Assessing sport team culture: Qualitative and quantitative approaches

Although sport psychologists regularly use the term "team culture" (Martens, 1987; Yukelson, 1997) no instrument has been developed to assess a team's culture. The authors propose a concept of team culture based on organizational culture and develop a reliable and valid instrument to measure team culture. Team culture is defined as the extent of values shared by team members. Using qualitative research in baseball teams to establish items pool, and quantitative research in three separate samples to summarize and confirm these items supported 4 dimensions of the Team Value Questionnaire: Perseverance, Compliance to Coaching, Togetherness within Other Team Member, and Competitive Desire. Results establish preliminary support for the concept of team culture.