What were the relevant procedure steps in "Leadership competencies: qualitative insight into non-profit sport organisations.International Journal of Public Leadership,"

Leadership competencies

The competency movement began in the late 1960s, particularly in the work of

McClelland (1973). The common definition of competency is defined by Boyatzis (1982, p. 21)

as "an underlying characteristic of an individual that is causally related to effective or

superior performance in a job".

For Tett et al. (2000, p. 215), competency is defined as "an identifiable aspect of

prospective work behaviour, attributable to the individual that is expected to contribute

positively and/or negatively to organisational effectiveness". Hunt (1996, p. 9) defines

competency as "the ability to translate knowledge into action that results in desired

performance". Spencer and Spencer (1993) define competencies as "the combination of

underlying attributes, skills, traits, knowledge and motives of a person which have been

causally related to superior performance in a job". Although many studies have defined

leadership competencies, there is no agreement on a single definition. Different competency

frameworks have been introduced in most areas of leadership literature. However, all these

frameworks describe competencies at a high level of abstraction, and lack of degree of role

and behaviour required for performance. The present study adopts the leading behaviours

and capabilities in the literature (Table I).

The present study adopts Storey's (2016) division of leadership competencies into three

clusters: big picture sense making, leading change, and inter-organisational representation.

This study does not review and discuss all leadership competencies due to the difficulties in

addressing all these competencies separately, as the aim of the present study is to highlight

the predominant leadership competencies in literature within the three clusters.

Meta-competencies

Big picture sense making

This cluster refers to the ability to understand the internal and external environments and

opportunities and move between them (Storey, 2016), which helps leaders gain the respect of

followers by demonstrating their knowledge of the entire organisation. Tube and Schulz (2006)

identified six competencies for understanding the whole in an organisation: demonstrating

knowledge of the entire organisation; using the systems theory; effectively utilising technology;

demonstrating global sensitivity; utilising effective compensation; and demonstrating ethical

practices. As a part of big picture sense making, cognitive competencies can be defined as

"the foundation of the leadership skill requirement. They are comprised of those skills related

to basic cognitive capacities"(Mumford et al., 2007, p. 156). Sun and Hui (2012) discuss the

essential role of critical thinking and creative thinking as a core cognitive competence; they

note that creative and critical thinking as strategic thinking skills help facilitating effective

problem solving and decision making, and learning for positive development. Grint (2005)

discussed decision-making competencies and problem-solving competencies in depth through

his model that addressed three types of problems: tame, wicked, and critical problems.

He suggested three leadership styles, management, leadership, and command that work best

with specific types of problems. This suggests that competencies and meta-competencies

classified under big picture sense making may be influenced by the leadership role. Specifically,

Storey (2016) argued that big picture meta-competencies tend to be attributed only to leaders

rather than managers because leaders focus on the strategic big picture, while managers focus

on detail and procedures.

Leading change

Given the internal and external influences on an individual and organisation, change is

central in this cluster. Undoubtedly, this single study cannot address all competencies or

meta-competencies classified under leading change, but it sheds light on the predominant

meta-competencies (see Table I). Storey (2016) states that change refers to what extent a

leader is able to inspire followers to be active listeners, to invest in training and

development, and to empower others, which are the main characteristics of transformational

leadership. Communication is classified as a part of the leading change cluster. Given

changing work environments, Salacuse (2007) suggests that staff need to be more educated

and intelligent than ever before, and leaders should lead by negotiation. Mumford et al.

(2007) detailed oral communications skills to include speaking, active listening, writing, and

reading comprehension skills, which help to effectively convey information, appropriately

comprehend and question in order to achieve a complete understanding, effectively

communicate audience-specific messages, and understand voluminous and complex written

information. They stated that communication skills are required for a large portion of the

activities in which leaders are engaged. Emotional intelligence competencies also are

categorised under the leading change cluster. According to Boyatzis (1982, 2009, 2011), an

emotional intelligence is an ability to recognise, understand, and use emotional information

about oneself that leads to or causes effective or superior performance. Ashkanasy and

Tse (2000) argue that the reason for selecting and developing the emotional intelligence

competencies of leaders is to enhance their effectiveness in influencing their followers.

