The reality of innovative leadership among technical supervisors in the departments of sports and scouting activity in Iraq

Objective: This study aimed to build and apply a measure of the reality of innovative leadership among technical supervisors in the departments of sports and scouting activity in Iraq, in addition to identifying the current level of innovative leadership among them. Methodology: The study adopted a descriptive approach with the survey method. The research community included all technical supervisors in sports and scouting activity departments throughout Iraq, with a total of 335 supervisors. To collect the data, an initial questionnaire of 40 phrases was prepared, based on the Likert pentagonal method. The scale was then applied to a construction sample of 95 technical supervisors with the aim of developing the scale and verifying its psychometric properties. After reviewing the statements, the scale was settled on 33 statements and then applied to the application sample of 142 technical supervisors. The data was processed and analyzed statistically. Results: The statistical results showed that the arithmetic mean of innovative leadership scores was 130.746 with a standard deviation of 6.628, while the hypothetical mean of the scale was 99. This difference indicates that there is statistical significance in favor of the arithmetic mean of the sample, where the value of the T-test was 0.000 at the significance level of 0.05. These results confirm the existence of a high awareness among technical supervisors of the importance of innovative leadership in developing sports and scouting performance. Conclusions: The study concluded that the technical supervisors in the sports and scouting activity departments in Iraq have a good level of innovative leadership, which reflects their deep awareness of the importance of innovation in developing activities and motivating cadres. It was also noted that there was a relative disparity in the level of innovative leadership practice between different governorates or departments.