The Effect of Coaching Leadership Styles Towards Motivational Factors Among Selangor and UITM Lions Rugby Players
Abstract
The objective of this research is to investigate the effect of coaching leadership styles towards motivational factors among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players. The sample was chosen from two of the best rugby team in Selangor respectively. Purposive sampling was employed to pick the sample of 66 rugby players. As the primary instrument for acquiring information about coaching leadership styles and motivational factors, they were given an online questionnaire to complete. The Leadership Scale for Sport - 15 Version (LSS-15) questionnaire is used to determine coaching leadership styles, while the Sport Motivation Scale-II (SMS-II) is used to determine motivational factors. All data in this study was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 26.0. The mean of the data was generated using descriptive analysis to determine the preferred coaching leadership styles among rugby players and the motivational factors among rugby players. The relationship between coaching leadership styles and motivational factors among rugby players was analysed using Spearman Correlation. The researcher discovered that there is significant relationship between leadership styles towards motivational factors.
Keywords: Coaching leadership styles, motivational factors, rugby
Introduction
A sport is a physical activity that requires an individual or a team to compete against one another or against others, either for fun or for a living. Those who practice it reap the benefits of improved health and fitness. The goal of this study is to determine the impact of coaching leadership styles and motivational factors on rugby players in Malaysia, specifically among Selangor's finest team and club. Rugby is a high-intensity sport that necessitates a lot of contact and stamina. This is why rugby is not a popular sport all over the world, as it carries a high risk of injury. Even players who normally play rugby are aware of this occurrence. However, due of their dedication to the game, they continue to perform at their best. Coaches play an important role in sports because they may help individuals or teams improve their performance. Rathwell et al. (2014) stated that it is crucial to understand how they gained their knowledge and experience so that training opportunities can be developed for the players. They help athletes in reaching their full potential during training sessions or in live games. The coach is in charge of teaching relevant skills, evaluating their athletes' present performance, and giving them advice. As a result, the coaching style of the leader plays a significant role in this situation. In addition, motivation is an internal power force that assist in carrying out a task, and determine the direction, intensity, and persistence. Motivation is a psychological mechanism that enables people to achieve at their peak despite adversity. This research contributes to the understanding of what motivates rugby players to achieve at their best. It can indicate how enthusiastic they are about playing rugby. This is due to the fact that some of them play rugby for enjoyment, while others play rugby because they are passionate about the sport. The motivational factor of high school rugby players may be discovered at the conclusion of this study.
Problem Statement
These are the data of both teams, UITM Lions and Selangor Rugby in Malaysia Rugby Premier League and Agong Cup (see Table 1).
The data shows the performance of the teams that are very popular in Malaysia rugby especially in semi-professional level. From the result that revealed by Malaysia Rugby Union (MRU), the result for UITM Lions drop starting from 2016 and the trend started to flatten until 2019. Therefore, the management team have to analyse the problems that affect the team to overcome this losing. There must be a lot of problems in the team either the wages of the players, motivation factors, coach leadership styles and training facility can affect the result of both teams.
One of the problems that occur in Malaysia’s rugby team is the result of the team is inconsistent. This situation happened because of lack of competitions. The main official tournament for 15’side is just two tournaments annually which are Agong’s Cup and Malaysia Rugby Premier League. According to Rugby.my (2020), when there nonstop cycles of rugby tournaments, we expose rugby to the larger masses. In a way, it does help these rugby players to have something to look forward to when there are tournaments.
The other problem among rugby team in Malaysia is financial. According to New Straits Times (Azharie, 2018), Malaysia Rugby spending more than what they get, and their political habits are crippling them. Malaysia Rugby (MR) president, Datuk Shahrul Yahya emphasized MR used to run Agong’s Cup and the Malaysia Rugby League (MRL) at around RM 60,000 to RM 80,000 but now the amount is doubled or even tripled. This shows that financial problem of the team might be affected the players performance and motivation level.
Purpose of the Study
With all these issues in mind, the researchers felt that an investigation into players’ preferred coaching leadership styles implement by the coaches as independent variable and players motivations act as dependent variable. Hence, the relationship between coaching leadership styles towards players motivational factors was investigated. Additionally, the researchers also wanted to find out how many percentages of coaching leadership styles influence players motivations.
