Collective Efficacy and Team Performance: A Longitudinal Study of Collegiate Football Teams.

Abstract

University of North DakotaThis study examined the reciprocal relationship between collective efficacy and teamperformance over a season of competition in American football. Efficacy beliefs ofoffensive football players from 10 teams were assessed prior to 8 consecutive games toform 2 team-level measures of collective efficacy: aggregated self-efficacy and aggre-gated collective efficacy. Game-level performance indexes produced a team-levelmeasure of offensive performance for each game. Within teams and across games,aggregated collective efficacy prior to performance was a positive predictor of subse-quent offensive performance; however, previous offensive performance was a negativepredictor of subsequent aggregated collective efficacy. Within weeks and across teams,aggregated collective efficacy prior to performance also was a positive predictor ofsubsequent offensive performance, and previous offensive performance was a positive,rather than negative, predictor of subsequent aggregated collective efficacy.