Section B: Psychology of sport performance
2. Group dynamics of sport performance
Syllabus
• Groups and teams– Definition of a group/team (mutual awareness,
interaction, common goal)– Knowledge of Steiner’s model of group performance– Awareness of problems associated with productivity
of a group/team, including:• Motivational factors (social loafing)• Co-ordination/co-operation factors (Ringlemann effect)
– Knowledge of factors affecting the formation and development of a cohesive group/team
Syllabus
• Leadership– Understanding the importance of effective leadership– Characteristics of leaders, including:
• Autocratic – task oriented • Democratic – social oriented • Laissez-faire
– Emergent and prescribed leaders– Theories of leadership, including:
• Trait theories • Social learning theories • Interactionist theories
– Fielder’s contingency model– Chelladurai’s multi-dimensional model of leadership
Group
• Two or more people who interact with each other and influence behaviour, usually to achieve a common goal
• Most common form of a group in sport is the TEAM
• Have a collective identity, shared objectives with structured interaction and modes of communication – This distinguishes them from a crowd
Group or team formation (dynamics)
• A group is constantly developing and changing when interaction takes place.
• Tuckman suggests four key stages of development:– Forming – development of relationships– Storming – conflict between group members
establishing roles – Norming – group gains stability and cohesion– Performing – individuals work together towards
collective goal
Forming
• High dependence on the leader for guidance • Very little agreement on the aims of the team • Individual roles are unclear and the team
leader must be prepared to give strong direction
Storming
• Group decisions are difficult • Team members jostle for position as they attempt
to establish themselves in relation to others • A clearer focus for the team (stronger sense of
purpose) • Cliques form at this stage (power struggles) • Team needs to be focused on its goals to avoid
distraction • Leader has more advisory or coaching role
Norming
• Much more agreement and consensus of opinions in the team
• Roles and responsibilities are clearer• Decisions that are very important are
increasingly made through group agreement • Less important decisions are delegated to
individuals or small teams within the group• Team are much more social at this stage
Performing
• Team have more strategies and has a clear vision and clear aims
• There is no interference or participation from the leader
• Focus on achieving goals• Team members are trusted to get on with the
job in hand with little interference • Disagreements occur but now they are resolved
within the team positively
Cohesion
• It concerns the motivation which attracts individuals to the group and the resistance of those members to the group breaking up
• Social motivation or task motivation
• For a group/team to be cohesive all members must have similar reasons for being attracted to the team
Group productivity
• The effectiveness of a group can be assessed using the formula:
Actual productivity = potential productivity – faulty process
Where potential productivity = quantity and quality of the group’s resources relevant to the task
• Steiner proposed that an effective group needs to be more than simply a collection of talented individuals, they must be able to work collectively together
The Ringlemann effect
• Rope-pulling: 8 people only pulled four times as hard as one individual
The Ringlemann effect
• Proposes that the performance of an individual may decrease as the group size increases
• This is caused by a mixture of factors including low motivation and a lack of co-ordination within the group, leading to poor group cohesion
• It could be categorised as a faulty process
Social loafing
Social loafing
• Performance suffers as groups get larger • Co-ordination and motivational problems are
the main causes • Motivational losses are SOCIAL LOAFING
Leadership
• The behavioural process of influencing another individual or group towards achieving their goal
• Is important in influencing behaviour in sport• Involves personal relationships and affects the
motivation of individuals and groups
Is a leader born or made?
• Emergent leaders – Come from within the group because they are skilful or
because the rest of the team selected them • Prescribed leaders– are appointed from an external source to a team
– To be successful, both types should be flexible in their approaches varying their leadership style depending on:• Personal characteristics • Group characteristics • Situational demands
Influences on leadership (Chelladurai)
• Leaders learn to be leaders through social learning and interactions with their environment
• Chelladurai identified three factors that affect leadership– The characteristics of the situation – The characteristics of the leader – The characteristics of the people who are to be led
(group members)
Chelladurai continued…
• The three types of leader behaviour which affect the outcome are– Required behaviour • Depending on the situation and task
– Actual behaviour • Leader’s action in a situation
– Preferred behaviour • What the group wants depending on its skills and goals
Chelladurai continued…
• The more the elements of this model match each other, the more effective the leadership is likely to be
• If the leadership qualities are what the group want and expect, then they are more likely to follow the leader
• If the leadership style matches the situation, again leadership is likely to be more effective
Leadership styles
• Task-oriented leadership and person-oriented leadership are the most commonly accepted
• These are not mutually exclusive, and effective leadership requires both qualities
• Lewin divided leadership into three styles – Authoritarian – Democratic – Laissez-faire
Authoritarian
• Are task oriented and are more dictatorial in style
• Tend to have commanding and directing approaches
Democratic
• Person oriented and value the views of other group members
• Tend to share decisions and show a good deal of interest in the individuals of the group
Laissez-faire
• Make very few decisions and give very little feedback
Contingency theory of leadership
• Leadership theory that proposes that the effectiveness of a leader is dependent on (contingent on) a combination of personality traits and the situation
• Fielder identified two types of leadership styles– Task centred / task-oriented leader– Relationship centred / person-oriented leader
Contingency theory continued…
• The effectiveness of each style depends on the “favourableness” of the situation, which is dependent on:– The relationship between the leader and the
group – The leader’s position of power and authority – The task structure
Contingency theory continued…
• The situation is most favourable if the relationships between leader and group members are warm and positive, the task clear and the leader is in a strong position of authority
• If the situation is unfavourable the opposites apply
Contingency theory continued…
• Task-oriented leaders are more effective in situations that are at the extremes
• Person-oriented leaders are most effective in situations that are moderately favourable
• Good leadership can positively affect motivation and performance and bad leadership can inhibit the performance of a team and demotivate individual players