Group Performance

Group Performance

1. Zajonc Solution (1980)

   • Presence of others can lead to:
     • Improvement on easy/or well earned tasks
       • Impairment on difficult tasks which have not yet been learned
     • Increases arousal
       • Strengthens dominant response to a stimulus
         • On easy tasks, the dominant presence will be correct
         • On difficult tasks, the dominant response will be incorrect
   • Social Facilitation
     • Presence of others enhances the performance on easy tasks but impairs on difficult tasks

2. Steiner (1972)

   • 4 tasks:
     • Additive task
       • Group product is a result of everyone's contributions
       • Rope pulling task
     • Compensatory task
       • The group product is the average judgement
       • Eg. Estimating temperature
     • Disjunctive tasks
       • Group product is determined by the individual with the greatest performance
       • Eg. Horse trading problem
     • Conjunctive tasks
       • The groups product is determined by the individual with the poorest performance
       • Eg. Cycling with a group

3. Social loafing

   • Reduction in individual output on easy tasks where the a whole groups contributions matter.
     • In other words, exerting less effort to achieve a goal when working in a group compared to working alone
   • Results of social loafing:
     • Loss of motivation
     • Loss of co-ordination
   • Preventing social loafing
     • Make members contributions identifiable
     • The task is important to those who perform it
     • When people believe their efforts are necessary to succeed
     • Group expects to be punished for poor performance
     • Group is small
     • Group is cohesive
     • Knowing ones work would be individually identified
     • If the individual believed their work towards the task was unique and necessary towards groups performance

4. Group polarisation

   • When simple minded people discuss a topic, it often becomes more exaggerated
   • Informational influence
     • Discussion generates arguments that mostly favour the position already taken
   • Social comparison
     • Desire to make a positive impression by being 'better' than the others
   • Causes
     • Isolation
     • Similar backgrounds
     • Group cohesion
     • Unsystematic review procedure
   • Symptoms
     • Overestimation of the group
     • Poor information search
     • No risk assessment
     • No alternative plan
   • How to prevent
     • Consult widely with others
     • Typically the weakest point of a group

5. Baumeister Et al (2015)

   • Groups function better when members have differentiated identities than when individuality is lost as people blend into a group
   • How groups form
     • Shared group identity, motivates individuals to work on behalf of the group
     • A vast increase in performance and efficiency when different members use different skills to perform different roles in an interlocking, interactive system
   • People contributed better when identified individually and did worse when their individual identity was downplayed or lost
   • Groups benefit when members participate as seperate, autonomous indivuduals

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