The relationship between athlete leadership and communication: Analyzing social networks within Japanese sport teams

Despite the recent advancement of athlete leadership studies, little is known about their applicability in East Asian countries such as Japan, and more importantly, their relationship to communication among team members. We therefore examined the relationship between athlete leadership and communication in Japanese sport teams. The data were collected from the athletes (N = 63; three sport teams: basketball, lacrosse, and soccer) at the women's university in Japan. We then analyzed the data utilizing the social network analysis and the quadratic assignment procedure correlation technique. The results suggested a moderate correlation between each type of athlete leadership (i.e., task, motivational, and social leadership) across the three teams. Moderate correlations were also found between each of athlete leadership quality and the amount of communication. In conclusion, the current study demonstrated that athlete leadership qualities were applicable to the Japanese context and empirically clarified the relationship between athlete leadership qualities and the amount of communication. The finding contributes to further understanding of athlete leadership.