Collective efficacy and team performance: A longitudinal study of collegiate football teams

This study examined the reciprocal relationship between collective efficacy and team performance over a season of competition in American football. Efficacy beliefs of offensive football players from 10 teams were assessed prior to 8 consecutive games to form 2 team-level measures of collective efficacy: aggregated self-efficacy and aggregated collective efficacy. Game-level performance indexes produced a team-level measure of offensive performance for each game. Within teams and across games, aggregated collective efficacy prior to performance was a positive predictor of subsequent offensive performance; however, previous offensive performance was a negative predictor of subsequent aggregated collective efficacy. Within weeks and across teams, aggregated collective efficacy prior to performance also was a positive predictor of subsequent offensive performance, and previous offensive performance was a positive, rather than negative, predictor of subsequent aggregated collective efficacy.