Gregory A. Cranmer

Sports Teams as Organizations A Leader–Member Exchange Perspective of Player Communication With Coaches and Teammates

Sport teams by definition can be considered a type of organization; yet, the incorporation of an organizational perspective has not been utilized to examine athletes’ interactions. The current study utilizes leader–member exchange theory as theoretical lens to examine the influence that athlete–coach communication has on relationships and communication with coaches and teammates. A sample of 158 former high school athletes produced results that indicate that athletes with in-group relationships with coaches report more satisfaction and symmetrical communication with coaches, and more task cohesion, social cohesion, and cooperative communication with teammates. These results highlight the importance of athlete–coach communication for influencing perceptions of relationships and communication with coaches and teammates.

A Continuation of Sport Teams From an Organizational Perspective Predictors of Athlete–Coach Leader–Member Exchange

Previous research suggests athletes’ leader–member exchanges (LMX) with coaches are associated with subsequent communication and relationships with coaches and teammates, as athletes with in-group relationships experience more prosocial outcomes than athletes without these relationships. Thus, the formation of in-group relationships is desirable, but extant literature has provided little insight into how coaches can foster these relationships. This study addressed this gap in literature by examining contextual and relational factors (i.e., coach enacted social support) as predictors of athletes’ perceptions of LMX with head coaches. A sample of 216 former high school athletes produced results that indicate both contextual factors and coach-enacted social support can be used to predict athletes’ perceptions of LMX—with starting status, emotional support, and esteem support being uniquely predictive. Overall, the model utilized in this study accounted for 65% of athletes’ perceptions with coach enacted social support accounting for 52% of these perceptions. The practical and theoretical implications are discussed within this article.

Sport Support: Received Social Support as a Predictor of Athlete Satisfaction

Researchers have advocated for the exploration of communicative and psychological aspects of athlete-coach relationships associated with positive outcomes for athletes such as satisfaction. A particularly salient construct within literature that leads to satisfaction across contexts is receiving social support. This study examined 216 athletes’ reports of social support (i.e., tangible, informational, emotional, and esteem) received from head coaches, as well as their satisfaction with coaches and sport experiences. Results indicated that linear combinations of social support received from head coaches predicted athletes’ satisfaction with coaches and sport experiences. Specifically, informational, emotional, and esteem support accounted for unique variance in athletes’ satisfaction with coaches, whereas informational and emotional support accounted for unique variance in athletes’ satisfaction with sport experiences. Mediation tests revealed that the relationships between receiving social support and satisfaction with sport experiences were mediated by athletes’ satisfaction with coaches. These findings have implications for the continued examination of prosocial athlete-coach communication.

What do college students want? A prioritization of instructional behaviors and characteristics

ABSTRACT Guided by Rhetorical and Relational Goals Theory, this study examined college students’ preferences for effective teaching behaviors and characteristics. Students (n = 209) articulated qualities in their ideal instructor by prioritizing 10 instructional behaviors and characteristics from the rhetorical and relational traditions (assertive, responsive, clear, relevant, competent, trustworthy, caring, immediate, humorous, disclosure). When forced to prioritize, students preferred teacher clarity, competence, and relevance from their instructors, while self-disclosure and immediacy were considered to be luxury behaviors rather than necessities. Lastly, academic entitlement significantly influenced students’ prioritization of effective instructional behaviors.

Male Athletes, Female Aesthetics: The Continued Ambivalence Toward Female Athletes in ESPN’s The Body Issue

Previous studies have suggested that media reify frames that subtly enforce sex differences in a manner that detracts from women athletes’ athleticism. This phenomenon is referred to as ambivalence. To analyze ambivalence, this study introduces a theoretically and empirically supported coding scheme that was used to conduct a quantitative frame analysis of 157 images featured in ESPN’s The Body Issue. These images were coded for frames that de-emphasize athleticism, sexualize athletes, or deny a sporting context. Results suggest that athlete sex is associated with de-emphasized athleticism and sexualized frames, and sport gender is associated with context frames. Results also support longitudinal trends in The Body Issue series, which suggest that the series has become more sexualized and removed from a sports context but has decreased the use of frames that de-emphasize athleticism. In general, The Body Issue continues to reinforce established media trends that trivialize female athletes, despite claimin...

