The Investigate Managers' Leadership Styles in Physical Education Offices Universities of Iran from Sport Volunteers' Perspective

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1 International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences. Vol., 3 (6), , 2012 Available online at www. irjabs.com ISSN X 2012 The Investigate Managers' Leadership Styles in Physical Education Offices Universities of Iran from Sport Volunteers' Perspective Mehr Ali Hemati Nezhad 1, Kazem Danesh Sani 2* and Reza Andam 3 Associate professor University of Guilan M.A in Sport Management, Ghadr Institute of Higher Education, Kochesfahan, Iran 1 Assistant professor University of Shahrood *Corresponding Author kazemdanesh_s@yahoo.com Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate managers' leadership styles in physical education offices universities of Iran from sport volunteers' perspective. Statistical populations of this study included the whole managers in physical education offices of countries decimal zones universities. The sample of the study consisted of 231 volunteers who were selected by Morgan Table (n=231) that their perspective presented on managers' leadership styles in physical education offices. Which the results of 208 questionnaires were statistically analyzed. After verifying the validity of MLQ questionnaire by the experts, reliability was calculated as 0.91 by Cronbach's alpha coefficient in a pilot study. Data were analyzed with parametric tests at P0.05. Results showed, there was a significant difference between preferences of managers' leadership styles. Thus, transformational style (3.723±0.683) was in first and the transactional (3.476±0.572) and laissez-faire (2.827±0.833) styles were in next preferences. Also, at transformational leadership style, Sub-scale inspiration (4.039±0.915) was in first preference and idealized influence (3.881±0.858), individualized consideration (3.704±0.824), intellectual stimulant (3.625±0.820) and attributed charisma (3.563±0.771) were in next preferences. Furthermore, at transactional leadership style, Sub-scale management by exception (active) was in first preference (3.618±0.056), contingent reward (3.443±0.061) and management by exception (passive) (3.362±0.063) were in next preferences. According to research results, it seems that managers of physical education offices universities can with transformational and inspiration leadership styles to be effective in attracting and encouraging volunteers to continue activity in sport associations of universities and also be causes their further and effective attendance in sport associations of universities. Keywords: Transformational leadership, Transactional leadership, Sport volunteers, Sport association Introduction The management is the most important factor for life, growth, prosperity and downfall of the organizations. One of the management duties is playing the effective role in organization leading. An organization that has more competent management may achieve its goal better because will create more correct planning. In other word, the leadership process has direct influence on the organization capability in meeting the employees requirements and establishing of a desirable working environment. Egri and Herman (2000) deem the leadership as the effective action on the people in order to they attempt based on their interesting and tendencies for achieving the group goals (Egri and Herman, 2000). The subject has attracted recently the most

2 researchers is that which kind of leadership behavior will be useful in the organizational process. The last surveys in relation to the leadership hint on two transactional leadership and transformational leadership that commenced its mutation and movement since presentation of Berns theory (1978) and then were redefined by Bass in Rabinz believes that the transformational leaders are who that inspire their followers and upon giving them the motive, lead them in a path that the human interests to be provided, as well as these leaders cause the subordinates to act with a high spread and have deep effects on the organization (Robbinz, 1998). Berns deems the transactional leadership as an transactional relationship between the leader and the subordinate (leader and subordinate) in which the subordinate person in lieu for complying the leader requests receives rewards proportional to the current goals and initial requirements (security, dependence and recognition) and therefore the leaders cause to the better performance of the subordinates (Doherty and Danylchuk, 1996). The organizational behavior experts mention besides these two styles, another style referred to as laissez faire leadership. In laissez faire leadership or without leadership style, the leader doesn t persuade the subordinates to the activity and takes no effort towards identification of subordinates requirements. In this style, the leader has no relationship to the subordinates and in case of any deviation or mistake; they separate themselves wherefrom (Bass and Avolio, 1995). The advancement, excellence, and achieving the predetermined goals of the organization is dependent to the management mode of the organization leader and director to much extent. The director as the organization leader may choose different styles for leading the human resources. The appropriate behavioral patterns of the director in each organization will create the strong spirit and motivation in the employees and increases their satisfaction value with its profession and job. Berns compared both transactional and transformational leadership styles and explained that the transformational leaders have addressed the substantial and high-leveled requirements of their followers (such as need to selfprosperity as the viewpoint of Maslow) and lead those to the higher levels of motivation (Pearce et al., 2003). The transformational director is an innovator and creative person and transactional director is a person who manages the policies and plans. The transformational leadership will cause to the extra expected effort and attempt of the individuals in the organization through affecting their sensations, it will provide more job satisfaction in the working environment. Therefore, Howell & Frost (1989), Avolio et al (2002), Schoenborn et al (2003), have presented valid evidences concerning that the transformational directors have satisfier subordinates than the other directors (Mahate, 2005). Zwiren, (1996) upon perusing the leading behavior of sport directors in physical education colleges explained that the adoption of leadership style is effective in the specific situations (Zwiren 1996). Parent et al (2009) indicated that the transformational leadership styles and charisma are interfered in the success of a great sport event (Parent et al., 2009). Burton and Peachey (2011) indicated there is a positive relationship between the transformational leadership of sport managers and organizational outcomes (double effort, satisfaction) (Burton and Peachey, 2011). Cuskelly in his book titled working with the volunteers in sport (2006) emphasized on the importance of organization role in the voluntary activities. According to their studies, 20% of the volunteers have resigned the voluntary activities due to the managerial performance weakness (Cuskelly et al., 2006). The studies indicated that the leadership is important either for organizational process or employees satisfaction or organization return. The physical education departments of the universities are one of the organizations using the candidate forces in the state sport sector. The necessity of turnover of such organization by reason of having the direct and continuous relationship to the intensive number of students (girl and boy) despite of different physical and mental requirements and leading these people and establishing the finite human relations between them, doubtless requires an effective leadership. The success of physical education dept of the university in purposes realization is dependent to the quality of applying the management effective leadership styles of the director. The director as the dept leader may choose different styles for leading the human force and so parallelizes the dept purposes and employees satisfaction (volunteer and paid staff). If the volunteers are satisfied with the performance and leadership mode of the directors of physical education departments of the universities, they activate not only with higher motivation but cause the retention and their re-presence in the activities. Hence, the extant paper reviews the leadership styles of directors of universities physical education departments. In addition, analyzing the rate of answering these questions: if there is significant difference between the leadership styles of directors of universities physical education departments? If any there is significant difference between the priority of subscales of transactional and transformation leadership styles? Materials and methods Statistical populations of this paper are consisted of all directors of physical education departments of universities in tenfold regions of Iran. Out of 73 universities located in ten regions of Iran, 17 universities had active volunteer sport society. According to Morgan table, 231 volunteer students were selected as the statistical

3 sample (n=231) and expressed their opinion on leadership style of directors of physical education departments of each one of their universities. Meantime, the summary related to the 208 questionnaires was analyzed statistically. Multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) of Bass & Avolio (1995) was used for measurement of leadership style of directors of universities physical education departments. This questionnaire includes 41 questions provided by five point Likert scale (1=never to 5=ever) and peruses the transformational leadership style by 5 subscales (attributed charisma, idealized influence, inspiration, intellectual stimulant and individualized consideration), the transactional leadership style by 3 subscales (contingent reward, management by exception (active) and management by exception (passive) and laissez-faire leadership as three independent and distinguished dimensions. The virtual and contextual validity of the study was confirmed by some sport management experts. Also, its reliability was calculated in a guide study and by Cronbach s alpha coefficient equal to =0.91. The descriptive statistical methods were applied for describing the findings (mean value, standard deviation etc.), Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (K-S) for analyzing the variables distribution mode (normality and abnormality). Considering the variables distribution normality, the repeated measurement test and Benferroni post hoc analysis were used for data analysis. Results Out of total 17 studied directors, 15 persons were man and 2 persons were woman (respectively 88.2 and 11.8% of total directors) and out of 208 volunteer students, 124 students were boy and 84 persons were girl (respectively 59.6 and 40.4% of total volunteers), 89.4% were single and 10.6% were married. Also, as per table 1, the mean value of service record of directors of universities physical education departments was 6.05±4.69. Table 1- The frequency distribution managers Based on work experience Work experience Frequency Frequency% Less than 5 years More than 15 years The results Table2, 3 show, there is a significant difference between preferences of managers' leadership styles. Thus, transformational style (3.723±0.683) is in first and the transactional (3.476±0.572) and laissez-faire (2.827±0.833) styles are in next preferences. Table2. Relationship between leadership styles and sport volunteers' satisfaction Mauchly's Test of Sphericity Tests of Within-Subjects Effects Mauchly's W df sig factor * Greenhouse- Geisser * Significant difference in P0.05 Table3. Pairwise comparisons df Mean Square F sig * Mean difference Transformational Transactional Laissez-faire * * Transactional Laissez-faire * * Significant difference in P0.05 Also, at transformational leadership style, Sub-scale inspiration (4.039±0.915) was in first preference and idealized influence (3.881±0.858), individualized consideration (3.704±0.824), intellectual stimulant (3.625±0.820) and attributed charisma (3.563±0.771) were in next preferences. Furthermore, at transactional Sig

