Abstract
In today’s fast-paced and dynamic environment, a shift is required from vertical leadership to a shared leadership approach that can harness the collective intelligence and capabilities of a team. Shared leadership plays a vital role in facilitating favourable team outcomes such as team performance and problem-solving behaviours. However, there is currently limited information available that can help coaches understand how to facilitate and sustain the development of shared leadership in their teams. The purpose of the study is to explore the conditions required to foster shared leadership amongst high school sports coaches who specialise in male sports in a South African context.
A qualitative descriptive phenomenology research strategy was conducted. The researcher used a purposive, non-probability sampling approach to obtain a sample size of seven male high school sport coaches and seven corresponding male team members that met the study’s inclusion criteria. Primary data was collected through online semi-structured interviews with the high school sport coaches, as well as narrative inquiries of team members through an online survey. The data was supported with a review of the existing literature around the principles, barriers, and central concepts of shared leadership. The transcribed semi-structured interviews of the sport coaches were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six phase Thematic Analysis, and the online survey’s narrative responses were analysed for similar themes per question.
The main findings of this study indicated that most of the coaches already adopted a shared leadership approach in their sports teams. The natural strengths and weaknesses of the team members was a major influence on coaches allocating leadership roles and responsibilities to them, while significant challenges regarding the external influences from school sporting dynamics and diversity were highlighted. Eight primary conditions were identified to foster shared leadership including a safe environment, management of external interferences, diversity intelligence, team relationship, team purpose, team roles, team voice and trust. These conditions are packaged and presented in a conceptual framework to aid and provide sports coaches who specialise in male team sports with the necessary principles to foster shared leadership.