In this respect, Yukl (2013) suggests that leadership is a process of social interaction where

leaders attempt to influence their followers'behaviours.

Inter-organisational representation

Leaders with competencies listed within inter-organisational representation are required to

"lead"in a network context. Given the pace and volatility of change in the external

environment surrounding sports organisations, leaders need to understand, lead, shape,

manage, and react to change with higher levels of uncertainty and risk than in the past

(Benington and Hartley, 2009). In this respect, knowledge should be stored horizontally and

vertically across an organisation to achieve the results desired. Undoubtedly, shared

leadership is as an essential need in inter-organisational networks. Because of its influence,

role, and importance, inter-organisational representation is perceived as one of the key current

themes in the leadership debate. Behaviours and capabilities such as social awareness,

empathy, teamwork, building trust, inspiring other, delegating effectively, mentoring and

coaching, serving as an appropriate role model for others, and conflict management become

the premium requirements (e.g. Boyatzis, 1982, 2009; Goleman et al., 2013; Storey, 2016;

Tube and Schulz, 2006) because they reinforce the importance and role of a leadership

transformational bias in organisations.

Leadership competencies in sport

The development of leadership as a capability in non-profit sports organisations, and that

of leadership skills in individuals, requires identifying specific competencies involving

knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes essential for achieving the goals of the sports

organisations. To relate all this to its importance for sport leaders, it is increasingly

evident that sports organisations face issues that require new approaches to strategic

roles. In this process, the complexity of the internal and external environments of most

sports organisations often demands understanding the whole organisation and multiple

levels of leadership expertise. This is supportedbyScott(2014)whoarguesthattheroleof

sport leaders in the twenty-first century is to think, act, and lead subordinates in ways

that turn challenges into opportunities at all levels through a set of competencies

including critical thinking, decision making, problem solving, social skills, and knowledge.

Sport management literature has suggested various and different leadership

competencies. For example, Horch and Schuette (2003) provided a competency

framework that included seven meta-competencies, namely, accounting, financing, law

competencies, facility management competencies, marketing competencies, resource

management competencies, formulating of service offers competencies, sport science, and

information technology. Another framework provided by Barcelona and Ross (2004)

includes four meta-competencies, namely, management techniques, sport programming,

business administration, and theoretical perspectives. Yet, Case and Branch's (2003)

framework includes ten competencies for upper-level sport facility managers, namely,

budgeting, communication, setting priorities, ability to delegate, decision making, goal

setting, problem solving, understanding legal issues, liability and negligence issue, and

personnel evaluation skills; while the competencies for entry-level sport facility managers

included written and oral communication, recognising facility safety hazards, problem

solving, decision making, computer knowledge, time management, and risk management.

While Case and Branch's framework is related to two leadership levels -the highest

and lowest organisational levels -the two other frameworks by Horch and Schuette (2003)

and Barcelona and Ross (2004) could conceivably be applied as a generic framework for

leaders of different sport decision-making positions: team managers, sport and leisure

centres, sports organisations including associations, federations, agencies, unions, and

committees. This implies that some leadership competencies may be used for generic

purposes, whereas others may be used for a specific purpose according to the hierarchical

level (e.g. de Freitas et al., 2016; Ko et al., 2011) despite there are also specific competencies

that can be used for general purposes (Retar et al., 2013).

