Exploring Vision and Visionary Leadership in Head Coaches of Canadian University Large Team Sports Matthew Milligan, B.B.A., B.S.M (Honours) Master of Arts in Applied Health Sciences Sport Management Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Applied Health Sciences Sport Management Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, Brock University St. Catharines, Ontario © 2021 ii ABSTRACT The concept of vision has been identified as a key contributor to effective leadership (cf. Donoso-Morales et al., 2017), where vision is related to both change and empowering organizational members to collaborate toward achieving goals (Sashkin, 1988). Scholars (cf. Collins & Porras, 1996) noted that regardless of the leader’s abilities and the quality of vision, the vision is meaningless unless the leader develops a ‘plan’ that includes actionable and measurable processes and an effective communication strategy. Large team sports (i.e., football, rugby) employ large roster sizes and demand from both athletes and coaches a unique and high level of specialization. As team leader, the head coach is responsible for leading all team members towards achieving a common goal. The purpose of this study was to explore if and how Canadian university large team sport head coaches conceive, develop and enact their vision to achieve their desired goals. To fulfill the study’s purpose, a pragmatic qualitative research design was used to study large team sport head coaches. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, which were thematically analyzed (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to elicit themes most useful in answering the research questions. From the analysis, the coaches’ plans to enact their vision were found to be focused on student-athletes’ holistic development. Coaches were found to use communication and role-modeling strategies to enact their respective visions for their teams. These findings suggest that large team sport head coaches have an opportunity to concurrently impact their student-athletes’ lives beyond the on-field sport experience while fielding competitive teams. Key Words: Leadership, Coaching, Vision, Visionary, Student-athlete iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Maman, Merci de m’avoir donner la vie, ton amour, l’amour pour l’éducation et mon sense de leadership. Tu m’as toujours inspirer pour être la meilleure personne que je peux être. Sans toi, ma maîtrise n’aurais jaimais été possible. Je t’aime. Dad, Thank you for your unwavering support and endless contributions over the past years. Without the help and love that you provided me, none of what I accomplished would have been possible. Love you. Thank you to my amazing family and friends, who made the entire grad school process fun and worthwhile. Although I came to Brock to study, I stayed and thrived because of you all. The journey would mean nothing without the memories we created together. Maddie P, Jackson W, Erin L, Gord W, Nyc B, Megan M, Liam M, Talia R, Fifi M, Adam P, Paul M, Ryan F, Kim E, Patrick & Irene & Sam, Josiane & Jamie & Kamila & Max, Kev D, Jared W, Ayla D, David S, Jon C, Emily W, Chelsea J. Thank you to my incredible teachers and mentors that supported me throughout my time at Brock. Your contributions to my life have kept me accountable and inspired to continue to work and achieve my potential. Kirsty S, Chris C, Shannon K, Craig H, Mike N, MVB, Olan S, Nick B, Brian H, Ryan C, Dawn T, Rachel C. Thank you, Brock University for the lessons, experiences and opportunities that have contributed to my life and this thesis project. Thank you to the coaches who agreed to participate in my study and who generously shared their knowledge, experiences and opinions on vision and leadership in Canadian university large team sport head coaches. Thank you to my amazing committee members for providing me with your ideas and guidance, and for giving me confidence as a student and as a researcher. Shannon K, Chris C, Chantal V. Thank you, Kirsty. Thank you for believing in me, supporting me and pushing me to complete this research study. I will never forget the moment we bonded over Landmark and the countless hours of conversations and work over the last few years. I will forever cherish the relationship we’ve built, and the amazing impact you have left in my life. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1 Purpose of the study .................................................................................................. 6 Theoretical and Managerial Justification .................................................................. 9 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................... 12 The concept of vision .............................................................................................. 12 The concept of visionary leadership ....................................................................... 15 Literature on effective sport coaching .................................................................... 22 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY .............................................................................. 27 Qualitative research design ..................................................................................... 27 Research context of Canadian universities ............................................................. 33 Data collection and analyses strategies ................................................................... 36 Data trustworthiness elements ................................................................................ 51 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS ............................................................................................ 53 Coach pseudonyms and profiles ............................................................................. 53 Visions of Canadian university large team sport head coaches .............................. 55 RQ1: Elements comprising visions of a Canadian university large team sport head coach .................................................................................... 66 RQ2: Actionable processes employed by Canadian university large team sport head coaches................................................................................. 75 RQ3: Alignment between beliefs, behaviours and vision ....................................... 85 CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION ........................................................................................ 95 Vision and visionary leadership .............................................................................. 95 Pragmatic value of the research findings ................................................................ 99 Notable connections to literature .......................................................................... 112 v CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION .................................................................................. 130 Delimitations and limitations ................................................................................ 132 Recommendations for future research .................................................................. 134 Pragmatic contribution of the research study........................................................ 136 Moving forward .................................................................................................... 138 References ...................................................................................................................... 139 Appendix A: Participant letter of invitation .................................................................. 151 Appendix B: Participant letter of informed consent ...................................................... 152 Appendix C: Semi-structured inverview guide ............................................................. 155 Appendix D: General football team coaching structure ................................................ 159 Appendix E: Examples of books that inspired the coaches visions .............................. 160 Appendix F: General probing questions to elicit conversations about vision ............... 162 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1 – Coach pseudonyms, years of experience and overall winning percentage ...... 54 Table 2 – Coaches with a clearly articulated vision and vision statement ....................... 55 Table 3 – Coaches that articulated the essence of their vision ......................................... 57 Table 4 – Coaches with an unclear sense of vision .......................................................... 59 Table 5 – Emerging rhemes relating from RQ1 ............................................................... 67 Table 6 – Emerging rhemes relating from RQ2 ............................................................... 76 Table 7 – Emerging rhemes relating from RQ3 ............................................................... 86 Table 8 – Examples of books that inspired the coaches’ visions ................................... 160 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Leadership is the process of “influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives” (Yukl, 2013, p. 7). Many believe the most relevant indicators of leadership effectiveness include the extent to which organizational performance is enhanced and organizational goals are reached (Bass, 2008; Kaiser et al., 2008; Yukl, 2013), as well as the extent