Team members’ initiative can help teams succeed, but only when it is supported by strong coordination, according to new research from Washington State University. The study found that initiative on its own did not directly improve team performance. Instead, teams performed best when players’ willingness to go beyond their assigned roles was matched by clear communication and coordinated action.

The study, published in Group & Organization Management, was co-authored by Jeremy Beus, professor of management at WSU’s Carson College of Business, and Erik Taylor of East Carolina University. Using data from the 2014 and 2018 FIFA World Cups, the researchers examined how individual initiative affected team outcomes in one of the world’s most competitive sporting environments.

To measure initiative, Taylor and Beus analysed GPS-generated heat maps from World Cup matches. These maps showed where players moved throughout a 90-minute game. Since each position has an expected range of movement, the researchers looked at how far players strayed from those typical areas. Goalkeepers were excluded, and players were compared only with others in similar roles, such as defenders with defenders, to ensure fair comparisons.

“We wanted to actually see the evidence of initiative, not just ask someone whether their teammates show it,” Beus said. However, when the researchers compared team-level initiative scores with match outcomes, they found that teams with higher initiative were no more likely to win than teams with lower initiative. Initiative alone, the data showed, was not enough.

Coordination proved to be the key factor. The researchers measured coordination through the frequency and success of passes between players. When initiative was paired with strong coordination, team performance improved. But when players acted independently without communicating, performance suffered. Beus noted that while initiative is usually valuable for individuals, in a highly interdependent team environment, it can lead to duplicated efforts, exposed gaps, or people unintentionally working against one another.

The findings also pointed to a threshold effect. Teams with a moderate proportion of high-initiative players who communicated well outperformed teams where initiative was either lacking or excessive. Beyond a certain point, uncoordinated initiative became a liability. While the exact World Cup thresholds may not apply directly to workplaces, Beus said the broader lesson is relevant for managers and team leaders: rewarding initiative in isolation can backfire unless teams also build a culture of communication. “Going the extra mile is great,” he said, “as long as everyone knows about it.”

More information: Erik Taylor et al, Channeling personal initiative through team coordination: A heat map analysis of soccer players’ aggregate behavioral initiative, Group & Organization Management. DOI: 10.1177/10596011241287845

Journal information: Group & Organization Management Provided by Washington State University