Five Years of Groups Research: What We Have Learned and What Needs to Be Addressed
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report the principal findings of over 250 studies published between January, 1986 and October, 1989 that address the dynamics of small social groups, focusing on the fundamental tension between individuals and groups, how group members form a common understanding of their world, and how groups develop and change over time.
About: This article is published in Journal of Management.The article was published on 1991-06-01. It has received 566 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Social group & Social loafing.
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TL;DR: In this paper, a heuristic framework illustrating recent trends in the literature depicts team effectiveness as a function of task, group, and organization design factors, environmental factors, internal processes, external processes, and group psychosocial traits.
3,568 citations
Cites background from "Five Years of Groups Research: What..."
...Cohesiveness was also a positive predictor of customer service behavior among 33 retail sales groups (George & Bettenhausen, 1990), but it did not predict their voluntary turnover. The authors suggest that the strong position of the group leader, and the overriding importance of each group member’s relation to the leader in comparison to her relation to other group members, may have lessened the impact of cohesiveness on turnover. In this setting, as in that of Yammarino and Dubinsky (1990), there is again the question of how “group-like” is a collection of sales clerks whose group leader is the store manager....
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...But to paraphrase Bettenhausen (1991), the best is yet to come....
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...A supervisor’s positive mood was found to positively predict prosocial behavior (here, the provision of customer service) and negatively predict turnover for sales groups in 33 department stores (George & Bettenhausen, 1990). In a related study, George (1995) found that the sales manager’s positive mood was positively related to customer service behavior among 53 retail sales groups....
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...A supervisor’s positive mood was found to positively predict prosocial behavior (here, the provision of customer service) and negatively predict turnover for sales groups in 33 department stores (George & Bettenhausen, 1990). In a related study, George (1995) found that the sales manager’s positive mood was positively related to customer service behavior among 53 retail sales groups. It is not clear through which mechanisms the leader’s mood affected the group’s performance. The leaders’ positive moods may have been contagious to group members, or perhaps leaders in good moods engaged in behaviors that supported groups. Causation is also not clear; effective groups may cause leaders to be in good moods. However, it does appear that the effects of leader positive mood are independent of potential confounding effects caused by the leader’s job satisfaction and job involvement (George, 1995). In addition to leader affect, leader cog&ions in the form of expectations were found to affect group performance in a study by Eden (1990), who reported a Pygmalion effect among military platoons....
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TL;DR: A multimethod field study of 92 workgroups explored the influence of three types of workgroup diversity (social category diversity, value diversity, and informational diversity) and two moderators.
Abstract: A multimethod field study of 92 workgroups explored the influence of three types of workgroup diversity (social category diversity, value diversity, and informational diversity) and two moderators ...
2,873 citations
Cites background from "Five Years of Groups Research: What..."
...For example, Jehn (1995, 19971, among others (Pruitt and Rubin, 1986; Bettenhausen, 1991 ; Schwenk and Valacich, 1994), illustrated how relationship conflict is associated with a general reduction in worker morale....
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...Considerable evidence points to the detrimental effects of unmanaged conflicts (e.g., Pruitt and Rubin, 1986; Bettenhausen, 1991 ; Jehn, 1997)....
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TL;DR: The influence of teammates' shared mental models on team processes and performance was tested using 56 undergraduate dyads who "flew" a series of missions on a personal-computer-based flight-combat simulation and illustrated that both shared-team- and task-based mental models related positively to subsequent team process and performance.
Abstract: The influence of teammates' shared mental models on team processes and performance was tested using 56 undergraduate dyads who "flew" a series of missions on a personal-computer-based flight-combat simulation. The authors both conceptually and empirically distinguished between teammates' task- and team-based mental models and indexed their convergence or "sharedness" using individually completed paired-comparisons matrices analyzed using a network-based algorithm. The results illustrated that both shared-team- and task-based mental models related positively to subsequent team process and performance. Furthermore, team processes fully mediated the relationship between mental model convergence and team effectiveness. Results are discussed in terms of the role of shared cognitions in team effectiveness and the applicability of different interventions designed to achieve such convergence.
2,385 citations
TL;DR: There is a solid foundation for concluding that there is an emerging science of team effectiveness and that findings from this research foundation provide several means to improve team effectiveness.
