We all often work in groups. Some of these groups are informal as, for example, a
group of students preparing for an exam. Other groups are more or less formal, for example, a
work team on the production line, a personnel selection committee, or a sports team. Thus,
work in groups is an essential part of our society. Whereas in some cases it is inevitable to
have groups perform a specific task (e.g., you can only play volleyball in a team), in many
other cases we use groups because we expect them to raise performance on a specific task.
For example, personnel selection might also be done by a single person, but we often believe
that a group of people will make better selection decisions. To see whether such assumptions
are correct, we have to find out what determines group performance and how group
performance compares with performance in an individual setting.
The comparison of group vs. individual performance is a fundamental question in
social psychology and actually triggered some of the earliest experiments in our field (e.g.,
Ringelmann, 1913; Triplett, 1898). As it has turned out, the relation between group and
individual performance strongly depends on the type of task: For example, all of us would
expect that the more heads are involved in solving a problem, the greater the chances should
be that the problem will be solved. However, most of us will hesitate to say that the more
people are involved, the faster a roped party will climb a mountain.
In addition, simply comparing individual performance with group performance is
often misleading: Imagine the following, purely fictitious situation: You investigate weight
pulling and find that individuals pull an average weight of 100 kg, whereas four-persongroups
pull an average weight of 105 kg. Here, group performance is superior to individual
performance. Will this finding make you praise the benefits of group work? We suspect the
answer is “no; instead, this result might make you think about what happened in these groups
that their performance was only so slightly above that of individuals. Thus, what we need in
GROUP PERFORMANCE AND LEADERSHIP 4
WOP Working Paper No. 2012 / 4
order to determine whether group performance is high or low is an appropriate standard
against which we can compare this performance. As we will see, the appropriate baseline is
again strongly dependent on the type of task. For example, you might expect the four-persongroup
to pull four times the weight of an individual, but you won’t expect them to climb a
mountain four times faster or four times slower than an individual.
With that in mind, we introduce the core concepts of actual group performance,
potential group performance and different task types in the next section. In particular, we
outline how potential group performance is defined for different types of tasks and how this
potential changes with group size. In the third section, we deal with the psychological
processes that determine how groups perform in comparison with their potential. In
particular, we describe several process losses that make groups perform below their potential,
and also outline several process gains that make them surpass their potential. As we further
show, the relative prevalence of process losses vs. process gains in groups depends on how
group performance is managed, that is, how groups are designed and how their process is
being controlled. In the fourth section, we will describe three basic principles of group
performance management, namely group composition, group synchronization and group
learning, that facilitate process gains rather than process losses.
The extent to which these principles are realized depends on many factors. We
highlight one factor – leadership – that is particularly important in this context. Therefore, in
the fifth section we give a brief introduction to leadership concepts and leadership research,
and in the sixth section we outline how leadership affects group performance via the
principles of group performance management. In the final section we will summarize the
core messages of this chapter.
We all often work in groups. Some of these groups are informal as, for example, agroup of students preparing for an exam. Other groups are more or less formal, for example, awork team on the production line, a personnel selection committee, or a sports team. Thus,work in groups is an essential part of our society. Whereas in some cases it is inevitable tohave groups perform a specific task (e.g., you can only play volleyball in a team), in manyother cases we use groups because we expect them to raise performance on a specific task.For example, personnel selection might also be done by a single person, but we often believethat a group of people will make better selection decisions. To see whether such assumptionsare correct, we have to find out what determines group performance and how groupperformance compares with performance in an individual setting.The comparison of group vs. individual performance is a fundamental question insocial psychology and actually triggered some of the earliest experiments in our field (e.g.,Ringelmann, 1913; Triplett, 1898). As it has turned out, the relation between group andindividual performance strongly depends on the type of task: For example, all of us wouldexpect that the more heads are involved in solving a problem, the greater the chances shouldbe that the problem will be solved. However, most of us will hesitate to say that the morepeople are involved, the faster a roped party will climb a mountain.In addition, simply comparing individual performance with group performance isoften misleading: Imagine the following, purely fictitious situation: You investigate weightpulling and find that individuals pull an average weight of 100 kg, whereas four-persongroupspull an average weight of 105 kg. Here, group performance is superior to individualperformance. Will this finding make you praise the benefits of group work? We suspect theanswer is “no; instead, this result might make you think about what happened in these groupsthat their performance was only so slightly above that of individuals. Thus, what we need in GROUP PERFORMANCE AND LEADERSHIP 4WOP Working Paper No. 2012 / 4order to determine whether group performance is high or low is an appropriate standardagainst which we can compare this performance. As we will see, the appropriate baseline isagain strongly dependent on the type of task. For example, you might expect the four-persongroupto pull four times the weight of an individual, but you won’t expect them to climb amountain four times faster or four times slower than an individual.With that in mind, we introduce the core concepts of actual group performance,potential group performance and different task types in the next section. In particular, weoutline how potential group performance is defined for different types of tasks and how thispotential changes with group size. In the third section, we deal with the psychologicalprocesses that determine how groups perform in comparison with their potential. Inparticular, we describe several process losses that make groups perform below their potential,and also outline several process gains that make them surpass their potential. As we furthershow, the relative prevalence of process losses vs. process gains in groups depends on howgroup performance is managed, that is, how groups are designed and how their process isbeing controlled. In the fourth section, we will describe three basic principles of groupperformance management, namely group composition, group synchronization and grouplearning, that facilitate process gains rather than process losses.The extent to which these principles are realized depends on many factors. Wehighlight one factor – leadership – that is particularly important in this context. Therefore, inthe fifth section we give a brief introduction to leadership concepts and leadership research,and in the sixth section we outline how leadership affects group performance via theprinciples of group performance management. In the final section we will summarize thecore messages of this chapter.
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