Performance
CHAPTER 10
DONELSON FORSYTH
Group Performance
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Working in Groups
Social Facilitation
Social Loafing
Groups vs. Individuals
Group Creativity
Working In Task Groups
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Purpose – groups may have singular or multiple tasks/goals
– Collective IQ – groups differ in their ability to complete
diverse tasks
When to Work in Groups
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Difficult and Unfamiliar tasks
Complexity and Interdependence
Importance
Why Do Groups Succeed and Fail?
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Social Facilitation – N.Triplett found enhanced task
performance when acting in the presence of others
– Coaction Task – individuals are working on individual
tasks in the presence of others
– Audience Task – individuals are working in front of
others
– Contradictory Findings?
R. Zajonc discovered that the presence of others
facilitates dominant responses and inhibits non-dominant
ones
Social Facilitation
Why Does Facilitation Occur?
1.
2.
Drive Theory – responding when others are simply near
leads to an aroused drive state
Evaluation Apprehension – anxiety that results from a
concern with being evaluated by others
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Can animals be apprehensive?
Why Does Facilitation Occur?
3.
4.
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Distraction-Conflict Theory – the presence of others
influences performance by dividing attention
Social Orientation Theory – people with a positivesocial orientation welcome challenges groups
present
Facilitation is most likely a combination of
physiological, motivational, personality, and cognitive
processes
Applying Facilitation
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Prejudiced Attitudes
Appetite and Food Consumption
Electronic Performance Monitoring
Academic Study Groups and Testing
Group Productivity
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Synergy – groups performing above and beyond
expectations
Productivity Losses
Process Losses – reduced group efficiency and effectiveness
due to faulty group processes
Ringelmann Effect – the tendency for groups to become
less productive as size increases
Productivity Losses
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Coordination Losses – production loss as a result of
members’ inability to simultaneously combine their efforts
Motivational Losses (Social Loafing) – reduced
individual effort by group members (free riders) when
working on collective tasks
Reducing Social Loafing Increasing Social Motivation
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Increase Identifiability
Make members feel needed and important
Set goals that are clear, challenging, and valuable
Increase Involvement (group incentives & rewards)
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Social Compensation
Increase group identification
Coordination Problems –
Task Demands
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Steiner’s Task Demands – the features of the task that
influence collective group behavior
– Divisibility of the task – divisible vs. unitary
– Type of output – maximization vs. optimization
– Interdependence - how group members’ contributions
are combined
Steiner’s Interdependence Rules
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Additive Tasks – tasks that require group members to add together
inputs
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Compensatory Tasks – tasks that require group members to average
their estimates or opinions
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Disjunctive Tasks – tasks that require groups to generate a single
solution
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Conjunctive Tasks – tasks that require input from every group
member
– Kohler Effect – member with the least ability responds with
increased effort
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Discretionary Tasks – group members can use a variety of methods
Group Creativity - Brainstorming
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Brainstorming – using group to enhance
expression and creativity of ideas
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Be Expressive
Don’t Evaluate
Focus on Quantity
Piggyback Ideas
Brain Writing
Take Breaks
Brainstorming
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Brainstorming Problems
– Production Blocking
– Social Matching
– Illusion of Productivity