LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES EXPERIENCED BY ELITE SOUTH AFRICAN RUGBY COACHES

South African rugby performances have shown a decline in international competitions in recent years as is evident from its move down the World Rugby Rakings. The present study aimed to gain a deeper understanding of this problem by investigating the leadership challenges experienced among a group of key role players within South African rugby, namely the head coaches of elite South African rugby teams that compete on an international level. A qualitative, phenomenological methodology was utilised, which collected data by means of in-depth interviews from six participants. The general systems theory was used as theoretical basis. The data revealed three main themes, namely environmental, relationships and personal leadership challenges. The data revealed that these coaches experience significant leadership challenges that are contributing to the problem, some of which are unique to the South African context. Recommendations to alleviate these challenges as well as for further research were included.

Sleutel woorde: Leierskap, uitdagings, rugby, afrigters, sport, elite  The author guidelines of the Leadership Quarterly described in section 2.1 of this minidissertation stipulate adherence to any editorial and referencing style preferred by the author.
As such, it was selected to also make use of the American Psychological Association"s Publication manual (6 th edition) for purposes of the article. The page numbering in this minidissertation is consecutive, starting from the introduction.
Prof Jan Visagie and Prof Pieter Kruger, the co-authors of the article: Leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches in Section II of this minidissertation granted their consent for submission of the said article for examination purposes, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MBA degree. The numbering of the tables is restarted in Section II. For publication purposes, the referencing in this mini-dissertation is restarted in every section. This mini-dissertation also received a Turn-it-in report within accepted norms.

Letter of permission
Permission is hereby granted for the submission by the first author, Prof JC Du Plooy, of the following mini-dissertation for examination purposes, towards partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Business Administration at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University: Leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches.
The roles of the co-authors were as follows: Prof Jan Visagie acted as supervisor and assisted with the conception, design, and peer review of this study. Prof Pieter Kruger acted as the co-supervisor and also assisted with the conception, design, and peer review of this study.
(Signature on hard copy) (Signature on hard copy)

Background
Rugby union (henceforth referred to as "rugby") is a popular, high-intensity, full contact team sport played by millions of people throughout the world. It is mainly played in two formats, namely by seven or 15 players per side (Heyns, 2012). A 15-player per-side rugby match consists of two halves of forty minutes each, with a ten-to twenty-minute interval between halves. A rugby match is characterised by various high-intensity activities such as sprints, accelerations from a static position, rucking, mauling, tackling and breaking through tackles (Gill, Beaven, & Cook, 2006;Suzuki, Umeda, Nakaji, Shimoyama, Mashiko, & Sugawara, 2004). Rugby is regarded as one of the most popular, professional team sports in the world with nearly 200 countries affiliated with World Rugby (Brooks, Fuller, Kemp & Reddin, 2005;Kemp, Hudson, Brooks & Fuller, 2008).
In South Africa, rugby has historically been regarded as a sport predominantly played and dominated by white males (Engh & Potgieter, 2016). After the newly elected democratic government came into power in 1994, this, however, changed with all racial groups and both sexes since then being represented at all levels of the sport throughout South Africa. According to Brown, Verhagen, Viljoen, Readhead, Van Mechelen, Hendricks, and Lambert (2012), approximately 400 000 players of all racial groups and both sexes were participating in rugby on a recreational, amateur and professional level in South Africa by 2011. By 2014, South Africa had a total of 418 509 players, of whom 342 316 were registered players according to World Rugby (World Rugby Year in Review, 2016). Between 2013 and 2014, the number of female rugby players alone had risen to 267 000 worldwide, indicating a substantial increase in interest in the sport from all sectors of society, including South Africa (Birch, 2015). Women"s sevens rugby was also regarded as the fastest growing sport in the world according to a report by the Commission of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) in 2016, after its establishment as an Olympic sport in the same year (HSBC, 2016).

The business of rugby
Following the Rugby World Cup in 1995, the International Rugby Board (IRB), currently known as World Rugby, repealed the rules with regard to amateurism and as a result rugby became a professional sport (Treasure, Carpenter & Power, 2000). Given the popularity and continuous growth of rugby across the globe highlighted in the introduction, it becomes apparent that from a business perspective the sport has also shown significant growth. This was clearly indicated by the amounts of revenues generated worldwide by the sport since it has become a professional sport. In the 2016 annual report released by World Rugby, it was indicated that the 2015 Rugby World Cup hosted in England generated a surplus of €163 million for World Rugby alone. This amounted to a 78% increase when compared to the previous Rugby World Cup, which was hosted in 2011 by New Zealand. Furthermore, this total did not reflect additional sources of income generated from other sources for various stakeholders involved in the game, such as from corporate sponsorships, television viewing rights and the sales of merchandise, to name but a few (World Rugby Year in Review, 2016).
In addition to ticket sales from the attendance of matches by fans, the sales of sports merchandising alone form an integral part of the business generated through the sporting industry, including rugby. In 2011, PricewaterhouseCoopers (2011) predicted that revenues generated from all sport merchandising across the world would amount to US$20.1 billion by 2015. Although no forecasts of this nature could be identified for rugby alone, it was accepted that merchandising also fulfilled an important role in the commercial success of rugby in South Africa. Therefore, it becomes evident from the aforementioned discussion that along with the growing interest in rugby worldwide, when viewed from a business perspective, the sport shows significant business potential as well as continuous and rapid commercial growth, which makes it a highly attractive market for investors (World Rugby Year in Review, 2016).
Along with this growth of rugby, an increased focus has subsequently fallen on the on-field performances of elite rugby teams. This is as the revenues generated by elite teams (e.g. from television broadcasting rights as well as ticket and merchandise sales) have been found to be positively correlated to their on-field performances (Carmichael, McHale & Thomas, 2010). As such, from a business perspective, this has placed ever-increasing pressures on elite rugby teams and their coaches to perform due to the increasing financial implications at stake on their performances. In this respect, the leadership provided by the coaches of these elite teams has become of paramount importance, including within the Southern African context, where the sport is much loved and revered by a large segment of the country"s population. It is also common for the coaches of performing elite rugby teams in South Africa and in other parts of the world to be promoted as coaches to more prominent teams, such as national teams, and in the process to earn higher incomes. Simultaneously, coaches of elite teams who underperform tend to be rapidly released from their contracts and replaced by new coaches. When considering the extreme amount of pressure that this scenario places on these coaches, the leadership they provide becomes crucial to ensure the best probability of their team"s success. Sport psychologists have long recognised this tendency and therefore authors such as Fletcher and Wagstaff (2009) have called for more research to be conducted on this population to better understand organisational influences, including leadership, on the performances of elite players and teams.

Problem statement
In recent years, South Africa"s overall level of rugby performance against international competition has been inconsistent and showed a general, steady decline. South Africa"s position in the World Rugby rankings is one indicator of this trend. Table 1 shows how the country"s position has gradually declined from the number 1 ranked rugby nation in the world in 2007 (when they also won the World Cup), to the 5 th ranked team by the time this dissertation was being completed. It also shows that the country"s position has worsened in recent years from being in the number 2 position behind New Zealand in 2014 to number 7 in 2017 (World Rugby Rankings, 2018).  When considering the country"s performances in major tournaments since it was re-admitted to international competitions after 1994, South Africa has won two Rugby World Cups, in 1995 and2007, but  It was accepted that numerous variables contributed to this problem of decreasing South African rugby performances in recent years. However, given the important role that elite rugby coaches play as the leaders of these teams, the present study sought to understand what leadership challenges they were experiencing in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the problem. This is as they play a critical role in the overall performances of their teams given that, among others, they are responsible for performing critical functions that have a direct impact on on-field performances such as creating cultures, being responsible for training, as well as preparing and selecting teams for matches . From a leadership perspective, history has shown how many of the world"s current and past problems, such as unemployment, the global recession of 2008, world hunger, climate change, military conflicts and pollution, to name but a few, have all been either directly or indirectly caused by ineffective or failed leadership. In the business sector, well-known failures by companies such as Enron in the United States and Eskom within the South African context have all served as tragic examples of the devastating impact of ineffective leadership (Naidoo, 2016). Furthermore, after being excluded from the Super Rugby competition in 2013 after a string of poor performances, former Lions coach Johan Ackerman was able to significantly improve the performances of the Lions rugby side despite having fewer resources available at the time when compared to his South African counterparts (Rich, 2017).

Year
Despite the fact that numerous systemic factors were involved in the aforementioned examples, the aforementioned underscores the important role that leaders play, which may either lead to great successes or dismal failure in all spheres of human existence, including rugby at the elite level of South Africa. In the event that the leadership challenges faced by elite South African rugby coaches are not understood and adequately addressed, it is feared that it may have a further detrimental effect on the overall on-field performances of elite South African rugby teams in the future and, ultimately, of the national team. Should this occur, it may result in detrimental consequences for these coaches themselves, their assistants, their players, their administrators and other support staff in the form of decreased financial revenues and, in severe cases, termination of contracts. This is as these teams and their coaches are ultimately judged by their on-field performances. The crowd attendances of the June 2017 test series between South Africa and France were a testimony to this.
Despite a series of disappointing results in 2016, which included a first ever loss against Italy, it was expected that at least 40 000 spectators would have attended the first test of the Springboks, the South African senior national team, in the 2017 season at Loftus Versveld on 10 June 2017. However, only 29 313 spectators attended the match. The Springboks subsequently went on to win this match with a much improved on-field performance (Jacobs, 2017). This led to an increased crowd attendance of 41 806 when the two sides met again just one week later at the Growthpoint Kings Park Stadium. This match was again won by the Springboks, which, in turn, led to a further increased crowd attendance of 55 820 spectators at Ellis Park stadium a week later, during the final test between the two sides, which was also won by the Springboks (Sport24, 2017).
These figures vividly illustrated the relationship between on-field performances of elite rugby teams and, from a business perspective, the implications that this may have on the revenue streams of these teams. This, in turn, has a direct influence on the business longevity of these teams. Most spectators in South Africa therefore appear to spend their money to support teams that perform on the playing field, which makes it vital to assist the leaders of these teams, mostly in the form of their head coaches, to ensure that they continue to grow and remain sustainable. In order to do this, a thorough understanding of their leadership challenges would first need to be ascertained. As no research could be identified to have specifically researched what leadership challenges elite South African coaches were facing, the present study set out to do so.

Purpose of the study
The present study aimed to obtain a clearer understanding of identified problems discussed above by conducting in-depth unstructured interviews with the head coaches of elite South African rugby teams in order to explore what leadership challenges they were experiencing at the time.

Research objective
The present study had one primary research objective, namely to explore what leadership challenges elite South African rugby coaches were experiencing.

Significance
The significance of the present study fell on both a practical and theoretical level. Firstly, on a practical level, it was envisioned that the study would highlight the leadership challenges facing elite South African rugby coaches to add a clearer understanding of the problem statement. It was believed that this, in turn, would allow potential solutions to be recommended in order to eliminate or at least ameliorate some of these challenges. It is was believed that it would also serve as a catalyst to start solving the problem described in the problem statement by supporting these coaches to become more successful leaders and, in the process, improve the on-field performances of their teams through more effective leadership that would be tailored for the unique challenges they faced within the South African context. It was also believed that this would improve the teams they lead from a business perspective to not only grow, but also to remain sustainable, especially in the current uncertain economic climate prevailing in South Africa at the time. Secondly, on a theoretical level, it was believed that the study would expand on existing theoretical knowledge in the fields of applied sport psychology and leadership in elite South African sport, with specific reference to rugby. It was also hoped to expand the general systems theory (GST) that formed the theoretical basis for the study. Finally, it was envisioned that the results may be transferred to the wider sporting and business communities in South Africa. This was important given the apparent gap that was identified to exist in the current literature of research into elite South African sport and among elite rugby coaches in particular.