However, although leadership competencies have been widely investigated by

researchers within the general scope of the journals, the area of sport management still

needs more effort in this regard. This was evident in Parkhouse and Ulrich (1979) who

suggested that "research is recommended to clearly define the parameters for each sport

management occupation"(p. 275). In this vein, the leadership literature presented leadership

competencies in an organised way (see Storey, 2016; Megheirkouni, 2016b), which will be

adopted in the current study. However, the required competencies of leadership are greatly

influenced by an organisation's internal and external environments (Megheirkouni, 2016c).

Implications for leadership competencies

Balogun and Johnson (2004) provided a critique view of the use of leadership competencies.

In this regard, they have used the term "repeating refrains"as a reference for the list of

items, including: fragmenting the management role rather than representing it as an

integrated whole; the generic nature of competencies regardless of the nature of situation,

individuals, or task; focussing only on past and current performance and avoiding future

requirements; developing competencies relies on measurable behaviours rather than

searching for more subtle qualities, interactions, and situational factors; and objective

measures fail to capture the real picture of subjective experience of the leadership, and thus

a mechanistic approach to education often results.

More specifically, different leadership competency frameworks have been analysed by

Balogun and Johnson (2004) who have found that a somewhat limited version of

transformational leadership is being promoted in most frameworks. However, the role of

other frameworks seems to be recognised in only a rather simplistic, unidirectional manner.

Leadership is thus presented as a set of traits, qualities, and behaviours possessed by the

leader that encourage the participation, development, and commitment of others within the

organisation. The authors ultimately conclude that "although the desire to select and

measure people in leadership positions will remain, simply adding more terms to

competency lists will not solve the problem; it will fail to capture the sense-making nature of

such conversations and how meanings emerge and transform over time"(p. 155). Boyatzis

(2008) describes the construction of competencies as often improvised in nature, which

raises the possibility that leadership competencies serve another purpose within the process

of leadership development other than high performance.

Research method

A qualitative interpretive research is adopted to explore the leadership competencies used

and the purpose of their use in non-profit sports organisations in Syrian context.

The research required an understanding of participants'views regarding the leadership

competencies required through their experience. Thus, face-to-face interviews allowed the

researcher to ask about the lived experience of participants in leadership. In this regard,

Conger (1998) states that qualitative method poses the basis for understanding the concept

of leadership competencies in recent decades. Klenke (2016) states "qualitative methods

produce a wealth of detailed data about a small number of people and cases; they provide

depth and detail through direct quotation and careful description of situations, events,

interactions, and observed behaviours. Consequently, qualitative analysis involves the

non-numerical organisation of data in order to discover patterns, themes, forms [...]"(p. 33).

Selecting appropriate individuals for this study was based on specific criteria: first, on their

background and knowledge of the concept of leadership; and second, on their leadership

contributions to their sports organisations at the national and international levels. Data were

collected between January and April 2013 through in-depth interviews with 18 participants who

have different leadership roles: presidents of sports federations (boxing, football, basketball,

swimming, volleyball, gymnastics, and athletics), department managers (general relations in

four sports cities), board members, and Olympic coaches in Syria. The reason for selecting those

interviewees is twofold: their leadership role requires using a set of leadership competencies that

best fit particular leadership positions and responsibilities; and they are best to describe why

and how they need leadership competencies, given their experiences in different leadership roles.

More importantly, the interviewees were representative of a range of sports and roles, given the

awareness of their leadership needs. This was due to their work in several leadership roles in

different sports over their career. In addition, the interviewees were selected based on their

reputations at the national and international levels in sport settings. However, this author

attempted to include more interviewees in the study, but many of those approached declined to

take an active part in the study. For example, three interviewees were abroad, while two did not

have time for interviews. It is worth noting that this author avoided contacting other

interviewees, given their lack of leadership experience and to avoid any gap between those who

have no experience and those who are experienced leaders. This is because the purpose of the

study is not to compare leadership competencies among different leadership roles (experienced

and inexperienced leaders), but rather to identify, explore, and understand the predominant

leadership competencies and the purpose of their use in non-profit sports organisations, using

evidence from leaders who worked in different leadership positions in sport settings to build a

clear picture on the required competencies of sport leadership. The sample consisted of

13 males and 5 females aged between 39 and 56 years.

