Differential treatment within sports teams,leader–member (coach–player) exchange quality,team atmosphere,and team performance

Using the leader–member exchange (LMX) theory as a theoretical framework, the present study focused on the occurrence of differential treatment by leaders on social and task‐related issues within teams. It was investigated whether team members' perceptions of the frequency and degree of social and task‐related differential treatment by the leader were associated with their evaluation of team atmosphere and team performance, in addition to the effects of the quality of their own working relationship with the leader (LMX quality). The context of this study consisted of interdependent sports teams. The participants were 605 players belonging to 69 amateur sports teams playing various team sports such as soccer, hockey, and basketball. Social differential treatment was negatively associated with team atmosphere and unrelated to team performance. In addition, it was found that the two forms of task‐related differential treatment included in this study were unrelated to team atmosphere and were differently associated with team performance. The results are discussed with reference to the existing leadership literature. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.