Open Access

Leadership tendencies of orienteering athletes

1 Mersin University, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Mersin, Turkiye

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the leadership orientations of orienteering runners and sports science students on the basis of a number of parameters. Orienteering is a sport that requires athletes to develop both physical and mental skills, and the leadership tendencies of these athletes may have unique characteristics compared to other student athletes. The unique value of this study is to uncover the differences in leadership orientations between these two groups. Using the Leadership Orientations Scale, statistical analyses were conducted with t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and LSD tests. The results showed that there were significant differences between the genders on the leadership sub-dimensions; males scored higher than females. The leadership scores of orienteers were significantly higher than the scores of students in the Faculty of Sports Science (p<0.05). Students who actively participated in competitions had higher scores in humanistic and transformational leadership (p<0.001), but there was no significant difference in structural and charismatic leadership (p>0.05). Significant differences were found in all leadership dimensions depending on the age of the athletes (p<0.05 and p<0.001). The ratings by gender showed that the values for structural leadership and people-oriented leadership were significantly higher for men than for women. It was found that the orientation athletes scored significantly higher in the areas of transformational leadership and charismatic leadership than the students in the Faculty of Sports Science. Examining the differences between the leadership orientations of athletes in different sports can make leadership training programs more targeted and effective.

Keywords

How to Cite

Keyf, E. (2024). Leadership tendencies of orienteering athletes . Journal of ROL Sport Sciences, 5(2), 339–352. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12600395

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