Title: “Effects of Varying Leadership styles on Motivation”
Supervisor: Dr. Maria Gallo
Second Reader: Barry Legh
Abstract: The goal of this paper is to analyse leadership styles and investigate how these styles
influence motivation in sport. In order to examine the relationship between motivation and
leadership style this paper will review two major constructs, self-determinacy theory and self-efficacy
theory. Self-determinacy theory, consisting of perceived competence, autonomy and
relatedness, will act as a bridge between the gap in leadership and motivation. It is fair to say
that researchers have not been aware of all the intricacies involved when analyzing leadership in
sport, therefore, this paper will analyze this relationship as well as outline directions for further
research. Self-efficacy is the level of belief and confidence that an athlete has in order to execute a
specific task successfully. It will be explored in more depth to explain how athletes gain
confidence and how this confidence, in turn, is used when playing a sport to promote motivation
and enhance performance. These two ideas will give the reader a clear understanding of
leadership in a high-level team-oriented setting and illustrate the complexity of leadership in this
environment.