Motivation
A positive correlation has been found to exist in the literature between business success and effective leadership practices by management, such as by CEOs, both in South Africa and abroad (Eisenbeiss & Knippenberg, 2015;Sethibe & Steyn, 2015). Similarly, it may be argued that elite sports teams, such as elite rugby teams, are also forms of private businesses led by managers, which include, among others, their head coaches. The leadership provided by a CEO and other managers in private organisations as well as head coaches of elite sports teams can therefore have a detrimental or optimal impact on the overall performances of their organisations or teams (Arnold, Fletcher & Molyneux, 2012;Karakitapoğlu-Aygün & Gumusluoglu, 2013). Given the amount of pressure, focus, financial implications and interest currently involved in elite rugby in South Africa and the rest of the world, it therefore becomes paramount to understand what leadership challenges elite South African rugby coaches are currently experiencing. It is as if following rugby"s transformation from amateurism to professionalism the sport has become increasingly commercialised. This has led to an increased interest among scholars in the factors that might contribute to rugby performance, including the performance of elite coaches (Mellalieu, 2008).
When considering the gradual decline in performances by elite South African rugby teams in comparison with other elite rugby teams from other countries in recent years, as explained in the problem statement, it has become increasingly important and also served to motivate the present study. Once these challenges have been identified and are better understood, intervention strategies could be devised that may be tailored for the unique South African environment to assist these coaches to become more effective leaders and, in turn, have an optimal impact on the performance outcomes of their teams. In combination, this may also lead to an improvement of on-field performances by all South African rugby teams against international competition in the future and in doing so start to better understand and address the problem.

Thesis statement
An awareness of the challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches will offer an improved understanding and contribute towards the solution to the current problem of the gradual decline of elite South African teams" on-field performances against international competition without compromising the identity and employment security of elite coaches, assistant coaches, other staff, players or administrators.

Delineation
The present study focused exclusively on the leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches from their own perspectives. This included all head coaches who met the inclusion criteria and who were based in South Africa. It did not include the leadership challenges experienced by players, administrators, assistant coaches, other members of team management (such as medical staff), or any other individuals in leadership positions within elite South African rugby. Furthermore, it did not include elite coaches from other countries as the study exclusively focused on the unique South African context. Finally, it did not include nonprofessional South African coaches such as those coaching on amateur or school levels, as this also fell outside the scope of the present study and could be explored in additional future research.

Research question
The present study contained one primary research question that was posed to the participants, namely: What leadership challenges are you currently experiencing as an elite South African rugby coach? Further probing questions were also put to the coaches in cases where they did not spontaneously elaborate in their answer to this question.

Theory base
The general systems theory (GST), as first postulated by the biologist Ludwig Von Bertallanfy (1972), was selected to serve as the theoretical base for the present study. According to this theory, individuals form part of interlocking systems, e.g. the individual, the family, the organisation and the community (Goldenberg and Goldenberg, 2008). The participants were, as such, seen from this perspective to also form part of various systems on different levels that mutually interacted with and influenced one another. As such, a change made to one part of these systems would inadvertently affect all the other parts. These systems included the teams where they were contracted, which, in turn, formed part of the larger system of the South African community that included organisations such as the South African Rugby Union (SARU).
The GST is a well-known theory that has been adopted in multiple disciplines such as economics and ecological studies, to name but a few. The GST consists of a series of postulates and assumptions that are related to all levels of systems, e.g. from the smallest atomic particles to people, families, organisations, societies and ultimately, galaxies. Due to this flexibility as a theoretical framework, it was also adopted by psychology where it led to the development of the family systems theory . In a paper by Iwu, Kapondoro, Twum-Darko, and Lose. (2016), it was also showed how the GST could be applied to the field of human resource management, a field within the discipline of industrial psychology that is primarily concerned with the psychology and wellbeing of employees in the workplace. This is, as it proved to be a, flexible theory to allow an understanding of how various parts of a system interacted and mutually influenced each other. As such, it was also deemed the most appropriate theoretical foundation for the present study, as it allowed a clear description of how challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches that originated from various systems all impacted them. It also allowed for a flexible vantage point from which to propose potential interventions to resolve these challenges in the future by punctuating from different levels of the systems in which these coaches functioned.
The following part of this section will briefly elaborate on the theory itself in the interest of clarity for the reader. In evaluating only parts of a system, Von Bertalanffy (1972) was the first to conclude that it would be insufficient to understand the whole system in such a way. He therefore recommended that the parts should rather be studied in combination with specific reference to their relationships and interactions with each other in order to fully understand the whole system. This referred to the characteristic of non-summativity of systems (Phipps & Vorster, 2011). Therefore, according to , whatever affects one part of the system will also affect the other parts of it in some way. As such, a system is more than merely the sum of its different parts. If one part is changed or altered, the entire system as a whole is inadvertently also altered. In studying a system, it is therefore important to look at the system as a whole and to understand how its various parts are interdependent and mutually influencing each other.
In addition to the characteristics described above, systems also possess certain additional characteristics. A system"s ability to remain unchanged during times of change or to change during times of stability must be finely balanced to prevent it from disintegrating into chaos or to stagnate in isolation. As such, the characteristic of morphostasis refers to a system"s ability to maintain stability or dynamic equilibrium that is achieved by maintaining its position within the larger-, or supra-system. By contrast, morphogenesis refers to the characteristic of a system to enhance itself, which allows for maturity, advancement and innovation to take place within the system at the same time as morphostasis. These two characteristics can be described as two sides of the same coin and are both required if a system is to function optimally (Haarhof, 2011;Goldenberg, & Goldenberg, 2008).
Another characteristic, homeostasis, refers to a system"s efforts to maintain stability and resist change. This is influenced by another characteristic, namely feedback. As the process of reinserting the results of past performances back into the system as a way to control and ensure its survival, feedback occurs in a circular manner through interaction with the environment. Negative feedback loops trigger changes required by a system to proverbially get it "back on track", which ensures homeostasis in the face of change. By contrast, positive feedback loops lead to further change by accelerating initial changes. Systems require both to function optimally as positive feedback allows new information to be integrated that will allow growth in the face of change, while negative feedback prevents new information to be integrated and thereby protects the integrity of the system, where appropriate, and, in doing so, in order to maintain the status quo.
Closely related to these characteristics are the characteristics of open and closed systems, where open systems are those that allow a continuous flow of information to and from the external environment and closed systems maintain firm boundaries that do not allow for much information to flow to and from it into the external environment. Systems can also hold varying degrees of openness and closeness. In this regard, systems all have unique boundaries and rules that characterise them (Haarhof, 2011, Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2008.
The rules of a system encompass the characteristic and repetitive patterns that take place within it, while also providing information of what values the system upholds and what behaviours are regarded as appropriate within. Boundaries refer to invisible lines of demarcation that separate systems from one another and aid in defining the autonomy of systems to differentiate themselves from smaller sub-systems and larger, supra-systems as depicted in Figure 1 below .

Supra-System
Boundaries also serve to regulate the spread of one system, known as its output, to another system, referred to as input. The degree to which information is shared between systems is regulated by the permeability of its boundaries, and where this takes place freely, a system can be viewed as an open system. By contrast, systems with highly impermeable boundaries result in those systems being described as closed systems. Finally, GST brought a significant shift when studying and understanding phenomena to focus on the process, meaning how change occurs over time (Haarhof, 2011, Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2008. The present study incorporated and utilised the aforementioned aspects to describe elite South African rugby coaches within the systems, including the sub-and supra-systems in which they functioned to obtain a clearer understanding of the leadership challenges they experienced within these various systems that impacted them. The following section will highlight the limited literature that could be identified related to the topic under investigation.

General literature review
An exploration of leadership challenges experienced by elite rugby coaches was undertaken to provide the reader with a critical and factual evaluation of related work currently in existence within the literature. The databases and search engines consulted for this purpose included PsycInfo, PsychArticles, SportDiscus with full text, Academic search premier, ERIC-Database, MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, Google, Google Scholar, SAGE Publications, JSTOR, SA ePublications, SABINET, and the North-West University Institutional Repository. While the primary focus of this study was on leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches, very limited research regarding leadership styles and the challenges facing elite rugby coaches both in South Africa and other countries could be identified. As such, other sports and studies, as closely related to the topic as possible, were also included to further substantiate the study. These findings are highlighted in the following sections.
Effective leadership has been found to be sought-after in almost all types of industries around the globe, including elite sport. This is as, among other factors, it has been found to be a stronger predictor of promotion than intellectual ability (Germain, 2012). Much debate, however, continues to rage in the literature regarding the actual definition of leadership as a construct to the extent that some authors such as Jian and Fairhurst (2017) had adopted the position of not defining the concept at all given its complexity and how it may differ between contexts. Yukl (2012) further explained that most definitions of leadership viewed it as a process where influence was purposefully being exerted over individuals with the aim of guiding, structuring and facilitating activities as well as relationships within a particular group or organisation. For the purpose of the present study, the definition of leadership by Woods and West (2016) was, however, adopted for its simplicity: "A specialised role that an individual occupies and the process of influence" (p. 381).
In addition to the difficulty of defining the concept, various scholars also hold different beliefs as to whether leadership is innate or whether it can be taught. Those who argue that it can be taught believe that once this had been done it can play a critical role in the leader"s personal and professional life (Germain, 2012;Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1991). Youssef and Luthans (2012) also indicated that leadership is an important skill to possess, particularly when one wishes to establish a competitive edge over others. However, as Woods and West (2016) explained, determining the effectiveness of leadership will depend on numerous variables and, as a result, it should rather be evaluated within the context that it is taking place and being evaluated.
As alluded to previously, numerous speculations have been made regarding what was contributing to the problem of decreasing South African rugby performances in recent years; however, no scientific research studies could be identified that had inquired from elite South African rugby coaches what challenges they experienced. This was most likely due to an inability by other researchers to gain access to this population of coaches as well as the potential reluctance by them to take part in such research. One important reason for this could be that coaches want to protect their identities in order to avoid any detrimental consequences for themselves and their teams, especially if their views were not well received by some. Furthermore, very few studies could be identified from the literature that had specifically investigated the leadership challenges experienced by coaches from rugby.
Those that were found included a study conducted in the United Kingdom (UK) by Thelwell, Weston, and Greenless (2010), who interviewed three elite sports coaches to examine the stresses they were experiencing and the coping strategies they employed to cope with them. The sample included an elite soccer, cricket and rugby coach, respectively. Results grouped their primary stresses under performance and organisational stressors. All of the coaches referred to performance stressors to relate to poor on-field performances of their teams. The rugby coach in particular referred to stress experienced by players not adhering to game plans and fulfilling their potential during competitive games. In terms of organisational stressors, this coach also highlighted how selection serves as a significant stressor to him, mostly due to player injuries. Finally, he also experienced stress related to working with assistant coaches who held conflicting views on aspects such as game plans and training approaches. These findings were, however, limited by only including the views of this single elite rugby coach (Thelwell et al., 2010).
Another related UK-based study, by Arnold et al. (2012), investigated performance leadership and management in elite sport among 13 national performance directors of Olympic sports. The study made use of a qualitative approach by means of individual interviews. Results identified four main themes, namely vision, operations, people and culture. The most prominent vision challenges reported by the participants were vision development, influences on the vision, and sharing the vision. The most prominent operations challenges included financial management, strategic competition and training planning, athlete selection and upholding rules and regulations.
The main people-related challenges included staff management, lines of communication, and feedback mechanisms. Finally, the main culture challenges included establishing role awareness, and organisational and team atmosphere. The study was, however, limited in that it did not include rugby union coaches.
Another study, by Orlowski, Wicker, and Breuer (2016), investigated which challenges may have contributed towards the probability that elite German sports coaches would have vacated their positions. Their results were obtained via an online survey, which included a sample of 1 860 coaches from 45 different sporting codes. The survey presented coaches with 10 possible scenarios that may contribute to their deciding to leave their positions. In each of these scenarios, the potential coaching position at different locations varied with regard to income, contract length, workload, responsibility for personnel, reputation of the new job, career perspectives, sporting performance of athletes, distance from Germany and the language that would be predominantly required from them in the new job. The respondents were requested to indicate the possibility that they would accept such a position. Results of a regression analysis indicated that higher income, contracts of longer duration, responsibility for personnel and being able to speak the required language significantly increased the probability that a coach would accept a new position, while distances of nine flight hours and more, lower reputation of the position and career perspectives reduced it. The study was limited in the sense that it did not indicate whether rugby coaches were included in the sample or why coaches gave the responses that they did and may therefore not be as applicable to the present study.
In a South African study, Surujlal and Mafini (2011) investigated the reasons why coaches left their positions as well as what challenges they faced. The study investigated the management of professional sports coaches in sport organisations affiliated with the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC). It investigated the perceptions of human resource managers in sport organisations on how South African elite sports coaches were being managed and made use of a mixed-method approach. A sample of 450 human resource managers completed an online survey and in-depth interviews were also conducted with 10 of them. Results revealed recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation, and job security to be lacking and requiring improvement when it came to the management of elite South African sports coaches. The authors further noted that demographic changes, workforce diversity, changing managerial and coaching skills requirements and government legislation were all unique aspects of the South African sporting context that were also changing the very nature of sport organisations in the country. As such, they warned that if these human resource-related challenges of elite South African sport coaches were not addressed, it could lead to them leaving their positions. The study was, however, limited in that it did not inquire directly from coaches themselves what their views were in this respect.
Another South African study by Pelser-Carstens, Keyser, and Surujlal (2015) also investigated reasons why elite South African coaches resigned from their positions. They focused on the relationship between sport coaches" social contract, performance, workload, anxiety and how these variables influenced these coaches" intentions to resign. This study requested a sample of 151 coaches based in Gauteng to complete the social contract scale, perceived performance scale, workload scale, anxiety scale and intention to quit scale to collect the data. The findings of this study revealed no significant relationship to exist between the social contract and perceived performance. However, a significant relationship was found between coaches" perceived performance and a negative relationship between the social contract and anxiety of sport coaches.
Increased workload and anxiety were also found to have the potential to influence coaches" overall performance levels and intentions to resign. The study was, however, limited in only representing coaches from Gauteng and did not indicate whether any rugby coaches were included in the sample.
These studies were the only related ones that could be identified from the literature that highlighted a general paucity of research into the field of leadership challenges experienced by elite sport coaches, particularly within the South African context. Furthermore, no studies could be found that had specifically focused on the leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches. It was envisioned that the present study would therefore significantly contribute towards limiting this gap in the research upon its completion. Following a review of the limited available literature on the topic, the following section will highlight the assumptions that the researchers made while conducting the present study.

