The coordination of labour in sports teams

Understanding how the actions of members of sports teams are organised and coordinated is a key challenge for sport psychology and, until recently, extant theory within sport psychology has allowed few insights into this topic. This article considers how the labour in sports teams is organised, why the organisational structure of sports teams introduces an acute need for team coordination, and why coordination in teams is difficult to achieve. It also considers the team-level social-cognitive states and processes required to achieve coordination. Implications of the conceptual framework outlined here are presented for current theory and future research on team functioning within sport psychology as well as for applied practitioners working with sports teams.     

Organisational culture in sport – A systematic review

The purpose of this paper was to systematically review the study of organisational culture in sport. The choice of research paradigms, methods, interests, perspectives, and definitions and operationalisation of organisational culture used in 33 studies was examined. This highlighted the variety of ways that culture has been studied in sport and the range of interests explored in the research, including informing athlete development, the link between the strength of culture and organisational performance and understanding the forces driving organisational diversity. Unlike the wider organisational culture literature, there has been a preference in sport to assume that culture was a variable to manipulate in an organisation. The opportunity to widen approaches to study organisational culture in sport is discussed, such as broadening the methods used to conduct studies, including both coaches and athletes in the population studied and using the fragmentation perspective, where ambiguity and conflict are considered in understanding culture.     

A cross-level moderating effect of team trust on the relationship between transformational leadership and cohesion

ABSTRACT

We draw on the concept of the shared mental model to explain the cross-level direct and moderating effects of team trust on the relationship between coach transformational leadership and cohesion. Using hierarchical linear modelling, we analysed 597 national level high school and university volleyball players to test our research model. Our results revealed that, (a) at the individual level, coach transformational leadership has a positive effect on athletes’ perceptions on cohesion and (b) team trust, a group-level construct, is positively related to social cohesion and moderates the coach transformational leadership-cohesion relationship. The moderating effect demonstrates that the positive effect of coach transformational leadership on cohesion could be enhanced when high levels of team trust are shared within the group. Implications for coach education and sport psychology in terms of theory and research are discussed.     

Psychological resilience in sport performers: a review of stressors and protective factors

Abstract

Psychological resilience is important in sport because athletes must utilise and optimise a range of mental qualities to withstand the pressures that they experience. In this article, we discuss psychological resilience in sport performers via a review of the stressors athletes encounter and the protective factors that help them withstand these demands. It is hoped that synthesising what is known in these areas will help researchers gain a deeper profundity of resilience in sport, and also provide a rigorous and robust foundation for the development of a sport-specific measure of resilience. With these points in mind, we divided the narrative into two main sections. In the first section, we review the different types of stressors encountered by sport performers under three main categories: competitive, organisational and personal. Based on our recent research examining psychological resilience in Olympics champions, in the second section we discuss the five main families of psychological factors (viz. positive personality, motivation, confidence, focus, perceived social support) that protect the best athletes from the potential negative effect of stressors. It is anticipated that this review will help sport psychology researchers examine the interplay between stressors and protective factors, which will, in turn, focus the analytical lens on the processes underlying psychological resilience in athletes.     

Teamwork in sport: a theoretical and integrative review

A commonly held belief in sports is the need for team members to be able to work well together in order for that team to be successful. Despite this assumption, research in the field of sport psychology has yet to formally or sufficiently conceptualize what is meant by teamwork. In this theoretical and integrative review, we draw from the extant organizational psychology and team development literature to present a multidimensional conceptual framework of teamwork in sport. We provide a working definition of teamwork in sport and discuss how teamwork sits within a broader model of team effectiveness. We conclude by providing an overview of salient research avenues on teamwork and team effectiveness in sport, which have potential implications for guiding interventions with sports teams.     

Developing a winning sport team culture: organizational culture in theory and practice

Abstract

This case study reviews strategies for identifying, establishing and influencing sport team culture and leadership, based on Edgar Schein’s three-level theoretical model of organizational culture integrating artefacts, values and beliefs and core assumptions. Specifically, we examine the success of a professional rugby team in New Zealand, the 2014 ITM Cup champions, the Manawatu Turbos. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with past and present coaches (N = 3) and captains (N = 3). Key findings include the need to formally recognize culture, including establishing and reinforcing values, as a tangible element of sport team management practice. A flat organization structure has helped facilitate a suitable environment for collective leadership to flourish. Implications for sport and business teams are the need to acknowledge culture as a core component, and conduct a culture audit to establish the current and desired culture through an aligned combination of informal and formal transformational leadership.     

