SNA in a Professional Soccer Team

Background

A professional soccer team in one of the most competitive leagues in the world is currently mired in a string of bad results. Tensions have been rising in the locker room, which in turn are translated into the field. Management suspects bad internal communication is the problem. Lack of talent cannot be the source of problems since the entire staff (players and coaching staff) has a proven track record and is well regarded in the soccer world. Improving results is vital for the financial wellbeing of the team; sponsorship contracts and TV royalties are dependent on championship standings.

 

Objective

Utilize Social Network Analysis (SNA) on order to identify communication issues inside the team structure in order to improve results.

 

Data Needed

Data needed to perform the SNA will be gathered through the application of a survey to team players. The following data points will be gathered:

 

Age.

Years of experience in professional soccer.

Number of teams played for.

Number of championships won.

Educational level achieved.

Which players do you communicate the most during practice/in matches.

Which players do you communicate the most in social situations .

How do you rate the skill and knowledge of the head coach/coaching staff.

 

With the application of a well constructed survey, this information will be relatively easy to obtain. A condition of anonymity must be maintained in order to obtain trust from the players. Management must stand behind the SNA and explain its importance to the players in order to guarantee their cooperation. Establishing a sense of urgency and getting full management support is vital to changing any group behavior/culture.

Important Network Measures

Once the data is obtained, some important measures that can be used to identify communication trends and behaviors are the following:

 

Density
Distance
Degree
Eigenvector
Cluster Analysis

These measures will provide deep insight on the inner functioning of the team and will be the basis for improvements in communication.

 

Conclusion

Through the use of SNA, management will be able to identify internal communication issues inside the team.  Not only will they gain insight on demographical composition, they will gain knowledge on the attitudes present within them. Through graphical analysis, clusters will be identified. This will be important to learn how the players relate among themselves and how they fell about their teammates in general. The SNA will also help describe the relationship between the coaching staff and the players. This could uncover new issues that are affecting team performance. The information provided by the SNA will be used in order to design measures that will improve communication within the team and eventually improve results.