Assumptions
The problem as indicated under the problem statement section was assumed to be complex and to have numerous factors contributing towards it. When considering the critically important role that elite coaches play in the success and failure of their teams, it was further assumed that they form a critical factor towards gaining a better understanding of this problem. As such, the challenges they face as elite South African rugby coaches were deemed critical to be understood. This is as these challenges can only be resolved or ameliorated once they had been scientifically explored and clearly understood. If this could be achieved, it was assumed that such an understanding could provide a starting point from where to start resolving or at least ameliorating these challenges as far as possible and by doing so start contributing towards improving the on-field performances of South African teams again in the future. The study exclusively focused on elite South African rugby coaches as it was also assumed that different variables and dynamics influenced the leadership challenges experienced by coaches from other countries and coaches at non-professional levels, e.g. school-and club-level coaches. Finally, the researchers assumed, for the purpose of this study, that leadership is a skill that can be taught and developed. The following section will highlight how the present investigation took place.

Empirical investigation
A qualitative research approach was used in the present study as it was explorative and descriptive in nature. Qualitative studies seek to understand participants" perspectives of their world, meaning how they view the situations being examined (Cresswell, 2009). Furthermore, qualitative research makes use of rich data gathering methods in the form of written or spoken language, which allows for in-depth and descriptive data to be obtained from participants (Howitt, 2010). This approach allowed the unique perceptions and experiences of the participants that were specific to them as individuals to be obtained. It further allowed the researcher to provide a credible account of collected data . A qualitative approach was deemed the most suitable approach to have explored and describe the participants" experiences of the leadership challenges they experienced as elite South African rugby coaches.
A phenomenological qualitative research design was utilised. When considering that the essence of this research project was to capture the unique perspectives of each participant by using their descriptive attributions to construct their realities, it was deemed the most suitable qualitative design to utilise. The phenomenological approach facilitated the attainment of the the aim since it captivated an understanding of the participants" lived experiences, which included their own subjective perceptions as well as the environmental factors that contributed to their lived experiences (Cresswell, 2009;Fouche & Schurink, 2011. The underlying tenets of the phenomenological approach made it the most suitable design in view of the research to capture the essence of the participants" understanding and experience of leadership.

Participants.
The inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants in the present study are highlighted next.

Inclusion criteria:
 Elite South African head rugby coaches of professional rugby teams participating at an international or multinational level, such as Super Rugby.
 Prospective participants had to provide voluntary informed consent for their data to be used for research purposes.

The exclusion criteria:
 Coaches of recreational, non-professional South African rugby teams such as clubs and schools where players participated for leisure, on a part-time basis and who were not remunerated.
 Elite rugby coaches from professional rugby teams from other countries.
 Prospective participants who were illiterate in English or Afrikaans as the researchers were only able to converse in these languages.
The following section will highlight the rationale for selecting the stated criteria. The target group for this study consisted of elite South African rugby coaches who were appointed in their roles at the time when data was being collected. To be regarded as an elite South African rugby coach, the team that the coach led was required to be an elite South African rugby team, namely a professional team that participated in professional competitions against teams from other countries, either at international level (such as national teams) or at multi-national level (such as Super Rugby and Pro 14) with full-time contracted players, administrators, support staff and coaches who are remunerated for their participation. Coaches from recreational and non-professional teams such as schools and clubs where players and administrators were not remunerated for their participation and who took part in the sport on a part-time basis were regarded as non-professional South African rugby coaches. These coaches were not included in the present study as it was believed that different pressures and variables influenced the leadership challenges of coaches on elite and nonprofessional levels. Furthermore, only head coaches were included for this purpose given their more senior roles as leaders in their respective teams. This is as final decision-making of matters that directly influence on-field performances ultimately resides with head coaches. In most cases, assistant coaches and other members of team management may advise head coaches; however, it is the head coaches who are finally responsible for decision-making and the team"s performances, e.g. team selection and training schedules. Furthermore, elite rugby coaches from other countries were also excluded as the present study sought to exclusively explore the unique South African context.

Sampling
Participants were recruited by means of purposive sampling. Purposive sampling involves selecting research participants according to the need of the study and determining which participants will best provide rich and dense information that will facilitate insight into the research question (Devers & Frankel, 2000). Regarding the intended sample size, this study aimed to explore the common perception and understanding among a relatively small group of similar individuals (Guest, Bunce & Johnson, 2006). For the purpose of this study, 11 elite South African rugby teams were considered in no particular order: The Springboks national 15"s rugby team, the Springbok Men"s sevens team, the Springboks Women"s sevens team, the Springboks Under 20 team, the Springboks Under 19 team, the Sharks Super Rugby team, the Bulls Super Rugby team, the Lions Super Rugby team, the Stormers Super Rugby team, the Kings Pro 14 team and the Cheetahs Pro 14 team. Six head coaches of these teams finally participated in the study, which amounted to a 54.5% representation of the total population This was regarded to be a suitable representation for the present study and saturation of the data was therefore determined by this maximum number of participants who had participated, and the richness of the data that was generated from their experiences .

Definitions
The following definitions were adopted for the present study:  Leadership: "A specialised role that an individual occupies and the process of influence" (Woods & West, 2016, p. 381).
 Challenge: "The situation of being faced with something that needs great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person's ability" (Challenge, 2018

Ethical considerations
All of the participants in the present study are well known by the public given their current positions. Although relatively sensitive information was communicated by them during the answering of the open-ended and follow-up questions, the estimated risk level to them was still considered to be low. This was mainly because the sample was not considered to be made up of highly vulnerable participants and it was ensured that their identities and any information that could have led to the deduction of their identities was not revealed at any time. Furthermore, the topic under investigation required of participants to share their experiences of leadership challenges and this was not regarded to be of a highly sensitive or personal nature. Given that the primary concern of any research study is the welfare of the participants, the participants in the present study were treated with respect and dignity at all times by acknowledging their right to make choices based on their own values and preferences (National Commission, 1978, APA, 2002. The physical and psychological well-being of the participants for this study was therefore ensured at all times as debriefing services were made available for any participant who may have experienced any emotional discomfort throughout the research process. None of the participants, however, made use of this service. The risk of potential harm is always present in any research study. The researcher therefore further emphasised the psychological and/or physical comfort of the participants at all times by providing clear and detailed information about the study and by having also stressed that their participation was completely voluntary. Voluntary participation ensured beneficence and nonmalfeasance throughout the entire process (APA, 2002). As mentioned previously, for this purpose, an independent psychologist was available to debrief the participants if needed and no form of incentive or reimbursement was offered to the participants for their participation.

Trustworthiness
The model of Lincoln and Guba was used to ensure trustworthiness of this study. This model focuses on four aspects, namely credibility, dependability, conformability and transferability (Krefting, 1991). The study leader and an independent psychologist reviewed the interviews to further ensure that no themes were excluded or eliminated from the collected data.
With the first aspect, namely credibility, confidence in the certainty of the findings was based on the experience and perception of the participants. If individuals from the population recognised the description of the findings, it could be viewed as an accurate portrayal of the data.
Certain methodological strategies such as triangulation, member checking and the researcher continuously reflecting on the research ensured strong credibility (Krefting, 1991;Tracey, 2010).
Secondly, dependability indicates how consistent the findings are and that it could be repeated. A qualitative researcher considers the range of experiences and includes even the outlying experiences to describe the phenomenon under investigation (Krefting, 1991;Tracey, 2010). A co-coder assured the dependability of the data by assisting with the data analysis for this study. The third aspect from the Lincoln and Guba model emphasised neutrality, which, for this study, was ensured through conformability (Krefting, 1991). The study leader and an independent psychologist reviewed the analysis and interpretation of the data to support conformability. A dense and thick description of the data collected from the participants ensured transferability. Transferability allows the collected data to be compared across different contexts (Krefting, 1991). Therefore, the researcher attempted to sufficiently describe the leadership challenges facing elite South African rugby coaches to such an extent that it could applied within another. Finally, phenomenology expects of the researcher to render an unbiased report by putting aside their own views and opinions in order to convey the authentic meaning of the participants" descriptions (Cresswell, 2009). The researcher made a conscious effort throughout the research process to try and put aside his own views and render such an unbiased report as far as possible.

Data storage
The data was stored on the researcher"s password-protected computer for the duration of the project. The researcher monitored access to the data at all times. Physical data was also kept in a locked cabinet inside the researcher"s office on the North-West University"s Potchefstroom Campus. Audio recordings of the interviews were copied to an external storage device once it had been transcribed and was also locked away with the physical data. The data will be stored for a minimum of six years and destroyed thereafter.

Professional competency
The study adhered to the professional values and guidelines as prescribed by the HPCSA to ensure replicability, clarity and objectivity of the research process and findings (Health Professions Act 56 of 1974). The researcher strived at all times to remain honest and maintain integrity throughout the duration of the study. The researcher further remained cognisant of his obligation and responsibility for providing a competent, ethical and honest service to society. The researcher therefore always acted professionally and maintained objectivity towards the participants. As an associate professor and staff member of the NWU, the researcher also has experience in the field of research that included the field of phenomenological research. His own PhD study followed the same approach and as such also included interviews with participants. As a registered clinical psychologist with the HPCSA, the researcher was also well trained in the skill of conducting interviews, including unstructured research interviews. Furthermore, working under the competent guidance of an experienced supervisor and co-supervisor further facilitated the professional competence of the researcher and ensured the scientific integrity and rigor of the study. The following steps will highlight the procedure that was followed to conduct the present study in a step-by-step format.

Procedure
The study was conducted in accordance with the following steps: Step 1: After the necessary ethical approval (view addendum B) had been obtained from the contacted the prospective participants for the present study telephonically. Due to his longstanding work within South African rugby as a performance consultant for a number of these teams, he knew most of the current elite South African rugby coaches on a personal basis. During their initial conversation, he briefly introduced the topic and the procedure of the study to them and gauged whether they would be willing to participate.
Step 2: With verbal permission from the respective coaches, Prof Kruger then forwarded their contact details to the researcher. The researcher contacted each of the coaches telephonically to verbally explain the aim of the study and to obtain their assent to participate. Those who provided their assent were next sent informed consent documents (view Addendum C) for the study via email and allowed a 48-hour period to contemplate their participation in the study again.
During this period, they were requested to thoroughly read through the informed consent form and ask any questions they may have had regarding the proposed study or informed consent form, either via email or telephonically at any time. Any questions were then answered as soon as possible so as to ensure that all aspects regarding the study were clear and understandable.
It was also emphasised to them that participation in this study was completely voluntary and for that purpose written informed consent would be obtained from them. The informed consent was compiled in an understandable language and provided information regarding the nature as well as the activities of the study (National Commission, 1978;APA, 2002). The participants were further informed that they would not be penalised in any way if they withdrew from study and that they would receive no payment or other forms of compensation for their participation. Therefore, all the participants made an informed decision to share their experiences of the leadership challenges they were experiencing as elite South African rugby coaches voluntarily. They were also ensured that their identities would not be revealed at any time as part of this process.
Step 3: After 48 hours, the prospective participants were contacted again telephonically to verify whether they still wished to participate in the study. If so, they were requested to forward the completed informed consent documents to the researcher via email following which a date and time to conduct the in-depth interview with them was arranged. It would have been preferred to conduct the interviews in person; however, it needed to be done telephonically. This was as they had full schedules and were based around the country. As such, on a purely practical level, it was not possible for the researcher to travel to each of them to conduct the interviews in person.
Step 4: Prior to each interview, the interviewer ensured that he was alone and that the room where he was seated was quiet and free of any distractions to provide participants with the necessary privacy. Prior to starting the interviews, participants were again referred to the informed consent documents that they had completed to verify whether they still agreed to participate in the study and to ask if anything was unclear. Any questions were then answered and the participants could then read through the informed consent forms again. After confirmation had been reached that the participants wished to continue with the interview, it then commenced. The following section provides more details on the actual in-depth interviews as well as the research question.

Data collection
The data for the present study was gathered by means of in-depth, unstructured interviews.
Qualitative research explores multiple realities to gain different perspectives and understanding of the participants" social world (Ryan, Coughlan & Cronin, 2009). In-depth, unstructured interviews allow the researcher to explore meaning and perception of the participants. It also provides structure with flexibility, which leads to an increased understanding of the research question (Legard, Keegan, & Ward, 2003). Building rapport within a relatively short space of time is also possible with the in-depth unstructured interview. This fosters a safe and relaxed environment to probe the participants" personal experiences (DiCicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2006;Legard et al., 2003). This method further implies an equal relationship between the interviewer and participant, which provides a space to retrieve the participants" unique accounts or experiences. This method is not merely an attempt to collect data (DiCicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2006;Legard et al., 2003); instead, it is a conversation that facilitates unanticipated responses from the participant as well as eliciting information with greater detail and depth (Legard et al., 2003). For this study, the interview was This primary interview question was based on the research aim of the study. Additional further probing occurred depending on the responses from participants to the primary question as the in-depth unstructured interview permits probing and clarification of the answers in order to facilitate a better grasp of the leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches (Legard et al., 2003;Smith & Osborn, 2003). The researcher also used reflections and member checking to maintain objectivity and limit subjective interpretations of the participants" answers. The interviews were also recorded and transcribed verbatim by the researcher (Smith & Osborn, 2003).
Commencing with each interview, the researcher clearly indicated that an independent psychologist was on standby to debrief any participant if needed. Furthermore, no costs were involved to any participant to be part of the research. Six interviews were subsequently conducted in total, which ranged between 18.03 and 25.17 minutes. The average time of the interviews was 20.21 minutes. In ending off each interview, the researcher explained to the participants that they would each receive feedback in a timely manner via email in the form of a completed copy of the present mini-dissertation before thanking them for their participation. Polkinghorne (1989) explained that data analysis aims to identify and reveal structures, logic and interrelationships that occur among phenomena under investigation. This was done by means of thematic analysis that was selected as the primary method of analysing the data. The steps proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006) were used as the primary guideline for analysis on ATLAS.ti 8 software. These steps include familiarisation, generating initial codes, grouping codes according to similarity, reviewing of themes, defining and naming of themes and composing the final report.

Data analysis
Familiarisation occurred while the researcher transcribed the interviews by listening to the recordings of the interviews. This enabled the researcher to informally review each interview and identify any statements that had not been noticed during the actual interview. After transcribing the interviews, the researcher next read and re-read each of them again to ensure that a thorough understanding of the statements that were made by the participants was established, as recommended by Braun and Clarke (2013). Repeated immersion is also encouraged before any analyses are made as it would enable the researcher to first establish linkages within the data.
During the second phase of re-reading the transcribed interviews, the researcher was then able to generate initial categories that related specifically to leadership challenges as they were experienced by the participants. During the next phase of defining and naming the themes, the researcher then started to interpret the data. The researcher examined the codes and based on their prominence clustered them into a suitable order and relevant themes. The co-coder also independently coded the transcribed interviews. The co-coder is an experienced researcher and study leader of the present study. A consensus meeting was subsequently held to ensure that the accuracy of the data analysis phase had been achieved during which the themes by both the researcher and the co-coder were evaluated to ensure that the generated themes were reflective of the main research question as prescribed by Clarke and Braun (2013). This process also served to enhance the trustworthiness of the study by incorporating a peer-review process. The meeting also served to finalise the naming of the themes and sub-themes as depicted in Figure 2 as the aim was to capture the essence of each individual theme (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Finally, the themes were reported under the results section of the article presented in section 2 of this mini-dissertation to form a logical line of argumentation and storytelling (Braun & Clarke, 2006).

Limitations
Research within the human sciences and in particular in the fields of applied sport psychology and leadership has proven challenging for numerous researchers in the past. The present study was no different as it also had certain limitations. The sample size of six participants could be argued to have been relatively small. Furthermore, the study did not focus on possible solutions to the problem statement and also did not include the perspectives of key stakeholders pertaining to their experiences or perceptions as to what was contributing to the problem. Due to a dearth of research on the topic, limited relevant literature could also be identified, both from South Africa and other countries. However, when considering that the total population of the present study consisted of 11 coaches in total, and made use of a qualitative, phenomenological research design within which smaller numbers of participants are acceptable given that personal in-depth experiences are being investigated, six participants could nevertheless be considered to have been a sufficiently large sample size. Furthermore, as this study was conducted for the purposes of a mini-dissertation and its aim was only to ascertain a better understanding of the problem by including head coaches only, it was also deemed sufficient that only they were included as participants in the present study.
Finally, the limited amount of relevant literature that could be identified was attributed, among other reasons, to the inability of other researchers to have been able to gain access to this unique population.

Publication of findings
The findings of this study will be released and published in the Leadership Quarterly. This is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes research articles in the field of leadership. The participants will all be informed that they will each receive a copy of the completed mini-dissertation, which includes the article once it had been assessed and fully completed.

Choice and structure of the research report: Article format
The final results of this study were presented in article format, consistent with the General Regulation A.13.7 of the North-West University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a professional Master"s degree in Business Administration (MBA). This dissertation consisted of three sections, which were submitted to the North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus) for examination purposes on 21 November 2018.

Brief section overviews
Article format was the preferred structure with this mini-dissertation: As such, section 1 contextualised the present study by highlighting general background information pertaining to the study, the purpose of the study, its research objectives, problem statement, significance, motivation, research question, definitions, assumptions, delineation, theory base and a general literature review of relevant literature. Section 2 provided the reader with the article that was submitted for possible publication, including the results of the present study and a discussion thereof. Section 3 concluded the mini-dissertation with a critical review that consisted of a summary of the findings, conclusions, limitations of the study, practical recommendations emanating from the findings as well as recommendations for future research.

Conclusion
This section provided an introduction of the present study to the reader, which included a broad overview of the present study, its related concepts and theoretical base. It highlighted the purpose of the study, its research objectives, problem statement, significance, motivation, research question, definitions, assumptions, delineation and relevant literature. Section 2 will next provide the reader with the article that was submitted for publication that emerged from the present study. Ewihpqat67zUAhWIC8AKHc5lCt4QFggkMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hsbc.com%2

Introduction
The sport of rugby union (referred to as "rugby") has experienced significant growth since becoming a professional sport in 1995. Between 2013 and 2014, the number of female rugby players alone rose by 267 000 worldwide, indicating a substantial increase in interest in the sport from all sectors of society around the globe, including South Africa (Birch, 2015). Between 400 000 and 500 000 players of all racial groups and both sexes were participating in rugby on a recreational, amateur and professional level in South Africa during 2011 (Brown, Verhagen, Viljoen, Readhead, Van Mechelen, Hendricks & Lambert, 2012). This growth in participation also coincided with growth in the business of rugby. The link between performance and business in elite sports has been well researched and documented in recent years (Cruickshank & Collins, 2012).
This also held true for rugby as it was indicated in the 2016 annual report by World Rugby, the sport"s international governing body, that the 2015 Rugby World Cup, hosted in England, generated a surplus of €163 million in revenues for World Rugby alone. This amounted to a 78% increase when compared to the previous rugby world cup hosted by New Zealand in 2011. Furthermore, this total did not include additional revenues generated from other sources for other stakeholders, such as corporate sponsorships and the sales of sport merchandising (World Rugby Year in Review,

2016).
As a result of the aforementioned growth, an increasing focus also arose on the performances of professional teams. This is as the revenues generated by teams (e.g. from television broadcasting rights as well as ticket and merchandise sales) are often positively correlated to the onfield performances of these teams (Carmichael, McHale & Thomas, 2010;Morgan, 2002). This has led to ever-increasing pressures on elite rugby teams to perform. Furthermore, as leaders of these teams, it has also highlighted the critical importance and pressures of coaches to facilitate the onfield performances of their teams (Roberts, 2013).

Problem statement
In recent years, South Africa"s overall level of rugby performance has deteriorated in comparison with the rest of the world. This is evident from South Africa"s position in the World Given the critical importance of leadership in elite sport (Fletcher & Arnold, 2012), and the important impact that coaches have on on-field performances as the leaders of the teams they coach, the present study sought to understand what leadership challenges elite South African coaches were experiencing. The study also focused specifically on elite teams as it was also assumed by the researchers that it is at the elite level where the economic impact of these challenges are most felt.
In order to avoid further speculation, the paper also sought to inquire directly from elite South African coaches what challenges they were experiencing that were contributing to the aforementioned problem. The study therefore did not deal with the leadership challenges of other role players within the elite South African rugby context, such as administrators and players, nor did it include their views of what leadership challenges elite South African coaches were experiencing.
It was believed that understating these challenges may not only facilitate a clearer understanding of them, but following such an understanding, it may also highlight actions that could be taken to potentially solve or at least ameliorate them. It is further hoped that such actions may aid to improve the overall rugby performance of South African teams in the future.
Furthermore, scholars such as Greenwood, Davids, and Renshaw (2012), as well as Williams and Kendall (2007), have called for increased empirical research on the knowledge and experiences of elite coaches as they argued that this is critical to further enhance empirical research on sporting performance and leadership.

