INFLUENCE OF DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ATHLETES GROUPS OF AGES ON THE DIFFERENT PREFERRED LEADERSHIP STYLES OF COACHES IN SPORTS COUNCIL IN KOGI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examines the influence of different age’s demographics characteristics of athletes groups on preferred leadership styles of coaches in sports councils in Kogi state Nigeria. The population of this study consisted of athletics groups from sports councils in Kogi state of about 850 subjects and a total of 175 respondents were selected at random from sports council in the state .The instrument used for the study was a self-developed and validated questionnaire which contained (60) items and pilot tested with reliability coefficient with scores obtained as .79. One null hypothesis was formulated to guide the study while one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc least significant differences was used in testing the hypothesis and the level of the significance differences in the leadership styles. The outcome of the study revealed that there was no significant difference between the athletes of different age groups in preference of transactional and lesser faire leadership styles. As a way forward it is therefore, recommended that coaches should adopt transformational leadership styles in their approach to coaching if they want improvement in their athletes sports performance.