Group Cohesiveness as a Determinant of Success and Member Satisfaction in Team Performance

The effectiveness of sport teams in competition is dependent upon many factors, one of which is the ability of individual members to work together. The coach often refers to this ability as teamwork, togetherness, or morale, while the researcher refers to it as group integration or group cohesiveness. Physical educators and coaches alike have long postulated that the most effective team is not necessarily composed from a con1bination of the best skilled individuals. The ability of individuals to effect tively interact with teammates to obtain a group-desired goal has been recognized as contributing to team effectiveness. A common held assump. tion is that the higher the cohesiveness of a team the more effective it will be. The purpose of the present study was to investigate this assumption among intramural basketball teams. The problem was to determine if different levels of group cohesiveness affected the effectiveness and individual member satisfaction of these teams. Lott and Lott (1965), in their review of the group cohesion literature, cite considerable research directed at the relationship between cohesiveness and performance. The conclusion reached by these reviewers is that the findings have been contradictory - i. e., in some situations a high level of cohesiveness was beneficial, while in other cases this same level of cohesiveness impaired performance. Lott and Lott state that: