Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

8-2014

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department (Legacy)

Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Human Resource Education

Committee Chair

Hums, Mary A.

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Choi, Namok

Committee Member

Greenwell, T. Christopher

Committee Member

Moorman, Anita M.

Committee Member

Chelladura, Packianathan

Subject

Baseball--Management; Sports administration; Leadership in women

Abstract

Very few women hold leadership roles in North America professional sports. Major League Baseball (MLB) ranks lowest for women in leadership positions among the five major North American professional sports leagues, reinforcing the idea that professional baseball is especially male-dominated. This study surveyed all women working in management positions in professional baseball, at both MLB and minor league levels. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship of role models with role model existence, role model quality, gender career barriers, business leader self-efficacy, cognitive leader self-efficacy, and future leadership expectations of women working in management positions in professional baseball organizations. The sample included 233 women who worked in administrative positions in professional baseball. Five major findings were (a) the importance of the presence/quality of a role model, (b) participants indicated no gender preference for a role model, (c) women who had a female role model scored significantly different between MLB and minor league levels on business leader self-efficacy, (d) future leader expectation had a positive relationship with leader self-efficacy and a negative relationship with career barriers, and (e) women saw themselves as role models wanting to help newcomers in their organization.

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