Team-level identification predicts perceived and actual team performance: Longitudinal multilevel analyses with sports teams

Social identification and team performance literatures typically focus on the relationship\r\nbetween individual differences in identification and individual-level performance. By using\r\na longitudinal multilevel approach, involving 369 members of 45 sports teams across\r\nEngland and Italy, we compared how team-level and individual-level variance in social\r\nidentification together predicted team and individual performance outcomes. As\r\nhypothesized, team-level variance in identification significantly predicted subsequent\r\nlevels of both perceived and actual team performance in cross-lagged analyses.\r\nConversely, individual-level variance in identification did not significantly predict\r\nsubsequent levels of perceived individual performance. These findings support recent\r\ncalls for social identity to be considered a multilevel construct and highlight the influence\r\nof group-level social identification on group-level processes and outcomes, over and\r\nabove its individual-level effects.