| The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between leadership styles of post-secondary chief academic officers and past organized sports participation. The dependent variable was the leadership style employed by college leaders. Personal characteristics were divided into background information and included such independent variables as age, gender, sport(s) participation, extent of sport participation, and specific sports played.;The instrument used in this study was comprised of three sections: the three question sports survey, the Multifactor College Leadership Questionnaire III (MCLQ-III), and the demographic section. Data were collected by means of a computerized scan questionnaire containing a total of 44 questions. The surveys were mailed to the respondents in one mailing using the American Association of Community Colleges directory.;Multiple regression was used to answer the five research questions asking the relationship between the people, motivational, influence, intuitive, and ethical leadership styles to age, gender, sports participation, extent of sports participation, and specific sports played of chief academic officers. The study findings indicated that there were significant differences between leadership styles of the respondents, the extent of sport participation, and the number of years playing sports. The longer the respondents played sports as well as the more sports the respondents played, the higher they scored in each of the five leadership style clusters. Results indicated no significant differences between the leadership styles of sport participants and non-sport participants except in the area of motivation. The motivational leadership style increased if the respondents played a sport. There were no significant differences between the specific sports played and the leadership styles of the respondents except in the sport of baseball. Baseball players scored higher in the people, influence, and ethical leadership styles. Results indicated gender as being significant in the motivational and intuitive leadership styles with females scoring higher than males. Age was highly significant in the ethical, influence, and intuitive leadership styles since the respondent's styles significantly increased as age increased. |
