Transformational Leadership and Motivation in Sport: The Moderating Role of Personality and Self-other Agreement Ratings

Abstract: Sport dropout during adolescence is a common phenomenon which is connected to motivation. Therefore this thesis investigated the relationship between coaches’ (N = 61, Mage = 40.39) transformational leadership and athletes’ (N = 132, Mage = 20.61) type of motivation in Swedish sport clubs. In addition, the moderating role of personality and self-other agreement ratings were examined. A cross sectional research design was used and data was collected through self-ratings and other ratings. Data was analysed using SPSS and the add-on program Process macro. To investigate the moderating role of personality and level of agreement, coach-athletes dyads were created (N = 38). The result showed that transformational leadership is positively associated with more self-determined types of motivation. Four of the coach’s personality traits (i.e., honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion and conscientiousness) moderated the relationship between transformational leadership and motivation. For the athletes agreeableness moderated this relationship. A majority of the coaches and athletes disagreed in rating the coaches’ transformational behaviours; however the result only showed significant correlation between coaches who underestimated and athletes’ lack of motivation. In conclusion, transformational leadership is suitable in a sport context. Future research could use a longitudinal design to further explore personality’s role in leadership. Practical implications of transformational leadership in connection to education are discussed.