Research Objectives
The study is based on the following objectives:
- to identify coach’s leadership styles among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby coaches.
- to determine motivation’s factor among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players.
- to examine the relationship between the coaching leadership styles towards motivational factors among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players.
- to investigate coefficient of determination of coach’s leadership styles towards motivational among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players.
Research Questions
- what are preferred coach’s leadership styles among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players?
- what are the motivation’s factor among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players?
- what is the relationship between the coaching leadership styles and motivation’s factor among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players?
- what is the coefficient of determination of coach’s leadership styles towards motivations among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players?
Research Methodology
Research design
This study is a correlational study based on the issue of the influence of coaching leadership styles and motivating factors among rugby players. This non-experimental study will be conducted using a quantitative technique by the researcher. The quantitative approaches are the best suitable for this study because it is about finding the correlation between two variables. The data will be used to collect numerical data in order to understand the link between coaching leadership styles and rugby players motivation. The researcher employed a survey since the goal of the study was to determine the coaching leadership styles and the rugby player's motivating element. The instrument section will go through the types of the surveys that were employed.
Research population and sample
The population for this study is the rugby players in Selangor and UITM Lions as both teams is one of the best performances for rugby in Malaysia. In addition, the teams have a strong worldwide reputation. As a result, the sampling method is non-random sampling. While the researcher applied purposive sampling to emphasize on qualifying or specified characteristics, only rugby players were selected as participants. Furthermore, because the sample represents the population, purposive sampling helps the researcher to obtain the best responses and results. Finally, just 66 participants were required for this study according to Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sampling method.
Research Instrument
In this study, there are two types of questionnaires were used. The first questionnaire was used to determine the preferred coaching leadership style of the athlete as well as the coaching leadership styles of the coaches. While the second questionnaire to determine the players' motivational factors.
Leadership Scale for Sport-15 Version (LSS-15)
Chelladurai and Saleh (1980) created the LSS, which has three objectives. The first objective is to investigate the athletes' preferences for certain types of leadership behaviour. Second, the instrument helps in the investigation of athletes' perceptions of their coaches' behaviors. Finally, the last objective of LSS is to modify coaches' perceptions of their own behaviour. LSS has a total of 40 items. Previous scholars, on the other hand, have simplified the questionnaire.
Teques et al. (2021) explored the factorial validity and measurement variance of the LSS (Chelladurai & Salleh, 1980) by Chiu et al. (2016) that have been simplified 25-item's version of the LSS (LSS-25). The three iterations were given a 15-item solution after the revision, with 3 items in each dimension. The dimensions of LSS-15 are the same as those of LSS, which are 5 dimensions. Training and Instruction, Democratic Behavior, Autocratic Behavior, Social Support, and Positive Feedback are the five dimensions.
Furthermore, all 15 items used the LSS's five response categories: Always, Often, Occasionally, Seldom, and Never. The "often" response was comparable to 75% of the time, the "occasionally" response was equal to 50% of the time, and the "seldom" response was equal to 25% of the time. As a result, the athletes' preferences and real coaches' conduct versions of LSS were used to answer the research questions in this study.
Sport Motivation Scale- II (SMS-II)
The SMS, created by Pelletier et al. (1995), is a tool for determining an athlete's degree of motivation. This tool may be used to measure motivation in any sport. The SMS is made up of 28 items that assess seven different factor subscales. Pelletier et al. (2013), on the other hand, created SMS-II to solve some of SMS's problems. The items in the new SMS-II have been reduced to 18 items with just 6 subscales. Intrinsic Regulation, Integrated Regulation, Identified Regulation, Introjected Regulation, External Regulation and Amotivated Regulation are the six subscales. Each of the 18 items was graded on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) (strongly agree).
Pilot Study
A pilot test is an important aspect of the research study because it ensures that internal data is consistent, that measurement scales for questionnaire variables are accurate, and that the data is accurate.
In this pilot study, 30 respondents from semi-professional rugby players were chosen at random. Table 2 shows that every item has a score larger than 0.5 for both variables, indicating that all of the items are valid and may be utilized in the study.
Data collection procedure
Statistical procedures used to analyse each research question are provided in the Table 3 below.
Finding and Discussion
The findings are discussed by providing the data analysis for each research question for easy comprehension of the evidence. Tables showing the analysis of all the dimensions from questionnaire dedicated to the related Research Question are provided.
What are preferred coach’s leadership styles among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby team?
Preferred coaching leadership style among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby team is presented in the table 4.
Respondents were given questionnaire to identify their preferred coaching leadership style. table 4 shows the pattern of coaching leadership style from each team. Descriptive analysis was conducted based on 5 subscales of leadership style. The highest score coaching leadership style for Selangor is ‘Training and Instruction’ (Mean = 4.49, SD = .116) and followed by ‘Positive Feedback’ (Mean = 4.00, SD = .683). While the highest means score coaching leadership style for UITM Lions is “Positive Feedback” (Mean = 4.30, SD = .774) and ‘Training and Instruction’ (Mean = 4.23, SD = .819) have the second highest score.
What are the motivation factors among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players?
Motivational factors among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players are presented in the Table 5 below.
The second research question is what is the motivational factor among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players. Table 5 shows the result of motivational factor from both teams. Descriptive analysis was conducted based on 6 motivational factors. It shows that Identified Regulation score the highest mean (Mean = 4.69, SD = .546) and followed by External Regulation (Mean = 4.53, SD = .573) for Selangor athletes. However, Intrinsic Regulation score the highest mean (Mean = 4.62, SD = .513) followed by External Regulation (Mean= 4.55, SD = .580 for UITM Lions athletes.
What is the relationship between the coaching leadership styles and motivation’s factor among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players?
Relationship between the coaching leadership styles and motivation’s factor among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players are presented in table 6.
table 6 shows the result of correlation between coaching leadership styles and motivational factors among Selangor and UITM rugby players. Pearson correlation test was used to determine the relationship between coaching leadership style and motivational factor. The result show that r = .612, p = .000. As the p-value is less than .01, it means that there are significant relationship between leadership styles between motivational factors. This indicate that there is positive moderate relationship between coaching leadership style and motivational factor. As the result show moderate relationship, so the researcher fails to accept null hypothesis which is there is no significant relationship between coaching leadership styles towards motivational factors among rugby players.
What is the coefficient of determination of coach’s leadership styles towards motivations among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby team?
Coefficient of determination of coach’s leadership styles towards motivations among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby team is presented in the Table 7.
Table 7 shows the result of coefficient of determination between coaching leadership styles and motivational factor which (r2 = 37.45). Thus, the researcher interprets that 37.45% of leadership styles is directly accounted for in motivational factors. As the result shows that there are 37.45% contribution of dependent variable towards independent variable, so the researcher rejects null hypothesis.
Delivering skills and training athletes to become the top athletes possible is one of the most crucial jobs of a coach. As a result, rugby players want their coach to train them the fundamental skills and train them the tactics and strategies of the sport, whether in a training session or during a game. Furthermore, a prior study found a very similar outcome, with young athletes from various sports preferred 'Training and Instruction' coaching styles from their coach, followed by 'Positive Feedback' coaching styles (Cruz & Kim, 2017). As a result, this finding shows that training and instruction, as well as a positive feedback coaching leadership style, are very important to young athletes.
Then, to determine motivational factors among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players is the second research objective in this study. The results of this study show that among Selangor and UITM Lions athletes, Intrinsic Regulation and Identified Regulation had the highest motivational mean scores. This is in line with a study by Burrel (2016), which found that Identified Regulation motivates athletes, followed by Intrinsic Regulation. Athletes who are motivated by Identified Regulation are still motivated by external factors like as achieving personal goals, but their actions have become more self-controlled (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The athletes practising sport because they believe it helps to develop their personality for betterment of their life. While the athletes that have higher Intrinsic Regulation can be describe joining sport for the sake of their own initiative instead of some other external benefits. A person who is intrinsically motivated is driven to perform an activity it is fun or difficult rather than because of external factors, benefits, or demands (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Mitchell (2013) conducted a study that came to the same conclusion. With a total of 195 riders, the survey was conducted among Oklahoma equestrians. According to the findings, equestrians are primarily motivated by intrinsic motivation, with extrinsic motivation coming in second. Intrinsic Regulation and Identified Regulation are on the sorts of motivation that are dominated by athletes, according to the studies. It may, however, vary depending on the type of sport and the culture of the sport.
