Metaphorical perceptions of sports management students in Turkey with regard to “leadership” notion

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the metaphorical perceptions of sports management students in Turkey with regard to “leadership” notion. In the study, qualitative research method was used. The study group of the research was composed of 90 people studying at a Sports Management Department in a Faculty of Sports Sciences in 2020-2021 academic year in Turkey. In order to determine the metaphorical perceptions of prospective sports managers with regard to leadership Notion, the study required the participants to complete the sentence “Leadership is like... because...”. The descriptive analysis method was used for the analysis of the data. The analysis showed that metaphorical descriptions made by the participants with regard to leadership were composed of the themes of ‘providing guidance’, ‘influencing people’, ‘uniting people’ and ‘setting people in motion’. It was found that the most common metaphorical perception of participants with regard to leadership notion was ‘providing guidance’, followed by ‘influencing people’. It was also seen that the least common metaphorical perceptions of participants with regard to leadership were related to the themes of ‘setting people in motion’ and ‘uniting people’.

Keywords: Leadership, leadership education, metaphor.

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