The study adopted a semi-structured interview protocol with an interview guide in two

parts. The first part used introductory questions to reinforce the relationship between the

researcher and the participants (see e.g. Musselwhite et al., 2006). The second part deployed

the key interview questions to cover the topic of this study. For example, what kind of

leadership behaviours and capabilities are perceived as a vital need for the internal

environment of your organisation? Why? And what are the leadership competencies that

best fit non-profit sports organisations? Why? What are the leadership competencies

required for all leadership positions (presidents of federations, departments'managers,

board members, and Olympic coaches) at non-profit sports organisations? Why?

Additionally, the researcher used cards that included the meta-competencies shown in

Table I to avoid missing any information not included in the interview questions.

The transcribed raw data have been read many times in order to ensure full

understanding of the whole data. It should be further noted that knowledge of the nature of

leadership behaviours and capabilities required for sport leadership positions tends to be

scarce; this has required a thematic interpretational content analysis, acting as the most

appropriate approach to understand and explore the nature of leadership competencies

required for sport leadership positions (Gibbs, 2010; Vaismoradi et al., 2013). This was

followed by the data analysis steps summarised by Gratton and Jones (2010). In this regard,

data reduction was the first step, extracting raw data themes relating to sport leadership

behaviours and capabilities required for sport leadership positions from each interview.

This was followed by identifying quotes that belong to the common themes, and categories

were classified as low-order themes, then all low-order themes were combined and compared

to identify high-order themes. This was followed by comparing all high-order themes to

identify general dimensions (e.g. Gratton and Jones, 2010; Jackson and Baker, 2001). In this

respect, the leadership literature has clearly dominated the data analysis. This manifested

clearly when the appellation of the low-order themes, high-order themes, and general

dimensions correlated with perceptions from the leadership literature to support sport

literature (Corbin and Strauss, 2015; Glaser, 2001; Young and Atkinson, 2012).

Findings

The findings revealed that the predominating sport leadership competencies for different

leadership positions in non-profit sports organisations are four meta-competencies, namely,

understanding the whole, communication, general management relation, and leading

change (Tables II and III).

Understanding the whole

Big picture sense making consisted of two higher-order themes, namely, cognitive

competencies, and innovation and creativity. In cognitive competencies, 16 out of the

18 participants agreed that decision making, problem solving, and critical thinking and

analysis tend to be essential competencies for sport leaders. Additionally, it is noted that

the ability to understand ethical issues and system thinking are required for sport leaders.

The most frequently cited themes in this higher-order theme were the ability to solve

problem and make decisions. One participant noted the following:

Decision-making is essential in the sport world, but if the ability to make decisions is ineffective, it

may affect the entire sport organisation [...]. For me, effective decision-making affects not only the

team score in the match, but the players'performance [...] (N2).

One participant went further and indicated the importance of the knowledge for better

decision making and problem solving that reflects the level of understanding not only in one

organisation, but across other sports organisations. He stated: "Decision-making and

problem solving reflect the real level of our quality, knowledge, and performance in

non-profit sports organisations and with other centres"(N9). In addition, innovation and

creativity was another higher-order theme that included the ability to renew tactics fast,

develop ideas, reframe skills for specific goal, support other creative ideas, avoid traditional

leadership style, follow what is new, or redevelop old plans. The most frequently cited theme

in this higher-order theme was the ability to renew tactics rapidly. In this regard, one

participant stated the following:

Creative managers are those who modify or change the strategies and policies to serve the general

needs. For this federation, the creativity is necessary to manage strategies effectively, such as

internal and external competitions, funding, plans [...] etc, so we pursue new ideas and suggestions

that help us improve our leadership effectiveness [...] (N12).

