Perceived leadership in swimming: leadership styles of NCAA swim coaches and its relationships with athlete satisfaction, turnover intention, and commitment

This study examined the relationship between coaching leadership styles and swimmers satisfaction, turnover intention, and commitment in NCAA swimming. Dividing leadership into five dimensions (training and instruction, autocratic behavior, democratic behavior, social support, and positive feedback); it was predicted that swimmers satisfaction and commitment would be positively related with all dimensions except for autocratic behavior; and turnover intention would show the opposite correlation. It was also expected that swimmers of different genders and from different NCAA divisions would perceive different leadership styles. The questionnaire included a scaled down version of Chelladurais Perceived Leadership Scale for Sports as well as questions that measured satisfaction, commitment, and turnover intention. It was sent to coaches from 63 NCAA Division I, II, and III institutions who were asked to forward it to their swimmers. A total of 237 swimmers participated in this survey. Correlation and ANOVA analyses were used to determine relationships between the variables. Much of the earlier findings and all of the hypotheses of this study were supported by the results of this study.