Motivational climate in sports teams: Situational vs. dispositional determinants

The achievement theory in sports assumes that motivation is a function of dispositional characteristics of individuals and characteristics of sports environment. Environmental factors are means used by individuals to create inner, relevant motivational drives, whereas the interpersonal context of sporting activities is an important factor which influences perception of athletes. Their interaction determines motivational climate which is compounded from a sequence of factors like goals of individual athletes, evaluations and awards for their striving, and requirements regarding interpersonal relations with the rest of the participants in the sports context. There are two basic paradigms of motivational climate: Mastery and Performance. It is assumed that dispositional (goal orientation) and environmental (coach's leadership behaviour) factors influence motivational climate patterns. The aim of the study was to determine correlations of athletes' goal orientation and coaches' 804 leadership behaviour with the aspects of perceived motivational climate in two sports and to investigate to which extent it is possible to predict dimensions of motivational climate from the assessments of athletes' individual goal orientation and the assessments of coach's leadership behaviour. A sample of young Croatian basketball and football players participated in the study. Hierarchical regression analysis indicates that the situational factors are more important for prediction of the mastery-oriented motivational climate than the dispositional factors, whereas quite the opposite is valid for prediction of the performance-oriented motivational climate.