Race as an Antecedent Condition in the Framing of Heisman Finalists

Previous literature has established the widespread use of frames that contrast athletes’ physical (i.e., the “brawn” frame, often used for Black athletes) and mental abilities (i.e., the “brain” frame, often used for White athletes) in mediated sports content, particularly oral commentary, which tends to be more spontaneous in nature. The current study analyzed the presence and salience of brawn and brain frames of Heisman finalists in newspaper articles as a function of reporter race; extending previous research by examining (a) written content and (b) reporter race as an antecedent condition. Results confirm the existence of “brawn” and “brain” biases in written sports content, with no influence of reporter race on these patterns. The lack of influence of reporter race—a finding that contradicts research on oral commentary—suggests an institutional influence on frame use in written sports coverage as a function of the more planned nature of “print” media.

“White-Side, Strong-Side”: A Critical Examination of Race and Leadership in Remember the Titans

Media has long been regarded as influential in shaping and altering individuals’ perceptions of race and interracial interactions. The following article examines Remember the Titans (Bruckheimer & Yakin, 2000) as a communicative text using critical race theory as an interpretive lens. This framework facilitated the examination of pervasive stereotypes and systematic oppression that privileges Whites. In particular, this article considers issues of leadership and interracial interactions within the context of sport. The authors’ findings contribute to the heuristic nature of critical race theory by identifying a visual text that is reflective of a time in U.S. history where racial tensions were high and a Black male in a leadership role in sport was anomaly; thus, we offer further evidence that film can function as an educational tool designed to improve media literacy and raise awareness of social injustices, with the goal of improving the social realities of people of color.

High School Athletes’ Relationships With Head Coaches and Teammates as Predictors of Their Expressions of Upward and Lateral Dissent

Athletes’ expressions of dissent are largely unrecognized, which limits coaches’ abilities to manage their teams and athletes’ abilities to voice themselves effectively. This study considers athletes’ roles on their teams, sport type, and relationships with coaches and teammates as predictors of upward and lateral expressions of dissent. Results gathered from 273 former high school athletes revealed a complex pattern of social interaction, whereby starting status and relationships with teammates directly predicted upward dissent and athlete–coach relationships indirectly predicted upward dissent. In contrast, only athletes’ relationships with coaches predicted their expressions of lateral dissent. These findings suggest that in order to promote functional patterns of athlete dissent coaches must build quality relationships with athletes, as well as climates that facilitate cohesion among athletes.

Putting Coach Confirmation Research into Practice: How to Confirm Youth and High School Athletes and Coach More Effectively

This article focuses on how coaches can utilize a prosocial coaching behavior referred to as confirmation to promote positive experiences and development for youth and high school athletes. Confirmation centers on making athletes feel recognized, valued, supported and connected to others — all of which are goals of modern prosocial coaching movements. In an effort to accomplish these goals, this article presents six specific strategies that coaches can enact to make their athletes feel confirmed.

A Communicative Approach to Sport Socialization: The Functions of Memorable Messages in Division-I Student-Athletes’ Socialization

Previous research has suggested the potential for enduring and influential messages (otherwise known as memorable messages) to serve as mechanisms of athlete socialization but has failed to explore how these messages might help athletes adjust to their teams. This study used open-ended questionnaires to explore how the memorable messages that Division-I student-athletes receive before their college career influence them before and after they join their teams, as well as the associations between message content and function. The results of this study indicate that memorable messages shape student-athletes’ attitudes, expectations, and participative decisions before beginning their college careers and their attitudes, relationships, and performance once they began their careers. However, few associations between message content and functions were observed, and no associations between student-athletes’ sex and sport type with message functions were observed. These results highlight the role of discourse in s...