Literature review
The topic of leadership has become popular among scholars during the last 20 years. This had led to considerably more research appearing on the topic in the literature (Avolio & Yammarino, 2002;Dansereau & Yammarino, 1998). Despite this, there is still no comprehensive understanding of what leadership is and also no agreement among different theorists on what effective leadership entails. The definition of leadership by Woods and West (2016) was, however, utilised for the present study due to its simplicity, namely: "A specialised role that an individual occupies and the process of influence." (p. 381). Regarding causation of the problem as highlighted in the problem statement, it is believed that coaches of elite South African rugby teams can play a key role towards obtaining a greater understanding of the problem and in doing so provide the initial steps towards solving it. No scientific research studies could, however, be identified from the literature that had inquired what challenges they experienced. This was most likely, among other reasons, due to an inability by other researchers to have gained access to this unique population as well as the potential reluctance on the parts of these coaches to participate in such a study out of potential fear that their identities may become known and potentially lead to detrimental consequences for both themselves and their respective teams. Furthermore, very few studies could be identified from the literature that had specifically investigated the leadership challenges experienced by coaches from rugby or other sporting codes. As such, it was believed that the present study would make a unique and valuable contribution to the existing literature.
Those studies that were found included a study conducted in the United Kingdom (UK) by Thelwell, Weston, and Greenless (2010), who interviewed three elite sports coaches to examine the stresses they were experiencing and the coping strategies they employed to cope with them. The sample included an elite soccer, cricket and rugby coach, respectively. Results grouped their primary stresses under performance and organisational stressors. All of the coaches referred to performance stressors to relate to poor on-field performances of their teams. The rugby coach, in particular, referred to stress experienced by players not adhering to game plans and fulfilling their potential during competitive games. In terms of organisational stressors, this coach also highlighted how selection serves as a particular stressor to him, mostly due to player injuries. Finally, he also experienced stress related to working with assistant coaches who held conflicting views on aspects such as game plans and training approaches. These findings were, however, limited by only including the views of this single elite rugby coach (Thelwell et al., 2010).
Another related UK-based study by Arnold, Fletcher, and Molyneux (2012)  Another study by Orlowski, Wicker, and Breuer (2016) investigated which challenges may have contributed towards the probability that elite German sports coaches would have vacated their positions. Their results were obtained via an online survey that included a sample of 1 860 coaches from 45 different sporting codes. The survey presented coaches with 10 possible scenarios that may contribute to their deciding to leave their positions. In each of these scenarios, the potential coaching position at different locations varied with regard to income, contract length, workload, responsibility for personnel, reputation of the new job, career perspectives, sporting performance of athletes, distance from Germany and the language that would be predominantly required from them in the new job. The respondents were requested to indicate the possibility that they would accept such a position. Results of a regression analysis indicated that higher income, contracts of longer duration, responsibility for personnel and being able to speak the required language significantly increased the probability that a coach would accept a new position, while distances of nine flight hours and more, lower reputation of the position and career perspectives reduced it. The study was limited in the sense that it did not indicate whether rugby coaches were included in the sample or why coaches gave the responses that they did and may therefore not be applicable to the present study.
In a South African study, Surujlal and Mafini (2011) investigated the reasons why coaches left their positions as well as what challenges they faced. The study investigated the management of professional sports coaches in sport organisations affiliated with the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC). It investigated the perceptions of human resource managers in sport organisations on how South African elite sports coaches were being managed and made use of a mixed-method approach. A sample of 450 human resource managers completed an online survey and in-depth interviews were also conducted with 10 of them. Results revealed recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation, and job security to be lacking and requiring improvement when it came to the management of elite South African sports coaches. The authors further noted that demographic changes, workforce diversity, changing managerial and coaching skills requirements and government legislation were all unique aspects of the South African sporting context that were also changing the very nature of sport organisations in the country. As such, they warned that if these human resource-related challenges of elite South African sport coaches were not addressed, it could lead to them leaving their positions. The study was, however, limited in that it did not inquire directly from coaches themselves what their views were in this respect.
Another South African study by Pelser-Carstens, Keyser, and Surujlal (2015) also investigated reasons why elite South African coaches resigned from their positions. They focused on the relationship between sport coaches" social contract, performance, workload, anxiety and how these variables influenced these coaches" intentions to resign. This study requested a sample of 151 coaches based on the Gauteng Province to complete the social contract scale, perceived performance scale, workload scale, anxiety scale and intention to quit scale to collect the data. The findings of this study revealed no significant relationship to exist between the social contract and perceived performance. However, a significant relationship was found between coaches" perceived performance and a negative relationship between the social contract and anxiety of sport coaches.
Increased workload and anxiety were also found to have the potential to influence coaches" overall performance levels and intentions to resign. The study was, however, limited in only representing coaches from Gauteng and did not indicate whether any rugby coaches were included in the sample.
The aforementioned were the only related studies that could be identified from the literature, which highlighted a general paucity of research into the field of leadership challenges experienced by elite sport coaches, particularly within the South African context. Furthermore, no studies could be found that had specifically focused on the leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches. It was envisioned that the present study would therefore significantly contribute towards limiting this gap in the research upon its completion. The following section will highlight how the present study was conducted.

Research design and method
In view of the rather limited knowledge available of leadership challenges in elite sport, this study was deemed best suited for a qualitative research method. This is as, according to Creswell (2009), qualitative research methods often take on an exploratory approach, whereby it seeks to understand participants" unique subjective views of their worlds, i.e. how they observe the topic under investigation so as to provide a rich description of these complex human experiences. The present study therefore utilised this approach as it was both explorative and descriptive in nature.
Furthermore, numerous research designs from the qualitative research approach could have been utilised to explore the subjective experiences of participants in the present study. For this study, the researcher subsequently made use of a phenomenological design, which, in its broadest sense, could be said to have originated from a philosophical tradition as it refers to the study of "phenomena" as it appeared within human experience. Phenomenology therefore refers to the meaning that "things" have in every human being"s experience and as such focuses on the experiences of participants within particular situations or contexts (Smith, 2008). This approach was deemed to be the most suitable for the present study, as phenomenology explicates a thorough understanding of participants" lived experiences (Creswell, 2009;Fouche & Schurink, 2011). Furthermore, it allowed the researcher to provide both an unbiased and authentic report of the leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches (Creswell, 2009). In-depth unstructured interviews were used to collect the data, which posed one primary open-ended question to the participants, namely: "Please tell me what leadership challenges you currently experience as an elite South African rugby coach?" Further probing questions were also asked where participants did not spontaneously elaborate on their answer to the primary research question. The interviews ranged between 18.03 and 25.17 minutes at an average of 20.21 minutes per interview.

Participants
For the purposes of the present study, an elite South African rugby team was regarded to be a South African rugby team that competed on an international level. These only included the following 11 teams: The Springboks; the Springbok U/20 side; the Springbok U/19 side; the Springbok Men"s Sevens side; the Springbok Women"s Sevens side; the Bulls Super Rugby side; the Sharks Super Rugby side, the Stormers Super Rugby side; the Lions Super Rugby side, the Kings Pro 14 side and the Cheetahs Pro 14 side. Furthermore, for the purposes of the present study, an elite South African rugby coach was defined as the head coach of any of the aforementioned teams. Each participant also had to be able to communicate in Afrikaans or English. Six of these coaches finally participated in the study.
Purposive sampling was used to identify and recruit participants for the present study. This approach is frequently utilised in qualitative research when there is a limited number of potential participants who possess the experience or expertise pertaining to the topic under investigation (Devers & Frankel, 2000). Recruitment was done with the assistance of the co-supervisor who already held existing relationships with a number of the participants, which had emanated from his work in the elite sports domain. During his initial conversation with the potential participants, he briefly introduced the topic and procedure to them. Following their agreement to participate in the study, they were contacted via email by the researcher who further explained the study to them and sent them the informed consent documentation. Only coaches who completed the informed consent forms were contacted for an interview. Six male head coaches finally agreed to participate in the study. This represented 54.5% of the total population. This was regarded to be a suitable representation of the total population for the present study and saturation of the data was therefore determined by this maximum number of participants who participated . Polkinghorne (1989) explained that data analysis aims to identify and reveal structures, logic and interrelationships that occur among phenomena under investigation. This was achieved by means of thematic analysis as the primary method that was selected for analysing the data in the present study. The steps proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006) served as the primary guide for this purpose. These steps included familiarisation, generating initial codes, grouping codes according to similarity, reviewing of themes, defining and naming of themes and composing the final report.

Data analysis
Familiarisation occurred while the researcher transcribed the interviews by listening to the recordings of the interviews. This enabled the researcher to informally review each interview and identify any statements that had not been noticed during the actual interview. After transcribing the interviews, the researcher next read and re-read each of them so as to ensure that a thorough understanding of the statements that had been made by the participants was established (Braun & Clarke, 2013). Repeated immersion is also encouraged before any analyses are made according to this approach, as it will enable the researcher to first establish linkages within the data. During the second phase of re-reading the transcribed interviews, the researcher was then able to generate initial categories that related specifically to leadership challenges as they were experienced by the participants. These categories are displayed in Figure 1.
The researcher then examined the codes and based on their prominence clustered them into a suitable order and relevant themes. A co-coder also independently coded the transcribed interviews.
The co-coder is an experienced researcher and study leader of the present study. A consensus meeting was subsequently held to ensure the accuracy of the data analysis phase during which the themes by both the researcher and the co-coder were evaluated to ensure that the generated themes were reflective of the main research question as prescribed by Clarke and Braun (2013). This process also served to enhance the trustworthiness of the study by incorporating a peer-review process. The meeting also served to finalise the naming of the themes and sub-themes that were generated from the data while capturing the essence of each individual theme. Finally, the themes were reported under the results section to form a logical line of argumentation and storytelling (Braun & Clarke, 2006).

Ethics
Participants voluntarily partook in the study and had to sign an informed consent form on which confidentiality and anonymity were also ensured. Given the potential sensitive nature of the topic and the fact that the coaches are well known by the public, special care was taken not to reveal their identities at any time. The research was also approved by the Economic & Management

Sciences Research Ethics Committee (EMS-REC) of the Faculty of Economic & Management
Sciences, North-West University: EMS-REC NWU-00316-18-A4. Furthermore, the model of Lincoln and Guba was used to ensure trustworthiness of this study and therefore ensured a consistent focus on credibility, dependability, conformability and transferability throughout the study (Krefting, 1991).

Theory base
The general systems theory (GST), as first postulated by the biologist Ludwig Von Bertallanfy (1972), was selected to serve as the theoretical base for the present study.
According to this theory, individuals form part of interlocking systems, e.g. the individual, the family, the organisation and the community (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2008). The coaches were seen from this perspective to form part of various systems, larger supra-systems and smaller sub-systems that mutually interacted with and influenced each other. As such, a change made to one part of these systems would inadvertently affect all the other parts. Figure 2 provides an overview of the findings as integrated with the GST. It depicts the three themes and their respective sub-themes that emerged from the data, which were grouped into three systemic domains, namely the environmental, relationships and personal domains. Each of these domains is constantly influencing and interacting with others.

Figure 2: Leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches
The first domain was formed by the first theme, namely environmental leadership challenges that originated outside of the direct influence of the coach as a supra-system, but nevertheless posed unique leadership challenges to him. These challenges included the influence of the media, political environment, economic environment, which led to limited available financial resources, a general lack of professionalism in South African rugby, the impact of the South African Rugby Union (SARU) as a governing body, and a general lack of effective communication between the coach and stakeholders. The next domain could be described as a system that is closer to the coach in the sense that he has more direct influence on it, namely the relationship domain. This included all the important relationships that the coach needed to manage, but which posed certain leadership challenges. The next theme fell within the ambit of this domain, namely relationship challenges, which included relationships with all important stakeholders, e.g. administrators, players and team management. Sub-themes included player relationship challenges, which, in turn, included managing diverse players, individual expectations of players, player support, and player development as professionals and individuals outside of rugby. The next sub-theme was that of team management relationship challenges, which included challenges of maintaining optimal relationships with assistant coaches and medical personnel while obtaining their "buy-in" to the coach"s plans. Administrator relationships included the next sub-theme that mainly consisted of relationships challenges with the board of directors and CEOs of both the unions and SARU. The next domain was construed as a sub-system, namely the personal domain, which involved aspects that were of a personal nature and over which the coach has the most direct control. The theme of personal leadership challenges fell within this domain and included the subthemes of managing pressure, career path uncertainties and personal development challenges. The following section will discuss each of these domains in combination with their respective themes and sub-themes.