Conclusions, Implications and Recommendations
In this chapter, the researcher has provided a detailed description of the research findings. The conclusion of this study has been reached. In addition, the researcher gave a few recommendations for future research on how to improve and develop. The relationship between coaching leadership style and motivation factor among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players is the topic of this study.
Implication
Ministry of Youth and Sports
The purpose of this research is to investigate if there's a relationship between coaching leadership styles and motivational factors among Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players. The findings revealed a significant relationship between the two variables once the study was completed. As a result of the findings, the Ministry of Youth and Sports will be more aware of the relevance of these two aspects in a team's or athlete's performance. As a result, the Ministry of Youth and Sports will adapt the findings not only to rugby games, but also to other sports or professions.
Malaysia Rugby Union
There are not many scholars that conduct some research based on rugby in Malaysia, so the findings of the study might be useful for Selangor & UITM Lions rugby team but the other management from different state or clubs can also conduct a research based on coaching leadership styles that contribute to players motivations. It must be different results from different team because every coach have their own coaching leadership styles and it will be useful if there are many research conducted. So, the other team or clubs can implement the same method that the best coach leadership styles. As top management in rugby, Malaysia Rugby Union have to take initiative to conduct as many research as they can to make sure the development of rugby in Malaysia in correct path. According to World Rugby Ranking (2021), Malaysia at 49th over 109 countries with 46.12 points. So, this will be the starting point to get higher ranking for upcoming international tournaments such as Asia Rugby Championship 2022.
University
For universities levels, sports competition at the university level is more competitive. As a result, university administrators should investigate this study deeper. They may utilise this information to design specific services and programmes for the department's players and coaches. This finding could possibly be applied to other sports' psychological aspects also. For UITM Lions rugby team, they have almost three big tournaments, MASUM, SUKIPT and Malaysia Rugby League. So, the management should take a serious matter of the team for better results every tournament.
Coaches
Furthermore, coaches can customize their training to the interests of their players. These leadership styles can be put into practise by the coach while also increasing his or her training or coaching methods. Coaches can increase their abilities to manage teams of players while also bringing enjoyment to the players with this approach. At the same time, it boosts the athlete's motivation, which helps them perform better.
Recommendation
Increase the size of population
Enlarging the population size is one of the suggestions. Only 66 players from two separate teams participated in this research. Future research should include more athletes from all Malaysia rugby clubs and teams to acquire more meaningful and reliable results. However, the research based on coaching leadership styles and players motivations are very little. hopefully after this, there will be other researchers conduct on this area for Malaysia Rugby development.
Demographic data are used
Furthermore, as the current study only focused at one gender for preferred coaching leadership styles and motivational factors, a new study might be conducted that adapts demographic data such as the athlete's gender and age. As a result, future research should take into consideration the respondents' gender and age to discover if there are any gender or age differences in preferred coaching leadership style and motivation factor. This is because different gender and age have different perspective on preferred coaching leadership styles that can boost players motivations. Besides, participation level of the athletes also must be considered because international level of players might have different views on their coaches.
New target population
Following that, this research is limited to only Selangor and UITM Lions rugby players. A future study could explore into whether coaching leadership style university athletes or national athletes prefer. As a result, it helps in comprehending the various outcomes among various populations.
Mixed method
Furthermore, a new study on this topic could be conducted using a mixed method approach, as this study just adopted a quantitative approach to collect data. Future researchers may use the same questionnaire-based quantitative study technique. As part of a qualitative study, an interview session with athletes and coaches will assist the researcher in providing an accurate perspective. As a result, mixed method research should be used because it offers more benefits, such as allowing the researcher to obtain more honest and specific responses from the respondents.
Acknowledgements
The author(s) declare that there is no conflict of interest.
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