Individual Innovation: A Research on Sports Manager Candidates

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to determine the level of individual innovation of sports manager candidates. The research is designed according to the relational survey model from the survey models. The sample of study consists of 249 sport manager candidates studying in Gazi University and Ankara University Faculty of Sport Sciences Sports Management Department in 2017–2018 spring semester. In the study, in order to collect data, “the Personal Innovation Scale (PIS)”, which was developed by Hurt, Joseph and Cook (1977) and validated by Kilicer and Odabasi (2010) in accordance with the Turkish literature, was used. In the analysis of the data obtained from the study group, the normality test (Kolmogrow-Smirnow and Skewness-Kurtosis), Independent t-test and One Way Anova tests were used. According to the results of the research, it can be stated that the participants’ levels of individual innovation is at the intermediate level and they are included in the “interrogator” category. The Scores of Participants from the Individual Innovation Level Scale do not include any significant difference in the sub-dimensions of idea leadership, openness to experience, risk taking, resistance to change according to the variables of gender and being a licensed athlete; whereas a significant difference was found in favor of 1st and 2nd grades in terms of openness to experience sub-dimension according to the class level variable, and in favor of participants taking part in sports organizations in terms of the idea leadership sub-dimension according to the variable of taking part in sports organizations.