A Study on Transformational Leadership Style Adopted by Captains in IPL: Viral Kohli

Executive Summary

Transformational leadership is a style of leadership where a leader works with subordinates to identify needed change. The present study focuses on the transformational leadership among the captains in the IPL. In this study a sample of 59 respondents were selected to identify the transformational leadership style adopted by eight captains in IPL. The data were collected with the help of a well-structured questionnaire. The results of the present study denote how transformational leadership made the team achieve the success. With the results it is understood that transformational leadership is important for the organization.

Introduction

Transformational leadership is a style of leadership where a leader works with subordinates to identify needed change, creating a vision to guide the change through inspiration, and executing the change in tandem with committed members of a group.

Transformational leadership serves to enhance the motivation, morale, and job performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms; these include connecting the follower's sense of identity and self to a project and to the collective identity of the organization; being a role model for followers in order to inspire them and to raise their interest in the project; challenging followers to take greater ownership for their work, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers, allowing the leader to align followers with tasks that enhance their performance.

The concept of transformational leadership was initially introduced by James V. Downtown, the first to coin the term 'Transformational leadership', a concept further developed by leadership expert and presidential biographer James Macgregor Burns. According to Burns, transformational leadership can be seen when 'leaders and followers make each other Advance to a higher level of morality and motivation.' Through the strength of their vision and personality, transformational leaders can inspire followers to change expectations, perceptions, and motivations to work towards common goals.

Unlike in the transactional approach, it is not based on a 'give and take' relationship, but on the leader's personality, traits and ability to make a change through example, articulation of an energizing vision and challenging goals.

Transforming leaders are idealized in the sense that they are a moral exemplar of working towards the benefit of the team, organization and/or community. Burns theorized that transforming and transactional leadership was mutually exclusive stylesBass (1985) [2] describes transformational leadership as a phenomenon in which leaders can stimulate and inspire followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes. As such, this theory provides a framework of behaviors that, if exhibited by leaders, can predict positive follower outcomes.

Since its inception (Burns, 1978; Bass, 1985) [3], much evidence has been produced to highlight the positive impacts of transformational leadership across a variety of domains, such as business (e.g., Avolio, Zhu, Koh, Bhatia, 2004) [4], and military (e.g., Hardy et al., 2010) [5] settings. In the organizational context, research has revealed transformational leadership enables followers to exceed expectations, and results in greater follower satisfaction and commitment to the organization (Bono & Judge, 2004) [6].

Given the positive contribution transformational leadership has provided to our understanding of leadership in the organizational context, more recently, researchers have utilized the theory to examine leadership in sport.

This research has mostly mirrored the positive findings demonstrated in the organizational setting. For example, Rowold (2006) [7] found transformational behaviors of martial arts’ coaches positively predicted individual follower outcomes such as satisfaction and extra effort. In a team sport setting, Callow, Smith, Hardy, Arthur, and Hardy (2009) [8] found transformational leader behaviors of captains to have a positive impact on task and social cohesion.

The principle method of investigating the impact of transformational leadership in sport has involved administering pencil and paper measures to players to examine the relationships between transformational behaviors and follower outcomes. However, from an applied perspective, it would also be worthwhile to explore how effective leaders display these specific transformational behaviors.In support of this, Stenling and Tafvelin (2014) [9] propose that an important issue is to identify the actual behaviors leaders engage in when they exhibit transformational leadership in order to develop interventions.

To this end, the application of qualitative methodologies would allow for richer and more elaborate representation of the theoretical construct (Sparkes & Smith, 2013) [10], and, in the case of the current research, provide more information with regards to what transformational leader behaviors actually look like in practice.

Indian Premier League (IPL)

The Indian Premier League (IPL), officially Vivo Indian Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty -20 cricket league in India contested during April and May of every year by teams representing Indian cities and some states.

The league was founded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2008, and is regarded as the brainchild of Lalit Modi, the founder and former commissioner of the league. IPL has an exclusive window in ICC Future Tours Program. The IPL is the most-attended cricket league in the world and in 2014 ranked sixth by average attendance among all sports leagues. In 2010, the IPL became the first sporting event in the world to be broadcast live on YouTube.

The brand value of IPL in 2017 was US$5.3 billion, according to Duff & Phelps. According to BCCI, the 2015 IPL season contributed ₹11.5 billion (US$182 million) to the GDP of the Indian economy. Currently, with eight teams, each team plays each other twice in a home-and-away round-robin format in the league phase.