The environmental domain
This supra-system included environmental challenges that fell outside of the immediate sphere of influence of the coaches, but which presented challenges to their leadership. This included the first theme that emerged from the data, namely environmental leadership challenges. This theme included various sub-themes, the first of which was challenges that coaches experienced in relation to SARU, the governing body of rugby in South Africa.
The first aspect that emerged as part of this sub-theme was a general dissatisfaction with slow decision-making processes and the ineffective communication coaches experienced from SARU. Participant three indicated that "we don"t have a centralised system where all communication from SARU comes from like the All Blacks and Ireland have". Decision-making therefore takes a very long time as participant three explained further that "it goes from one committee to the next and no one can give you an answer." Similarly, participant one also stated that:

"The frustration on top of everything else we [elite coaches] need to deal with is that you simply want to continue with the next project or your planning but the decisions are not taken [by SARU] and no one can tell you where the delay is coming from."
Participant one added that these delays are often due to the "red tape" of SARU as "the fact is that the structure [of SARU] is of such a nature that to make decisions it needs to go through a number of processes". This situation often wastes time and money as well as creates confusion and frustration among coaches, e.g. relating to financial resources, as participant six stated: "I don"t understand how it [the budget at SARU] works"? Participant one added that one particular leadership challenge to him is that coaches are not allowed to spend their budgets prior to obtaining approval from SARU first. This causes delays and significantly impacts how he is able to execute important tasks: "Like every small thing first needs to be approved [by SARU] and as a result we constantly need to ask for permission first to spend our own budgets, then you get it [what you requested permission to purchase] too late so you don"t need it anymore by the time you get it." In line with this statement, participant three stated that "a fish rots from its head downwards" in reference to SARU"s structures and processes. Interestingly, only those coaches who were directly employed by SARU had indicated that they were unable to spend their budgets before obtaining approval to do so, as this was not the case among the other coaches who were directly employed by their unions.
In addition to the structure and difficulties related to gaining approval before spending their budgets, the coaches added that they believed that past financial mismanagement within SARU had been the main cause of these measures as it had led to general a lack of available funds at SARU.
Participant three stated in this regard that: "There are truly serious problems in South African rugby on all levels as they [SARU] don"t have any money" and participant four added: "I am sure the company [SARU] would have given us more money if they had it", while participant five indicated that "we don"t receive enough funding from SARU".
Related to these themes, participant five expressed the impression that SARU and South African rugby as a whole were unprofessional: "I don"t think our rugby is being run professionally at all levels, e.g. the player pool is too large and the money that is being spent, the budget [ the current political climate in South Africa and how that also posed a challenge to his leadership:

"Obviously transformation is just underneath that [ensuring that the Springboks win], but if the
Springboks win then the problems related to transformation will also be solved and make things easier for all of us." Participant five also referred to the political challenges and influences facing coaches as he indicated that "we have other challenges surrounding players. You know the [political] situation in our country as it currently is" that elite coaches from other countries do not need to contend with. Participant three expressed further: "I believe that for any leader, regardless of which field you are in, it is challenging in South Africa right now due to our political conditions. All the coaches in South Africa face the same situation as we essentially sit with a transformation problem. So when people ask me why the All Blacks are so successful I explain to them that if you imposed the same type

prescriptions [of transformation] on them [elite New Zealand rugby coaches] you are also going to beat them."
Another environmental factor that was reported to be contributing towards leadership challenges for coaches included the current economic conditions in South Africa. This was mainly because it had led to progressively smaller budgets at the disposal of the coaches in recent years.
With the weak Rand, several professional players and coaches have subsequently selected to sign more lucrative contracts in other countries. This has led to a drain of knowledge, experience and talent from South Africa each year, as Participant two explained how challenging this has been for the leadership of coaches: "It is a huge challenge because at the end of the day, regardless of all the work that I put into a player while standing in the sun for hours and going through an entire pre-season together, that player won"t necessarily say at the end of the year that he would want to stay with [South African Super rugby team]."

Participant five also stated that "this [South African player contracts] will always be a challenge for South African coaches because, you know, ultimately it is always about the players themselves, as individuals, what they can get for themselves and not about the teams they play for."
Another environmental leadership challenge related to how coaches need to manage the impact of the media is, as participant there explained: Despite most coaches stating that the physical infrastructure and equipment available to them where their teams were based were mostly satisfactory, some of them did indicate that it posed a leadership challenge to them as participant three stated: "We have challenges to ensure that our spectators are safe and that they want to be there [at the stadium] as they ultimately buy the tickets that generates income for the union." Each of the environmental challenges was mostly out of the direct control of the coaches; however, they nevertheless presented significant leadership challenges to them that are in some cases unique to the South African context. Coaches, however, have a higher degree of influence on the challenges indicated in the following domain.

The relationships domain
The relationships domain encompassed the next theme that emerged from data, namely relationships challenges. The subthemes related to this theme included relationships with various key stakeholders such as players, assistant coaches and other members of team management. It also included relationships with the boards of directors and the CEOs of their respective unions and SARU. All of the coaches explained the importance of maintaining effective relationships with the boards of directors at the unions as well as at SARU. Nevertheless, some of them experienced this as a major leadership challenge as participant four explained:

"They [the SARU board] don"t know what we do. They make decisions solely on what they see happens between the four lines on television. So to me the feeling is that if they really wanted to do their jobs well and have sound judgement and decision making abilities, they need to spend time inside our systems to actually see what we do so that it is not only a decision based on whether you, the team or a player achieved success on the field or not."
In addition to experiencing the SARU board as being uninvolved, some of the coaches also expressed dissatisfaction with their relationship with the CEO, as participant one said: "It is frustrating, as it all stops with the CEO and on many occasions you simply don"t receive an answer from him" and participant six added: "We don"t have a direct line to the CEO, and as a coach I am not allowed to present anything to him directly or to the board This links with what was referred to earlier in terms of the structures and apparent lack of effective communication, which detrimentally affects the relationships between coaches and SARU.
When it came to the sub-theme of player management, the player budget was also one of the most significant challenges indicated by almost all of the participants, e.g. participant two stated that "it

[the player budget] is probably our biggest challenge at [South African Super rugby team]" and participant four explained:
"I believe that if you have more budget you may retain some of your players for a longer period. We are now busy with player contracting again and it is a case of having to beg, borrow and steal to retain the players you want within your allowed budget." Participant five also added that "we cannot compete with the overseas market" so they often have to try and convince certain players by any means possible to accept the contracts offered to them in South Africa.
In addition to the challenge of retaining players based on their financial contracts, managing the expectations of players also posed a unique leadership challenge, particularly as their careers developed and they achieved certain milestones such as being selected for the national team. This was an aspect also mentioned by participant four that "in South Africa we don"t manage success well and struggle to be consistent once we achieved it". As such, understanding and supporting players to be consistent posed a major challenge for coaches and they sometimes did not know how to do this effectively, e.g. with off-field challenges as indicated by participant two, who stated that "the challenge is to get players to understand how to draw the line from rugby, the process of rugby and what you should be able to do to draw this through into your own life, it is not always clear how to bring that across." Participant four also indicated that sport psychologists are particularly underutilised to assist with these challenges, as he explained that "we underestimate the importance of a psychologist and from a psychology point of view the value of sport psychology in South African sport." In terms of supporting players, especially with off-field-related challenges, coaches therefore often feel ill equipped and participant five stated that despite this "there are not really a lot of teams who make use of these guys [psychologists]".
In addition to the challenges of managing players, the sub-theme of managing relationships with team management also posed certain challenges. Given their close working relationships, assistant coaches in particular play a critical role in this respect, which can also pose a leadership challenge to coaches as participant two indicated: "Among my assistant coaches I have certain young coaches who gained most of their knowledge and experience in [local area name], so many of them had not been influenced by rugby around the world and the flip side to that is I also have a coach or two who have been around the world. This means that in my relationships with them I cannot re-invent the wheel each day, but I need to make sure that they all grow at the same time. This is a difficult balance to achieve without sounding like an educator all the time. So to know when to stop saying something so that they can learn their own lessons is sometimes difficult." Participant four also underscored the importance of the relationship with assistant coaches and explained how this can at times be challenging to manage: "It [relationships with assistant coaches] needs to be of such a nature that you can be honest with one another and speak up if you don"t agree with something or believe that it will be to the teams" detriment. So he needs to share his opinion but he needs to do so in a respectful manner, and that needs to go both ways, from me towards him and him towards me. This is however difficult as sometimes coaches are scared to share their opinions, I suppose because they may fear losing their jobs. That is a challenge I continually try to change but it is not easy." Amidst these challenges, coaches also at times find it difficult to get all of their assistant coaches, who at times have their own ideas and aspirations of becoming head coaches themselves, to accept their roles and to "buy in" to the head coaches" visions for their teams, as participant five stated: "I believe the biggest leadership challenge is ultimately to get these guys [assistant coaches] to support your philosophy [as head coach]".
In addition to relationships between coaches and assistant coaches, managing relationships with other members of team management, such as medical staff, can also pose certain leadership challenges. This is as it is not only challenging to identify and appoint the most suitable staff, but also to manage potential tensions among them as participant two indicated: "You need to get the right people on the bus and then you need to get them to sit on the right places. Sometimes the staff you have to work with are inexperienced or do not fully understand their roles and your approach to coaching." Participant five also explained:

"There is tension sometimes between medical staff and coaches as they [medical staff] have
their own ideas about players" readiness to play based on their training, but then, they don"t need to tell that player that he is dropped from the team. The biggest leadership challenge therefore is to get everyone aligned [medical staff and coaches] and to work together.
Sometimes that is a challenge that needs to work itself out over time".
In addition to the diverse and complex relationships that coaches need to manage in their roles, they also noted certain challenges of a more personal nature as described in the following section.

The personal domain
Firstly, a particular personal leadership challenge that emerged was that of uncertainty about the future, as participant four explained: "So you think, okay, I am the head coach here now, but what is next for me? I finish in [date on which contract expires], but there is not really a career pathway for me, so will my contract be renewed again or where do I go from here? In addition to the uncertainty, coaches also felt that they did not receive inputs from their unions, SARU or from other sources to develop them into better coaches while they are in their positions, as participant five asked "what does SARU offer coaches to develop them into better coaches? There is nothing.

Once you have completed your IRB 1, 2 and 3 courses [development courses presented by World
Rugby], which is actually a worldwide certificate, there is nothing else." In elaborating on this, participant four added that he has resorted to try and develop himself through further reading and attending seminars wherever he can. This is, however, difficult due to his full schedule and the demands of his position. Accordingly, he indicated that: "There is currently no leadership development program for coaches. And if you think about it, one of the most critical factors of being a successful coach at the highest level is your leadership skills and, especially, your people skills. If an organisation"s coaches, team management or whoever else doesn"t have these skills, they won"t be successful. So if they [coaches] can be sent on courses or just implement some kind of program to develop those leadership and people skills to allow them to manage human relationships better, I think that will definitely help as the most successful coaches I know manage their systems the best and they all have good people skills".
Participant four indicated that he believed this also contributed to why many coaches from South Africa are only concerned with their own welfare and not with the success of the Springboks, as: "Every coach is just trying to protect his own interests and wants to be successful because he knows that it is what his job depends on, you know, whether he is going to get fired or not." In addition to the lack of development and clear communication about their future career pathways, the coaches also indicated that they experience intense feelings of pressure in their positions. This is, they are finally accountable for what occurs both on and off the field in a sport where there are constant expectations for their teams to win, particularly in South Africa. These results can sometimes mean the end of their own careers, as well as those of their support staff and players. Participant two explained that, as a result, he often feels a great deal of pressure as: Following a description of the findings of the themes and subthemes that emerged from the data, the following section will discuss the findings.

