The male and female head coaches' perceptions of the role of women's athletic director at selected Midwestern universities

The purpose of the study was to investigate the extent to which a relationship existed between the set of predictor variables including age, sex of the athletic director, years of experience as athletic director at the institution and the highest terminal degree held and the male and female head coaches' perceptions of the role of athletic director. The role of athletic director was defined in terms of the dimensions of Initiating Structure and Consideration as determined by the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire - Form XII (LBDQ).Hypotheses were developed to determine if relationships existed between: (1) the set of predictor variables and the dimensions of Initiating Structure and Consideration as perceived by female head coaches; and (2) the set of predictor variables and the dimensions of Initiating Structure and Consideration as perceived by male head coaches. Hypotheses were also developed to determine the significance of increase which the addition of the sex designation of the athletic director has on the dimensions of Initiating Structure and Consideration as perceived by male and female head coaches,The population of the study consisted of athletic directors and 101 male and female head coaches from 34 women athletic departments from selected midwestern states. The universities selected were from those listed in the 1979-80 AIAW National Directory as having an enrollment of 1000 or more students.Athletic director data were obtained through the use of the Athletic Director Information Sheet (ADIS) which provided a list of male and female head coaches and demographic data. Head coaches completed the LBDQ. Scores for the dimensions of Initiating Structure and Consideration as determined by the male and female head coaches' responses to the LBDQ and demographic data as determined by ADIS responses were analyzed by multiple regression analysis to determine whether or not relationships significant at the .05 level existed between the set of predictor variables of the athletic director and the Initiating Structure and Consideration scores from the male and female head coaches.Findings1. The set of predictor variables including age, years of experience as athletic director at the institution, terminal degree held, and sex designation of the athletic director were found to be significantly related to the scores of female head coaches on the Initiating Structure dimension.2. There was no significant relationship between the set of predictor scores and the scores of the female head coaches on the Consideration dimension.3. No significant relationship existed between the set of predictor variables and the scores from the male head coaches on either the Initiating Structure or the Consideration dimension.4. The addition of the sex designation of the athletic direction provided no significant increase in the proportion of explained variance in predicting either male or female head coaches' perceptions on the Initiating Structure and Consideration dimensions from the set of predictor variables.Conclusions1. Female head coaches perceived athletic directors as exhibiting more of the characteristics of Initiating Structure which are associated with the formal or structural aspects of the organization.2. The age, sex, number of years as athletic director at the institution and the degree held did not produce a significant relationship when associated with the Initiating Structure and Consideration dimensions as perceived by the male head coaches.3. The sex of the athletic director did not significantly affect the relationship that existed between the athletic director and the male and female head coaches. 4. The Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire - Form XII provides one method of examining head coaches' perceptions of leader behavior of athletic directors on the dimensions of initiating Structure and Consideration.Thesis (D. Ed.