James Hardy *, Mark A. Eys ** and Todd M. Loughead ***
(*) Bangor University, Wales, UK
(**) Laurentian University, Sudbury, Canada
(***) University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada
Citation
Hardy, J., A. Eys, M., M. Loughead, T. (2008). Does communication mediate the athlete leadership to cohesion relationship?. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 39(4), 329-345.
Abstract
Although much of the sports leadership literature has examined the coach, the present study focused on athlete leaders. The purpose of the study was to determine whether communication mediated the athlete leader dispersion to cohesion relationship. Two hundred and fifty-four Canadian university interactive team sport athletes (M = 20.57, SD = 2.04) were sampled. Athletes completed the GEQ (Carron et al., 1985), a measure of communication, and three open-ended questions allowing athletes to identify team members providing task, social, and external leadership. Using regression analyses, task leadership dispersion was negatively related to task cohesion (p < .05) and communication (p < .01). Furthermore, communication was found to be a significant mediator of the task leadership dispersion— task cohesion relationship. Findings are suggestive of a “less is more” applied implication; if the aim is task cohesive teams that communicate well, a small core of task leaders should be established.
Keywords: Group dynamics, Peer leadership, Sport teams