International Journal of Sport Management

The Development of Shared Leadership as a Fundamental Concept in Youth Team Sport

Gerco van Dalfsen, Veerle De Bosscher, Hans Westerbeek, Jo Van Hoeck

Abstract: Leadership development concerns a complex subject because it pertains an extensive number of combinations of features of people, purposes and contexts. Much research has been conducted on the development of adult leaders, but little is known about youth sharing the leadership in the context of playing sport, while the ability to choose the right leader is crucial for being successful. Youth leadership development should not only focus on building the capacity of individuals but emphasise the collective, a shared leadership approach, taken the relational network of influence into account. A 5 P’s framework (precondition, person, process, position and purpose) is used to analyse the shared leadership capacity in elite youth team sport. Shared leadership development requires a combined leadership approach whereas youth teams in sport can choose between an individual, distributed or shared leadership approach at which leader—and follower identities are claimed and granted to achieve common purposes.

Keywords: eam sport, shared leadership, youth development

Citation: van Dalfsen, G., De Bosscher, V., Westerbeek, H., & Van Hoeck, J. (2019). The development of shared leadership as a fundamental concept in youth team sport. International Journal of Sport Management, 20(4), 377-415.

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