Lecture 3: Teams

Question 1

explain 4 kinds of teams in sports

Answer 1

1. independent teams = individuals in the team compete seperately from each other (eg. gymnasts)
2. reactive teams = individuals interact during performance and respond to their teammates’ actions, but not always at the safe time (eg. softball catcher, pitcher, fielder)
3. coactive teams = individuals compete side by side at the same time but with limited interaction (eg. canoeists)
4. interactive teams = individuals continuously interact with each other throughout the contest (eg. volleyball)

Question 2

explain the ringelmann effect

Answer 2

= as group size increases, individual members become increasingly less productive

Question 3

provide the formula related to social loafing to understand group productivity and explain it

Answer 3

actual productivity = potential productivity - motivation and coordination losses
–> individuals contribute less because of losses due to motivation and coordination; as the number of group members increases, potential productivity grows but there are also more coordination losses (eg. harder to run the team efficiently) and motivation losses (people are less keen to put in all their effort)
–> there comes a point where extra people will not increase productivity because there are already enough players to ensure success

Question 4

explain social loafing and explain what coaches can do

Answer 4

= people exert less effort when working in teams than they do when working alone (alternative to ringelmann effect), and when they perceive a task to be meaningless/have no personal involvement in it
–> increasing coaches’ ability to assess players’ individual performance lowers social loafing

Question 5

team cohesion

Answer 5

propensity of a team to stay together as they strive for goals attainment and member satisfaction

Question 6

explain the two versions of cohesion and the two kinds of perceptions of the group

Answer 6

versions of cohesion:
1. task cohesion = happens when teammates work together to achieve common goals
2. social cohesion = occurs when athletes get on with each other and find their teammates enjoyable company

athlete’s perception of the group:
- group integration = involves players’ perceptions regarding group closeness and unification
- individual attraction = refers to athletes’ perceptions regarding their motivations to be part of the group and their personal feelings about the team

Question 7

what are 4 types of perceptions players can have about team cohesion

Answer 7

1. Integration-task: Perceptions about how well players have bonded over their attempts to define and pursue task goals
2. Integration-social: Athletes’ views regarding how well players relate to each other and enjoy being part of the team
3. Attraction-task: The extent that players are committed to the team’s goals
4. Attraction-social: The degree to which a player enjoys the company of teammates

Question 8

explain the relationship between performance and cohesion

Answer 8

the relationship is bidirectional, this means that increases in cohesion contribute to enhanced performance and vice versa

Question 9

what are 4 factors that influence cohesion and how

Answer 9

1. contextual factors; increased team size and level of competition lead to a decrease in cohesion
2. athlete factors; similarity, adherence and satisfaction are associated with higher cohesion
3. team factors; include norms, roles and collective efficacy (= a groups shared beliefs in its combined resources to undertake action/achieve goals)
4. leadership factors; leaders and coaches influence athletes’ perceptions of cohesion –> instruction, skill development, training and positive feedback

Question 10

what are 4 kinds of group tasks

Answer 10

1. Additive/compensatory: The performances of all group members are summed up independently from each other. For additive tasks, the sum is used as a criterion. For compensatory tasks, the total sum is then divided by the number of group members to achieve an average value (which occurs in sports only when the grading of judges is calculated).
2. Disjunctive: The group members act co-actively to enable their strongest group member to perform at their best. Only the performance of the strongest team member is taken as the result.
3. Conjunctive (not dividable): The group members interact with each other; all group members have (almost) the same task (e.g., rowing eight). The result is a joint group performance that cannot be traced back to the performance of the individuals and is limited by the worst group member.
4. Conjunctive (dividable): The group members interact with each other, but there are different tasks for the individual members (e.g., handball). The result is a joint group performance that cannot be traced back completely to the performance of individuals.

Question 11

explain 2 theoretical approaches to groups

Answer 11

1. phase model of small group development; there are 5 different temporal phases in the development of small groups
   - forming; individuals familiarize themselves with each other, establishing the team’s purpose
   - storming; conflicts arise as players start to discuss suitable goals for the team
   - norming; players resolve conflicts, build cohesion and set team norms
   - performing; the team is operating effectively in pursuit of its goals
   - adjourning; following task completion players reduce their contact with each other
2. conceptual framework for the study of team sports; inputs include member attributes (characteristics of members) and group environment and they influence group structure, this influences group cohesion which influences group processes such as group products and individual products (outcomes of the group and the individual

Question 12

social loafing

Answer 12

= describes a reduction of a person’s motivation and effort in a collective situation compared to a co-­active or individual situation (A co-active situation describes a kind of group work with clearly divided and identifiable tasks and achievements for each individual person, whereas in a collective situation, a clear assignment within the group performance to single individuals is not possible)

Question 13

how to prevent social loafing in sport (8)

Answer 13

• increase the identifiability of individual performance
• establish individual goals for all athletes which are reviewed/adjusted regularly
• try to increase personal importance of the task for the athletes
• increase identification with the team and group cohesion through team-building exercises
• try to work in small groups more often to increase visibility of the individuals
• clarify the tasks and the role expectations in the teams for athletes individually
• work with your athletes in a task-oriented manner
• keep an eye on people with a high level of ego orientation/narcissism

Question 14

explain the Kohler effect and the experiment connected to it

Answer 14

= describes the increase in motivation and effort of the weakest member of a group in a collective performance situation compared to an individual task

–> two people had to lift a dyad together and it would only work if both put in significant effort; for dyads with (almost) equally strong members, social loafing occurred and the overall performance was lower than the average of the individual performances; the same held true for dyads where the difference in performance was quite large in the individual tests; however, for those dyads with one member slightly weaker than the other, an increase in group performance of up to 25% could be found compared to the individual performances

