transformational leadership and sports performance - mediating role of intrinsic motivation

8/2/2019 Transformational Leadership and Sports Performance - Mediating Role of Intrinsic Motivation

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Transformational Leadership and Sports Performance:The Mediating Role of Intrinsic Motivation

DANIELLEHARBONNEAU~Department o Military Psychology

and LeadershipRoyal Military Collegeo Canada

Kingston, Ontario, Ca nada

JULIAN A R L I N GSchool o BusinessQueens University

Kingston, Ontario, C anada

E. KEVINKELLOWAYDepartmenr o Management

Saint Mary k Unrversity

HallfM, Nova Scotia, Canada

We developed and tested a m odel in which transformational leadership affects sports per-formance indirectly, through the mediating effects of intrinsic motivation. D uring the sea-son. 168 university athletes provided data on their perceptions of their coachstransformational leadership and their own intrinsic motivation. At the end o f the season,their coaches assessed the performance o f the athletes. Using LISR EL4111, three modelswere estimated following the sequence of mediator tests outlined by Kelloway(1996,1998). The proposed model received considerable support. The results isolate intrinsicmotivation as a mediator of the relationship between transformational leadership and

sports performance, suggesting that transformational leadership may enhance intrinsicinterest in the task.

The theory of transformational leadership was developed byBass (1 985) andhas attracted considerable attention since then(Bass, 1998). Transformationalleaders display certain characteristics, such as espo using ideals, acting a s rolemodels, and show ing care and concern for each subordinate.Also, they inspiretheir followers by formulating a vision and setting challenging goals, and stimu-lating them intellectually to think about old problems in innov ative ways.

Research has demonstrated that perceived transformational leadership is associ-ated with increased performance in various work settings, such as the Navy

This research was supported by grants from the Principal Discretionary Fund at the R oyal M ili-tary College of Canadato Danielle Charbonneau and from th e School of Business at Queens Univer-sity to Julian B arling. The authors express their appreciation to C atherine Loughlin for constructivecomm ents on an earlier version of this manuscript and to two anonymous reviewers for their thought-provoking comments.

2Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Danielle Charbonneau, Depart-ment of Military Psychology and Leadership, Royal Military College of Canada, P.O. Box17000,Stn. Forces, Kingston, OntarioK 7 K 7B4, Canada.

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Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2001 , 31, 7 , pp. 1521-1534.Copyright 0 2001 by V. H. Winston & Son, Inc. All rights reserved.


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1522 CHARBONNEAUET AL.

(Yammarino & Bass, 1990), banks (Barling, Weber, & Kelloway, 1996; Ceyer &Steyrer, 1998; Howell & Avolio, 1993), teams of Air Force officer cadets(Clover, 1990), and blue-collar maintenance workers (Barling, Moutinho, &Kelloway, 1998).

To date, the transformational leadership model has received most empiricalattention within organizational settings, and the utility of the model would beenhanced if it could be shown to be valid in other contexts as well. There hasbeen speculation about the relevance of transformational leadership within thesports domain (Murray & Mann, 1998). However, this has been descriptive onlyand limited to charisma and the importance of having a vision (Yukelson, 1997).Chelladurai and Saleh (1980) showed that coaches social support aimed at pro-moting the welfare of athletes (which parallels individualized consideration) pre-dicted performance.

Just how transformational leadership affects performance only recently hasbegun to attract empirical scrutiny. Early indications suggest that transforma-tional leadership affects performance indirectly via several mediating mecha-nisms. First, Kirkpatrick and Lockes (1996) experimental study pointed to themediating role of self-efficacy beliefs. Second, survey research using longitudi-nal data points to the mediating effects of affective commitment (Barling et al.,1996, 1998) and trust in management (Barling et al., 1998). In the current study,we identify a different possible mediator, namely intrinsic motivation, and pre-dict that transformational leadership affects sports performance indirectlythrough the mediating effects of intrinsic motivation.

