The relationship between team cohesion and success is almost always positive, and research indicates that group cohesion is increased as the independence of the task increases.
The relationship between team cohesion and success is almost always positive, and research indicates that group cohesion is increased as the independence of the task increases. If this is true, to what degree (if any) does social influence play a role in the development of group and team cohesion? Why?
"An individual's thought process, what they see, and what they think they see plays heavily into the mental environment that they create for themselves.”
Team cohesion Is almost always markedly related to a positive state and or outcome. Castaño and colleagues (2013) state that both task cohesion and social cohesion were directly related to performance. Team dysfunction, on the other hand, has a tendency to be an indicator of performance degradation and division within the team construct. Many times, even though individual goals and markers are sacrificed, an individual will usually be okay with this as long as the team continues to excel and shed positive light on the entire group.
Social influences become very important mainly because it has the ability to shape the environment. Many theories such as drive theory, social facilitation, and others are amplified even more when the environment is serving as the proverbial microscope on the group. Weiss and Miller (1971) pose that the very existence of an audience has the ability to incite drive, which in turn ‘energizes’ the responses for an individual (in this case a group). This is clearly exhibited during playoff or championship games in which certain teams have the home-field advantage. Not only has a team performed well throughout the season, but now the environment and the social influence that has been projected on and toward the team has the innate ability to heighten performance even more so.
References:
Castaño, N., Watts, T., & Tekleab, A. G. (2013). A reexamination of the cohesion–performance relationship meta-analyses: A comprehensive approach. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, And Practice, 17(4), 207-231. doi:10.1037/a0034142
Weiss, R. F., & Miller, F. G. (1971). The drive theory of social facilitation. Psychological Review, 78(1), 44-57. doi:10.1037/h0030386
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