The Effects of Accountability on Task Accomplishment in Collegiate Football

Abstract

An A-B-A-B withdrawal design was used to evaluate whether accountability, in the form of public posting, was effective in improving football players’ performance in successfully blocking the forward momentum of the defense and in running routes to a criterion at, or greater than, 90% correct. Five wide receivers on a college football team participated in the study. Data were collected during practice sessions and weekly games. The players’ game performance was not intervened on and served as a measure of both the generality of the intervention and as a product measure of the practice performance. The data show that during public posting the players’ performances met or exceeded the criterion established for practices and that this criterion performance generalized to the game setting. These results support previous findings on tasks and accountability. Moreover, the public posting intervention was easy to implement by the coaches and welcomed by the players.

Relationships between accountability, job satisfaction, and trust

“…One cannot, with validity, evaluate another' s work without knowing about it. This awareness, which refers to the actual or perceived knowledge that others have regarding one' s performance, is consistent with a study done by Ward, Smith, and Sharpe (1997), which found that athletes performed at higher levels when specific measures were posted publicly. Our results suggest that with regard to job satisfaction and trust, awareness is the most important aspect.…”

The Effects of Feedback and Positive Reinforcement On the On-Task Behavior of Dancers

“…Further, the data in both studies showed that gains in performance generalized from practice to game conditions. Similar results were reported by Ward, Smith, and Sharpe (1997) for blocks and routes completed correctly by five receivers (1997). The movements on the field of three female high school soccer players were improved by providing public posting, goal setting, and oral feedback (Brobst & Ward, 2002).…”

Effects of Public Posting, Goal Setting, and Oral Feedback on the Skills of Female Soccer Players

“…The head coach and the lead author established a goal of 90% correct performance of the target behaviors. The criterion was chosen because the skills were already in the repertoire of the players, because the coach believed that her players ought to be demonstrating a proficiency level of at least 90% during scrimmages, and because similar studies had used this criterion (e.g., Ward & Carnes, 2002;Ward, Smith, & Sharpe, 1997). The head coach and lead author met with the 3 participants as a group and explained the target behavior, how it was measured, and the rationale for the 90% criterion.…”

“…Studies combining public posting and goal setting in sport settings have been used to reduce absenteeism, late arrivals, and early departures as well as to increase the work rate of members of a youth swimming team (McKenzie & Rushall, 1974); to increase the rate of legal body checking in a collegiate ice hockey team (Anderson, Crowell, Doman, & Howard, 1988); to increase the practice and game performance of collegiate football players (Ward & Carnes, 2002;Ward, Smith, & Sharpe, 1997); and to reduce illegal and improper behaviors occurring during tennis matches by collegiate tennis players (Galvan & Ward, 1998).…”