The concept of intrinsic motivation, which reflects individuals choosing toengage in activities for the pleasure that they bring, is by no means new (e.g.,Deci & Ryan, 1985). There are several reasons for postulating a link betweentransformational leadership and intrinsic motivation. Ryan, Mims, and Koestner(1 983) suggested that the controlling aspect of rewards decreases intrinsicmotivation (see Rummel & Feinberg, 1988, for a discussion of cognitive evalua-tion theory). However, transformational leaders are known to empower ratherthan control their followers (Kanungo & Mendonca, 1998). This is supported tosome extent by data showing that a leadership style that is supportive andpromotes autonomy, which would be consistent with transformational leadership,enhances intrinsic motivation (Richer & Vallerand, 1995). This empoweringprocess is thought to increase followers self-efficacy and capacity for self-determination (Kanungo & Mendonca, 1998). One objective of the present studyis to verify the self-determination claim. Indeed, self-determination, or theexperience of choice, is an essential component of intrinsic motivation (Deci &Ryan, 1985).

Pelletier, Fortier, Vallerand, Tuson, and Briere ( 1995) applied intrinsic moti-vation to the sports context. In this context, intrinsic motivation consists of threeaspects, namely (a) knowing, learning, and understanding; (b) accomplishing and


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being task oriented; and (c) experiencing stimulation and sensations. We suggestthat the very nature of the different components of transformational leadershipwill be particularly suited to predicting Pelletier et al.3 notion of intrinsic moti-vation. With its emphasis on stirring individuals to think for themselves, and toapproach old problems in new ways, the intellectual-stimulation component oftransformational leadership is likely to increase knowledge, learning, and under-standing. Similarly, charisma raises individuals and groups expectations aboutwhat they can achieve and is likely to increase the accomplishment and task-orientation component of intrinsic motivation.

In turn, we predict that it is intrinsic motivation that will result in enhancedsports performance. Generally, motivation has been found to be a weak predictorof performance. However, there is some evidence linking intrinsic motivation tosome aspects of performance, such as effort and persistence in school (Vallerand& Senecal, 1992) and on a competitive swimming team (Pelletier & Tuson,1992), as well as academic performance in high school (Vallerand & Bissonnette,1992). Additional evidence supporting a link between intrinsic motivation andperformance comes from the literature on goal orientation. Indeed, increased per-formance in martial arts has been linked to a mastery orientation, which consistsof improving skills and gaining understanding (King & Williams, 1997). Thedefinition of mastery orientation is reminiscent of the knowledge and task-orientation aspects of intrinsic motivation, as defined by Pelletier et al. (1995),respectively. Intrinsic motivation is uniquely appropriate to the sports context; asDeci and Ryan ( 1 985) noted, the primary motivation for amateur athletes isintrinsic.

The main objective of the present study is to test a model in which transfor-mational leadership affects sports performance indirectly, through the mediatingeffects of intrinsic motivation. That is, intrinsic motivation is examined in theparticular interpersonal context of a transformational influence strategy. Relatedconcepts (e.g., transactional leadership and extrinsic motivation) were not exam-ined, in order to limit the scope of the study.

Several methodological comments are in order. First, leadership studies areoften plagued by the exclusive use of self-report data. To avoid monomethodbias, we asked sports players to rate their coaches leadership and their ownintrinsic motivation, and we asked team coaches to rate each individuals perfor-mance. Second, in an attempt to arrive at a representative perspective of perfor-mance, we used two performance indicators; namely, performance relative toother fellow athletes and each individuals improvement over the season. Finally,the nature of the athletic season allowed us to use a short-term, longitudinaldesign. Specifically, athletes filled out the transformational leadership and intrin-sic motivation questionnaires during the season. At the end of the season, perfor-mance data were collected from the coach. Because of this short-term,longitudinal format, prospective relations are permitted.


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Method

Participants

The participants w ere athletes and their coaches recruited from amon g thevarsity spor ts team s at one small university. Th ese teams were all com peting, butat different levels. Some were competing at the university level, whereas otherscompeted at the collegiate level, whichis considered a lower level. Eight of theseteams would be considered individual sports (e.g., judo, swimming), and theremaining eight would be considered team sports (e.g., volleyball, basketball). O fthe teams, two were all-female, six were all-male, and eight had both fema le andmale members. In total, 170 male athletes and 6 5 fem ale athletes comp leted thequestionnaires on transformational leadership and intrinsic motivation, while 16team coaches (all males) provided performance data for each athlete.A completedata set consisted of the questionnaires filled out by athletes and the coachesevaluation of the sam e athletes.

