Managerial Skills of Athlete Managers in Ethiopian Middle- and Long-Distance Running: Athletes Perspective

Abstract

Today’s sport demands better management for its effect; hence, possessing the managerial skill becomes crucial. Proper management of athletes in sports ensures success; in doing so, athlete managers are expected to possess a great deal of managerial skills. To this end the study tries to assess the managerial skills exhibited by athlete managers while working with Ethiopian elite athletes. The study relies on the three managerial skills proposed by Katz: conceptual, technical, and human/interpersonal skills. The participants of the study were 248 athletes working with athlete managers in middle- and long-distance running, who are living in Addis Ababa. Both male and female athletes who were enrolled in different club setting and running disciplines participated in the study. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect data from the subjects. SPSS version 27 was used to analyze data. For the descriptive statistics, frequency and percentage were used; and for the inferential statistics, non-parametric tests, specifically Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests, were employed to the assess the group difference. The internal consistency for the questionnaire items was found to be 0.93. The findings portray significant differences observed in the athlete’s sex, club enrollment and average monthly income (p< .05). Female athletes were better off in perceiving the managerial skills of their managers, P < .05. No significant difference was observed in the managerial skills employed regarding athletes' running discipline; athletes were treated equally irrespective of their running discipline. The conceptual skills of athlete managers were found to be better with a slight limitation on the technical skill. Nevertheless, much work should be done on the interpersonal skills since they fail to make prolonged contact with the athletes and have poor relationships with the athletes’ club and the EAF. Hence, addressing all managerial issues becomes paramount requiring the managers to equip themselves with the managerial skills to meet the desired goal.