The relationship between cohesion of football teams and coaches leadership behavior in the universities

Introduction

A conceptual model for group cohesiveness (Brawley, Carron, & Widmeyer, 1986) has been applied to analyze the cohesion of football teams. The Multidimensional Model of Leadership (Chelladurai, 1978) and LSS have been used in the studies of the coaches’ leadership behaviors. The purpose of this study was to reveal the relationship between cohesion of football teams and coaches’ leadership behaviors in the universities in Shanghai and Anhui province in China.

Methods

Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ) was the instrument to measure the cohesion. GEQ consisted of four parts. Group Integration-Task and Individual Attractions to the Group-Task (measures the task cohesion); Group Integration-Social and Individual Attractions to the Group-Social (measures the social cohesion). The perceived and preferred versions of the Chelladurai’s LSS (1994) were the instrument to measure the leadership behaviors. Correlation and one-way MANOVA were the statistical analysis method. The subjects were 128 football players in the Universities (in Shanghai and Anhui province in China).

Results

1. "Training and instruction behavior", "Social support behavior" and "democratic behavior" preferred by the football players were significantly related to the football teams’ task cohesion (p<.05). "Training and instruction behavior", "social support behavior" and "democratic behavior" preferred by the football players were significantly related to the football teams’ social cohesion (p<.05).

2. "Training and instruction behavior", "social support behavior" and "democratic behavior" perceived by the football players were significantly related to the football teams’ task cohesion (p<.01). "Social support behavior" perceived by the football players were significantly related to the football teams social cohesion (p<.05). 

3. The football players who classified as highly cohesion perceived and preferred more of their coaches’ "Training and instruction behavior", "social support behavior" and "democratic behavior". The football players who classified as highly cohesion perceived and preferred more of their coaches’ "training and instruction behavior", "social support behavior" and "democratic behavior" than the football players who classified as less cohesion.

Discussion/ Conclusions

The results of the research revealed that if the football coaches were to promote the football team’s cohesion, they should be strengthen their "training and instruction behavior", "social support behavior" and "democratic behavior".

 

References

[1]. Chelladurai, P.(1990). Leadership in sports: A review. International Journal of Sport Psychology.

[2]. Chelladerai, P., Harggerty, T. R., & Baxter, P. R. (1989). Decision style choices of university basketball coaches and players. Journal of Sports and Exercise Psychology.

[3]. Courneya, K. S., & Chelladurai, P. (1991). A model of performance measures in baseball. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology.

[4]. Chelladurai, P., & Carron, A. V. (1983). Athletics maturity and preferred Leadership. Journal of Sports Psychology.