THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLE AND COACHING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE FOR SELECTED TEAM SPORTS IN UNIVERSITIES OF KURDISTAN

<p>The current paper aims to investigate the relationship between leadership style (LS) and emotional intelligence (EI) of coaches in selected team sports in universities of Kurdistan (Iran). An applied-correlational descriptive-survey method was used. Statistical population included all male and female coaches in sports chosen from volleyball and handball in universities of Kurdistan during the 2014-2015 academic year (n=58). Whole subjects were selected as the sample. Three questionnaires of personality characteristics, Emotional Intelligence (Syber Yashring), and leadership style (L.S.S) were used to collect data. Research reliability was determined with Cronbach's alpha test for intelligence emotional (α =0.824) and leadership style (α=0.718) questionnaires. Data analysis was carried out through Kolmogorov–Smirnoff (K-S) in order to determine normal distribution for data. Moreover, person’s correlation coefficient test was applied to measure research hypothesis. Pearson's result showed that there was relatively positive relationship between leadership style of "positive feedback" and coaching emotional intelligence in selected team sports of Tehran universities (r=0.275, p=0.036). However, there was no significant relationship between other leadership styles and emotional intelligence (p> 0.05). Due to significant relationship between some factors of emotional intelligence and leadership styles, it is recommended to consider emotional intelligence competencies to select team coaches, in addition to alternative coaching skills. Also, training courses before holding sports events may be established to enhance emotional intelligence of coaches, as the emotional intelligence abilities can be educated.