SMALL GROUP RESEARCH / April 2001Colman, Carron / INDIVIDUAL SPORT TEAM NORMS THE NATURE OF NORMS IN INDIVIDUAL SPORT TEAMS

It has been suggested that the salience and legitimacy of norms for performance excellence are universal in all sport teams. However, the different task structures within sport influence the nature of interactions, which in turn, may influence the development of team norms. Thus, one purpose of this study was to examine the strength of group norms in individual sport teams. A second purpose was to determine the relationship between those norms and self-reported behaviors reflective of the norms. Participants (N = 97) of university-level individual sport teams completed a questionnaire, which assessed performance norms and behaviors for practice, competition, off-season, and team social functions. The results pro-vided support for the conclusion that normative expectations in individual sport teams exert a weak influence. Also, generally, individual perceptions of the strength of team norms were unrelated to self-reported behaviors. The results were discussed in terms of the dynamics of the group task. When an individual joins a group, feelings of uncertainty gener-ally arise as a result of a lack of knowledge about how members should or should not act (Shaw, 1981). Through subsequent inter-action and communication with other members, however, collec-tive expectations regarding appropriate and inappropriate behavior become apparent. Collective expectations pertaining to appropriate and inappropriate behaviors represent group norms (Carron & Hausenblas, 1998). In all groups (sport teams, military units, business teams, and so on), the development of common expectations (i.e., norms) con-tributes to a stable group structure and increased group effective