'Talents wins games, but team work wins championships' ( Micheal Jordan, 1994)
This quote from arguably the greatest basketball player of all time shows how important team work and group dynamics is for a team to be successful. Another big part of a teams success is the cohesion between the team. A definition of cohesion is; 'a dynamic process that is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in pursuit of its instrumental objectives and/or for the satisfaction of the member affective needs' (Carron,Brawleyand widmeyer, 1998)
Coaches Role
One role of a coach is to develop group cohesion, some times they are successful but their are times that group cohesion is badly effected. Coaches usually organise events and activities for the players to take part into develop a good cohesion were the players can get to know one another and spark a friendship. A recent example that has been posted You tube is the Manchester United Football team taking part in a tour of Harvard University, this is a good way to develop group cohesion because they are able to talk and get to know each other.
An example of how group cohesion is effected in a bad way in my opinion is when Harry Redknapp stopped the teams Christmas Party, I believe that its a time that the players can interact with each other and have a good time as long as it doesn't cause trouble like Redknapp states in the press conference
Group Development
First of all their is a theory to explain group development, this is Linear theory. This is the development of a team in stage, the most popular of the linear theory's is Tuckmans (1965) this theory proposes that all groups go through four stages which are forming, storming, norming and performing.
The first stage norming involves players from a team meeting each other for the first time, assessing the amount of playing time they get in comparison to other players and will eventually decide if the team is right for them, next is storming and this is the stage were conflict is apparent, the leaders of the group need to communicate with participants openly to resolve any problems. The third stage is norming which the beginning of the sense of unity were players issues have been resolved and players strive for success. Finally their is performing, in this stage roles are established and the team work together to achieve success. This model also explains group cohesion, when the team has formed and and performing then the cohesion in the team is high.
Task or Social Cohesion?
There are two types of cohesion, task and social. Task cohesion would be a goal that every member in the team wants to achieve and this desire between the players brings them together and form high task cohesion. Social cohesion is when people interact with each other and generally enjoy one an others company. In sporting terms social cohesion is usually developed more at an amateur level and this is a reason why most people take part in sports. At the highest level more of a task cohesion will be found because professional athletes are focused on winning trophies.
In the professional world of football these two types of cohesion have caused problems within teams, Roy Keane has before accused players in the Manchester United team of not being focused enough on wanting to win trophies so this would mean that they are more interested in social cohesion and don't have the passion that he expects. Roy Keane was totally focused on the tasked and wasn't really interested in social cohesion this is why he was so successful as a player. He had a point with his accusation because in that period the team wasn't as successful as they had been in the past, as you can see in this link.
(2004 - 2006)
Development Of Group Cohesion
Corron Developed a model to explain factors that explain the development of group cohesion and this model includes, the environment, personal factors, leadership and team factors. First of Environment can mean that players are in a close proximity of one an other and this will help with cohesion because they are more likely to interact on a social scale, also their are restrictions that only allow players to play for teams at academy level that are within a certain distance, for example a young player called Zac Brunt from the Mansfield area was scouted by Manchester United and they bought the family a house within the area so that he was able to play.
Personal Factors play a big part in group development, these factors could be things such as aspirations, expectations and attitudes, if these are all similar then group cohesion will be will be good.
Another factor is leadership this is when coaches and captains communicate openly and truthfully to the players so that they trust them and feel part of the group, this will then help group cohesion. the captain or coach should inform players of specific goals and task that they need to achieve to keep task cohesion high.
Finally their are team factors, these includes things such as the length of time players have been together, shared experiences such as successes or failures, this explains the reason why Manchester United and Liverpool have been so successful because the players have been together a long time and shared success and failure. Players need to also accept their roles in the team before the club can be successful.
What is Social Loafing?
In a team certain players lose motivation to work hard for the team, from an outside prospective their efforts aren't clear, they will pass their work load on to another player. An example of this could be the QPR team this season, a member of the QPR team suggested that a number of the players weren't putting the effort in on the pitch and this was why the team are in a relegation battle and not because the skill level wasn't there. The problem was that the players might not want to play for the club but are only interested in giving a good personal performance such as scoring a goal, they wont track back and put in important tackles.
Problem + Solution
Cristiano Ronaldo joined Manchester Untied as a teenager and he was often referred to as a show pony because of the amount of tricks he performed and the little impact he had on the game. To combat this Sir Alex Ferguson had player on the pitch such as Roy Keane, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs that would have been constantly encouraging him to work harder for the team and this eventually paid off because in the last couple of seasons of his carer at Manchester Untied he would regularly track back and also put tackles in. This also shows the roles of how leaders in a team effect social loafing. Motivation is also a big factor that can influence social loafing, a coach or manager could encourage players throughout training to work hard for the team and then if this is not carried on onto the pitch then the coach can use this as motivation by saying, the work rate is there in training so why cant you play with the same passion and work rate on a match day.