Data from tw o teams (squash. all m ales; and biathlon, m ales and females)were excluded because of missing performance data.In total, 45 participantswere excluded because of missing performance data. Another 22 participantswere excluded because of incomplete data on leadership, motivation, or both.After the elimination of incomplete data sets, 168 participants (123 m ales,45fem ales) remained (representing a response rate of7 1YO). n average, the respon-dents, all of whom were undergraduates, w ere in their second year of stud ies( M = 2.12, S D = 1.07) and were between 17 and 22 years of age.

Instruments

The university from which the data were collected isa bilingual institution(English and French). Most respondents took the language version that corre-sponded to their stated official language. That is, 133(79%) respondents took theEnglish questionnaires, whereas the remaining 35 (21%) answered in French.

Leadership. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire-Form5 X ( M L Q ;Bass & Avolio, 1995) measu res athletes perceptions o f their coaches lead er-ship. For the purpose of this study, only those sections that m easure transforma-tional leadership are discu ssed. Transformational leadershipis divided into threefactors: charisma (8 items; e.g., Talks optimistically about the future), intel-lectual stim ulation (4 items; e.g., Seeks different perspectives wh en solvin gproblems), and individualized consideration(4 items; e.g., Conside rs me a shaving different needs and abilities than others). The 5-point Likert-typeanswer scale ranges from 0 (not at a l f ) to 4 Cfrequently or a lwa ys).Scores oneach of these three factors were obtained by dividing the raw score by the num-ber of items.


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TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 1525

Translation of the questionnaire from English to French was completed by theprincipal investigator with the help of a professional translator. This French ver-sion was backtranslated into English by a bilingual individual who did not haveaccess to the original questionnaire. The content of the q uestions, when back-translated, remained the same.

Reliabilities for the different scales are reported in the diagonal in TableI , asmeasured from the overall sample. Reliabilities obtained on the English andFrench questionnaires are comparable:.81 and .81 for charisma fo r English andFrench, respectively; .77 and .69 for intellectual stimulation; and .57 and .62 forindividualized consideration. The reliability for individualized considerationfalls jus t under the considered acceptable range, but was nevertheless included inthe analysis. Further analyses reveal that reliability was higher for individualsports than for team sports for both language versions. For instance, in theEnglish version, individual sports provided a reliability of.65, whereas the reli-ability wa s only .45 for team sports ( S 7 and .49, respectively, for the F renchversion). The reliability of intellectual stimulation in French and that of individ-ualized consideration in both languages were below the typical levels foundinthe literature ( a > .77; Bass & Avolio, 1996).

Intrinsic motivation.In t r ins ic mot ivat ion was measured wi th the Spor tMotivation Scale (SMS). T his questionnaire is available bothin French (Briere,Vallerand, Blais, & Pelletier, 1995) and in English (Pelletier et al., 1995). Forthe purpose of the present study, only the sections on intrinsic motivation arediscussed. Respondents were asked to answer the quest ion, Why do youprac tice yo ur sport? The re are 28 items in total, but only the 12 items pertain-ing to intrinsic motivation were usedin this study. Intrinsic motivation is com-posed o f th ree fac to r s : knowledge (4 i t ems ; e .g . , Fo r the p leasure o fdiscovering new training techniques), stimulation(4 i tems; e.g., For theintense emotions I feel doing a sport that I l ike), and accomplishments (4items; e.g., Fo r the satisfaction I experience while I am perfecting my abili-ties). The 7-point answe r scale ranges from1 (doe s not correspond at all) to 7(corresponds exactly).

Reliabilities for the three motivation sc ales range between .74 and.85, sindicated in the diagonal of Table 1, for the entire sample. The English andFrench scales revealed acceptable reliabilities:.83 and .89 for knowledge forEnglish and French, respectively; .68 and.SO or stimulation; and .79 and .72 foraccomplishment.

Performance. Performance of the athletes was measured at the end o f the sea-son using tw o questions. Coaches estimated the athletes performa nce duringboth training and com petition. They prov ided an estimate of the percentag eofimprovement for each team member throughout the season. In addition, coachescategorized each athlete on a 5-point scale ranging from1 (poor) to 5 excellent)in term s of performance relative to all other athletes on the team.


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transformational leadership and sports performance - mediating role of intrinsic motivation

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