Outcome of Collective Efficacy, Group Efficacy, & Group Potency in Group Environments | Hypothetical Study

 Purpose of Study

There is a small amount of literature on the outcome of team confidence during halftime. Fransen’s study (2015) did not conduct a full CEQS scale during halftime, because of the time constraints they had during half-time. I plan on using a modified CEQS scale. Fransen and his colleagues (2015) also mainly assessed older youth players. Further research is needed to measure other age groups and other competition levels on the outcome of team leaders/coaches and collective efficacy during halftime. This present study will go a step further by examining both process and outcome-oriented team confidence of team leaders and coaches’ speeches during halftime and the effects it has on second half performance in basketball. There has been no past research on the outcome of team confidence in basketball. There also hasn’t been a measurement of both team leaders and coaches during halftime in basketball. The purpose of this study is to examine the process and outcome of team confidence from halftime speeches by team leaders and coaches in competitive high school and middle school basketball.

 

Participants

I plan to recruit eight varsity basketball teams from the WCAL (Western Catholic Athletic League) to participate in my study, this will include 127 male players. And I will assess 33 middle school basketball teams from the ADAL (Art David Athletic League), including 396 male players. Middle school participants will be between ages 11-13 and high school participants are between ages 16-18. I will contact Gary Cannon, the WCAL president, to discuss the benefits the WCAL will attain from participating from this study. Once I have the president’s approval I plan to notify all the coaches and players the process and benefits of my study. High school participants are both African-American or Caucasian and a low percentage are Asian and Filipino.

To perform the study on middle school participants, I will notify Jim Geers, the president of the ADAL, to explain the process and benefits of the study. Upon approval, I will notify the coaches and set up meetings with the 33 middle school teams to discuss with the players (participants) the process and benefits of the study in a simplified understandable manner. For middle school participants, majority are Caucasian and a low percentage are Asian and African-American. Money will be given to the schools for participating in my study. 

I will be measuring halftime speeches in a highly competitive Varsity basketball league and the skill level among participants is equal. For instance, in the course of last season, 22 out of the 56 games were decided by 5 points or less and 30 out of the 56 games were decided by 10 points or less. The competitive league will have teams engaged in competition and halftime for  their games. The ADAL participants are also equally skilled. For instance, there are eight teams who make the playoffs out of eleven teams and last season, out of 21 playoff games, 9 of them were decided by 10 points or less. For all three grade levels, the participants are relatively skilled basketball players. For the WCAL, 6 out of the 8 teams are in the top 100 in the state of California. 2 out of the 8 teams are ranked top 50 in the country. The WCAL is one of the best basketball leagues in the country and have some of the highest skilled basketball players in the country. 

Instruments

Following previous research (Collins & Parker 2010; Felz & Chase 1998; Fransen et al., 2014; Fransen et al., 2015) I’m going to conceptually distinguish outcome and process-oriented team confidence as a single term of “term confidence.” Similar to (Fransen, et al., 2014), I will be using a modified Collective Efficacy Questionnaire of Sports (CEQS; Short, et al., 2005) to assess the process and outcome of team confidence among participants during halftime. I also will examine the overall perceived leadership quality of team leaders (Fransen et al., 2014), and examine the overall perceived leadership of coaches using a 6-item Likert scale instrument developed by (Fransen et al., 2014), asking the following question: “To what extent do you think that this leader fulfils his/her role as task leader well?” ranging from -3 (very bad) to 3 (very good). This measure is valid and reliable and is a good assessment of how the participants think of their assigned leader/coach and will lower the risk of impacting participants second half performance. The higher the score, based on this 6-item scale, the better perceived team leader/coach. 

Participants, on a 3-item scale, will also be asked what characteristics they find their coach/team leaders to have. This will measure what outcome team confidence has based on leader quality. The 3-item scale will assess perceived characteristic qualities and one out of the three items will be perceived characteristics by (Fransen et al., 2014). I will add two new characteristics to further understand the impact of team confidence during halftime. I’ll have motivational from Fransen (2014), but I will add the characteristics of “positive and pride” to assess the perceived qualities of the coach/team leaders. I’m adding these two characteristics because they are qualities that are assessed as strong leadership qualities (Van Breukelen et al., 2012). 

To improvise whether second-half performance improved from halftime I will be using subjective measures to assess second-half performance. I’ll be using this because they assess performance indicators that objective measures can’t measure. My subjective measure will be from Fransen’s study (2015) that will ask the following question: “How well did your team play during the previous half?” They will assess this question on Fransen’s (2015) 7-item scale by -3 (very bad) and 3 (very well). This will assess the process of team confidence of how halftime affects second-half performance. 

