Teamwork is a dynamic process that can fluctuate over a team's time together, including within a competition. The purpose of the present study was to better understand why this process breaks down, whereby teams do not demonstrate effective teamwork execution. To do so, 18 British university athletes (11 men, 7 women; M age = 21.4 years) from interdependent team sports were interviewed on two occasions and asked to describe experiences in which their team did not communicate, coordinate, or cooperate effectively during gameplay. Underpinned by a critical realist approach and through abductive thematic analysis, we developed seven themes (comprised of 16 subthemes) which reflected precursors to teamwork breakdowns. These included: (a) ineffective team preparation during training and during the pre-competition warmup; (b) ineffective team monitoring, problem solving, action planning, and conflict management during in-competition transition periods; (c) changes to the team's roster composition over the season and during games; (d) unhelpful leadership from coaches and athlete leaders during gameplay; (e) poor unity among team members regarding the team's instrumental objectives and social relationships; (f) problematic levels of confidence between teammates and among the team as a whole; and (g) poor performance of one's team and successful performances of one's opponent during the competition. The novel findings from this study extend current knowledge of teamwork and group dysfunction in sport and provide directions for future research on teamwork breakdowns. The potential applied implications for coaches and other team leaders (e.g., sport psychology consultants, and athlete leaders) related to these findings are also highlighted.
Teams are groups of people who work together to achieve a common goal. Maybe you play on a sports team, perform in school plays, or work on a group project for a class. These are all examples of teams. You may have heard your coach or teacher talk about the importance of teamwork and being a good teammate. Teamwork is what teams do to maximize their chances of achieving their goals, like winning a basketball game, putting on a stellar school play, or obtaining a high mark on a group assignment. Sometimes it can be difficult for people to come together and work effectively as a team. In this article, we talk about what teamwork is and how teams can improve the way they work together before, during, and after games. We also explain how teammates can support one another when faced with obstacles and conflict.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.