Discussion
It is clear from the results that elite South African rugby coaches faced numerous, significant and complex leadership challenges. Some of these challenges are part of the realities of South African society that requires solutions on a wider scale to be resolved, such as the country"s slow economic growth, the weakening rand and political influences such as the drive towards transformation. These challenges all form part of the supra-environmental system of South Africa and impacts all sectors of the country, including elite rugby. Potential solutions to these challenges fell outside of the scope of the present study, albeit it remained important to note them as they nevertheless formed part of the leadership challenges that participants reported and influenced the other domains in which they functioned. It is also especially important to bear in mind that the teams that these coaches lead compete on an international level against countries where some of these challenges do not exist. As such, it is important to take this into consideration when their performances are evaluated and compared to coaches and teams from these countries. Given the impact and complexity of these challenges, it is believed that South African coaches have in fact performed admirably and showed high levels of resilience in the recent past to have maintained the levels of performance that they have amidst these challenges.
Having said that, it was nevertheless believed that some of the leadership challenges reported from the supra-systemic level, however, appeared possible to address, such as the challenges reported in relation to the corporate governance of SARU. Based on the results of this study, it appeared to be lacking in numerous respects and to be having a detrimental impact on the participants and the teams they lead. These particularly included bureaucratic "red tape", which apparently prolonged decision-making processes, coupled with ineffective communication between SARU and coaches. These findings were also similar to Orlowski et al. (2016), , as the participants in the present study also reported that uncertainty over their contracts, the responsibilities they held towards those whom they lead, financial management, staff management, lines of communication, feedback mechanisms, role awareness, and organisational and team atmospheres all posed significant leadership challenges to them. The findings of the present study also appeared to resemble the findings by Surujlal and Mafini (2011), as recruitment, selection, training, development, compensation, demographic changes, workforce diversity, changing managerial and coaching skill requirements were also all challenges that were reported by the participants in the present study.
It was concluded that these aspects may be significantly improved without having to invest large amounts of resources by SARU through the application of more effective leadership, both from the board and CEO of SARU. In this regard, the transformational leadership style appeared to be best suited for this purpose, as it has been found to be particularly effective in elite sporting environments (Smith, Young, Figgins, & Arthur, 2017;Arnold, Fletcher, & Molyneux, 2012;Morgan, Fletcher, & Sarkar, 2015;Hodge, Herny, & Smith, 2014).
Managing relationships with key stakeholders such as members of team management was also identified in the present study under the relationship domain. In the case of assistant coaches, the findings of the present study were similar to the findings of Thelwell, Weston, and Greenless (2017) in that working with other coaches who held conflicting views was also indicated by the participants in the present study as a leadership challenge. Interestingly, when considering all of the responses by the various coaches, the emphasis appeared to fall more on obtaining more interpersonal skills as opposed to more effective coaching skills per se. As such, it appeared that at the elite level, the emotional intelligence (EQ) of coaches started to play a more critical role than their rugby knowledge and coaching skills alone.
The focus of the present study fell on obtaining a clear understanding of the leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches as part of attempting to resolve the problem of declining South African rugby performances when compared to the rest of the world in recent years. From this perspective, the study achieved its objective by gaining a rich understanding of the experiences of six of these coaches. In this way, the study also contributed on a theoretical level to both applied sport psychology and leadership literature, particularly in this unique industry, namely elite rugby in South Africa. Furthermore, the population consisted of the elite coaches themselves and the study therefore did not make use of speculations to come to its conclusions. As this population is not easily accessible, it makes the findings of the present study particularly unique, rare and valuable.

Practical application
The recommendations made by Surujlal and Mafini (2011) also appeared applicable and are therefore recommended actions that may be taken by SARU to alleviate the challenges reported by participants. These include delegating more authority to coaches of national teams over which they have control as the unions all control their budgets independently. This would allow these coaches to make autonomous decisions like their counterparts at the unions are able to, particularly about their budgets without having to gain prior approval from SARU. Furthermore, it is recommended that a clear line of communication should be established between SARU and all head coaches along with clarity on all matters affecting the coaches who are in their direct employment, such as career path options, budget restrictions and other relevant procedures to assist them to become more effective in their roles. It is believed that this can all be achieved through the application of transformational leadership from the board and CEO of SARU through, among others, communicating a clear vision that the focus throughout South African rugby should be to assist the Springboks to win. This is, according to the framework by Bass and Avolio (1994), because transformational leadership was conceptualised as containing four behavioural components, namely idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. In accordance with these characteristics, transformational leaders can be characterised, among others, as open to new suggestions, effective communicators, to set clear expectations as well as to empower those who they lead by creating new learning opportunities for them. Application of this type of leadership style within elite sport domains has also been found to be highly effective, e.g. Hamza and Abdelmonem (2018) had found it to have increased employee empowerment among a number of Egyptian sporting domains. Furthermore, it is also recommended that a centralised contracting system similar to New Zealand be explored in more depth in South Africa to expand on the already existing central contracting system for a number of Springbok players and to reduce the large number of professionally contracted players in South Africa. It is believed that this will further assist the board and CEO of SARU to implement this vision along with a more centralised approach towards conditioning of players and implementation of game plans, which compliment the plans of the head coach by all head coaches of elite South African rugby teams.
Furthermore, it is proposed that further education and development courses be developed for coaches to equip them with improved leadership, diversity management and emotional intelligence (EI) skills. According to Olawoyin (2018), EI refers to a particular set of skills that enables those who possess it to be optimally "in touch" with themselves. This, in turn, allows them to interact effectively with others around them, especially in relationships between leaders and followers.
These skills include empathy, namely the ability to be aware of one"s own emotions, as well as those being experienced by others at any given time. Furthermore, it refers to being able to manage stress effectively, to communicate effectively in relationships, and to use all of the aforementioned to make effective decisions on how to handle interpersonal interactions. A course of this nature was developed and found to be effective among elite cricket players by Cotterill (2017) in the United Kingdom. A study by Philippe, Sagar, Gerber, and Hauw (2016) also found that effective coachplayer relationships helped to build and maintain mental toughness among a group of players from the Swiss National Rugby Team. It is therefore recommended that such a course be made compulsory for all head and assistant coaches to attend prior to being appointed at any of the elite South African rugby teams named in this paper. It is also advised that they undergo advanced courses on a continuous basis that can further build on these skills at least once a year.
According to the GST principle of non-summativity, elements of a system are interdependent and, as a result, a change in one part of the system will result in change in the entire system . As such, it was believed that implementing the recommendations may not necessarily solve the complete problem described in the problem statement; however, it was nevertheless believed that it could serve as a catalyst that will reverberate throughout the entire network of systems and subsystems that make up the complete system of South African rugby and its elite coaches. In this way, it can go a long way towards solving the problem as described in the problem statement.

Limitations
Research in the human sciences and in particular the fields of applied sport psychology and leadership has proven challenging for numerous researchers in the past. The present study was no different, and it also had certain limitations. The sample size of six participants could be argued to have been relatively small. Furthermore, the study did not focus on possible solutions to the problem statement and also did not include the perspectives of key stakeholders pertaining to their experiences or perceptions as to what was contributing to the problem. Due to a dearth of research on the topic, limited relevant literature could also be identified both from South Africa and other countries. When, however, considering that the total population of the present study consisted of 11 coaches in total, and made use of a qualitative, phenomenological research design within which smaller numbers of participants are acceptable given that personal in-depth experiences are being investigated, six participants could therefore be considered to have been a sufficiently large sample size. Furthermore, as this study was conducted for the purposes of a mini-dissertation and its aim was only to ascertain a better understanding of the problem by including head coaches only, it was deemed sufficient that only they were included as participants in the present study. Finally, the limited amount relevant literature that could be identified was attributed to, among other factors, the inability of other researchers to have been able to gain access to this unique population.

Conclusion
Despite the limitations, the present study succeeded in achieving its primary aim, which was to develop an in-depth understanding of the leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches. As such, it provided valuable contributions on both a theoretical and practical level towards the literature on applied sport psychology and leadership, in particular on leadership among a very unique group of leaders, i.e. elite South African rugby coaches. The study also succeeded in identifying a range of challenges that were classified by means of the GST into three domains, namely the environmental, relationships and personal domains. Each of these domains included a central theme that emerged from the data, namely environmental-, relationshipand personal leadership challenges with their respective sub-themes. Given the lack of other studies on this topic, it is believed that this study was unique in terms of the particular population that was included as well as that it aided towards a better understanding of the problem of declining South African rugby performances in recent years against international opposition. It also allowed a number of valuable recommendations to be made by the researchers that, if implemented, could start making a significant contribution towards solving the problem and allowing South African rugby sides who compete at an international level to return to their former positions of at least one of the top two rugby playing nations in the world. Furthermore, the study also contributed on a theoretical level to the GST by applying it to the unique context of elite sport and again displaying its versatility and value as a theory in facilitating a better understanding of phenomena and their relatedness when punctuating from a systemic perspective. Further research recommendations include conducting similar studies with South African rugby coaches at other non-professional levels, such as schools and clubs. Future studies may also involve board members from SARU and the unions as, similar to head coaches, they are also in key leadership positions and were frequently referred to by the participants in the present study.

Introduction
This section will provide a critical reflection on the study as a whole and will include the operationalisation of the research question as achieved through the research process. This section aimed to determine the adequacy with which the research question was achieved by providing a summary of the findings, conclusions, contributions and limitations of the study before concluding with recommendations for future research.

Summary of findings
The present study aimed to explore the leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches. A general systems theory (GST) lens was applied when interpreting the findings. For this, a single broad and open-ended question with the aim of exploring the leadership challenges that elite South African rugby coaches currently experience was asked during in-depth interviews with the participants, namely: "Please tell me what leadership challenges you currently experience as an elite South African rugby coach?" Further probing questions were also asked to elaborate on the responses by the participants. The participants subsequently responded with a broad range of responses. The researcher interpreted the broad responses in part as a reaction to the minimal research that had been conducted among this elite group to date, as well as an apparent need on their part to have shared their realities with an independent individual in the hope of improving their circumstances. The themes and sub-themes that emerged from the data will be discussed in the following section.
In utilising the GST as a theoretical framework, the three themes and their respective subthemes that emerged from the data were divided into three systemic domains. The first domain was referred to as the environmental domain and encapsulated the first theme, namely environmental leadership challenges. These challenges originated predominantly from outside of the direct influence of the coach, but nevertheless posed unique leadership challenges to him. As such, it formed an external, supra-system for the coach (Haarhof, 2011). The sub-themes included the influence of the media, especially social media; the political environment, particularly related to the pressure on coaches to drive transformation in the sport; the economic environment, especially relating to the weak rand and limited financial resources available to coaches; a general lack of professionalism in South African rugby, in this respect the impact of SARU as a governing body and its general apparent lack of effective leadership communication between the coaches and stakeholders were highlighted.
The next domain was named the relationships domain and consisted of the next theme, namely relationship challenges. This domain was seen as being closer as closer to the coach in the sense that he had more direct influence on this domain, namely the relationship domain. This included all the important relationships that the coach needs to manage, but that pose certain leadership challenges. It included various sub-themes, namely relationships with all important stakeholders, e.g. administrators, players and team management. Player relationship challenges were particularly highlighted by the participants, which included managing diverse players, individual expectations of players, player support and player development as both professionals and individuals outside of rugby. The next sub-theme was that of the team management relationship challenges, which included challenges of maintaining optimal relationships with assistant coaches and medical personnel, while still obtaining their "buy-in" to the coach"s plans. Administrator relationships were also reported here, which mainly consisted of relationship challenges with the board of directors and CEOs of both the unions where the coaches were contracted as well as SARU. The third and final domain was the closest to the participants and was referred to as the personal domain. This included all personal aspects over which the coach had the most direct control. The theme of personal leadership challenges fell within this domain and included the subthemes of managing pressure, future career path uncertainties and personal development challenges.

