European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science ISSN: 2501 - 1235 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1235 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu 10.5281/zenodo.55298 Volume 1│Issue 4│2016 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLE AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS OF GUILAN PROVINCE Vahid BakhshaliPour1i, Siavash Khodaparast Sareshkeh2, Majid Keramati Moghadam3, Maryam Falah Kazemi4, Nasrin Touba5 Sama Technical and Vocational Training College, 1 Islamic Azad University, Lahijan Branch, Siyahkal, Iran Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, 2 Islamic Azad University, Lahijan Branch, Guilan, Lahijan, Iran MA Sport Psychology, Islamic Azad University Karaj Branch, Iran 3 MA Sport Management, Alzahra University, Iran 4 MA in Physical Education and Sport Sciences, 5 Payam Noor University, Center of Tehran, Iran Abstract: Goals: Physical education and health managers of Education offices should pay attention to the improvement of communication skills due to the students’ needs and adopt the right leadership style. This study examined the relationship between leadership style and communication skills in high school physical education teachers in schools of Guilan Province. Method: The method of this study was descriptive correlation. The statistical population was all high school physical education teachers in public Schools of Guilan province. The instrument of this study was the Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-X5) and communication skills Questionnaire (Barton G.E). The collected data were classified by descriptive statistical methods and were analyzed by Pearson’s correlation coefficient, Spearman’s correlation coefficient, and “NOV“ α≤ . . Results: the results of this study showed that there was a significant relationship between communication skills and transactional and transformational leadership styles in high school physical education teachers of Guilan Province. But there was no significant relationship between communication skills and laissez–faire Leadership. i Corresponding author: vahidbakhshalipour@yahoo.com Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved Published by Open Access Publishing Group ©2015. 26 Vahid BakhshaliPour, Siavash Khodaparast Sareshkeh, Majid Keramati Moghadam, Maryam Falah Kazemi, Nasrin Touba THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLE AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS OF GUILAN PROVINCE Conclusion: this study concluded that communication skills are as a facilitator, effective, and motivational factor for the leadership styles in physical education teachers. Keywords: communication skills, leadership style, physical education teachers, Guilan province Introduction Iranian society is one of the youngest populations in the world that more than 14 million students are studying in its schools. Physical education and health managers of Education offices should adopt the right leadership style due to these students’ needs in the field of physical education and sport until they can handle up to organize all the resources and talents and improve the productivity of each resource in the education system. Thus, a good teacher always tries to establish a right and balanced relationship between transferable concepts and his/her students . Nowadays the ideal teacher’s role is emphasized in students’ constructiveness in societies and communication . Teachers should have the necessary skills for successful implementation of curricula, interaction, and effective response to the students at their disposal. The effective communication is one of these vital skills in human resource management (2, 3). Many factors play a role in the communication process between teachers and students so that the ability of effective communication is one of the important indicators in the process of teacher that it should be considered (4). The issue of human resources has always a large part of the time and capital in organizations and in recent years (5) so that the proper and deeper attention into this stratum of society is a need to improve the performance and enhance an optimal communication between teachers and students (6). Since the bulk of our time to interact with others, so the communication method play a decisive role in life (7). One of the important aspects of the teacher’s behavior is the effective communication with students that should be the focus of attention. This requires the correct communication and the learning of communication skills. Communication skills are those skills that people can be involved in interpersonal interactions and communication process. They include different skills that the most important of these skills are verbal skills, effective listening and feedback (8, 9). Rapid changes in various sectors of communities has caused that managers encounter new issues in the type of behavior with employees in organizations (10). Studies show that individuals’ effective management and leadership styles in different European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 1 │ Issue 4 │ 2016 27 Vahid BakhshaliPour, Siavash Khodaparast Sareshkeh, Majid Keramati Moghadam, Maryam Falah Kazemi, Nasrin Touba THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLE AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS OF GUILAN PROVINCE organizations are one of the important and effective factors for the success of any business, occupation, organization in the achievement of predetermined goals (11). An effective leader must provide a path to guide all the staffs’ efforts to implement goals of organization (12). The connection between individual and organizational of goals may break or destroy in the appropriate leadership. This can lead to undesirable situation that individual work to be done solely in order to achieve individual goals in this situation, so the organization loses its efficiency and adequacy and cannot achieve its goals (13). We can never image a number of individuals’ coherent and