Decision Styles in Coaching: Preferences of Basketball Players

Abstract
This study investigated basketball players' preferences for different styles of decision making under varying situational conditions. A total of 144 varsity basketball players (F = 77; M = 67) from seven Canadian universities expressed their preferences for one of four decision styles (autocratic, consultive, participative, and delegative styles) in each of 16 different situations. The situation was described by four problem attributes (quality requirement, coach's information, problem complexity, and group integration) which were completely blended and integrated with each other. The decision style by sex contingency tables showed that females were more oriented toward participation than males were. The 2 4 repeated measures ANOVAs (one for each sex) showed that both groups tended to use a large number of situational cues in a configural manner. In both groups, preferences were more influenced by main effects of coach's information and the interaction of quality requirement and problem complexity. However, the situation accounted for a much larger percentage of the variance in the preferences of females (52.3%) than in the preferences of males (21.3%).

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