Social Identity Leadership Style and Perceived Coaching Competency

The aims of the study were to test the validity of two measures of team social identity against a measure of the athletes‟ perceptions of their coach‟s competency. A sample of 396 (age 18-35) athletes completed, the Coach Social Identity Scale (CSIS), the Team Social Identification Scale (TSIS), and, the Athlete‟s Perceptions of Coaching Competency Scale II (APCCS II). Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the single factor ten item CSIS and TSIS attained good fit. Both the CSIS and the TSIS correlated positively and significantly with the dimensions of motivation, game strategy, technique, physical conditioning and character building and with the overall rating of competence of the coach. Overall the results support the CSIS and TSIS as reliable and valid measures, and show that they can be applied in team sports as a measure of SIT.