out, ethics can be taught in two very different ways. It can be taught using the models of absolute values, or as theologians and philosophers call them ‘ first principles’- That is, the absolute right and wrong ways of doing things. But it can also be taught in terms of how we all have our own way of seeing things. According to this view, values are relative to individuals and the situations in which they find themselves- the right way depends on the context†. Ethics pays an important part in sport for it is the discipline in rules and regulations that gives the entitlement to win and loose competition. Current competition requires a lot of testing prior, during and post competition in order to detect various methods of cheating. Many sports could be seen as unethical due to bad press of officiators, rules and regulations. The importance of ethics in sports defines giving everyone an equal opportunity showing no favouritism or discrimination. Paula highly demonstrates the traits of an ethical leader. Her career has consisted of fighting defend the fair-ness and reputation of the sport. ‘Most athletes were clean and we’re increasing becoming un-happy at the way the sport was being portrayed’ (www.paularadcliffe.com) Proving her ethical leadership qualities I have related Paula to the below model. This model states seven habits that a discovered commonly in ethical leaders. Seven Habits of Strong Ethical Leaders- Stephen R. Covey 1. Strong Personal Character 2. Passion to do right 3. Proactive Behavior 4. Stakeholder interest in mind 5. Recognition of their values as role models 6. Awareness that their decision making should be transparent 7. Holistic view of human beings and firm’s ethical culture Paula’s willingness to stand up for her rights and correct the sport permanently for others, was demonstrated by launched her campaign against ‘drugs in sport’ Despite the amount of drug tests required, it was discovered that the system was not capable of detecting the most effect and abused doping product using in running. She quotes ‘fear is no reason not to do what is right’ (www.paularadcliffe.com) In 2001 at Edmonton she held up a sign saying ‘EPO cheats out’. This was particularly aimed at a competitor that had been tested and found guilty of the blood doping, yet the result was over turned because the French testing authorities did not adhere to IAAF protocol. (www.paularadcliffe.com/gallery/images/08.jpg) Does Gender Effect Leadership? Sport is frequently seen as a masculine dominated sector. â€Å"Sport has been demonstrated to help some women achieve empowerment†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Theberge and Birrell, 1994, pg. 147) In all previous leadership theories mentioned none are specific to gender. With this is mind; still women in leadership are found to be in the minority. Fred Fielder recognises the effectiveness of a task should be considered in defining leadership. His Contingency theory of leadership, developed in 1961, focuses on 1) Why in a particular situations, some leaders will be more effective than other leaders even though they have equally good credentials. 2) Why a particular leader may be more effective in one situation and not another â€Å"Although women’s participation has risen, women’s involvement in sport as providers has dropped†. (Sports Council, 1992) The recent rise in women participating sport has lead to success in gaining responsibility in areas of sport such as leadership and coaching. The theory above I find is relevant for it can be used against women who are seen as good leaders just would be put out of context when it comes to sport. An example within sport is an American, Shannon Eastin Shannon Eastin made history by being the first female official in a male dominated sport, relating to fielders theory she was seen out of context for the job and is now recognised for her confidence of breaking the stereotype. Shannon became Inspirational for Women who feel not equal to take part in male orientated sports. (www.chargers.com) David Cotter et al defined four distinctive characteristics in his Glass Ceiling Approach (1988) 1. â€Å"A glass ceiling inequality represents a gender or racial difference that is not explained by other job-relevant characteristics of the employee.† 2. â€Å"A glass ceiling inequality represents a gender or racial difference that is greater at higher levels of an outcome than at lower levels of an outcome. 3. â€Å"A glass ceiling inequality represents a gender or racial inequality in the chances of advancement into higher levels, not merely the proportions of each gender or race currently at those higher levels.† 4. â€Å"A glass ceiling inequality represents a gender or racial inequality that increases over the course of a career.† This approach is commonly used when individuals or groups are stereotyped and therefore seen as unusual or abstract to be breaking these barriers. When successful of breaking the prejudice against them it is seen as breaking through the barrier to the glass celling. Previous women leaders in sport are seen to be very inspirational, they are made to feel not equal to take part in male orientated sports and therefore demonstrate the glass barrier celling approach when they do a lot making history for women in that context. Even though they might break down these barriers they still not be highly respected and followed by all and will be not seen as equal by all. In todays society there are many powerful female role models. An example in sport is Jessica Ennis. Through the 2012 Olympic she demonstrated her talents and perseverance in sport that achieved amazing results. (www.mirror.co.uk) Conclusion In developing my research from the tutorials I have found leaders are adaptable not only to context, but to individuals. People will find different qualities within the same person that they consider being a trait of a leader. â€Å"Even researches often disagree about which characteristics best describe leadership†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (George et Jones, 2005,pg. 275). Theories and Models help display similar characteristics within leaders but shouldn’t be used to define what a leader should be. Transformation and Ethical leaders are very common within sport for they are found to be influential to their public and demonstrate good morals within sport. All the leaders used in this portfolio are respected, followed and successful in completing their task in hand whilst being influential.