Managerial staff assumes an important role in sports organisations, as it ensures that they operate successfully in the narrowest and the broadest sense of the word. This paper presents findings gathered from studies addressing the role of managerial staff (head coaches) in leading sports teams and the role of managerial staff (CEOs, presidents) in leading employees in the administrative section of sports organisations. It portrays how important the role of managerial stuff is within a team and the degree of satisfaction of employees and handball players with managerial staff in handball clubs in the first Slovenian handball league.
In the context of this paper, a research was conducted based on two surveys, and four hypotheses and two research questions were formulated. The analysis of the research data shows that two hypotheses were refuted and the other two were confirmed. The results of the first research confirmed that the role of a leader as a head coach is very important for the functioning of a sports team, as 83.9% of the surveyed handball players agreed with that statement. Equally, all respondents (100%) in the second research confirmed that the role of a leader (sports CEO, president) in the administrative section of the team is important or very important for its functioning.
Based on the research results, analyses conducted and measures proposed, this paper may present a good basis or starting point for further research of the role of managerial staff in other sports organisations. The results and the measures proposed could be useful for all the handball clubs included in the research in the context of this paper as well as those who were not included, as they may acquire insight into the state and scope for potential improvement of the functioning of handball clubs in the field of team leadership, understanding of leadership, the role of sports officials and head coaches as well as the importance of a team in sports organisations.
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