Another participant linked the importance of innovation to overcome barriers and

challenges. He said, "let's say we need three points in one match and our players are not

playing as usual then tactics and plans are likely to need a quick change to suit this problem,

so innovation is key"(N14).

Communication

Communication as a general dimension includes two higher-order themes, namely, voice and

transformational character. In voice, it is noted that the participants highlight the most

behaviours and capabilities: good body language, active listening, the ability to negotiate

and dialogue, and using oral presentation with voice tone, of which the most frequently cited

were good body language, oral presentation and voice tone. One participant said, The ability

to deliver what you want to the audience effectively relies on the ways a leader switches his

voice tones based on specific texts (N1). Another participant stated:

Communication is essential for influence [...] Successful managers should have the ability to use

good body language with their players because certain vocabularies or idioms may not work with

all players from different cultures and backgrounds [...] (N11).

One participant noted:

A strong personality is linked to the voice. Strong voice is often accompanied with the strong

personality of leaders [...] to influence staff (N8).

Moreover, transformational character was the other higher-order theme that included ignoring

bureaucracy, providing others with opportunities, serving others'needs, solving personal

challenges, attractive personality character, and easy going at work. The most frequently cited

here were ignoring bureaucracy and solving personal challenges. One participant stated, "Ilearnt

from my MBA degree that successful leaders avoid traditional management behaviours. In other

words, democratic leadership behaviour helps leaders in sports organisations to achieve"(N7).

One participant linked the aspects of transformational leadership behaviour and the way of

communication and its implications on performance. She stated the following:

Sport organisations like any other organisations are influenced by leadership behaviours [...].

Leaders must support, empower, trust their employees, lower managers, players [...]. Democratic

leadership behaviour is a very successful technique in the context of a non-profit. As a result, I can

see that informal communication is mainly the leading type between a leader and followers, which

reinforces their performance (N9).

General management relation

General management relation is a general dimension of two higher-order themes: social

emotional intelligence and teamwork. Social emotional intelligence included social

awareness, empathy, power relationship, building trust, and mentoring. The most

frequently cited themes in this higher-order theme were social awareness and building trust.

One manager stated that, "Social awareness is one of the key competencies for a successful

department manager [...]. General management relation is linked to social awareness of

internal and external stakeholders [...] to develop sport family network"(N12). Another

participant suggested that a dyadic relationship is one of the best factors that help to

achieve the results required in some circumstances in an organisation. This is evident when

both the leader and followers, regardless of who they are, work in harmony for the general

benefit. This was evident in the following quote:

A football manager must build trust with all players. For example, empowering players to ignore

some tactics when there is an opportunity to score, the relationship between managers and players

has a positive impact on the general benefits at all levels: coach-player, team, and the club (N4).

Additionally, teamwork was the second higher-order theme that included self-management,

team membership, supporting others, being an active member, and exchanging ideas.

The most frequently cited theme in this higher-order theme was exchanging ideas.

One participant noted that, "Managers with long experience must be active towards other

members [...]. Learning from others in teamwork occurs through professional managers

with long experience, who work with us to apply new tactics"(N2). Similarly, one participant

observed the following:

Exchanging ideas, knowledge, and experiences with other colleagues improves and develops our

effectiveness in teamwork. Different people with different behaviours, experience, and

qualifications use different teamwork skills [...] not all team members exchange ideas or

suggestions with others, others prefer sharing their experience with others, while others not [...]

bear in mind that to build your network you should be flexible, in other words, we should share all

that we know with others. It is a good means to improve teamwork skills (N6).

Change

Change is a general dimension of two higher-order themes, namely, emotional intelligence

and adaption. Emotional intelligence involves self-awareness, self-control, self-learning,

self-management, self-confidence, and self-assessment. The most frequently cited themes in this

higher-order theme were self-awareness and self-confidence. One participant stated, The ability to

change begins with self-awareness [...]. Personally, self-learning and off-job training are very

successful methods for improving my knowledge because training programmes fail to cover all our

needs, and thus I cannot change if I do not improve my knowledge (N1).

