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Articles

Cohesion and leadership in individual sports: a social network analysis of participation in recreational running groups

ORCID Icon, &
Pages 225-239 | Received 28 Feb 2018, Accepted 27 Nov 2018, Published online: 09 Dec 2018
 

ABSTRACT

Sixty percent of recreational runners in the United States use running groups to participate in the sport. Within these groups, cohesion, or the process of working together to achieve goals and objectives, can develop. The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of cohesion occurring among recreational runners using running groups to train for a running event. This study used social network analysis to assess task cohesion (achieving collective goals) and social cohesion (developing relationships among group members) in two running groups. The groups exhibited cohesion; task cohesion exceeded social cohesion. Informal leaders emerged alongside formal leaders in both groups. Running group organizers can use these findings to increase task cohesion and shared leadership in their groups. The results add to the few studies examining cohesion in individual sports and extend the application of social network analysis in sport research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Marion E. Hambrick http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4159-0049

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