Multilevel Analysis of Coach Leadership, Group Cohesion and Collective Efficacy in Semiprofessional Football Teams

This study examined how perceptions of leadership behavior in semi-professional sport predicted group cohesion and collective efficacy in a sample of Spanish football players. We adopted a longitudinal perspective, taking measures at the beginning, the middle, and the end of a sport season, and three levels of analyses were specified: intra-individual, inter-individual, and inter-team level. Multilevel modeling analysis showed that perceptions of positive leadership behaviors, such as training instruction, social support, positive feedback, and democratic behaviors, were a stronger predictor of a high level of cohesion and collective efficacy than were perceptions of coaches' autocratic behavior. Predictive effects differed as a function of time, level of analyses and the outcome variable under investigation. The results indicate the importance of considering the coaches' leadership styles when examining group cohesion and collective efficacy at different levels of analyses in semi-professional sports.