Group productivity Flashcards
What is Steiner’s model of team performance?
- Steiner proposed that the results of group efforts could be based on an equation.
- It states that it is not always the case of having the best players produces the best results.
- They have to be moulded by the coach into a cohesive unit and maintain levels of motivation.
Steiner’s model of productivity simplified….
- Actual productivity= Potential productivity- Losses due to faulty group processes.
What is actual productivity?
- The performance at any given time (due to successful interaction).
- It’s the team’s level of achievement in a specific task.
- It is the result or outcome: a win, loss or draw.
e.g. a netball team reaching the semi-final of a cup competition.
What is potential productivity?
- The maximum capability of the group when cohesiveness is strongest.
- This is the team’s best possible level of achievement when it is cohesive, and everything went perfectly in the game.
What is group potential affected by?
- Skill level and ability of players compared to their opponents and how difficult the task ahead may be.
What needs to happen to achieve the potential productivity?
- Having the best players/ facilities does not mean that the team will win. The players need to integrate and interact as a team- they need cohesion.
e.g. the netball team could have won the cup competition.
Faulty group processes
- Factors that go wrong in team performance which impede/ prevent group cohesion.
- Factors that prevent the team from reaching its true potential- these fall into 2 types; co-ordination problems and motivational problems.
What do these losses do?
- These losses reduce the level of cohesion and therefore lower the actual productivity of the team.
e.g. the arousal and motivation of some team members were lower than expected and therefore the team did not reach/ win the cup final.
Co-ordination problems
- Team members failing to communicate properly with each other, resulting in poor timing and set plays breaking down.
- Team members failing to understand their role in the team.
- Lack of understanding of tactics or strategies set by the coach.
- Ringelmann effect- as group size increases the individual contribution decreases, so more opportunity for communication breakdown.
Motivational problems
- Over/ under aroused.
- Lose the drive to win.
- Social loafing- reduction in effort and motivation.
Social loafing + Ringelmann effect
- Social loafing and the Ringelmann effect are both faulty processes which have a detrimental effect on the cohesion and attainment of a team.
What is social loafing?
- Social loafing is when a performer lowers the level of effort they contribute to the team because they believe that they are not a valued member and their input is unnoticed, so they stop trying!
What do social loafers act like during match play?
- Players who are social loafers will coast through games and even hide behind other team members who they think might cover for them.
- They take easy options in the game and make limited contribution to the team cause.
What are some of the causes for social loafing?
- Lack of confidence= performer does not believe in their ability.
- Negative attitude= they may not like the position they have been selected to play.
- Carrying an injury.
- High levels of state/ trait anxiety.
- Teammates are not trying, so they don’t see the point either,
What is the Ringelmann effect?
When group performance decreases with group size.
- Individual effort within a group reduces with the increase in group size.
- This can be down to lack of coordination within the group.
- But this can also be put down to lack of motivation.
- Performers will try hard when efforts are recognised/ highlighted.
- But efforts will reduce in larger groups as performers are less likely to receive recognition.
e.g. a rugby player performs much better when playing in a seven-a-side tournament than when playing in a full fifteen-a-side game.
