An examination of the relationship between athlete leadership and cohesion using social network analysis

摘要

Two studies investigated the structure of different athlete leadership networks and its relationship to cohesion using Social Network Analysis. In Study 1, we examined the relationship between a general leadership network and measures of task and social cohesion using the Group Environment Questionnaire. In Study 2, we investigated the leadership networks for four different athlete leadership roles (task, motivational, social, and external) and their association with task and social cohesion. In Study 1, the results demonstrated that the general leadership quality network was positively related to task and social cohesion. The results from Study 2 indicated positive correlations between the four leadership networks and task and social cohesion networks. The motivational leadership network emerged as the strongest predictor of the task cohesion network; while the social leadership network was the strongest predictor of the social cohesion network. The results complement a growing body of research indicating that athlete leadership has a positive association with cohesion.