Replication Data for: "Unlocking the Power of ‘Us’: Longitudinal Evidence that Identity Leadership Predicts Team Functioning and Athlete Well-Being"

The social identity approach has become an important framework for understanding effective leadership in sport contexts. More specifically, leaders’ identity leadership (i.e., their capacity to cultivate shared social identity — a shared sense of ‘we’ — in their teams) is argued to be an important basis for effective leadership. The present study is the first to longitudinally examine the relative impact of coaches’ and athlete leaders’ identity leadership on athletes’ identification with their team. In addition, we tested whether athletes’ team identification mediated the relationships with key team and individual outcomes. To investigate these research questions, 18 sport teams (N = 279; 54% female athletes) completed a questionnaire early and late in their regular season competition. To analyse these data, we conducted structural equation modelling and controlled both for baseline values and the nested structure of our data. Results revealed that it was mainly the identity leadership of athlete leaders (and not of the coach) early in the season that predicted athletes’ team identification later in the season. This increased team identification in turn fed into both team outcomes (i.e., task climate, team resilience, team performance) and individual outcomes (i.e., well-being, burnout, and individual performance). The mediating role of team identification suggests that by building a shared sense of ‘we’, athlete leaders can improve their team’s effectiveness and enhance athletes’ well-being. Accordingly, we can conclude that empowering athlete leaders and strengthening their identity leadership skills is an important way to unlock sport teams’ full potential.