LEADERSHIP POWER PERCEPTION OF AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL SOCCER COACHES ACCORDING TO THEIR MARITAL STATUS

The purpose of this study was to analyse the leadership power perception of amateur and professional soccer coaches according to their marital status. Data were collected from 165 male soccer coaches (n=71 technical director-manager and A license, n=46 B license, n=48 amateur license). An adapted Turkish version of Power in Soccer Questionnaire-Self (PSQ-S for coaches) and an information form were used for the data collection [21]. Cronbach reliability alphas of PSQ-S range between 0.65 and 0.84. Coaches’ data were analysed by Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests. Kruskal-Wallis analysis of PSQ-S revealed significant differences between leadership power perception of amateur and professional soccer coaches according to their marital status related to Referent Power (RP) [χ[sup]2[/sup] (3) = 9.61, p<0.022] and Expert Power (EP) [χ[sup]2[/sup] (3) = 16.52, p<0.001], and no significant differences related to Coercive Power (CP) or Legitimate Power (LP) (p>0.05). The results indicated that married coaches have higher perception of RP than single coaches, irrespective of being an amateur or a professional. Comparison of professional and amateur coaches suggests that while single professional coaches have higher perception of EP than married professional coaches, the results are the reverse for amateur coaches; in other words, amateur married coaches have higher perception of EP than amateur single coaches. There is a lack of research to draw more certain conclusions. Future researchers should also take into consideration personality, psychological skills, sport experience, age, taking responsibility, attributions, expectations, emotions, perception of achievement, etc.