Another participant stated the following:

Self-confidence is important for successful changes. Change often needs bravery in the decision

made [...]. Because the quality of change is somehow influenced by the level of self-confidence [...]

and this of course determines the degree to which we can overcome internal and external

organisational needs (N14).

The other higher-order theme was adaption, including the desire to change, avoiding

resistance to change, admitting weaknesses, creating the culture of renewing, managing

change levels and process, and learning from other practices. The most frequently cited

theme in this higher-order theme was avoiding the resistance to change. One participant

stated, "Successful managers are those who accept change"(N3). Another participant linked

the ability to change and the changing environment. She stated that, "You know what works

for you today might not work for you tomorrow and so on. Different behaviours, strategies,

and tactics are for different situations and environments [...]. This makes change essential

in the sport environment"(N1). However, one participant went further and indicated the

negative impact of the resistance to change in an organisation. He attributed this attitude to

the fact that organisations run training and development sessions to make a visible change

and improvement in their managers'capabilities, which is essential for all managers in an

organisation, as the following quote illustrates:

Resistance to change has an impact on manager training and development [...]. Continuous

training and change should be accepted by all managers to meet our environment's needs. Do you

think voluntary organisations are not under pressure? Stakeholders'satisfaction is related to our

capability to change rather than resistance to change, such as improving our strategies or

encouraging our staff to read scientific journals that serve our federation [...]. It does not matter

what their management levels are (N11).

Discussion

The study aims to explore and understand leadership competencies used in non-profit sports

organisations using evidence from federation presidents, department managers, board

members, and Olympic coaches by responding to these research questions: What are the

competencies used by sport leaders in non-profit organisations and why are they adopted?

Barcelona and Ross (2004) argued that sport management professionals working in

different settings often require different competencies. Previous researchers had argued that

sport leaders and managers must develop generic competencies that work in different

contexts ( Jamieson, 1991; Lambrecht, 1987). In this regard, the study's findings revealed a

set of generic leadership meta-competencies in non-profit sports organisations at different

leadership levels: federation presidents, department managers, board members, and coaches

tend to be similar. Although "there is ample evidence of the failure of organisations led and

managed by people who in all likelihood, had developed high levels of leadership generic

competence"(Thompson et al., 1997, p. 58), the study's findings revealed that there were four

meta-competencies, namely, understanding the whole, communication, general management

relation, and change that are perceived as generic meta-competencies for sport managers

and leaders in non-profit sports organisations.

The findings show that these four competencies were not only needed for effective

organisational leadership, but also they work best with different sport leadership positions.

This was supported by the fact that leadership and organisational effectiveness were

interdependent and should be evaluated by the extent to which the goals of the organisation

are achieved (Yukl, 2013). Moreover, the findings reveal that understanding all the

meta-competencies helped understanding the details of the whole of the sports

organisations. Moreover, the full meta-competencies were used for understanding the

sport organisations'details: improving the quality of decision making and problem solving;

improving performance; and encouraging creativity. This result was supported in part by

Hartley (2002) who argued that leaders were fundamental in sense making of the context,

and thus how their defining a situation and framing it for others tends to be the cornerstone

for leadership. Similarly, systematic understanding provides a big picture of leader

awareness through moving "up-and-out"of the system thinking in sports organisations

(Peter et al., 2010; Pedersen et al., 2014).

The findings also revealed that communication was required for individuals who have a

leadership role across different non-profit sports organisations. The findings show that

communication was perceived as a generic meta-competency for sport leaders in non-profit

sports organisations and was used to influence followers. The findings suggest that the type

of communication used in non-profit sports organisations reflects the form of transformational

leadership behaviour adopted in the non-profit sports sector, and thus the voice of leaders had

implications on the communication style used with followers, regardless of who they are.

