To achieve this, workplaces often organize team bonding sessions and set a strong workplace culture. Workplace groups: Employees who work in teams, departments, or project groups need cohesiveness through shared goals – such as meeting deadlines or providing quality customer service.They need to trust one another and work well together in order to save lives, and keep each other safe. Emergency responders: Police officers, firefighters, and paramedics often work together as part of emergency response teams, responding quickly to crises and life-threatening situations.They share a strong bond reinforced through training exercises and combat situations. Soldiers in the military work together in close-knit units that rely on each other for survival and success. Military units: The military works extremely hard to ensure teams work cohesively.Members typically share a common goal – to win games and championships – but to be highly cohesive, members need to know each other’s group role, strengths and skills, and trust one another implicitly. Successful sports teams: Cohesion is known to be an important factor to being successful as a sporting team.Group cohesion also influences a variety of individual outcomes such as job satisfaction, motivation, stress levels, and even physiological outcomes like cardiovascular health (Cohen & Wills, 1985).Ĭomprehension Checkpoint: Write down some core features of cohesive groups, according to the interpersonal attraction model. Positive interactions among members can also strengthen cohesion by building trust and positive emotions such as happiness or satisfaction with a group’s progress. This model suggests that individuals with similar attitudes or interests tend to like each other more and are more likely to form cohesive groups.

There are different perspectives and theories on group cohesion, including social identity theory and the interpersonal attraction model.Īccording to the social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), people often define themselves based on their group membership (e.g., nationality, religion, occupation) and develop an “ingroup” bias where they favor members of their own group over those outside of it.Īnother popular theory on group cohesion is the interpersonal attraction model (Baskett et al., 1971). 347).Ĭohesion is usually evident in groups that have shared interests, experiences, goals, and values. “…a dynamic process which is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of its instrumental objectives and/or for the satisfaction of member affective needs” (Ohlert & Zepp, 2016, p. It is defined by Ohlert and Zepp (2016) as: It explains the degree to which individuals in a group are committed to working together and achieving group goals. Group cohesion refers to the bonds, unity, and emotional and social connection among group members.

Teachers, if you assign this article for homework, have the students answer these questions at home, then use them as stimuli for in-class discussion. Comprehension Questions: As you read through this article, our editor Chris will pose comprehension and critical thinking questions to help you get the most out of this article.

Bonds of unity definition