Leadership is very important in sport. Leadership as provided by the coach plays a very significant role in the lives of athletes and in the athlete’s sport experience. However, the means by which a coach demonstrates leadership behaviors may vary from coach to coach. Coaches at different levels of competition may be expected to interact with athletes differently due to the different levels of athletic ability and possibly the greater pressure to win for employment security. Coaching attitudes and actions may also differ based on their leadership ability and style. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire(MLQ) is a test that looks for the leadership ability and it is one that is accepted by a variety of organization such as sport teams, companies, and even militaries. The MLQ is a test that is widely used today, but just because it is used a great deal of the time, does not mean there are no flaws. The test is not perfect. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and to give some solutions for the test. In this study, the purpose and critiques of MLQ-5X were explored through literature review, and the evaluation and critique of MLQ-5X's practical and technical issues to solve problems that MLQ-5X has.
In the practical point, a cover sheet should be attached to each questionnaire by clarifying the nature of the study and the responsibility of each of the parties. Guarantying anonymity of all participants is important factor that would affect the result of study. Researchers should also provide the contact details to safeguard participants form harm caused by any issues that may have arisen due to the research. The MLQ-5X looks at transformational, transactional and non-leadership behaviors and evaluates each of these with various criteria. In reading the test results, each question is carefully evaluated. Some of the questions are very specific and require the test taker to choose from ambiguous answers such as "sometimes," "fairly often," etc. Many of the questions address various habits and behaviors as well as thinking processes.
For the technical issues, the MLQ-5X test has some strengths and weaknesses in respect to its potential practical application, design and validity. Because of excellent validity and reliability, the MLQ-5X has been used comprehensively worldwide. However, since the MLQ-5X has not been used many times in the sport organization studies, an internal reliability can be issued in the field of sport. The MLQ-5X has some merit because it has been evaluated and used successfully all over the world. Controls have been implemented and to a great extent the numbered questions have validity. Thus, discrepancies will likely be scant, and while the test is a good one in general, it is also likely that some people will fall through the cracks. Therefore, the text should always be used in conjunction with an interview as well as alternative evaluating methods.
While the transactional leadership factors have been discussed in the leadership literature for at least fifty years, little attention in the aggregate had been paid to assessing the transformational components, at least up until the last 20 years. Results of the current report potentially offer a more comprehensive survey tool for measuring leadership styles, now it can be refined and improved upon in subsequent research.