At the conclusion of the league stage, the top four teams will qualify for the playoffs. The top two teams from the league phase will play against each other in the first Qualifying match, with the winner going straight to the IPL final and the loser getting another chance to qualify for the IPL final by playing the second Qualifying match. Meanwhile, the third and fourth place teams from league phase play against each other in an eliminator match and the winner from that match will play the loser from the first Qualifying match. The winner of the second Qualifying match will move onto the final to play the winner of the first Qualifying match in the IPL Final match, where the winner will be crowned the Indian Premier League champions.

The eight teams with their captainship IPL Team Captain

• Chennai Super Kings Mahendra Singh Dhoni
• Delhi Daredevils Gautam Gambhir
• Kings XI Punjab Ravichandran Ashwin
• Kolkata Knight Riders Dinesh Karthik
• Mumbai Indians Rohit Sharma
• Rajasthan Royals Ajinkya Rahane
• Royal Challengers Bangalore Virat Kohli
• Sunrisers Hyderabad Ken Williamson

Objectives of the study

Based on the reviews collected for the present study following were the objectives framed for the present study:

• To study the factors influencing the Transformational Leadership of captains in a cricket team.
• To compare the various Transformational Leadership factors among the selected captains in IPL 2018.
• To fix the bubble chart on the factors of Transformational Leadership for the selected captains of IPL.
• To identify the Leadership style adopted by selected captains in IPL.

V. Methodology

A. Research Design

The Research Design adopted is the present study is descriptive research design.

C. Sample Size The sample for the study includes 59 which is selected using convenience sampling method.

Analysis & findings

Factors influencing Transformational Leadership

The purpose of this present study is to gauge the usefulness of the eight captains’ transformational Leadership in predicting their followers’ individual, objectively measured performance development over time. Here, we will find out which cricket captain among the eight will be the transformational leader i.e. which captain will take people on an all-together different plane. At the same time though, few great leaders follow a path deliberately designed to make them popular. Nor do they promise easy times ahead. On the contrary, they ask for sacrifice, for 'blood, toil, tears and sweat. The four factors are

1. Motivation
2. Team Commitment
3. Emotional Intelligence
4. Strategy

Out of 59 respondents 57.6 % respondent favorite captain in IPL is M S Dhoni and after M S Dhoni 22% respondent favorite captain is Virat Kohali and after Virat Kohali 20.3% respondent favorite captain is Rohit Sharma.

Comparison of Transformational Leadership

Captains Motivation

Team

Commitment

Emotional

Intelligence Strategy Total Total %

M S Dhoni 249 242 237 239 967 18

Virat Kohli 213 213 210 210 846 15

Gautam Gambhir 145 148 144 141 578 11

Ravichandran Ashwin 100 108 108 104 420 8

Dinesh Karthik 129 137 137 134 537 10

Rohit Sharma 205 208 203 199 815 15

Ajinkya Rahane 181 185 178 175 719 13

Ken Williamson 138 138 128 131 535 10

From the above table M S Dhoni has made his team follow his path as the average score is 18% followed by M S Dhoni Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma both score equal 15%, after this two Ken Williamson score is 13% than after Gautam Gambhit with score of 11% than after Ajinkya Rahane and Dinesh Karthik both score equal 10% and last is Ravichandran Ashwin with score of 8%

Bubble Chart of Team Commitment and Motivation

From the above chart it is clear that M S Dhoni has got high level of Team Commitment and he is the captain who motives his team members as he Motivation level is high when compared to other captains Virat Kohali also have a high level of team commitment followed by M S Dhoni and also have high level of the motivational factor.

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Te

am

C

o

m

m

it

m

en

t

Motivation

M S Dhoni

Virat Kohli

Gautam Gambhir

Ravichandran Ashwin

Dinesh Karthik

Rohit Sharma

Ken williamson

Ajinkya Rahane

Bubble Chart of Strategy and Emotional Intelligence

From the above chart it is clear that M S Dhoni possess high level skill in formulating best strategy in the match when compared to other captains and he has high level of emotional intelligence. Hence he is the best leader From the results of bubble chart it is inferred that MS Dhoni the captain of CSK is the Transformational Leader. He leads his team in a positive way.

