A STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STRUCTURE OF ATHLETIC CLUB AND MORALE

The main purpose of this study is to examine (a) the relationship between club's morale and age level, their status as athletes, (b) the relation between club's morale and the structure characterized by the competence of norm decision, and (c) the relationship among the morale, the competence-structure pattern, the recognition of importance of the group goal, and the recognition of possibility of the goal attainment, in order to explore some concrete ways leading the club members to high morale conditions. The subjects were 251 college students derived from 17 athletic clubs and 402 high-school students from 30 clubs. All statements in a competence-structure survey and a morale survey were rated by the use of five-point scales. These survey were previously constructed by the present writer to measure the importance of group goal and the possibility of goal attainment. The results were summarized as follows: A 3 (pattern)×4 (age level) analysis of variance was performed for the college data, which showed a significant interaction of pattern by age level, and no significant main effect. This interaction was based on the fact that (a) the morale score of senior students was higher than the scores of the other students for the oligarchy pattern, and (b) the opposite was true for the outsider control pattern. Together with the college and high-school samples, high morale scores were obtained by the club members who recognized very intensively the importance of group goal and the possibility of goal attainment