Preferred Leadership Styles of Physical Education Teachers and Relationship with Athletes’ Satisfaction

Although the leadership styles of physical education teachers are important for increasing athlete satisfaction, choosing the most appropriate leadership styles is difficult for physical education teachers owing to the numerous leadership styles suggested by scholars and researchers. Therefore, this study attempts to answer the following questions: 1) What are the leadership styles of physical education teachers preferred by athletes? 2) Can the leadership styles of physical education teachers predict athlete satisfaction? A total of 136 athletes from 12 schools in Iraq are selected randomly, and the Revised Leadership Scale for Sport and Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire are used to measure the leadership styles of physical education teachers and athlete satisfaction, respectively. The data are analysed using SmatPLS 3.0, and results show that the democratic behaviour and training and instruction behaviour leadership styles positively affect athlete satisfaction, whereas the autocratic behaviour leadership style negatively affects athlete satisfaction. This study contributes to the expansion of theories on the leadership styles of physical education teachers in the context of the education sector in Iraq. To increase athlete satisfaction, this study recommends physical education teachers to employ the training and instruction behaviour and democratic behaviour leadership styles and refrain from using the autocratic behaviour leadership style.