Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
2-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Dr. James Adams
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Dr. Ramonica Scott
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Dr. Brian Cole
Abstract
In this intrinsic case study, the researcher sought to explore athletic directors’ leadership styles with their coaches’ and administrators’ workplace satisfaction at a Christian-affiliated college in the Southwestern United States. The study explored which leadership style is likely to encourage motivation (i.e., achievement, recognition, growth) and hygiene factors (i.e., policies, supervision, work conditions), which could potentially increase or decrease job satisfaction. The data collection method was semistructured interviews conducted with athletic department personnel. The researcher transcribed and quality-checked the interviews against the audio recordings. The transcripts were member-checked by sharing them with each of the study participants. The researcher analyzed the data using Dedoose, an online qualitative software, and conducted a thematic analysis using the six steps developed by Braun and Clarke (2006). Key findings from this study are that there is no clear-cut approach to leadership, and that the most valuable thing that a leader can do is to know the employees and cater to their leadership needs. A leader may have a predominate leadership style, and it is best to use that style until the leader realizes that employees need something different. Although situational leadership was not listed by the employees, there were at least four different leadership styles that were listed by the participants in this study, with transformational leadership descriptors being the most prevalent.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Ybarra, Adam P., "Leadership Style in a Faith-Based Athletic Department Setting" (2023). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 559.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/559