PERFORMANCE

Chapter 9

Group Performance

Increasing importance in today’s workplace Teams/Groups are more common now Global competition will require more effort

from employees Downsizing requires adaptability & extra

effort Resources may be scarce

Adaptive Group Performance

Beneficial due to changing nature of work Changing technologies alter work tasks Mergers, downsizing, & corporate

restructuring – dealing with uncertain conditions

Globalization & Diversity - working in different cultures

Social Facilitation

Social facilitation: improvement in performance in the presence of others (both audience and coaction)

Triplett’s (1898) early studies on cyclists – performed better when racing against others than being timed alone against others than being timed alone

Coaction – performing a task in the presence of one or more other individuals who are performing a similar activity

Zajonc’s motivational analysis of social facilitation (1965)– Dominant Responses vs. Nondominant

Responses

Social Facilitation (cont)

Presence of

others

Dominantresponses

increase andnondominant

responsesdecrease

If task requiresdominant response

If task requiresnondominant

response

Socialinterference

Social facilitation

Zajonc’s motivational analysis of social facilitation (1965)– Social Facilitation occurs on simple tasks that

require dominant responses– Social Impairment occurs for complex tasks that

require nondominant responses

Examples:– Making speeches– Getting dressed in familiar & unfamiliar clothes– Playing games

Social Facilitation (cont)

Theories of Social Facilitation

Zajonc’s Drive Process: Zajonc suggests compresence (responding to the presence of others) leads to increased readiness and arousal (psychologically & physiologically)

Motivational Processes: Cotrell’s evaluation apprehension theory (also, self-presentation theory): when working in the presence of others a general concern of how others are evaluation them, and this apprehension facilitates their performance on simple, well learned tasks

Theories of Social Facilitation

Cognitive Processes: distraction-conflict theory when people are in the presence of others their attention is divided by the other people and the task

This attentional conflict increases motivation and so it facilitates performance on simple, well learned tasks

Recall is poorer when original stimulus was presented in the presence of others

Alone or with Others ?

Prejudice as a dominant response Electronic performance monitoring Study groups

Group Productivity

Social Loafing – the reduction of individual effort when people work in groups compared to when they work alone

Productivity losses in groups Steiner’s law of group productivity Actual productivity = Potential productivity – losses

owing to faulty process

The Ringelmann Effect People become less productive when they work

with others Loss increases as group become larger

Group Productivity

The Ringelmann Effect People become less productive when they

work with others Loss increases as group become larger

Causes of Loss Coordination problems Reduction of effort

100

200

300

400

500

600

PotentialProductivity

Pseudogroups

Actual groups

Alone Dyads6-person

groups

Social Loafing

Social loafing depends on a number of group-level factors, including: Identifiability Free-riding Goals

Cures for Social Loafing

Involvement– exciting, challenging, involving tasks limit loafing– Karau and William's (1993) collective effort

model, or CEM – social compensation: involved members work

harder to compensate for others Identification with the group: Social identity

Building an Effective Team

Steiner’s social combination theory predicts productivity depends on Group composition: Who is in the group, how

do they fit together? The group’s task: What must the group do to

reach its goals?

Building an Effective Team

Group composition Members’ knowledge, skills, abilities, or KSAs

outperform less skilled groups “the best individuals make the best teams”

Group Diversity may outperform less diverse groups b/c their wide range of talents & traits enhances their cognitive flexibility – i.e., creativity, alternatives, solutions

Men and women in performance groups (solo status)

Building an Effective Team

Steiner’s taxonomy of tasks and task demands

Distinguishes between the types of tasks groups perform based on how members’ inputs are combined

Task Demands – the effect that a problem or task’s features, including its divisibility and difficulty, have on the procedures the group can use to complete the task

Asks three basic questions…. Divisibility, Quantity vs. Quality, Interdependence

Task Demands

Question Task Type

Qualities Examples

Can the task be broken down into subtasks?

Divisible Subcomponents can be identified and assigned to specific members

Playing a football game Building a house Preparing a six- course meal

Unitary The task does not have subcomponents

Pulling on a rope Reading a book Solving a math problem

Quantity vs. Quality

Is quantity produced more important than quality of performance ?

Maximizing

Quantity:

The more produced the better the performance

Generating many ideas Lifting a great weight Scoring the most goals

Optimizing

Quality:

A correct or optimal solution is needed

Developing the best answer Solving a math problem

Interdependence

How are individual inputs combined to yield a group product ?

Additive Individual inputs are added together

Pulling a rope Shoveling snow

Compensatory Decision is made by averaging together individual decisions

Estimating a pig’s weight by asking 3 people to guess & averaging their guesses Averaging ratings of job applicants

Disjunctive Group selects one solution or product from a pool of members’ solutions or products

Picking one person’s answer to a math problem to be the group’s answer Letting one art project represent the entire school

Conjunctive All group members must contribute to the product for it to be completed

Climbing a mountain Eating a meal as a group

Discretionary Group decides how individual inputs relate to group product

Deciding to shovel snow together Choosing to vote on the best answer to a problem

Types of Tasks

Additive Task – a task or project that a group can complete by cumulative combining of members’ input

Compensatory Task – a task or project that a group can complete by averaging together individual members’ solutions or recommendations

Groups outperform individuals on additive tasks and compensatory tasks.

Types of Tasks

Disjunctive Task – a task or project that is completed when a single solution, decision, or recommendation is adopted by the group

Groups perform well on disjunctive tasks if the group includes at least one individual who knows the correct solution (truth-wins rule on Eureka problems)

Groups rarely perform better than the best member (synergy, or an assembly bonus effect)

Types of Tasks

Conjunctive Task – a task that can be completed successfully only if all group members contribute

Groups perform poorly on conjunctive tasks unless less skilled members increase their efforts (the Köhler Effect) or the task can be subdivided.

Köhler Effect – an increase in performance by groups working on conjunctive tasks that require persistence but little coordination of effort and is likely due to the increase effort expended by the less capable members.

The effectiveness of groups working on discretionary tasks covaries with the method chosen to combine individuals’ inputs (see Table 9-3).

Brainstorming

Brainstorming rules Be expressive Postpone evaluation Seek quantity Piggyback ideas

Brainstorming…

Brainstorming groups are not as creative as nominal groups due to Social loafing Production blocking Social matching Illusion of productivity.

Other methods: brainwriting, synectics, the nominal‑group technique (NGT), and electronic brainstorming (EBS), offer advantages over traditional brainstorming.