This was supported by Flauto (1999) who emphasised the strong relationship between

transformational leadership and communication competency for better influence.

According to Hoye et al. (2015, p. 182), it is important to acknowledge that leaders who

are incapable of assisting others to understand the importance of "change"and how it can

be achieved with minimal disruption and maximum outcomes will have a difficult time

surviving in the organisations of the twenty-first century. In this respect, the findings

revealed that change was perceived as an essential need for sport leaders in non-profit

organisations. More specifically, the reason for adopting this competency was to meet the

internal and external needs of a non-profit-sector sport, that has become more competitive,

and the desire of non-profit organisations to adopt the same strategies as the for-profit

sector (e.g. Andreasen and Kotler, 2008; Dolnicar et al., 2008; Goerke, 2003). It is worth noting

that the findings revealed that ability to change occurred as a result of two factors, namely,

emotional intelligence and the ability to adapt, that sport leaders should show in an attempt

to avoid traditional and strict styles, acts, and tactics that do not work in all situations.

Furthermore, the findings reported that relational management was one of the major

meta-competencies required across different leadership positions in non-profit sports

organisations. In line with this, the findings revealed that the reason for adopting and

developing relational management is to develop a long-term network of relationships with

key sports staff, learn from others, and develop relationships with others. The findings

suggest that sport leaders in the non-profit sector should possess general relational skills to

extend their general awareness of colleagues, staff, employees, players, and others.

Particularly, the non-profit sport sector includes young and professional leaders, and thus

learning from others occurs when a leader has the ability to reduce the gap with others; this,

in turn, has positive implications for learning and development.

Comprehensive reviews of leadership competencies have been provided by various

researchers in different academic disciplines. The leadership competencies in the area of

sport management have been also derived from the extant research informed especially by

reviews and meta-analyses (e.g. Barcelona and Ross, 2004; Case and Branch, 2003;

Horch and Schuette, 2003; Tait et al., 1993). According to these reviews and meta-analyses,

leadership competencies that have been implemented in the sport management literature

included communication, relation management, and change. The findings of the present

study support previous reviews and meta-analyses of leadership competencies in the area of

sport management and confirmed that communication, relation management, and change

tend to be generic and meta-competencies. However, this study also found that

understanding the whole was a generic meta-competency across different leadership

positions in non-profit sports organisations. This is because understanding the whole

enables sport leaders in non-profit sports organisations to know everything about their

organization, and this has positive implications for the performance and the quality of

services offered by the organisation.

Implications and conclusion

The present study, based on the findings, suggests that non-profit sports organisations

overcome their internal and external environments through adopting or developing specific

leadership competencies that enable their leaders, regardless of the role or level, to complete

the role required effectively. In line with this, the findings of the study indicate that four

groups of competencies tend to be generic competencies in non-profit sports organisations,

namely, understanding the whole, communication, general management relation, and

change. The purpose of adopting and developing these leadership competencies in

non-profit sports organisations is to meet not only the internal needs, but also to overcome

the challenges surrounding non-profit-sector sports. More specifically, it was found that

understanding the whole is best used for improving the quality of decision making and

problem solving, improving performance, sport organisational knowledge, and encouraging

creativity. The purpose of adopting and developing communication was to influence

followers and other stakeholders, while the purpose of developing the ability to change was

to meet internal and external organisational needs. The final competency was relation

management that was used for developing a long-term network of relationships with key

sports staff, learning from others, and developing relationships with other stakeholders.

The study results have further implications for practitioners and researchers. First, the

study findings reinforce the importance of leadership competencies in non-profit sports

organisations. Second, the research findings highlight the importance of four groups of

competencies, namely, understanding the whole, communication, general management

relation, and change that are needed in non-profit sports organisations in the Syrian context.