Sport management,gender and the ‘bigger picture’: Challenging changes in Higher Education—A partial auto/ethnographical account

This paper focuses mainly on a the author's current experience of Higher Education and of a module concerned with gender, difference, sport and leisure made available to students studying for sport and leisure management degrees. It reviews the changed nature of the curriculum in the shifting socio-economic climate, suggesting that the neo-liberal¹ turn influencing Higher Education in UK is reinforcing an organisational (university) culture which is counter productive to fostering critical gender and race awareness in both staff and students within restructured sport management programs. The approach I adopt in writing this paper is partly auto/ethnographic and as such, on occasion, it looks at the previous research and current experiences through the eyes and emotions of a senior woman academic located within a changing ‘new’ university culture. Auto/ethnography as research approach and autobiography as learning medium are considered. Like this abstract, I move in and out of centring myself in the text whilst interweaving writing in a more neutral ‘academic’ form.     

The Role of the Lebanese-Australian Diaspora in the Establishment of Rugby League in Lebanon

Abstract

The Lebanese Rugby League was formed in 1997 in Sydney when a team comprised of Australian-based players of Lebanese descent participated in an international tournament. The Lebanese national team later qualified for two rugby league men’s World Cups (2000 and 2017). The case demonstrates how diasporas can shape sport development. The accomplishment of the Lebanese team has also given the small country some exposure at the global level. Additionally, since 2002, a new sport has been established in Lebanon, making the country one of the few cases in the world where rugby league is more popular than rugby union. This paper examines diaspora issues including the assimilation of Lebanese emigrants into Australian sporting culture and strategic uses of citizenship. Furthermore, the research sheds light on the ‘glocalized’ development of rugby league in Lebanon by its establishment at private Lebanese universities while it is known in Australia for its working-class origins. There is a relationship of mutual dependence between diaspora and homeland: without its diaspora, Lebanon could not participate in the World Cup, and without domestic development in the sport (which includes, since 2015, also women’s teams), the diaspora would not be permitted to participate in global championships.     

The organisational stressors encountered by athletes with a disability

Organisational stressors have been found to be prevalent and problematic for sport performers, with research identifying demographic differences in the stressors encountered. Nevertheless, extant sport psychology research on the topic of stress has generally focused on able-bodied athletes; whilst that which has been conducted on performers with a disability has typically recruited relatively small samples to explore a narrow selection of organisational stressors, or examined other components of the stress process. The purpose of the present study was to explore the various organisational stressors that athletes with a disability encounter. The sample comprised 18 elite athletes with a disability (10 male, 8 female) who had a classified disability and experience of competing at a major championships in their sport (e.g., Paralympic Games, World Championships). Participants took part in a semi-structured interview which was analysed by drawing from grounded theory procedures. A total of 316 organisational stressors were identified, which were abstracted into 31 concepts and four, previously conceptualised, exploratory schemes: leadership and personnel issues, cultural and team issues, logistical and environmental issues, and performance and personal issues. This study not only provides the first illustration of the prevalence of organisational stressors for athletes with a disability, but also significantly points to salient similarities and distinct differences between the stress experiences of performers with and without a disability.     

Description and Process Evaluation of a Physical Training Program for Obese Children

Consistent with other sciences (e.g., Kass-Simon, 1993; Tang, 2006), the field of kinesiology has been called a “masculine domain,” which has an institutionalized culture biased against women (Brackenridge, Mutrie, &; Choi, 2005). This paper represents the second part of a larger project that examined the life histories of eight trailblazing women in sport and exercise psychology. In the first paper (Krane &; Whaley, 2010) we made the case for re-placing these women into the history of sport psychology, based on their contributions to research, teaching, and service to the field. In this study, we explored the experiences of these women with regard to the challenges they faced and how they overcame or coped with them. The specific themes emerging from the data analysis were the trailblazers' graduate school and early professional experiences, general campus climates, departmental politics, gender or discipline, coping and the cost of caring, and giving back and moving forward.     

Social Support and Recovery from Sport Injury: Elite Skiers Share Their Experiences

Abstract

Research suggests that social support can be an important coping resource for athletes recovering from sport injury. Few studies have investigated this claim, however: To address this gap in the literature, 10 elite downhill skiers who had recovered from serious sport injuries were interviewed about the sources of stress associated with injury and the role of social support in recovery from sport injury. This paper presents the social support findings that emerged from this research¹. Content analyses of the social support data revealed that the skiers needed various types of emotional, informational, and tangible support from the occurance of injury through the return to full activity. Members of the treatment team, the ski team, and the skiers' home support networks provided social support throughout these phases. In general, the skiers were satisfied with the support received, indicating that it reduced distress and kept them motivated throughout recovery. The findings from this research have implications for the design of sport injury interventions.     

