For example if a football team have half the team who want to win and the other half are just there for the money then the team will lack cohesion. Some factors that affect team cohesion are:-
- how the members feel about the whole group
- reasons for being in the team i.e. money, social life, wanting to win
- the support the team has- good support helps cohesion
- leadership – a good leader will improve team cohesion
- sense of identity – wearing a team kit helps with sense of identity and cohesion
- friendship – people who are friends outside of the sport/team are more likely to make a cohesive team
In some teams there are sub groups which are groups within a team which affect the team cohesion. A coach must ensure he remains well informed about his team in order to avoid these sub groups.
Steiner (1972) proposed a model which looked at the relationship between the people in the group and their group performance
Actual productivity=potential productivity-losses due to faulty process
Actual productivity is how the team finally performs, potential productivity is the best possible performance the group can achieve, losses due to faulty processes are the problems that get in the way of the team achieving their full potential
Social Loafing is when players lack motivation and do not try hard enough to achieve. Many social loafers lack confidence and suffer from anxiety and lack of identity within the group. For this reason they feel they do not have accountability for not trying hard enough and feel they can get away with not trying hard enough because noone will challenge them. Latané (1986) and Hardy and Latané (1988) contend that the social loafing may be a function of the individuals' desire to economize their effort when performing in group situations, because they can "hide in the crowd" and escape recognition or blame because their individual efforts are not identifiable
This social loafing affects the teams performance so coaches and players need to use strategies to avoid it such as, giving positive feedback, ensuring each member has a role, positive reinforcement and praise, monitoring performance.
When I play competitive golf in a team of four, there is always one member of the team who feels that if they have a bad start then thats it, they do not strive to improve their individual game and therefore let the team down as a whole due to lack of confidence in themselves.