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0 50 100 150 200 250 300

St

ra

te

gy

Emotional Intelligence

M S Dhoni

Virat Kohli

Gautam Gambhir

Ravichandran Ashwin

Dinesh Karthik

Rohit Sharma

Ken Williamson

Ajinkya Rahane

Leadership style

The following are the different types of leadership styles

• Autocratic Leadership
• Democratic Leadership
• Laissez-faire Leadership

The type of leadership style adopted by the Captains of IPL 2018 is as follows MS Dhoni is a Democratic Leader since he is friendly & organizes his team neatly & has cricketing knowledge. Virat Kohli is an Autocratic Leader style because he is an aggressive captain of India. He too coordinates his team in a good manner. But he thinks the work should be done right. Rohit Sharma, Vice-captain of Indian team is also a good captain. He too comes under Democratic style. He moves with everyone in a friendly manner. Dinesh Karthik is a calm captain. But when it comes to Leadership he is good as Dhoni. He comes under Democratic style. Ravichandran Ashwin has now become the captain of Kings XI Punjab team. Being a bowler, he now leads a team successfully. He follows Laissez-faire style. He says what to do and also he leads them. Ken Williamson, the only foreign player to be the captain of IPL 2018, is a New Zealand player. He is a decent player who leads his team properly. He follows Democratic Leadership style. Ajinkya Rahane, who is cool by his character, leads his team smoothly. He follows Democratic Leadership style. Gautam Ghambir is an Indian player, but not plays often for India. But he leads his team well. He follows Laissez-faire style of Leadership. (Priyadharshini. N*1 Ragaavi. D*2 Sriram. R.M*3 Sussma. S*4 Swethaa Sri. S*5 *12345 II M.Sc (Five Year Integrated) Decision and Computing Sciences, Department of Computing, Coimbatore Institute of Technology (Government Aided Autonomous Institution), Coimbatore-641 014)

Conclusion

From the above analysis it is identified that the leader who follows democratic leadership style were able to manage the team in a better way. Further it is concluded that M S Dhoni is the best captain and he follows the transformational leadership style by creating a vision to guide the change through inspiration, motivation, team spirit and emotional intelligence.

Limitations for the study

The number of respondents is only 59 College students due to time constraint. The convenience sampling is used; therefore, the questionnaires are mainly distributing to the college student Hence, In terms of area, the result may not represent the perception of the total population.

References

1. Priyadharshini. N*1 Ragaavi. D*2 Sriram. R.M*3 Sussma. S*4 Swethaa Sri. S*5*12345 II M.Sc (Five Year Integrated) Decision and Computing Sciences, Department of Computing, Coimbatore Institute of Technology (Government Aided Autonomous Institution), Coimbatore-641 014 www.businessdictionary.com/definition/transformational leadership.html.
2. Bass, B.M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York: Free Press.
3. Burns, J.M. (1978).Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.
4. Avolio, B. J., Zhu, W., Koh, W., & Bhatia, P. (2004). Transformational leadership and organizational commitment: Mediating role of psychological empowerment and moderating role of structural distance. Journal of Organizational Behavior,25, 951 968.doi:10.1002/job.283
5. Hardy, L., Arthur, C.A., Jones, G., Shariff, A., Munnoch, K., Isaacs, I., &Allsopp, A.J. (2010). A Correlational and an Experimental Study Examining the Sub-Components of transformational leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 21, 20-32. doi:org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.10.002
6. Bono, J. E., & Judge, T. A. (2004). Personality and transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(5), 901.doi:10.1037/0021- 9010.89.5.90
7. Rowold, J. (2006). Transformational and transactional leadership in martial arts. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 18, 312-325. doi:10.1080/10413200600944082
8. Arthur, C.A., Woodman, T., Ong, C.W., Hardy, L., &Ntoumanis, N. (2011). The Role of Narcissism in Moderating the Relationship between Transformational Leader Behaviours and Leadership Effectiveness. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 33, 3-19.
9. Stenling, A., &Tafvelin, S. (2014). Transformational leadership and well-being in sports: the mediating role of need satisfaction. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology,26(2), 182-196. doi:10.1080/10413200.2013.819392
10. Sparkes, A. C., & Smith, B. (2013). Qualitative research methods in sport, exercise and health: From process to product. London: Routledge.
11. Manrai.A.K. and L.A.Manrai (2015),”Perceptual Mapping”, The Enclopedia of Tourism, Jafari and Xiao (editors) Springer.