Question 15

explain social compensation and when this is displayed

Answer 15

= refers to the effect that individuals
in collective situations increase their effort to compensate for the expected lack of performance of other group members

displayed under the conditions that the participants;
(a) cared about the task
(b) judged their partner to be unreliable, reluctant, or lacking ability regarding the respective task
–> only occurs when performing with a stranger

Question 16

explain how two different models can explain social loafing

Answer 16

1. social impact theory; its assumed that the attention—and therefore the social impact—of an observing or controlling person (e.g., experimenter, coach) will be distributed over several persons in a group situation. Thus, the impact on one person is smaller than in an individual situation
2. social identity theory; proposes that social loafing disappears, and the motivation to perform may increase, when the respective group is significant for the
   social identity of the members. In contrast, in situations where groups have only been formed for an experiment, for example, there would be minimal identification with the group and stronger potential for social loafing to occur

Question 17

identify 9 group-related phenomena affecting group performance

Answer 17

1. motivational climate; A task-oriented climate is characterized by an environment that stresses effort, skill development, and cooperative learning, such that all athletes are perceived and treated as equally as possible. In an ego-oriented climate, mistakes are punished, athletes are treated differently depending on their performance level, and rivalry within the team is encouraged
2. leadership structure within the team; different kinds of leaders, both formal and informal
3. role perceptions within the team;
   –> role ambiguity = a lack of understanding by a group member regarding the expectations for his/her role responsibilities
4. identity of the team
5. identification with the team;team members who identify strongly with their team show a greater willingness to make an effort and to perform well
6. group cohesion; higher social cohesion and task cohesion are related to better group performance
7. collective efficacy; a group’s belief in its capability to organize and execute the courses of action required to achieve goals –> degree of collective efficacy within a group influences how individual members of a team, as well as the team as a whole, behave, how much effort they put into achieving the goals, and how persistent the team is in pursuing its goals
8. team trust
9. communication

Question 18

what are 4 kinds of informal leaders

Answer 18

1. task-oriented leader = takes responsibility for the goals and tactical behavior of the team
2. motivational leader = motivates the other players and supports them to do their best
3. social leader = takes care of the
   harmony within the team and the positive relationships among players
4. external leader = facilitates contact with the coach, the club, the media, and
   other people outside the team

Question 19

what 4 areas are important to consider with respect to one’s role in a team (role ambiguity)

Answer 19

• The first area deals with the general scope
  of responsibility that a player must understand within a team.
• The second area relates to understanding the behavioral patterns that are necessary to successfully complete the responsibilities assigned to a person.
• The third area consists of the understanding of the evaluation of the role performance.
• The fourth area deals with the degree of knowledge one has regarding the consequences of failing to successfully perform the assigned role and responsibilities

–> role ambiguity has negative consequences for individual group members as well as the whole group and also limits the performance of groups

Question 20

explain Social Identity Theory (SIT)

Answer 20

social identity = part of an individual’s self-concept that derives from the knowledge about his/her membership in a social group (or groups), coupled with the value and emotional meaning of that membership

= self-concept is not only defined by characteristics that distinguish a person from others but also by memberships to different social groups; people make comparisons between ingroups (groups they belong to; these are evaluated positively) and outgroups (groups they don’t belong to; these are evaluated negatively)

Question 21

what are 2 kinds of identification

Answer 21

1. Affective processes of identification describe the emotional connection that a person has with a particular team.
2. Evaluative processes of identification deal with the relevance of belonging to a particular team

Question 22

what are 4 factors that correlate with group cohesion

Answer 22

1. situational factors; eg. Contracts of the individual players, Cultural/normative pressure, Level of performance, Physical/functional proximity of the group, Permeability of the group (openness to
   nonmembers), Group size
2. personal factors; eg. Similarity in demographic aspects, Gender, Shared perceptions, Attribution of responsibility for wins/losses, Anxiety/depression, Satisfaction, Personal sacrifices for the group, Attendance, Social loafing
3. leadership factors; eg. Leadership behavior of the coach, Decision style of the coach, Coach-athlete relationship
4. group factors; eg. Perception of status, Role behavior, Group norms, Collective efficacy, Motivational climate/conflicts

Question 23

explain the 2 kinds of interdependence

Answer 23

1. task interdependence = degree to which the team task requires reciprocal interaction of members
2. outcome interdependence = extent to which members depend on one another in achieving personal & group
   outcomes

Question 24

explain the Input - Process -Output (IPO) framework

Answer 24

Input Variables; Organizational context, Task characteristics, Team composition
Process Variables; Team roles, Norms, Decision making, Communication, Coordination, Cohesion
Output Variables; Performance, Member satisfaction, Innovation

Question 25

explain the 3 socialization tactics

Answer 25

• coach-initiated role communication tactics = the degree to which coaches provide new players with individualized role information upon group entry
• serial socialization tactics = the degree to which veteran players share task-related information with newcomers
• social inclusionary tactics = the degree to which group-wide social activities are coordinated for newcomers

Question 26

what are 3 possible mediators of the relationship between cohesion and performance

Answer 26

• collective efficacy
• team trust
• communication and coordination

Question 27

explain how team socialization and cohesion are connected

Answer 27

socialization tactics influences social identity, which influences task and social cohesion
socialization tactics also influences social cohesion

Question 28

coordination

Answer 28

= “arranging team members’ actions so that, when they are
combined, they are in suitable relation for the most effective
result”

Question 29

explain shared knowledge states

Answer 29

Outcome: Win the game by two goals
Design: Play attacking soccer at high tempo
Procedures: Attack down the center
Operations: X should attempt to pass to Y, but if she’s unavailable pass to Z