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An ever-present variable across levels of sport participation is outcome interdependence. The ways in which team members depend on each other, however, are not well-understood in sport teams. We revisit the conceptualization of outcome interdependence by arguing that the current theoretical foundations (Social Interdependence Theory and Interdependence Theory) lack the context needed to better understand sport team dynamics. To help alleviate the issue, we propose a conceptual model for future sport team research. Our description of the conceptual model contributes to a sport team-specific understanding of interdependence by emphasizing that: (a) the explicit structure of sports and sport teams form outcome interdependence; (b) unique multi-level motives control the dense web of outcome interdependence; (c) outcome interdependence is often dictated by third-party decisions; and (d) the recursive nature of the sport team environment promotes the evolution of outcome interdependence. We identify goal-related outcome interdependence as a future research direction by specifying (a) the integration of our conceptual model with goal interdependence theorizing, (b) the development of measurement tools, and (c) an appropriate method for studying goal interdependence. By refining the approach to outcome interdependence in sport teams, researchers will better understand a foundational element of sport team dynamics.
Papineau et al. (Mon,) studied this question.