Leadership and Teamwork Paradigms: Two Models for Baseball Coaches

Two popular leadership models were examined: transformational/transactional leadership and leader member exchange (LMX). The aim was to assess which model is the most appropriate to use when coaching a baseball team to build teamwork. While the transformational/transactional model was found to be sufficient to determine coaching behaviors towards the team as an entity and in inspiring the team, it was not found to address sufficiently the actual workings of the coach-player relationship. For this purpose, the LMX model was considered to be more useful. The LMX model also included more specific mechanisms for the improvement of teamwork than the transformational/transactional model.