Innovation Management in Sport and Its Correlation with Leadership Styles at Colleges and Universities in Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

Sport institutions must adapt, renew, and develop through innovative and novel ideas (Tjønndal, 2016). This study explored innovation management in sports and its correlation with selected leadership styles at colleges and universities in Tigray. A descriptive, cross-sectional research design was employed, with a sample of 147 sports management personnel from colleges and universities in Tigray. Data were collected using a standardized five point Likert scale questionnaire and structured interviews and analyzed using SPSS (version 20). Cross-tabulation, descriptive statistics, the Kruskal-Wallis test, and the Mann-Whitney test were used to analyze and compare the data collected on innovation management in sports. Furthermore, the Spearman rank-order correlation test was used to determine the association between innovation management and leadership style. The findings of the study showed that a significant proportion of respondents acknowledged weak innovation management in sports at universities (55.6%) and colleges (94.4%) in Tigray. Additionally, the results indicated a significant difference among the four universities and two colleges in Tigray regarding innovation management practices in sports (p = 0.001, p < 0.01). Furthermore, the findings showed a statistically significant positive association between innovation management in sports and democratic (r = 0.206, p = 0.013) and transactional (r = 0.231, p = 0.005) leadership styles. Conversely, the findings revealed no statistically significant correlation between innovation management practices in sports and laissez-faire (r = -0.146, p = 0.078), autocratic (r = -0.128, p = 0.123), and transformational (r = 0.143, p = 0.085) leadership styles. In conclusion, the universities and colleges in the Tigray region exhibited weak innovation management in sports. Additionally, innovation management in sports tends to improve as democratic and transactional leadership styles are increasingly practiced.