Effects of social interaction and transformational leadership on sport event volunteers’ perception of team member exchange

Abstract

This study contributes to the management of sport event volunteers, where particular team member exchange is crucial in promoting teamwork among sport event volunteers. The objectives of this study are 1) to examine the effects of social interaction and transformational leadership on the sport event volunteers’ perception of team member exchange and 2) to examine the interaction effect between social interaction and transformational leadership on the sport event volunteers’ perception of team member exchange. This study employed a field experiment and a post-experiment interview at the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League Thailand. Subjects (n = 64) were assigned by stratified random sampling into four groups. Each group has one leader and fifteen volunteer staff. Four post-experiment interview groups were conducted on the last day of the event. An independent t-Test was conducted to test the main effect, and an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted to test the interaction effect. The thematic analysis was used to analyze data from the post-experiment interview. The result showed that social interaction and transformational leadership did not significantly affect sport event volunteers’ perception of team member exchange. However, the post-experiment interview results indicate that, instead of social interaction and leadership, previous experience, similar background , mutual interest, and empowering leadership are vital factors for the perception of team member exchange. Further discussion and contributions are discussed in the study.