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