Limitations
Research in the human sciences and in particular the fields of applied sport psychology and leadership has proven challenging for numerous researchers in the past. The present study was no exception and therefore also contained certain limitations. These limitations will be highlighted next:  The sample size of six participants could be argued to have been relatively small.
 Only male participants were included.
 The study did not focus on possible solutions to the problem statement.
 The study was limited to only include the perspectives of the participants and therefore did not include other key stakeholders such as players, administrators, other members of team management and members from SARU.
 Limited relevant literature could also be identified to be included as part of the literature review, both from South Africa and other countries.
The total population of the present study consisted of 11 coaches in total; six of whom agreed to participate in the present study. This represented 54.5% of the total population. As such, despite being a relatively small sample size, it was nevertheless regarded to be a suitable representation of the total population for the present study, which allowed for saturation of the data .
Furthermore, the study made use of a qualitative, phenomenological research design within which smaller numbers of participants are acceptable given that personal in-depth experiences are being investigated. The main objective of this study was also to determine what leadership experiences elite South African coaches experienced. Given the richness of the findings, the study succeeded in this objective. Given that the study was conducted as part of the completion of a master"s degree, its scope was also not large enough to have included the views of other stakeholders. In this regard, it only intended to obtain a better understanding of the problem statement described in section 1 and did not set out to fully solve the problem. Therefore, it was deemed acceptable that only the head coaches of these teams were included in the present study as other studies may include the other stakeholders in future, related studies to further clarify the problem and contribute towards ultimately solving it.
The fact that all of the participants were male was also not due to any bias on behalf of the researchers, but rather because the entire population of all 11 coaches are all male. Finally, a limited amount relevant literature could be found regarding the topic. One of the reasons that was hypothesised to have contributed to this was the inability of previous researchers to have been able to gain access to this unique population. In this regard, the study made a valuable contribution by identifying a gap in the literature and taking the first steps towards filling that gap with the present study. In this sense, it made a very unique and valuable contribution to the literature as well as the GST by showing its versatility and effectiveness as a theoretical foundation from which to have described the topic under investigation.

Recommendations
Despite it not having been the main objective of the study, the data nevertheless allowed the researchers to make certain recommendations based on the findings of the present study. These included:  Appealing to SARU to delegate authority to head coaches to make autonomous decisions about their budgets without having to gain prior approval from SARU.
 Clear lines of communication should be established between SARU and head coaches.
 More frequent communication from SARU to coaches to clarify matters affecting them on a personal level, such as career path options.
 More frequent communication from SARU to coaches to clarify matters affecting them on a professional level such as budget restrictions and all other relevant corporate policies and procedures.
 The focused implementation of transformational leadership from the board and CEO of SARU, e.g. communicating a clear vision with a focus towards aligning all structures and departments to promote the success of the national team, namely the Springboks senior side.
 That SARU investigates the option of restructuring itself towards a centralised player contracting system similar to that of New Zealand.
 That SARU aims towards establishing a more streamlined approach among all elite South African rugby teams towards the conditioning of players and implementation of game plans that complement the plans of the head coach of the senior national team.
 That SARU establishes and implements further education and development courses to equip coaches with improved leadership, diversity management and emotional intelligence (EQ) skills. It is recommended that such a course be made compulsory for newly appointed head and assistant coaches of elite South African rugby teams prior to their appointment in these positions.
 In building on the previous recommendation, it is also advised that coaches undergo further advanced courses on a continuous basis that can build on these skills at least once a year for the duration of their contracts.
According to the GST principle of non-summativity, elements of a system are interdependent and, as a result, a change in one part of the system will result in changes in the whole system (Haarhof, 2011). As such, it was believed that implementing the aforementioned recommendations may not necessarily solve the complete problem described in the problem statement in section 1; however, it is believed that it can serve as a catalyst that will reverberate throughout the entire network of systems and subsystems that make up the complete system of South African rugby. In this way, it can go a long way towards solving the problem as described in the problem statement.

Future research
In spite of the rich data and unique contribution of the present study, which added to the fields of applied sport psychology and leadership by investigating the leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches, the following recommendations are made for future research.
It is hoped that this would further assist to broaden an understanding of the realities of these coaches and other stakeholders in an effort to ultimately solve the problem as highlighted in the problem statement in section 1. These include:  Conducting similar studies with South African rugby coaches at non-professional levels, e.g. schools and clubs.
 Studies that involve board members from SARU and the South African Super Rugby franchises as, similar to head coaches, they are also in key leadership positions and were frequently referred to by the participants in the present study.
 Conducting studies to investigate what challenges professional South African rugby players are experiencing, perhaps by using a quantitative methodology to include larger sample sizes.
 Using the framework of this study to explore the leadership challenges experienced by elite coaches from other sporting codes, such as cricket and soccer.
 Extending the study to include social surveys to capture the perceptions of the general public regarding the problem statement.

Final personal reflection
Given that this section entails a final personal reflection, it was written in the first person.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed conducting this study and felt particularly privileged to have interacted with the participants in question. As experienced professionals who coach at the highest levels within South African rugby, I felt particularly grateful of how they granted their time and insights to me. What struck me in particular was how humble they all were and that, despite being in the positions that they occupied, they also experienced significant challenges like most other people. In a country where the public expects the rugby teams they support to win every time they take to the field, it is often the coaches who are the first to be questioned if their teams do not produce such results. Sadly, what some do not appear to realise is that in the world of competitive sport, the margins between winning and losing are so small that it may sometimes be determined by a single event such as one handling error, interception, missed tackle or a moment of individual brilliance by one player. This highlighted to me yet again how these coaches do everything in their power to prepare their teams as best as they can, but ultimately, as just indicated, it is as if they study for an exam but their players go out and write it. As such, I believe it to be unfair to criticise coaches as soon as their teams suffer a loss, especially in South Africa, as the participants in the present study had indicated that they are fully aware of their responsibilities and do everything in their power, despite the leadership challenges that were identified from this study, to ensure that their teams are victorious every time they take to the field. Finally, it is hoped that the results of this study may spark some interventions to make it easier for these coaches to do their work and that others will treat them with more empathy in the future. You are being invited to take part in a research study that forms part of my Master of Business Administration (MBA) qualification. Please take some time to read the information presented here, which will explain the details of this study. Please ask the researcher or person explaining the research to you any questions about any part of this study that you do not fully understand. It is very important that you are fully satisfied that you clearly understand what this research is about and how you might be involved. Furthermore, your participation is entirely voluntary and you are free to say no to participate. If you say no, this will not affect you negatively in any way whatsoever. You are also free to withdraw from the study at any point, even if you do agree to take part now.
This study has been approved by the Economic and Management Sciences Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences of the North-West University (NWU 00316-18-A4). Please note that it might be necessary for the research ethics committee members or other relevant people to inspect the research records.

What is this research study all about?
 This study will be conducted by means of in-depth unstructured interviews and will involve a personal, private interview with you and the researcher of approximately 20 to 30 minutes at a private venue most convenient for you.  As a senior lecturer and registered clinical psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), the researcher who will conduct this interview is trained and experienced in interviewing skills and scientific research.  We plan to identify what leadership challenges coaches of elite South African rugby teams are currently facing. With a better understanding of these challenges, possible interventions can hopefully be developed/proposed to assist elite South African rugby coaches with these challenges. This, in turn, will hopefully also benefit these coaches as individuals and leaders by improving their leadership of their teams. This, in turn, will hopefully also assist their teams from a business perspective to grow and remain sustainable though improved on-field performances leading to higher revenues for these teams and their respective franchises/unions.

Why have you been invited to participate?
 You have been invited to be part of this research because you are currently appointed as an elite head coach of a professional South African rugby team.  You will not be able to take part in this research if you are currently coaching a recreational, non-professional South African rugby team such as a club and/or school side where players participate for leisure or on a part-time basis and are not remunerated.  Furthermore, you will be unable to participate if you are currently an elite rugby coach of a professional rugby team outside of South Africa as the present study will focus exclusively on the South African context.  Finally, you will also be unable to participate in the event that you are illiterate in English or Afrikaans as the researchers are only able to converse in these languages.
What will be expected of you?
 You will be expected to take part in a once-off semi-structured in-depth interview during which you will be asked about the leadership challenges you are currently facing in your role as elite South African rugby coach. Depending on your response you may be asked further questions or to elaborate on you answer in the interest of gaining further clarity regarding the topic. It is estimated that his interview will last approximately 20 to 30 minutes and it will be conducted at a time and private venue most convenient for you.

Will you gain anything from taking part in this research?
 There will not be any direct gains for you if you take part in this study; however, the other indirect gains of the study will be the development of scientific knowledge on the leadership challenges currently facing elite South African rugby coaches. This knowledge will hopefully enable the developed/proposed to assist elite South African rugby coaches with these challenges. This, in turn, will hopefully also benefit these coaches as individuals and leaders by improving their leadership of their teams. This, in turn, will hopefully also assist their teams from a business perspective to grow and remain sustainable though improved on-field performances leading to higher revenues for these teams and their respective franchises/unions.
Are there risks involved in you taking part in this research and what will be done to prevent them?
 The risks to you in this study are considered to be minimal. Personal and sensitive information may, however, be communicated during the answering of the open-ended and follow-up questions relating to your experience of leadership challenges as an elite South African rugby coach. Should any psychological discomfort be experienced in this regard you can simply indicate it as such to the researcher who will then arrange for professional debriefing to be made available to you free of charge.  As it is foreseen that the interview will last approximately 20 to 30 minutes, this may inconvenience you and/or lead to possible boredom. As such, you will be provided with a bottle of water during the interview and the researcher will ensure to limit the interview only to the relevant discussion so as to minimise the use of your time.  It is considered that there are more gains for you in joining this study than there are risks.
The risk of harm, however, always remains part of any research study. For this reason, the researcher will make every effort to ensure your psychological and/or physical comfort at all times. As mentioned above, an independent psychologist will also be available to debrief you if needed.
How will we protect your confidentiality and who will see your findings?
 As most elite South African rugby coaches are well known to the general public, every effort will be made to ensure your anonymity at all times. Anonymity of your findings will therefore be protected by using participant numbers rather than participants' demographical information. Only the researcher, co-researchers and the transcriber will have access to the data, which will be stored on a password-protected computer. Your privacy will be respected by not making your identity aware to anyone other than the aforementioned individuals who will all sign a confidentiality agreement to ensure that that they will protect your personal information at all times. Your results will also be kept confidential by storing it on the researcher's password-protected computer for the duration of the project. The researcher will further monitor access to the data at all times. Physical data will be kept in a locked cabinet inside the researcher's office on the North-West University's Potchefstroom Campus. Audio recordings of the interviews will be copied to an external storage device once it had been transcribed and be locked away with the physical data. The data will be kept for a minimum of six years and destroyed thereafter.
What will happen with the findings or samples?  The findings of this study will only be used for this study as already explained. Should there be any request to use it for other purposes such as another research project, your permission will first be obtained. The Economic and Management Sciences Research Ethics Committee will therefore ensure the protection of your data in this manner. How will you know about the results of this research?
 We will give you the results of this research when the mini-dissertation has been completed by approximately April 2019.  You will be informed of these findings by receiving an electronic copy of the complete minidissertation via email as well as a copy of the research article based on the findings from this study by the researcher.

Will you be paid to take part in this study and are there any costs for you?
This study is funded by the researcher in his personal capacity and you will not be paid to take part in the study because it is voluntary. Refreshments in the form of a bottle of water will, however, be provided to you during the interview for your comfort. There will therefore be no costs involved for you, if you do take part in this study.

Declaration by participant
By signing below, I …………………………………..…………. agree to take part in the research study titled: An explorative study on the leadership challenges experienced by elite South African rugby coaches.
I declare that:  I have read this information/it was explained to me by a trusted person in a language with which I am fluent and comfortable.  The research was clearly explained to me.  I have had a chance to ask questions to both the person getting the consent from me, as well as the researcher and all my questions have been answered.  I understand that taking part in this study is voluntary and I have not been pressurised to take part.  I may choose to leave the study at any time and will not be handled in a negative way if I do so.  I may be asked to leave the study before it has finished, if the researcher feels it is in the best interest, or if I do not follow the study plan, as agreed to.
Signed at (  I did/did not use an interpreter.  I encouraged him to ask questions and took adequate time to answer them.  I am satisfied that he adequately understands all aspects of the research, as discussed above.  I gave him time to discuss it with others if he/she wished to do so.  I explained the information in this document to ………………………………..  I did/did not use an interpreter  I encouraged him to ask questions and took adequate time to answer them  I am satisfied that he adequately understands all aspects of the research, as described above.  I am satisfied that he had time to discuss it with others if he wished to do so.

Signature of researcher
Signature of witness