Predominant leadership styles of intercollegiate head football coaches as perceived by themselves and their subordinates and as related to age and experience of the head coaches, divisional status of colleges, and win/loss record

The purpose of this study was twofold. The first purpose was to examine the relationship between the head coach's self-perception of leadership behavior and his assistant coaches' perception of his leadership behavior. The second purpose was to examine the relationship between age and experience of the head football coaches, winning and losing records of the head football coaches, and divisional status of the institutions, as related to the self-perception and perceived leadership behavior of the head intercollegiate football coaches.;The Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire XII was used to determine the perceived leadership behavior of the head football coaches as viewed by their assistants. The Ideal Leader Behavior Questionnaire was used to determine self-perceived leadership behavior information on the head football coaches. Biographical data sheets were distributed along with the LBDQs and ILBQs to gain information on age, experience, divisional status, and win/loss records of the intercollegiate coaches involved.;Head intercollegiate football coaches filled out the ILBQs while their assistant coaches filled out the LBDQs. A total of 135 head college coaches returned usable instruments, representing 48% return rate. A total of 373 assistant coaches returned instruments, representing a 33% return rate.;To determine differences in the perceived and self-perceived leadership behavior of intercollegiate head football coaches, simple independent group t-tests were performed. The Pearson Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation was used to examine the relationships of Structure and Consideration with the independent variables of interest.;It was found in this study that head coaches perceived themselves to be more autocratic in their leadership behavior than did their assistant coaches. The results also indicated that none of the variables of age, experience, and win/loss record have a relationship with whether a head coach is perceived or perceives himself as a task-oriented leader or a democratic leader.