Chapter 8 - Groups Pt 1: March 25, 2008

Group definition 2 or more people who… –Interact socially/professionally –Have some stability of membership –Share common interests/goals –Recognize themselves as a group Many reasons for forming groups –Examples?

Models of Groups Old model w/5 stages (see book) – forming, storming, etc…but now recognize not universal stages Punctuated-equilibrium model now more popular. –Phase 1 – –Phase 2 – –Research?

Group Performance Older assumption of social facilitation effect on performance in groups –Groups outperform individuals –But may depend on individuals’ skill level Evaluation apprehension? Related to issue of computerized perf monitoring –

Groups & Diversity How does cultural diversity affect groups? Effects differ over time – –How? Effects differ based on group task -

Group Cohesiveness Degree to which group is attractive to its members (& desire to stay w/group) Factors influencing this? It may impact absenteeism, turnover But may also increase conformity, groupthink (bad in extreme cases)

Social Loafing On additive tasks, likely some members will loaf – not provide max input –Why? Cultural differences? How can social loafing be reduced?

Group Structure Larger the group, less member satisfaction –Research indicates the following reasons: –Also disadvantage of “Process loss”: What is it?

Performance & Task Type Do larger groups perform better? Depends: –Additive tasks – what is this? –Disjunctive – –Conjunctive – –What does research indicate?

Group Size & Perf

Research Issues What are the boundaries of the group? –Difficulties w/identifying a group Limited amount of field research on groups –Most are lab studies of nominal groups…does that matter? Potential disadvantages of this - –Can still examine process variables that may not change

What is group ‘effectiveness’? Problem w/identifying appropriate DV for group effectiveness studies –Most operational defs of ‘effectiveness’ have included: