ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a sports team to examine factors influencing team cohesion. For them, strong team cohesion, or the tendency for a group to stick together, has been found to be important for one reason in particular: it crucially influences effective teams. The chosen case was the volleyball team of a large, state-funded university, which plays at the NCAA Division I level in the United States. Several factors have been found to influence team cohesion, such as team building, team size, and team goals. The model consists of environmental factors as the group size, and personal factors as the similarity of the group members. The leadership factors Carron identified include the relationship the coaches established with their groups, their leadership style, and behaviors. The chapter distinguishes group cohesiveness between task and social cohesion and "conflict" between task and social conflict. It also explores direct observations and interviews to gain an in-depth understanding of factors influencing sport team cohesion.
