The role of collective efficacy in adventure racing teams

This study examines the relationship between collective efficacy and performance in a single competition of adventure racing. Adventure racing is a team-based sport that requires the multidisciplinary tasks of trekking, mountain biking, canoeing, and climbing to navigate through a preplanned racecourse. Seventeen teams competing in an adventure race completed measures of prior performance, preparation effort, and a collective efficacy assessing perceptions of their team's functioning in six performance areas. Three in-race measures of collective efficacy and environmental factors-conditions are taken at various checkpoints. A correlational analysis indicates a positive relationship between preparation effort and initial perceptions of collective efficacy. A repeated measures analysis reveals the dynamic nature of collective efficacy and the reciprocal relationship between efficacy and performance. The results are consistent with D. L. Feltz and C. D. Lirgg's (1998) examination of collegiate teams and A. Bandura's (2000) contention that collective efficacy fosters a sense of motivational investment and an increased sense of staying power.