Previous research by Megheirkouni (2016b) explored leadership competencies in the

for-profit sector in the Syrian context. According to that study, strategic thinking,

business skills, communication, understanding the whole, ability to change, teamwork,

self-awareness, decision making/problem solving, and adaptability best fit the for-profit

sector in the Syrian context. Consequently, it may be stated that the type of leadership

competencies in non-profit sports organisations tends to be similar to its counterparts in the

for-profit sector in the Syrian context. Leaders will be able to compare the purpose of

adopting or developing specific leadership competencies in different settings, and thus

non-profit sports organisations will also benefit from implementing leadership competencies

not only to facilitate tasks and roles, but to overcome internal and external challenges in

non-profit sports organisations. Moreover, future research should pursue the exploration of

the leadership competencies used in non-profit sports organisations across cultures in order

to more fully understand the purpose of developing or adopting leadership competencies.

The overall picture of the scene, based on the findings, may also suggest that designing

sport leadership development programmes for developing leadership competencies in

non-profit sports organisations brings an opportunity to have a fit-all approach not only

across leadership positions, but across different sports settings. Furthermore, encouraging a

generic leadership competency model helps reduce the gap between leadership development

initiatives across sport sectors, namely, non-profit, for-profit and public sector, and

across different cultures because previous research revealed that leadership development

practices tend to be convergent across all contexts, but the application of the leadership

practices seems to differ from one organisation or culture to another (e.g. Mabey and

Finch-Lee, 2007). It is worth noting that the sports sector in Syria is not different from its

counterparts in the Arab region, given the similarity in most aspects of life such as culture

and habits in sport, the way of thinking, language, the role of religion in sport, human

resources in sport, sport laws and regulations, the role of politics in sport, etc. Although

there is potential for generalising the findings of this study (understanding the whole,

communication, general management relation, and change) to other Arab sports

organisations, the purpose of using these competencies may differ from one country to

another. This is likely to be attributed to three main reasons: the reaction to internal or

external environment is widely affected by the governments'assessment of priorities; the

gap between experienced leaders and inexperienced leaders; and the pressure of the public

on performance.

Limitation

The implications of this study need to be tempered by an understanding of its limitations.

In this regard, as this study adopts qualitative data research, it limits the generalisation of

the findings. In addition, future research needs to test the findings of this study on a larger

population in other sectors or contexts. Most articles that address the leadership

competencies in the area of sport management have relied on a quantitative research

design, which reduces the opportunity to compare the findings of the present study with

quantitative studies on leadership competencies in the non-profit sport sector.

An interesting avenue for further research is to study how leadership competencies in

the non-profit sport sector are implemented because this helps to understand the nature of

the leadership development programmes required in non-profit sports organisations.

Further research might also focus on how these competencies are developed in different

leadership positions at for-profit and public sports organisations to determine the divergent

and convergent aspects among the three sectors in terms of sport leadership competencies.

Another limitation is that the current study explored only the nature of leadership

competencies adopted and the purpose of their use, but the present study ignored how

these leadership competencies are developed in non-profit sports organisations and whether

there are specific leadership development programmes that work better to deliver these

competencies. For example, in Megheirkouni (2016a), the author argues that although

leadership development programmes can be used for specific purposes, each programme

can be used for different purposes based on each organisation's needs. The reason is

likely to be because of the difference in terms of how an organisation reacts to its

surrounding environment. This encourages future research to explore what the leadership

development methods and activities are for developing leadership competencies in

non-profit sports organisations.

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Author: Majd Megheirkouni

Reference: Megheirkouni, M. (2017). Leadership competencies: qualitative insight into non-profit sport organisations.International Journal of Public Leadership,13(3), 166-181. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpl-11-2016-0047

Webpage: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Majd-Megheirkouni/publication/320721179_Leadership_competencies_qualitative_insight_into_non-profit_sport_organisations/links/5a54c7510f7e9b205de5388c/Leadership-competencies-qualitative-insight-into-non-profit-sport-organisations.pdf