| During the past 30 years, the discipline of Leadership Studies has pervaded several academic domains including business management. Recently, leadership theory has been applied to sports management. The current study sought to inform this line of inquiry and was based on Chelladurai (1979), multidimensional model of leadership. The purpose of the study was to examine the perception of leadership behaviors on the satisfaction of college tennis players in the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).;Participants were 25 male tennis players and 36 female tennis players selected from the SSAC institutions. Participants filled out a demographic questionnaire, general satisfaction and specific satisfaction forms single item and five items statements respectively, the preferred and perceived versions of the Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS) for the following subscales: training and instructions, democratic behavior, autocratic behavior, social support, and positive feedback.;Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the collected data. Inferential statistics were used to determine the relationships among the variables on the research hypotheses in the study. For each hypothesis there were sub-hypotheses for the subscales. Correlation analysis procedure was employed for the association between perceived leader behaviors and satisfaction. The results of the correlations indicated direct significant linear relationships between perceived leader behaviors and specific satisfaction for three of the five subscales of: (a) PERTI, (b) PERAB, and (c) PERPF. PERTI and PERPF behaviors were significantly correlated with TOTSS. PERAB was inversely related to TOTSS with leadership. An independent t-test was used for difference between perceived leadership behaviors of coaches based on gender of players. The results of the independent t-test indicated significant difference between perceived leadership behaviors of coaches based on the gender of players in three of the five subscales of: (a) PERTI, (b) PERDB, and (c) PERAB. A paired sample t-test was used to compare difference between players' preferred and perceived coach leadership behaviors. The results of the paired sample t-test indicated a significant difference between players preferred and perceived coach leadership behaviors in four of the five subscales of: (a) PREFTI-PERTI, (b) PREFDB-PERDB, (c) PREFSS-PERSS, and (d) PREFPF-PERPF. Correlation analysis was used for the association between discrepancy and satisfaction. The results of the correlations indicated significant inverse relationships between discrepancy and specific satisfaction with leadership in four of the five subscales of: (a) TIABDIS, (b) DBABDIS, (c) SSABDIS, and (d) PFABDIS. Overall, the results provided support for hypotheses one, two, three, and four. The significant implications from these findings were discussed as well as recommendations for future research. |
