Paradoxical leadership, athlete well-being, and performance satisfaction: The mediating role of the coach-athlete relationship

Few studies have regarded coaches’ behaviour as two ends of a continuum in investigating their leadership. This study employed a continuum perspective, investigating the links between coaches’ paradoxical leadership, athlete well-being, performance satisfaction, and the coach-athlete relationship. A total of 279 athletes (male = 150, female = 129; Mage = 20.76, SD = 1.96) who engaged in various sports participated in this study, which required participants to complete an online, multi-section questionnaire. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed for data analysis. The analysis indicated positive and significant paths (β ranging from .40 to .79) between paradoxical leadership and athlete well-being, performance satisfaction, as well as the coach-athlete relationship. The bootstrap approach suggested that the coach-athlete relationship explained the relationship between paradoxical leadership and athlete well-being as well as performance satisfaction (β ranging from .34 to .75; 95% CIs excluded the number zero). The results suggested that paradoxical behaviours have a significant role in supporting athletes, through which the coach could create a quality microenvironment with the athlete, contributing to both well-being and performance satisfaction. This study directly examined paradoxical leadership and its relationship with athletes’ outcomes, which has significant implications for the knowledge of fluctuations in leadership.