Masters Degrees (Exercise, Sport and Lifestyle Medicine)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Exercise, Sport and Lifestyle Medicine) by browse.metadata.advisor "Fahlstrom, Per Goran"

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    Exploring organisational culture, talent development environments and team cohesion of the top six water polo high schools in the Western Cape.
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Madi, Lwazi Nqa; Grobbelaar, Heinrich; Fahlstrom, Per Goran; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dept. of Sport Science.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Introduction and aims: Water polo is a fast-growing school sport in South Africa. Swimming South Africa adopted a Long-Term Participant Development (LTPD) model in 2010 to guide the development of players from grassroots to elite level. It appears if the model is implemented ineffectively within the sport and the competitive school sport system in particular. Talent development environments (TDES), team cohesion and organisational culture are popular sport psychology topics, and provide an interesting avenue to explore contributing factors to water polo success and player development approaches within competitive high school sport settings. The study consisted of two phases, with three distinct aims. Phase one: 1) To compare the talent development environments (TDE) and team cohesion of the leading six water polo high schools’ in the Western Cape province, and 2) to determine the correlation between the respective TDE and team cohesion variables. Phase two: To explore the role of organisational culture in creating effective TDEs from the perspectives of coaches and captains of selected schools. Article 1: A cross-sectional design was used and 146 boys (M (SD) age: 15.51 (1.23) years) completed the TDEQ-5 and YSEQ before the start of the 2020 Mazinter Cup. Successful (top-3) and less successful (bottom-3) teams were compared on various TDE and team cohesion variables, based on the final log position of the Mazinter Cup, a high school’s tournament involving six leading schools (independently for the u/15 and u/18 age-groups). Correlations between these variables were also determined. The top-3 u/18 teams had higher TDEQ-5 (Overall), Alignment of Expectations, Support Network, YSEQ (Overall Cohesion), Task Cohesion and Social Cohesion scores than the bottom-3 teams. There were no differences at the u/15 level as the players competed in their first tournament at this level. Moderately strong positive correlations existed between various TDE and cohesion variables for the total sample. Article 2: The organisational cultures of two purposively selected schools were explored to understand how one school performed consistently better than the other in the tournament utilising a comparative case study design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the coaches and captains of both schools (u/15s and u/18s). Using Henriksen et al.’s (2011) Environment Success Factors (ESF) model as the theoretical framework, similarities and differences between the two TDEs were noted, pertaining to their preconditions, processes and organisational cultures. The consistently performing school maintained strong coach-to-coach relationships, encouraged frequent interaction between the age-group coaches and implemented similar processes, thereby contributing to a stronger organisational culture. Conclusions: High schools should provide their athletes with a nurturing TDE that incorporates group interventions aimed at fostering team cohesion, as it may enhance team performance and foster long-term player development. Stable TDEs with more robust organisational cultures and well-aligned processes from u/15 to u/18 age-group levels performed consistently better. A positive organisational culture may facilitate the transition and long-term development of players from junior to senior level, which should be a focal point of all high school sport TDEs. Simultaneously, this may explain differences in short to medium term team performance.