Groups and Group Cohesion Flashcards
What is a group?
A collection of people who need to communicate with each other in many different ways and who work to some common objective or goal
What are the 6 characteristics of a group?
- Interaction between members - communication
- Interdependence - rely on members to do their job
- Interpersonal relationships between members
- Identical goals
- Identity e.g. club tracksuit
- Independence - separate from other groups
What are the 4 stages to group formation
Forming - individuals come together and know and understand each others’ roles within the group
Storming - challenge the status of the leader. Pecking order established
Norming - instability begins to disappear
Performing - primarily identify with the team
What is Steiner’s model?
Actual productivity = Potential productivity - Losses due to faulty processes
What is meant by actual productivity?
The result of the team’s performance
What is meant by potential productivity?
The best possible performance of the group - this takes into account the ABILITY of the members and the RESOURCES available to the group
What are the two types of losses due to faulty processes?
Coordination problems:
- Teamwork/strategies break down, are not understood or are ineffective
- Often blame a team’s inability to maintain the team’s ‘shape’ (more interactive sports suffer the most)
- Ringelmann effect
Motivational problems:
- Individual or group loss of confidence, perhaps all team members may not be giving 100% effort or individuals are relying on other ‘star’ players
- Social loafing
- Lack of concentration
What is the Ringelmann effect?
- Individuals reduce their effort when in a group
What is social loafing caused by? (11 points)
1 - Individuals input not measured effectively/able to ‘hide’
2 - Task/goals lack meaning to individual
3 - Not understanding role
4 - A belief that effort won’t change result
5 - A belief that others will cover for your lack of effort
6 - Individual effort not recognised
7 - Low confidence
8 - Perceived low ability
9 - Low arousal/motivation
10 - Poor leadership
11 - Negative attitudes
What is social loafing?
Individuals drop their effort and ‘hide’ within a group
How is it possible to prevent social loafing? (7 points)
1 - Highlight individual performance 2 - Monitor individual performance 3 - Positive reinforcement 4 - Promote team cohesion 5 - Set individual goals 6 - Give specific roles 7 - Apply peer group pressure
What is cohesion within a group?
A continually changing process which is shown by the tendency of a group to stay together in order to acieve a certain goal/objective
What are the two types of cohesion?
- Task
- Social
What is task cohesion?
- The ability of a group to reach common goals
- Players need to be able to interact effectively and have good communication
- In order to understand each others’ roles/responsibilities
- So team performance can perform with good coordination
What is social cohesion?
How much the team members like each other and integrate socially/interpersonal attractions among members
What is group integration?
How the individual member of the group feel about the group as a whole
What is attraction to the group?
How attracted the individuals are to the group
What are situational/environmental factors?
E.g. group size, geography, contract. The larger the group the more potential coordination problems between individuals
What are personal factors?
E.g. similar/dissimilar, gender, ability, satisfaction with group
What are team factors?
Factors relating to the group e.g. desire for success, shared team experiences (winning and losing can both create cohesion)
What are leadership features?
Refers to behaviour of coaches e.g. decision-making style adopted, some styles help create cohesion
How is it possible to promote team cohesion? (11 points)
1 - Practicing clear tactics/strategies
2 - Setting challenging bur realistic goals
3 - Ensure players know roles/responsibilities
4 - Give feedback
5 - Encourage communication/support among peers
6 - Avoid social cliques
7 - Vary practice to maintain motivation
8 - Providing social opportunities
9 - Encourage a group identity
10 - Develop self-confidence within individuals
11 - Improve fitness