Ties That Bond: Youth Sport as a Vehicle for Social Identity and Positive Youth Development

An emerging area of research has focused on understanding how the group dynamics of a sport team influence positive youth development (PYD). The identities that youth form through their membership in sport teams (i.e., social identities) have been found to influence teammate behavior and team performance. Yet, minimal work exists on social identity and PYD in youth sport. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between social identity and PYD in sport. Method: Youth engaged in recreational sport (N = 219; M_age = 11.61 years, SD = 1.39 years) completed measures of social identity and PYD in sport. The social identity measure assessed 3 dimensions including ingroup ties (IGT; perceptions of similarity, bonding, belongingness), cognitive centrality (importance of being a team member), and ingroup affect (IGA; feelings associated with group membership). A regression analysis was performed separately for 4 PYD outcomes (personal and social skills, goal setting, initiative, negative experiences) with the 3 dimensions of social identity entered as predictors. Results: Regression analyses revealed that IGT and IGA were positively associated with personal and social skills (R² Adj. = .29). Further, IGT predicted initiative (R² Adj. = .16), whereas IGA was positively associated with goal setting (R² Adj. = .17) and negatively associated with negative experiences (R² Adj. = .08). Conclusion: The findings extend previous research highlighting the benefits of social identity on teammate behavior and team performance and demonstrate how social identity may contribute to PYD through sport.     

Shame and the sports fan

ABSTRACT

Sports fans sometimes feel shame for their team’s moral transgressions. In this paper, we investigate this phenomenon. We offer an account of sports fan shame in terms of collective shame. We argue that this account is superior to accounts of sports fan shame in terms of shame for others and shame for oneself. We then argue that accepting the role that sports stars play in bringing about the collective shame amongst their fans provides a new way of justifying the claim that sport stars are subject to special moral obligations.     

Education in the Chinese national sport system: experiences of professional wushu athletes

Abstract

Within the Chinese national sport system, the government provides resources and funding to train athletes from a young age to become high-performance competitors. Though athletes are well supported to excel in their sport, during their years of intense physical training, athletes generally receive little to no formal education to prepare them for life outside of sport. The sacrifice of forgoing formal education to compete in elite level sport is not uncommon for athletes within centralized sporting systems and has been widely documented; however, there is little research that focuses on the impact of the team’s educational systems from the perspective of the athletes. To add to the growing body of research in this area, the authors utilized in-depth interviews to examine professional wushu athletes’ education experiences whilst training on their team. Thematic analysis of the findings revealed that athletes who committed themselves to sport training in the Chinese national system had to negotiate a number of factors related to time, motivation, social influences, and resources when it came to education and academia. Findings highlight the ways in which these athletes experience and come to terms with limited academic opportunities, preparation and support from their team and the training environment.     

Forms of interdisciplinarity in four sport science research centres in Europe

Abstract

Interdisciplinarity is often presented as a significant element of sport science. We present here the results of an investigation conducted in four European Sport Science Research Centres applying interdisciplinarity. Four main dimensions, that we have called “forms”, have been investigated. The “scientific”, “organisational”, “academic” and “societal” forms cover a wide range of activities run by these Centres. We have compared their situations using indicators. Globally they present quite similar combinations of forms, with dominant roles in the construction of interdisciplinarity played by the organisational and societal forms. The scientific form is never quite supported by an epistemological setting and the academic form, mostly characterised by the position of the university, plays an influential role when it is hostile to that kind of research. Following Klein classification, all of them remain at a multidisciplinary stage, one of them exploring interdisciplinary tracks in some research projects. The development of a common culture and a curiosity regarding disciplines other than its own is a key factor for a sustainable situation, as is the capacity to secure long-term financial resources, often linked to a high academic recognition for the director(s).     

体育运动领域情绪研究述评

在对体育运动领域中情绪研究进行归纳和分析后,认为体育运动领域中情绪研究的基本特征是:重消极情绪研究,轻积极情绪研究;重主观评价,轻客观评价;重个体情绪,轻团队情绪;重运动员研究,轻教练员研究。同时,对体育运动领域未来情绪研究进行了展望:积极情绪应作为体育运动领域中消极情绪研究的补充;团队情绪应成为体育社会心理学中的一个重要研究问题;情绪评价应结合现代认知神经科学研究方法与技术。     

Moments of social inclusion: asylum seekers,football and solidarity

Abstract

Established in 2012, ‘the Seekers’ are a football club in Melbourne, Australia. Initially set up to provide social recreation for various refugees and asylum seekers, the Seekers have more recently entered a team in the mainstream league competition. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper considers how football facilitates forms of social inclusion for team members, both in relation to the action of the sport and the political and social context of Australian society more broadly. In many ways the field of sport is highly contested as players engage with the mainstream; however the solidarity forged through playing creates the possibility for moments of social inclusion in other ways. The capacity of sporting interactions to facilitate social inclusion for male team members is vexed, though there is evidence to suggest that, in the correct conditions, sport can contribute to an individual’s capacity to access employment and educational opportunities.