Group cohesion can be defined as the tendency of a group to stay together to achieve their common goal that they share. Cohesion can be split into two types, the first being task cohesion which is the ability of the group to work together to achieve their common goal. The second type of cohesion is social cohesion, which is when there is interaction of the players outside of their sport and they have personal relationships with one another. It is stated that task cohesion is more significant than social cohesion because the team can still be successful in achieving their common goal even if they don’t have interpersonal relationships outside of their team. There are many factors that influence cohesion within a group, whether this is the skill level of the group members because if they are all of similar ability then they will work more efficiently as a team. The type of leader may also have an effect on the cohesion of the group; if the leader is very democratic and makes all decisions then cohesion will reduce. However, if the leader is autocratic then this allows members of the group to contribute and therefore increasing group cohesion. The productivity of a group is calculated by the following equation, actual productivity= potential productivity- losses due to faulty processes. Faulty processes within a group can be split into two types; the first is motivational losses, which is when the team members lose concentration and their self-efficacy reduces significantly. The second type is coordination losses, which is where the team member’s ability to communicate with each other is reduced due to poor tactics and teamwork.
There are two possible explanations as to why losses due to faulty processes within a team occur. Social loafing is when team members get lost within a group as they can rely on other members to do the job for them, an example could be in tug