Member communication as network structure: Relationship with task cohesion in sport

Examining the prospective relationship between communication network structure and task cohesion and team performance.

“…In accordance with this higher information exchange involvement, this member also would perceive the team as more cohesive. Support can be found in a recent sport study where athletes who exchanged information with more of their teammates held higher perceptions of task cohesion compared with those who exchanged information with fewer teammates (McLaren & Spink, 2019, Study 1). These results, however, are based on concurrent data collection making it difficult to discern the flow of causality (e.g., does higher information exchange lead to higher cohesion, or vice versa?…”

“…To capture this, participants were presented with the item "I openly exchanged information with these team members during the game," and asked to place a checkmark next to the name of each player that applied to the statement. The item used was adapted from Lee (1997), and has been used in existing studies testing the association between communication and group cohesion (e.g., McLaren & Spink, 2019).…”

“…These findings are consistent with the idea that engaging in information exchange with teammates should provide an athlete with a perceived win-dow into how united the team is in pursuit of its task goals and objectives (i.e., GI-Task). When individuals exchange information with a higher number of their teammates and the remaining members of the team also exchange information with most members, one plausible interpretation by the individual is that teammates are "in it together" in pursuing task goals (i.e., higher in task cohesion; McLaren & Spink, 2019).…”

“…A constructive replication differs from exact replications in that it seeks not only to add evidence for a relationship, but also refines or extends what is already known. To date, preliminary research has been based on individual perceptions of typical team communication patterns (McLaren & Spink, 2018b) and consideration of communication structure from only the individual or from combined individual and team communication using hypothetical vignettes (McLaren & Spink, 2019). Collectively, these results suggested that information exchange carried out between a higher number of members (individual and team levels) was associated with higher perceptions of task cohesion and overall team performance.…”

Network centrality, group density, and strength of social identification in college club sport teams.

“…The building blocks of relational networks are social ties, connections that link two people in some specific way (Wuchty, 2009). Because the ties that connect members can be assessed through numerous observational or reporting approaches, social ties may reflect many different forms of relations such as friendship or information sharing (McLaren & Spink, 2019). The distinct types of social ties used to connect members impact the meaning of a network and determine relevance to key outcome variables.…”