PE SR Discussion On Group Performance And Cohesion Jack Basford
Group Performance and Cohesion
Group performance is perceived through Steiners Model of productivity, which is as follows:
Actual Productivity = Potential Productivity - Losses Due to Faulty Processes
Actual productivity refers to the final product of a sporting action by a team collectively e.g. The score a diving pair is given from the judges of their performance or how successful a corner kick routine goes for a football team. Potential productivity is the maximum capability of a person or team to achieve the task. In basic terms this is "the perfect performance", e.g. A formula 1 driver completes a qualifying lap with absolute zero mistakes from the driver or car; this lap will be impossible to be bettered. Faulty processes are categorized two different factors, Co-ordinational and Motivational losses. Co-ordinational losses can be described as the “Ringlemann effect”. It is known as the Ringlemann effect because he was the first person to state that these losses occur more in teams of increasing numbers. Therefore a tennis doubles pair will be more likely to be closer to their potential productivity than a large team such as a full rugby squad. This is because the larger amount of people there are, the more communication is needed between the individuals. The research into this study was based on tug of war; a group of people were tested individually for their “pulling ability”, then all theses scores were added together. So with the entire group pulling the rope at the same time one might think that they would achieve the same results as the collective individual performances, however this proved to be false as the score was lower then that of the collective one, proving that there were further losses once communication and “co-ordination” between the performers was introduced. Motivational losses are also referred to as social loafing. Social loafing is when an individual, who is part of a team, suffers from a lack of motivation or effort input during a period of play or even a whole match. This subsequent loss in motivation causes limitations for overall group performance and can inhibit group cohesion. An example of this would be if a midfielder in footballer was not making enough effort to retreat to his own defensive area, because they assumed someone else would do their duties for them. The idea behind defining these losses is so we can identify why a team isn't working at maximum efficiency and why dysfunctional behaviour happens within a team. The identification and then elimination of these faulty processes aid in the formation of group cohesion.
