Date of Award

8-23-2024

Publication Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Kinesiology

Keywords

Athlete leadership;Group Dynamics;Leader fairness;Leadership;Team Sports

Supervisor

Todd Loughead

Abstract

Athlete leadership is a process of an athlete occupying a leadership role on a team who influences their team members towards achieving a common goal (Loughead et al., 2006). A characteristic of athlete leaders considered by some to be important in the process of providing athlete leadership is fairness (Eys et al., 2007; Hirsch & Loughead, 2024). At present, there is no sport-specific measure for assessing athlete leader fairness, thereby limiting our understanding of this construct. Therefore, the overall objective of this dissertation was to develop an inventory to measure athlete leader fairness and evaluate the psychometric properties of the inventory. This objective was accomplished through three research studies. The first research study employed a phenomenological approach by exploring intercollegiate athletes’ (n = 11) and coaches’ (n = 9) perspectives of athlete leader fairness (Chapter 2). One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate participants’ conceptualizations of athlete leader fairness and behaviors they identified as reflective of fair and unfair treatment. A reflexive thematic analysis was conducted and themes were generated related to the complex nature of athlete leader fairness and behaviors reflective of fair and unfair treatment. The complexity of fairness was described in themes portraying athlete leader fairness as subjective, situation-specific, critical for effective leadership, and difficult to maintain over time. The themes reflecting athlete leader fairness behaviors included appropriate use of leader power, promotion of the team’s growth and mission, and predictability. The findings were used to create a definition of athlete leader fairness that is presented in Chapter 2. The findings from this first study were also used to help develop an initial pool of items for measuring athlete leader fairness. The aim of the second research study was to develop a large pool of items to measure athlete leader fairness and, subsequently, examine these items for content validity, factorial validity, and internal reliability (Chapter 3). This involved the evaluation and refinement of the pool of items through a multi-step approach, including (1) think aloud interviews with six intercollegiate athletes, (2) expert panel review with six university faculty members with expertise in sport psychology research and applied practice, leadership, group dynamics, and/or inventory development, and (3) assessment of 562 adult athletes’ responses to the revised inventory. These procedures tested and confirmed the content validity, factorial validity, and internal reliability of the newly-developed inventory named the Fairness Behavior Inventory for Athlete Leaders (FBI-AL). The FBI-AL contains six dimensions of athlete leader fairness: (a) Representative and Advocate, (b) Uphold Team Mission, (c) Role Model, (d) Inclusion, (e) Respect, and (f) Healthy Boundaries. The aim of the third research study was to assess the concurrent validity of the FBI-AL by exploring the relationship between athlete leader fairness and cohesion (Chapter 4). Participants included 293 adult team sport athletes who completed the FBI-AL and a positive worded version of the Group Environment Questionnaire (Eys et al., 2007). Path regressions from the six dimensions of athlete leader fairness to each of the four dimensions of cohesion (Individual Attractions to the Group-Task, Individual Attractions to the Group-Social, Group Integration-Task, Group Integration-Social) were examined using structural equation modeling. The structural model demonstrated good model fit, and two significant path coefficients were reported: (1) Uphold Team Mission to Individual Attractions to the Group-Task and (2) Uphold Team Mission to Group Integration-Social. These findings suggest more research is required to examine the FBI-AL and establish support for concurrent validity. Overall, this dissertation provides initial support for the use of the FBI-AL, an inventory to explore athlete leader fairness which is deemed an essential characteristic of athlete leadership. Upon further testing of this inventory, researchers should be in a position to utilize this tool to advance the field of athlete leadership.

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