A study on decision making styles and problem solving skills of sport managers

The aim of this study was to determine problem solving and decision making styles of sports managers who working in General Sports Directory and provincial organization of, and sports federations and establish effects of demographic characteristics on think and decision making styles. Also, the study was carried out to establish the relationship between problem solving and decision making styles. The sample of the study consisted of 215 sports managers. Data collection tool was "The Problem Solving Inventory" developed by Heppner and Petersen (1982) and adapted to Turkish by Şahin, Şahin and Heppner (1993). Other data collection tool was"The Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire" developed by Mann et al. (1998) and adapted to Turkish by Deniz (2004) There were significant differences between both sport managers' self-esteem in decision making and decision making styles scale points according to the level of education (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between sport managers' graduated areas in self-esteem in decision making, careful decision making, dilatory decision making sub-dimensions (p>0.05). Significant differences were found between sports managers' graduated areas in avoidant decision-making and panic decision-making sub-dimensions (p<0.05).Significant differences were found between participants' self-esteem in decision making, careful decision making, avoidant decision making and panic decision making scale points according to duration of service years (p<0.05). When sports managers' problem solving skills were compared, significant differences were found between the levels of education in hasty approach, minded approach, evaluative approach, self-confident approach sub-dimensions (p<0.05). Problem-solving skills were found to be significant differences in all the sub-dimensions according to durations of service years (p<0.05). There were no significant differences between sports managers working the central and provincial administrations in all the sub-dimensions of problem solving skills (p>0.05). As a result, it were determined that very few of sport managers graduated from a school related to sport. In the first years of management, sports managers may generally use avoidant decision making style. It may be thought that sports managers with lower levels of education are more prone to avoidant decision making style. In addition, sport managers favor commonly careful decision making style. It may be said that sport managers' problem solving skills increase while their levels of education rise. In the first years of management, they are unsuccessful in term of problem solving. But, they improve their problem solving skills in later years. Key Words: Problem Solving; Self-esteem in Decision Making; Decision Making Styles; Sports Manager.