Procedure

Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups, group 1 will assess team leader/leaders and group 2 will assess their coaches. There will be a total of 523 participants. Informed consent and a demographic questionnaire will be obtained from all players who volunteer to participate. In addition, participants were aware of the confidentiality of their responses. There will be two measures in this study, the first measure will be performed during halftime, the second measure will be at the end of the second-half (end of the game). My colleagues are going to be assigned to basketball games so we have successful in-game measures. 

Group 1 is designed to assess team leaders’ during halftime. Group 2 will assess their coaches’ during halftime. For group 1, team leaders/leader will be required to speak to their teammates during halftime. Although middle school teams may struggle with having strong team leaders or leader, I’ll send a notification to the coaches asking if their team leader would be fit to be assessed by their fellow teammates. Group 1 and 2 will begin testing during halftime. This will be the first measure of the study. Participants will be given CEQS survey cards to assess their team leaders/leader for group 1 and group two will assess their coach. Following the halftime speech, the cards are designed to assess the outcome of team confidence from their team leader for group 1, and group 2 will assess the outcome of team confidence from their coach. As I’ve stated before, the cards will ask participants their perceived thought of their coach/team leader and what leader quality (motivation, positive, pride) do participants recognize from their team leader for group 1, or their coach for group 2. 

The second measure will occur following the end of the second-half. The subjective CEQS survey cards will be Fransen’s (2015) the 7-item scale. They will be handed out to assess the process of team confidence based on team leaders’ speeches during halftime and how they impacted second-half performance for group 1, and group 2 the cards will assess the process of team confidence based on coaches’ speeches during halftime. This study will be performed for the entire basketball season for both the WCAL and ADAL, including league playoffs. The information I provide from the participants will be assessed at the end of the season and I will want to review if team confidence did fluctuate during the course of the season. 

Participants will be informed that they will experience an understanding of how they can improve their second-half performance, depending on their coaches’/team leaders’ speeches during halftime. Participants will also be informed the potential risks of the study. For instance, they’ll be informed that this study has the potential of lowering second-half performance due to participants having to answer survey questions during halftime. I’ll lower these potential risks by having my colleagues hand out cards effectively to each individual player. As soon as coaches complete their halftime speech, my colleagues will hand out the survey cards so participants can answer the questions effectively and efficiently, so they can get back to playing basketball. Participants will also be informed to not take their time answering the question, they are to choose the answer that comes to their mind right away. The information I provide from the participants will be in secured databases and locked in cabinets to restrict the access of information from my research study. Once I’ve accumulated the information to publish my research study, I will properly dispose participants’ information to ensure that participants remain anonymous.  

Statistical Analysis

When I obtain all the data from the participants, I will analyze it using Stata version 13. Stata version 13 will assess the means, bivariate correlations, and standard deviations of process and outcome-oriented team confidence during halftime and second-half performance. The Independent variable is team confidence. The dependent variables is halftime speeches and second-half performance. The study is being performed throughout the season, and the groups are related because they are both measuring the characteristic of “team confidence”. Although they are measuring different figures, both groups are assessing the independent variable of team confidence. And are doing so during halftime and after the second-half (dependent variables). Therefore, I find a dependent t-test will work best with my study. Although they are different age groups, the groups are still related because they are assessing their second half performance based on their belief of their team leaders/leader or coach. 

References

Fransen, K., Decroos, S., Vanbeselere, N., Vande Broek, B., De Cuyper, B., Vanroy, J., & 

Boen, F. (2015). Is team confidence the key to success? The reciprocal relation between collective efficacy, team outcome confidence, and perceptions of team performance during soccer games. Journal of Sports Sciences, 33(3), 219-231. doi: 10.1080/02640414.2014.942689

Fransen, K., Vanbeselaere, N., De Cuyper, B., Slater, J., M., Boen, F., & Coffee, P. (2014). The 

impact of athlete leaders on team members’ team outcome confidence: A test of mediation by team identification and collective efficacy. Sport Psychologist, 28(4), 347-360. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/tsp.2013-0141

Collins, G. K., & Parker, K. S. (2010). Team capability beliefs over time: Distinguishing 

between team potency, team outcome efficacy, and team process efficacy. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 83(4), 1003-1023. doi: 10.1348/096317909X484271

Chase, M.A., Lirgg, C.D., & Feltz, D.L. (1998). Do coaches’ efficacy expectations for their 

teams predict team performance? The Sport Psychologist, 11(1), 8–23.

van Breukelen, W., Van der Leeden, R., Wesselius, W., & Hoes, M. (2012). Differential 

treatment within sport teams, leader-member (coach-player) exchange quality, team atmosphere, and team performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33(1), 43-63.