Understanding the Perceived Sport-experiences of Athletes and Officials on the Leadership Skills Development through Sport

Abstract

The on-going research is being done to understand the existing sport-experiences of players and officials about the expansion of leadership abilities via sport. This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on n=472 (394 players; 78 officials) participated in the Inter-Regional u-23 Games, 2018 organized by the Directorate General of Sport, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A valid and reliable questionnaire was used for the collection of required data. The software package SPSS-24 was used to evaluate the collected data sets. Sports engagement has been found to play an important role in the expansion of leadership skills (p<.05) and the interrelationship between participation in sport and augmentation of leadership skills (.471 ** at 0.01). The inferential analysis revealed no significant difference between male and female players and coaches on the role of sport in the development of leadership skills (p > .05). However, significant differences were measured concerning the role of sport in developing important skills of leadership based on the respondents’ sport experiences (p < .05). These findings can be attributed to the promotion of the sport proponents who argue that participation in sport is considered as an important tool that helps in developing important leadership skills among youth.