Coaches’ perception of their own leadership behavior and the congruence with education and personality

A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used to investigate the relationship between educational levels and perceived actual leadership behavior while deliberating the effect of personality. The participants (n = 61) were female and male Swedish amateur and elite tennis coaches. Two instruments were used: the Leadership Scale for Sport, and the Big Five Inventory. 16 items were constructed specially for this study to assess demographic and background. It was hypothesized that personality as measured by the Big Five Inventory would influence leadership behavior as measured by the Leadership Scale for Sport to a lesser degree than educational level. A correlation was hypothesized between extraversion/agreeableness and democratic behavior, social support, and positive feedback. Tendencies advocate personality, rather than education, as the prominent determinant of perceived behavior. Extraversion correlated statistically significant with social support (r = .28) and with positive feedback (r = .27). These and additional results are discussed in relation to the theoretical frameworks, and previous research