common activity without leadership and management. Even the best employees need guidance and leadership to contribute in the achievement of organizational goals (14). Because if all necessary facilities and resources be without effective leadership and management, its result will be nothing but a waste of resources (15). So leadership style as a facilitator and motivational factor affect directly and indirectly staffs’ efficiency and effectiveness . In other words, leadership makes a person able to influence others so that individuals do their work with their wishes instead of doing the work due to the task or fear of the consequences of failure to do it (17). The adoption of leadership style in dealing with different situations is one of the most important fundamental topics of behavioral sciences. The chosen style should be compatible with the available situation and this can be a result of correct identification of all available factors (18). The need for leadership and management is very sensible and vital in all fields of social activity. These needs are important especially in education system and its training centers and schools, because this important system plays the main role in education and training of committed and specialist human resources for all organizations and departments (19). The results of Ismaili’s study showed that there was a significant relationship between coaches’ leadership style and athletes’ satisfaction in track and field league of country (20). Halaji, et al., (2011) found that transformational leadership style can predict players’ commitment more than transactional leadership style . The encouraging intellectual effort and attention to individual differences had a significant and positive relationship with players’ commitment . “lso, transformational leadership style increased players’ commitment more than transactional leadership style (21). In addition, the lack of attention to communication skills and its weaknesses in life are some of the factors that the lack of attention to those causes problems in social individual communities, so that a study showed that communication was the most important factor that must be considered. European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 1 │ Issue 4 │ 2016 28 Vahid BakhshaliPour, Siavash Khodaparast Sareshkeh, Majid Keramati Moghadam, Maryam Falah Kazemi, Nasrin Touba THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLE AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS OF GUILAN PROVINCE The lack of communication is a problem in coordination, solidarity, and cooperation between team. A coach acts as a transmitter who should find the most appropriate ways to send messages to recipients (athletes and assistants). An appropriate and effective communication between coaches and athletes are an important factor before, after, and during games and can positively or negatively affect the individual and team performance (22). A study suggests that the lack of communication skills increases costs and reduces effectiveness. Effective leaders build bridges through communication and they connect the past and present time with their speeches and performances in an inspiring vision of the future (23, 24). The attention to communication skills and its application is obvious and inevitable with the introduction of physical education and exercise as a need in modern societies, a clear of effects of exercise on physical, mental, and social health in members of society, and the development of sports halls in Education. On the other hand, results of studies show that school teachers’ leadership style affects significantly the amount of students’ communication. Physical education teachers need to apply communication factors more than others due to the practical nature of physical education. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between leadership style and communication skills in high school physical education teachers of Guilan Province. Methodology This study was a descriptive correlation research and it was conducted through field method. Participants The statistical population was all high school physical education teachers in public Schools of Guilan province. 156 physical education teachers were selected by stratified sampling and Morgan’s table. Instruments and Tasks The instrument of this study was the Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-X5) and communication skills Questionnaire (Barton G.E). European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 1 │ Issue 4 │ 2016 29 Vahid BakhshaliPour, Siavash Khodaparast Sareshkeh, Majid Keramati Moghadam, Maryam Falah Kazemi, Nasrin Touba THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLE AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS OF GUILAN PROVINCE Procedure The purpose and the process of study were explained to subjects. The participants were assured that their data will be kept confidential and those will not be available to anyone. Then all subjects completed a consent form to participant in this study and they attended with the complete satisfaction in this study. Researchers distributed questionnaires among subjects. The subjects completed questionnaires without name due to the subjects, security sense. Data Analysis The collected data were classified by descriptive statistical methods and were analyzed by Pearson’s correlation coefficient, Spearman’s correlation coefficient, and “NOV“ α≤ . . Results The results of this study showed that 61.7% of subjects were men and 38.3% of them were women. 