Golf coaches’ mindsets about recreational golfers: Gendered golf experiences start on the practice tee.

Abstract

Gender gaps in golf participation persist. Women make up less than 20% of golf’s population in the United Kingdom and United States. Their underrepresentation detrimentally impacts the golf industry, society, and women who are excluded from golf’s well-documented benefits. This article connects theoretical constructs from motivational psychology with issues of gender discrimination in golf. In this article we examine the relationship between golf coaches’ perceptions of recreational women golfers (their mindsets) and women golfers’ coaching experience. Specifically, two studies identified that (a) golf coaches reported more of a growth mindset about men golfers compared to women golfers, (b) that these mindsets were significantly related to the adaptiveness of coaches’ feedback, and (c) that growth mindsets about women golfers’ ability can potentially be fostered through experimental manipulation. Results are discussed in the relation to their significance for addressing gender gaps in adult recreational golf participation.

Growth Mindset for Human Resource Development: A Scoping Review of the Literature with Recommended Interventions

“…One’s growth or fixed mindset can impact other people’s behavior and these mindsets can lead to team-level outcomes in the workplace. Mindset researchers have found that managers or employees’ growth mindsets positively correlate to dyadic-level outcomes, such as improved relationships based on feedback and coaching (Gutshall, 2013; Özduran & Tanova, 2017; Rattan & Dweck, 2018; Shapcott & Carr, 2019) and positive influence of managers on their teams (Caniëls et al, 2018; Heslin & VandeWalle, 2008; Wang et al, 2018). Managers or leaders’ mindset can influence others’ behaviors.…”

“…In a similar vein, the coaches’ mindset about their athletes’ abilities is correlated with the behaviors the coaches demonstrate. Particularly, coaches’ prejudice toward women’s golf ability is correlated with negative feedback, resulting in lower player motivation and decreased player performance (Shapcott & Carr, 2019). The researchers found that priming growth mindset, however, effectively reduces coaches bias leading to an increased performance of athletes as well as the amount of participation in golf for recreational purposes.…”

“…The most cited scale for mindset theory includes three items strongly asserting belief in the malleability of traits signifying a growth mindset and three items strongly asserting the immutability of traits on a six-point Likert-type scale with no midpoint (Levy et al, 1998). Five studies used this instrument (Gutshall, 2013; Özduran & Tanova, 2017; Rattan & Dweck, 2018; Shapcott & Carr, 2019; Wang et al, 2018). Others utilize five-point Likert-type scales ranging from strongly disagree to strongly disagree to provide consistency with scales for other measures in the study (e.g., Caniëls et al, 2018; Cutumisu et al, 2018).…”

“…Our review of the studies demonstrated that growth mindset scales, when modified to contextualize responses to the specific research question (e.g., leadership, golf ability), wording of the items retained fidelity to items validated repeatedly by Dweck and associates (e.g., Chiu et al, 1997; Levy et al, 1998). For example, “no matter how much golf ability women have, they can always change it quite a bit” (Shapcott & Carr, 2019, p. 5) or “everyone is a certain kind of person, and there is not much that they can do to really change that” (Özduran & Tanova, 2017, p. 595) track to “strong forms” of the growth mindset questions such as, “everyone, no matter who they are, can significantly change their basic characteristics” (Chiu et al, 1997, p. 22).…”

“…As a fixed mindset hampers managers’ acknowledgment of employee behavioral change and engagement in employee coaching (Heslin & Vandewalle, 2008), changing employees and managers’ mindsets to a growth mindset is vital for improving work engagement (Caniëls et al, 2018) and employee organizational citizenship behaviors (Özduran & Tanova, 2017). Managers can be accountable for holding consistent feedback sessions as growth mindset oriented coaching feedback boosts employees’ motivation and ability to perform (Shapcott & Carr, 2019). Also, to encourage diversity in the organization, leaders can coach minority and women employees to safely confront negative expressions of prejudice at work and foster a growth mindset environment (Rattan & Dweck, 2018).…”