1. Life is a team sport. The challenges we face in the micro society of a sport
team reflect the interactions we face daily, either in personal or
professional life. It is believed that teams who work well together perform
better; however, this may require an outside influence. Team-building
(TB) has been defined as a multivariate treatment process of team
enhancement for task and social purposes, which can be characterized as
planned, longitudinal, and dynamic (Rovio, et al.; 2010, 2012). The
purpose of the study was to design, implement and evaluate a multivariate
TB program that helped the participating team to become more cohesive,
and to uncover the factors influencing an effective TB program
Results
Discussion
Nuno Antunes - nuantunes@gmail.com
European Masters of Sport and Exercise Psychology
Introduction
Methods
The present action research case study followed 32 Finnish Female U17
Football players for 8 months. The multivariate approach was used as a TB
method, and included team and individual goal setting (GS), performance
profiling (PP) and role clarifying. Data was collected using a research diary
and a player's reflective sheet, which included a likert scale from 1 to 5 and
space for a open answer to the question Why?. The lead researcher had a
dual role, as a coach and the program manager.
Common Team Goal: TO BECOME AN EFFECTIVE GROUP
3.7 3.6 3.5 3.5
2.9
0
1
2
3
4
5
integration cooperation communication
positive attitude positive feedback
Figure 3 - Players’ perceptions of TB help on TASK sub-goals
3.7 3.6
3.4
3.2
2.8
0
1
2
3
4
5
play hard commitment motivation
"be in practice" concentration
The study revealed that, on approaching TB, the assessment period and the
development of personal rapport should be considered and the multivariate
method was beneficial for the players and the team. In addition, it was
shown that PP and GS are interconnected and contribute to each other's
effectiveness. It was also showed that to promote a leadership network
contributes to the program implementation and to the team's functioning.
The inexperience in applying the methods, the time restraints and the
language barrier were limitations to the study. Moreover, awareness of the
research approach uniqueness is advised and, for that reason, future research
could focus on TB methods in different countries or competition levels.
Figure 1 - Chronogram of the team, sector group and unity council
meetings, specified by task (light shapes) or social activities (dark shapes).
Goal Setting (GS); Unity Council (UC)
Figure 2 - Players’ perceptions of TB help on SOCIAL sub-goals
The results showed that the TB program was perceived as beneficial by the
players and the multivariate method, which included goal setting,
performance profiling and role clarifying, was effective to approach the
needs of the group and the players.