62.2% of teachers had an associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, and . % of them had a . % of them had a master’s degree. The results of showed verbal skills had highest mean (M=18.9, SD=2.6) and listening skills had lowest mean (M=17.1, SD=3.9). Also, 57.5% of subjects had a transformational leadership style, 39% of them had a transactional leadership style, and 2.5% of them had Laissez–faire a leadership style. The transformational leadership style had highest mean (M=2.16, SD=0.2). Table 1: The results of ANOVA for the comparison of score mean in leadership styles Variable Transformational, Transactional, and Laissez–faire Leadership mean square 119.5 df F Sig 1.11 337.6 0.001 The results of ANOVA showed that there was a significant relationship between physical education teachers’ leadership styles in Guilan province (P=0.001). European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 1 │ Issue 4 │ 2016 30 Vahid BakhshaliPour, Siavash Khodaparast Sareshkeh, Majid Keramati Moghadam, Maryam Falah Kazemi, Nasrin Touba THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLE AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS OF GUILAN PROVINCE Table 2: The results of Pearson’s correlation coefficient for the determination of correlation between leadership styles and communication skills Variable Communication skills Transformational Correlation coefficient 0.272 Leadership Sig 0.042 Transactional Correlation coefficient 0.272 Leadership Sig 0.035 Laissez–faire Correlation coefficient 0.221 Leadership Sig 0.080 The results in table (2) showed that there was a significant and direct relationship between physical education teachers’ communication skills and transformational leadership style (P=0.042, r= 0.272) and transactional leadership style in Guilan province (P=0.035, r= 0.272). But, there was no significant relationship between physical education teachers’ communication skills and Laissez –faire a leadership style in Guilan province. Table 3: The correlation coefficient between leadership styles and subscales of communication skills Variables Verbal skills Transformational Correlation Leadership coefficient Listening skills Feedback skills 0.210 0.013 0.372 Sig 0.089 0.931 0.001 Transactional Correlation 0.321 -0.079 0.387 Leadership coefficient Sig 0.012 0.567 0.001 Laissez–faire Correlation 0.003 0.203 0.269 Leadership coefficient 0.999 0.111 0.038 Sig The results in table (3) showed that there was a significant relationship between feedback skills and transformational leadership (P=0.001, r=0.372), transactional leadership (P=0.001, r=0.387), and laissez –faire leadership (P=0.001, r=0.372). Also, there was a significant relationship between verbal skills and transactional leadership (P=0.012, r=0.321). But, there was no significant relationship between listening skills and leadership styles. European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 1 │ Issue 4 │ 2016 31 Vahid BakhshaliPour, Siavash Khodaparast Sareshkeh, Majid Keramati Moghadam, Maryam Falah Kazemi, Nasrin Touba THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLE AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS OF GUILAN PROVINCE Discussion and Conclusion The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between leadership style and communication skills in high school physical education teachers of Guilan Province. The results of this study showed the mean of communication skills was moderate level. Physical education teachers’ dominant leadership style was reported at optimum levels in Guilan province so that the results of statistic test confirmed that there was a significant difference between physical education teachers’ leadership styles in Guilan province. Also, there was a significant and direct relationship between physical education teachers’ communication skills and transformational leadership and transactional leadership styles that this result is consistent with the results of Halaji, et al., (2011); Mozafary, et al., (2006); Jong (2002); Yilmaz, et al., (2011); Hsin, 2007; and Ismaili’s study , , , , , . The reason of this consistency can be due to the appropriate and talented atmosphere in Guilan Province. Physical education teachers have more verbal communication with their students in their profession and they act as a guide, speaker, and explainer. This can increase teachers’ communication skills. Perhaps this belief is one of the reasons for the desired level of verbal skills and communication skills in teachers. The results of this study showed that there was a significant relationship between transformational leadership style and communication skills. Also, there was a significant relationship between feedback skills and transformational leadership style and there was no significant relationship between transformational leadership style and listening and verbal skills. This approach requires high feedback skills to receive the right feedback from students in transformational leadership style. The charismatic behavior, the creation of motivation, encouraging intellectual effort, and attention to individual differences are effective factors. In addition to, there was a significant and direct relationship between transactional leadership style and communication skills in this study. There was a significant relationship between transactional leadership style and feedback and verbal skills from subscales of communication skills. But there was no significant relationship between transactional leadership style and listening skills. In general, there was a positive relationship between communication skills and transformational leadership and transactional leadership styles and high communication skills is associated with the increasing of use of these two leadership style. It was shown that the relationship of each of these leadership styles with different sub scales of communication skills is high. This is probably due to European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 1 │ Issue 4 │ 2016 32 Vahid BakhshaliPour, Siavash Khodaparast Sareshkeh, Majid Keramati Moghadam, Maryam Falah Kazemi, Nasrin Touba THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLE AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS OF GUILAN PROVINCE the different nature of these two leadership styles that the application of every style requires the use of different communication methods. Conflict of interest The authors declare no conflict of interest References 1. Amini, M., Najafipour, S., Torkan, N., Ibrahimi, F. 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