Cohesion is needed for a effective group
Task cohesion
This is where you might not like the person but you both know you have a job to do and you get it done. A good example of this would be Ribery and Robben at their primes in Byrne Munich. (link) This link shows they started a fight, not during the game but in between the game of a semi-final. It also describes them as trading insults to each other and squared up to each other.
Although this type of cohesion is not preferred it can land you some good results as it can be clear to the team that they have set out to do a job. Robben and Ribery where known as the ‘robbery’ at Byrne giving the club another double along with being on the verge of 7 straight Bundesliga’s and DFB cups.
Social cohesion
Involves personal relationships within a team and relies on the individual’s enjoyment. This is how most Sunday leagues stay together as it normally ends up costing money to play football every weekend.
A famous sporting example of this would be. Marcelo and Ronaldo. (link) Although they didn’t get on in the beginning (they were in the storming phase) they became great friends and when Ronaldo was leaving the club. Marcelo cried and saying, “10 years of joy” (how long they were both playing at the club). “I’m going to miss our talks” and so on. They shared a high level of social cohesion.(Link).
Combined
(how these are needed to create an effective team climate).
It’s all great being friend and playing together but if the team doesn’t have any goals (apart from just winning each week) than it can have a less effective performance. You should also want to go through a storming phase and if friends are close on a team, they might have not gone through that in a sport scenario. Maybe they already know their jobs (ie one is better and louder than the other) but the desired one you want is, both, but majority of social cohesion.
Cohesion in effective group
Task cohesion
This is where you might not like the person but you both know you have a job to do and you get it done. A good example of this would be Ribery and Robben at their primes in Byrne Munich. (link) This link shows they started a fight, not during the game but in between the game of a semi-final. It also describes them as trading insults to each other and squared up to each other.
Although this type of cohesion is not preferred it can land you some good results as it can be clear to the team that they have set out to do a job. Robben and Ribery where known as the ‘robbery’ at Byrne giving the club another double along with being on the verge of 7 straight Bundesliga’s and DFB cups.
Social cohesion
Involves personal relationships within a team and relies on the individual’s enjoyment. This is how most Sunday leagues stay together as it normally ends up costing money to play football every weekend.
A famous sporting example of this would be. Marcelo and Ronaldo. (link) Although they didn’t get on in the beginning (they were in the storming phase) they became great friends and when Ronaldo was leaving the club. Marcelo cried and saying, “10 years of joy” (how long they were both playing at the club). “I’m going to miss our talks” and so on. They shared a high level of social cohesion.(Link).
Combined
(how these are needed to create an effective team climate).
It’s all great being friend and playing together but if the team doesn’t have any goals (apart from just winning each week) than it can have a less effective performance. You should also want to go through a storming phase and if friends are close on a team, they might have not gone through that in a sport scenario. Maybe they already know their jobs (ie one is better and louder than the other) but the desired one you want is, both, but majority of social cohesion.
Factors affecting cohesion
Environmental factors
Groups who members are closer together and have more of an opportunity to bond Like playing with your friends or a school team. You’ve probably known both sets of players a longer time than if you were to join up with a new team and play for them. This could be as simple as not knowing the guy’s name to ask for to ball.
Member characteristics
Individual characteristics of the team members, if each player in the team is motivated to achieve an overall goal (it can also be important to consider the team members that have the same background, attitudes and opinions) while holding a similar level of commitment, individually. All this results in a team being more cohesive. An example of this would be Japan in the rugby world cup, where the coach brought his players into one team (outside) of international times (Link for Japan section) as the article states ‘but this didn’t happen overnight’. Bringing international players together before the season even starts allows them to start creating bonds (AND COHESION) EARLY
leadership styles
Aspects of a coaching behaviour, leadership styles, behaviours, communication styles and compatibility. Carrying on from the example above; Bringing a them together in a club allows them to create individual bonds. It also helped that head coach and assistant coach Tony Brown took the reins of their season team and international team. They out preformed how they were predicted because of this (I believe) as having the same coach, that they players like, can really improve cohesion as proved by their world cup performance.
Team elements
Characteristics, relationship of the group norms and stability. If the team stays together for a long period of time and go through failure success and plate it can bring them closer together increasing their cohesiveness. An example of this would be Japan, explained above.
(Carron’s antecedents).
Relationship between cohesion and performance
Interactive sports like football and rugby demand direct connect between players so cohesion, especially task cohesion is super important. It can still be argued that a connection is needed in coactive sports like archery and golf need less cohesion but if your connection to your caddie isn’t good than it can drain on your energy and take the fun away from the game. It effects interactive sports more than coactive ones.
Performance can also affect cohesion. Plenty of my former teams didn’t like to pass to a certain player because he stayed up front all the time and don’t come back and help defend. (Plus he wasn’t the fittest person, this effected his performance and made him an unreliable player. I also see it in my nephews team where you have many ball hogs who don’t like to share possession of the ball and 9 times out of 10 will lose it and the team have to work even harder to get it back (but you could argue that, that is cohesion effecting performance. It is believed that this can turn into a cycle through this. The better your team preform the better they get on and so on.
Giving my example above; if a ball hog passes it a little more than the players are more lily to pass it to him (increase in cohesion) the player still gets to show off his skill and the team keep possession a lot more which means they won’t have to work as hard as the others. (increase in performance. This will also result in the whole team improve on their basics (passing and touches etc i.e. an increase in performance) which brings them closer together (cohesion) and so on…
Strategies to develop an effective group and cohesion.
It’s most prominent to start cohesion early. When the stakes are low. I.E preseason training, this gives them a chance to get to know each other and establish group norms and that reliability which is needed in those high stressful situations. It can be important if there’s been a major change to the team i.e. a range of players coming in/out or a new manager or coach coming in with different ideas.
Coaches, to improve cohesion should implement; good communication, everybody knows what they have to do within the team, change things over time and immediately, set goals and know the individual athletes within the team.
Team member can; be responsible, know what they are doing, even if it means talking to the coach, Try, get to know each other, Help those in your team who don’t understand.
Mac Tíre 