ADMINISTRATIVE STYLES OF DIRECTORS OF SPORTS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN ANAMBRA STATE

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

Background to the Study

The extent of achievement of objectives of any organization is wholly dependent on the type and quality of the administration. Effective administration helps a nation to fulfill its mission and makes a business organization successful and the administrative style adopted by the administrator equally helps in the achievement of the stated objectives. According to Sullivan and Steven (2003), administration is the universal process of organizing people and resources efficiently so as to direct activities towards common goals and objectives. The authors further stated that administration consists of the performance or management of business operations and the making or implementing of major decisions. Hornby (2006) defined administration as the activities that are done in order to plan, organize and run a business, school or other institutions. Bass and Bass (2008) opined that administration encompasses all aspects of applying the correct policy and procedures required to effectively run a business, that is; paper flow, paper-trail, policies and procedures and ensuring the adherence of guidelines.

Generally, administration is concerned with applying rules, procedures and policies already determined in a way that allows the accomplishment of defined common objectives within an organizational setting. In this study, administration is defined as the act mobilizing the efforts of people towards the achievement of a common goal and objectives in the sports councils. According to Yukl (2006), inherent in administration are administrative functions such as, planning, organizing, staffing, directing, controlling and budgeting which are carried out by the administrator.

Miner (2005) defined an administrator as one who administers, directs, manages, executes or dispenses affairs whether civil, political, sport, among others. According to Hornby (2006) an administrator is a person whose job is to manage and organize the public or business affairs of a company or an institution. He is one who has the ability to organize affairs of a company or business to achieve the desired and stated objectives. Kyeyune (2006) also defined an administrator as someone who manages a unit of an organization, which could be a department, a division, a project, or a programme. In this study, an administrator is one who occupies an administrative position and influences the staff towards the attainment of set objectives. In the context of this work therefore, since the running of sports in tertiary institutions rests on the Directors of sports, they are hereby identified as administrators who carryout administrative functions in the tertiary institutions’ sports councils with the members of staff. These administrators adopt different administrative styles in order to achieve the objectives of their organizations.

Anderson and Dexter (2005) defined administrative style as the behaviour of an administrator. Kyenye (2006) opined that administrative style is the consistency of an administrator’s behaviour in relation to his goals or needs as he functions in different situations. In this study, administrative style is defined as the manner and approach of an administrator in providing direction, implementing plans and motivating students and staff in tertiary institutions. Yukl (2006) stated that there are three (3) administrative styles which include; autocratic or authoritarian style, democratic or participative style and laissez faire or free-rein style.

Yukl (2006) defined autocratic administrative style as a style of administration in which the administrator makes all decisions without consulting the members of staff. In this style, the administrator does not entertain any suggestion or initiative from subordinates or members of staff. Also, the author explained that democratic administrative style is one in which the administrator favours joint decision making between him and the staff. The administrator in this style involves his staff in the whole processes of his administration. Lastly, the author described laissez faire administrative style as a style in which the administrator allows the staff or subordinates to make the decisions because he has a high degree of trust on his staff.

In carrying out administrative functions, the administrative style an administrator adopts is solely dependent on the administrator or the situation he finds himself. Also, members of staff of sports councils are directly impacted by the administrative styles adopted by the Directors. The sports councils are made up of coaches, Directors and other administrative staff, but the study will be concentrated on the Directors and coaches because they are the ones that directly work together to improve sports in tertiary institutions.

According to Walter (2004) tertiary institution is defined as the third stage, level and post-secondary level of education. It is also referred to as the educational level following the completion of a school providing secondary education, Miner (2005). In tertiary institutions, sports is administered by Director of sports with the assistance of coaches in the sports councils. In this study therefore, tertiary institution is defined as the post-secondary level of education in which sports is administered by Director of sports and coaches in the sports council in order to achieve the objectives of sports in the institution.

Hornby (2006) defined a coach as someone who trains a person or team in sports. According to McGurk (2009), a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction, training or the operations of a sports team or an individual. Coaches train their athletes to become better at the physical components of the game, therefore, he is assumed to know more about the sport, and have more previous experience and knowledge. McGurk (2009) further stated that the job of a coach is to transfer as much of his knowledge and experience to the players in order to develop the most skilled athletes. According to Whitmore (2009), the administrative styles Directors of sports adopt have direct impact on the task performance, creativity and job satisfaction of the coaches. The author opined that when the coach is fully involved in the administrative process, greater success would likely be seen and less success may be the case when he (the coach) is isolated from the administrative process.

In an organization, different situations call for different administrative styles from the administrator. Miner (2005) opined that when an organization is administered in a manner that allows individuals to express themselves, creativity and enthusiasm can be positively channeled. The administrator also provide his staff with the opportunity for job satisfaction, involvement in administrative processes and ensuring task performance as well as maintaining proper communication channel. On the other hand, when the administrative style is perceived as inappropriate, the result could be distrust, suspicion, doubt and uncooperative attitude. Crawford (2005) stated that in an emergency, when there is little time for coverage on an agreement and where designated authority has significantly more experience and expertise than the rest of the team, an autocratic administrative style maybe most effective. However, in a highly motivated and aligned team with a homogeneous level of expertise, a more democratic or laissez faire administrative style maybe more effective. In different situations, the style adopted should be one that most effectively achieves the objectives of the organization while balancing the interests of its staff.

In sports councils in tertiary institutions as observed by the researcher is such that the administrators tend to inhibit individual growth and self development which leads to waste of human abilities. Very few administrators have adopted a style which was considered appropriate by the staff, others were either seen by subordinates as being insensitive to their feelings, or not well qualified and lack the skill to carry on the administrative job involved, Ume (2000). Zaccaro (2007) confirmed this point that administrative machinery of some institution’s sports organizing body is often composed of people who know little or nothing about sports administration. Zaccaro (2007) further stated that such people allow their personal interest to override decisions where matters relating to sports are involved. Ume (2000) stated that tertiary institutions in Anambra, Enugu and Imo states still record poor results in sports especially at the interscholastic level irrespective of series of seminars organized for the sports administrators and the huge amount of money being expanded on sports on the various tertiary institutions in the states.

With the different administrative styles at the disposal of the Directors of sports, they in their right should vary their administrative style depending on the situation at hand. Anyone that doggedly insists on one administrative style does not conform to the dynamism of sports, in that sports is dynamic, and this maybe the situation in sports administration in tertiary institutions. Directors of sports that adopt autocratic style in their sports councils are involved in regimentation and human beings are not regimented in nature, on the other hand, when democratic administrative style is adopted, participatory situation between the Director and subordinates is seen, but when the Director adopts laissez faire administrative style, there will be rowdiness and laxity in carrying out duties by subordinates. In view of all these, the researcher is convinced that there is need to study the administrative styles of these Directors of sports in order to determine if their chosen administrative style affect administration of sports in their institutions.

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