What Happens Now? Coaching and Leading Following a Student-Athlete Death - A Phenomenological Study

Author

Peter McGahey, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Abstract

College students die and sometimes these students are student-athletes. This transcendental phenomenological study described and explored the lived leadership experiences, related to the components of Transformational Leadership, of NCAA sports team coaches who led their team following an unexpected death of a student-athlete. No research to date had focused on this leadership phenomenon. Five NCAA sport team head coaches participated in semi-structured interviews to learn more about their coaching leadership experiences during this time of crisis. The study participants shared their intensely emotional and personal leadership experiences of leading and coaching their teams during a time of crisis. There were four main emergent themes with several sub-themes. These were Emotion, Leadership Challenges, Growth as a Leader and University Response and Reaction. Several sub-themes were found to support Bass and Riggio's (2006) four components of the Transformational Leadership theory of Idealized Influence, Individual Consideration, Inspirational Motivation and Intellectual Stimulation. Beyond emergent themes, utilizing Coliazzi's method (1978) of phenomenological analysis, the essence of experience of this coaching leadership phenomenon was created. This study confirmed Bass and Riggio's (2006) components of Transformational Leadership theory as a valid framework to examine both crisis leadership and coaching leadership behaviors in sports. This study increased understanding of the phenomenon of sport team coaches leading their teams following the unexpected death of a student-athlete, while providing insights and strategies for coaches and athlete administrators to utilize in the future.

Advisor

Julie Carlson

Committee Member

Kevin Love

Committee Member

Ray Allen

Date of Degree

2018

Language

english

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

College

Education

Recommended Citation

McGahey, Peter. (2018). What Happens Now? Coaching and Leading Following a Student-Athlete Death - A Phenomenological Study [Doctoral dissertation, Minnesota State University, Mankato]. Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/795/

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License