Informal roles on sport teams

Abstract

Informal roles evolve as a result of the interactions that take place among members of a group. To date, limited research has focused on these types of roles in sport. The objectives of the present study were three-fold. The first objective was to identify and describe informal roles in a sport setting, as determined by a content analysis of Sports Illustrated magazine. Initial support was found for 10 informal roles and input from an expert in group dynamics and 10 team sport athletes contributed two additional roles. The second objective was to examine the context in which these informal roles were described. It was found that the informal roles were discussed in reference to individual (e.g., satisfaction) and group (e.g., cohesion) contexts. The final objective was to query athletes regarding the validity, comprehensiveness, and utility of the identified roles. On average, three informal roles were perceived as having a detrimental effect to team functioning while nine were perceived as beneficial for sport teams.

Keywords:

• group dynamics
• content analysis