Leadership styles in the Spanish national taekwondo team

Abstract

Interest is growing in conducting research on the role of coaches as agents of influence. Within the context of sport, transactional and transformational leadership styles (Bass, 1985) have not been explored very often. This study extends previous research within this context, specifically in high performance taekwondo. The purpose of this study was to examine leadership behaviours in the Spanish National Taekwondo Team (N = 34, M age = 21 + 3.62 years of age) and explore whether transformational leadership increased the impact of transactional leadership on the athlete’s extra effort and the perceived effectiveness of and satisfaction with their coach (outcome variables). The results confirmed the positive effects of transactional and transformational styles on the taekwondo players’ result variables. Furthermore, the positive impact of transformational leadership augmented the effects of transactional leadership.