4 leadership style, Sub-scale management by exception (active) was in first preference (3.618±0.056), contingent reward (3.443±0.061) and management by exception (passive) (3.362±0.063) were in next preferences. Discussion and conclusion The purpose of this study is investigating managers' leadership styles in physical education offices universities of Iran from sport volunteers' perspective. The summary of the researches indicated that significant difference existed between the leadership styles priority of directors of physical education departments of universities and transactional leadership style has the first priority and transformational and laissez-faire leadership styles have the next priorities. Therefore, Taker (1992) mentioned the further importance of transformational leadership style to the transactional leadership in creation of motivation for double effort of the followers (Mahate, 2005). Lawler and Miskel (2004) demonstrated that five transformational leadership factors and three transactional leadership factors are in direct relationship to the leadership outcomes (effectiveness, double effort and satisfaction of subordinates). Furthermore, the transformational leadership comparing to the transactional leadership has stronger performance. Fang et al (2009) have concluded in their study that the directors used transformational leadership style for leading their employees caused to the enhancement of job satisfaction and organizational commitment of the employees (Fang et al., 2009). The summaries of studies applied by Moriano et al (2011), Jens Rowold (2009) indicated that the directors use transformational leadership style more than transactional leadership style which is in compliance with the results of extant paper (Moriano et In a research applied in 1982 by the researchers on National Sport Organization of Germany, it was concluded that the transactional and transformational leaders affect the sport organizations effectiveness. As well as, the results this study indicated that the sport managers of Iran use further the inspiration subscale in transformational leadership style and idealized influence, individualized consideration; intellectual stimulant and attributed charisma have the next priorities. This finding is in compliance with the results of studies applied by Armstrong (2001) and Snyder (1990). The inspiration is transfer rate of leader s attractive ideal, using the symbols for reinforcing the individuals efforts, as well as providing the behavioral model by the leader. The inspirational leaders lead the followers so that they attempt more than their capabilities in the organization. Also, the results indicated that the directors of physical education departments of Iranian universities use management by exception (active) in the transactional leadership style more and contingent reward and management by exception (passive) have the next priorities. The directors applied the management by exception (active) were the leaders who monitored the works and in case of emerging the problem in the physical education departments, they take measure promptly. The results indicated that the leadership style of directors may be effective on the decision making process, satisfaction and accordingly effectiveness of effectiveness of physical education department activities. In fact, the success of physical education dept of the university in purposes realization is dependent to the quality of applying the management effective leadership styles of the director. The appropriate leadership style of directors of universities physical education departments will create strong spirit and motivation for the employees (volunteer and paid staff) and enhances their satisfaction with their job and profession. On the other hand, job satisfaction may be effective on the productivity enhancement, reduction of employees absence and transfer and re-presence of volunteers in the sport activities. Waldman et al (2001) recommend that the director s leadership style must be as the highest level of the theories; because the director s guidance and supervision affects the decision making process, employees satisfaction and organization outcomes (Waldman et al., 2001). According to the studies, in the transformational leadership style, the leader persuades the subordinates in order to achieve their maximum potential power and stimulate them to seek to satisfy higher level requirements (success and introspection) and group goals. The transformational leadership style because of considering the spirits and values of the individuals and stimulating their intrinsic motivations has significant effect on the human management and particularly on sport management sector. The sport authorities following this style have been identified as successful directors and have extraordinary influence on their followers. Ultimately, it is recommended, the sport managers upon following the transformational leadership styles particularly inspiration lead the employees (recruited and volunteers) so that they attempt in organization more than their sport capability and have considerable effect on the motivation and satisfaction of volunteer students of sport organizations and consequently effectiveness of sport activities under their management in order to enhance these factors and accordingly result in their retention and further and efficient presence in the sport organizations of the universities.

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