Data_Sheet_1_Unpicking the Emperor’s New Clothes: Perceived Attributes of the Captain in Sports Teams.docx

Much importance has been assigned to the role of the team captain. In this article, we test whether today’s team captains live up to these high expectations. Furthermore, we provide greater insight into the selection procedures leading to a captain’s appointment and assess how this process impacts upon the captain’s perceived leadership qualities. Adopting a mixed methods design, a total of 398 participants (226 players and 172 coaches) listed the attributes of both their current team captain and their ideal captain. Altogether, participants listed 635 attributes for their current team captain and 919 attributes for their ideal team captain. Both inductive and deductive approaches were used to analyze these qualitative data. Furthermore, quantitative data were obtained on the perceived influencers in the captain’s selection process. The results indicated that, although players and coaches expect their team captains to have good motivational and social leadership skills, the selection process is often underpinned by non-leadership factors, such as experience, sport-specific competence, or irrelevant attributes, such as being the daughter of the club president. This discrepancy held for both coaches’ and players’ perspectives, for male and female teams, across sports, and across competition levels. Although coaches were identified as main influencers in the selection process, giving players the deciding vote did not result in captains with better perceived leadership skills. The significant gap between participants’ expectations of the captain and reality highlights the need for implementing a structure of shared leadership. Furthermore, evidence-based leadership development programs are needed to maximize the team’s leadership potential.

球队队长的角色定位已得到学界与实务界的高度重视。本文首先检验当前的球队队长是否达到了上述高标准期待。此外，本文将进一步剖析队长任命的选拔流程，并评估该流程对队长感知领导力特质（perceived leadership qualities）的影响。本研究采用混合研究设计（mixed methods design），共招募398名受访者（226名运动员与172名教练员），要求其分别列举现任球队队长与理想球队队长应具备的特质。受访者共计列出现任队长相关特质635项、理想队长相关特质919项。本研究同时采用归纳法（inductive approaches）与演绎法（deductive approaches）对上述质性数据（qualitative data）进行分析。此外，本研究还收集了关于队长选拔流程中感知影响因素的量化数据（quantitative data）。研究结果显示：尽管运动员与教练员均期望球队队长具备出色的激励与社交领导能力，但队长选拔流程往往依托非领导特质因素，例如参赛经验、专项竞技能力，或是诸如“俱乐部主席之女”这类无关特质。这一期望与现实的偏差，在教练员与运动员视角、男女运动队、各运动项目以及不同竞技层级中均普遍存在。尽管教练员被视为选拔流程的主要影响者，但赋予运动员最终决定权，并未使队长具备更优异的感知领导能力。受访者对队长的期待与现实之间存在显著差距，这凸显了构建共享领导模式的必要性。此外，还需建立循证（evidence-based）的领导力培养体系，以最大化团队的领导潜能。