Groups and Group Cohesion

Question 1

What is a group?

Answer 1

A collection of people who need to communicate with each other in many different ways and who work to some common objective or goal

Question 2

What are the 6 characteristics of a group?

Answer 2

• 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

Question 3

What are the 4 stages to group formation

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is Steiner’s model?

Answer 4

Actual productivity = Potential productivity - Losses due to faulty processes

Question 5

What is meant by actual productivity?

Answer 5

The result of the team’s performance

Question 6

What is meant by potential productivity?

Answer 6

The best possible performance of the group - this takes into account the ABILITY of the members and the RESOURCES available to the group

Question 7

What are the two types of losses due to faulty processes?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

What is the Ringelmann effect?

Answer 8

• Individuals reduce their effort when in a group

Question 9

What is social loafing caused by? (11 points)

Answer 9

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

Question 10

What is social loafing?

Answer 10

Individuals drop their effort and ‘hide’ within a group

Question 11

How is it possible to prevent social loafing? (7 points)

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What is cohesion within a group?

Answer 12

A continually changing process which is shown by the tendency of a group to stay together in order to acieve a certain goal/objective

Question 13

What are the two types of cohesion?

Answer 13

• Task

- Social

Question 14

What is task cohesion?

Answer 14

• 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

Question 15

What is social cohesion?

Answer 15

How much the team members like each other and integrate socially/interpersonal attractions among members

Question 16

What is group integration?

Answer 16

How the individual member of the group feel about the group as a whole

Question 17

What is attraction to the group?

Answer 17

How attracted the individuals are to the group

Question 18

What are situational/environmental factors?

Answer 18

E.g. group size, geography, contract. The larger the group the more potential coordination problems between individuals

Question 19

What are personal factors?

Answer 19

E.g. similar/dissimilar, gender, ability, satisfaction with group

Question 20

What are team factors?

Answer 20

Factors relating to the group e.g. desire for success, shared team experiences (winning and losing can both create cohesion)

Question 21

What are leadership features?

Answer 21

Refers to behaviour of coaches e.g. decision-making style adopted, some styles help create cohesion

Question 22

How is it possible to promote team cohesion? (11 points)

Answer 22

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