Coaches’ Bases of Power: Developing Some Initial Knowledge of Athletes’ Compliance With Coaches in Team Sports

Abstract

The aims of this study were to investigate (a) the most common reasons athletes comply with their coaches and (b) whether athletes’ background characteristics could predict reasons for complying. As a theoretical framework, French and Raven's taxonomy of power bases (expert, referent, legitimate, reward, and coercive power) was used. Data from 784 team sport athletes were used in the analysis. The results showed that compliance was most often related to coaches’ legitimate and expert power. It was further shown that athletes’ background characteristics predicted attributions of coaches’ power bases, with age being the most influential characteristic.