Abstract: Teams of people working together for a common purpose have been a centerpiece of human social organization ever since our ancient ancestors first banded together to hunt game, raise families, and defend their communities. Human history is largely a story of people working together in groups to explore, achieve, and conquer. Yet, the modern concept of work in large organizations that developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is largely a tale of work as a collection of individual jobs. A variety of global forces unfolding over the last two decades, however, has pushed organizations worldwide to restructure work around teams, to enable more rapid, flexible, and adaptive responses to the unexpected. This shift in the structure of work has made team effectiveness a salient organizational concern.Teams touch our lives everyday and their effectiveness is important to well-being across a wide range of societal functions. There is over 50 years of psychological research—literally thousands of studies—fo...
2,069 citations
Cites background from "Five Years of Groups Research: What..."
...At least seven major reviews of the work-team literature in organizational psychology appeared between 1990 and 2000 (see Bettenhausen, 1991; Cohen & Bailey, 1997; Gully, 2000; Guzzo & Dickson, 1996; Guzzo & Shea, 1992; Hackman, 1992; Sundstrom,McIntyre, Halfhill, & Richards, 2000).1 More recent…...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed a model of board processes by integrating the literature on boards of directors with group dynamics and workgroup effectiveness, and the resulting model illuminates the complexity of board dynamics and paves the way for future empirical research that expands and refines our understanding of what makes boards effective.
Abstract: Recent research developments underscore the need for research on the processes that link board demography with firm performance. In this article we develop a model of board processes by integrating the literature on boards of directors with the literature on group dynamics and workgroup effectiveness. The resulting model illuminates the complexity of board dynamics and paves the way for future empirical research that expands and refines our understanding of what makes boards effective.
1,900 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors pointed out that there is a strong functional tie between opinions and abilities in humans and that the ability evaluation of an individual can be expressed as a comparison of the performance of a particular ability with other abilities.
Abstract: Hypothesis I: There exists, in the human organism, a drive to evaluate his opinions and his abilities. While opinions and abilities may, at first glance, seem to be quite different things, there is a close functional tie between them. They act together in the manner in which they affect behavior. A person’s cognition (his opinions and beliefs) about the situation in which he exists and his appraisals of what he is capable of doing (his evaluation of his abilities) will together have bearing on his behavior. The holding of incorrect opinions and/or inaccurate appraisals of one’s abilities can be punishing or even fatal in many situations. It is necessary, before we proceed, to clarify the distinction between opinions and evaluations of abilities since at first glance it may seem that one’s evaluation of one’s own ability is an opinion about it. Abilities are of course manifested only through performance which is assumed to depend upon the particular ability. The clarity of the manifestation or performance can vary from instances where there is no clear ordering criterion of the ability to instances where the performance which reflects the ability can be clearly ordered. In the former case, the evaluation of the ability does function like other opinions which are not directly testable in “objective reality’. For example, a person’s evaluation of his ability to write poetry will depend to a large extent on the opinions which others have of his ability to write poetry. In cases where the criterion is unambiguous and can be clearly ordered, this furnishes an objective reality for the evaluation of one’s ability so that it depends less on the opinions of other persons and depends more on actual comparison of one’s performance with the performance of others. Thus, if a person evaluates his running ability, he will do so by comparing his time to run some distance with the times that other persons have taken. In the following pages, when we talk about evaluating an ability, we shall mean specifically the evaluation of that ability in situations where the performance is unambiguous and is known. Most situations in real life will, of course, present situations which are a mixture of opinion and ability evaluation. In a previous article (7) the author posited the existence of a drive to determine whether or not one’s opinions were “correct”. We are here stating that this same drive also produces behavior in people oriented toward obtaining an accurate appraisal of their abilities. The behavioral implication of the existence of such a drive is that we would expect to observe behaviour on the part of persons which enables them to ascertain whether or not their opinions are correct and also behavior which enables them accurately to evaluate their abilities. It is consequently
16,927 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1986
TL;DR: In this article, an overview of the history of the use of metaphor in organizational life can be found, including the origins of mechanistic organization, the role of human beings in the management of organizations, and the evolution of the human brain in the formation of an organization.
Abstract: Preface Part I. An Overview Introduction Part II. Some Images of Organization 2. Mechanization Takes Command: Organizations as Machines Machines, Mechanical Thinking, and the Rise of Bureaucratic Organization The Origins of Mechanistic Organization Classical Management Theory: Designing bureaucratic organizations Scientific Management Strengths and Limitations of the Machine Metaphor 3. Nature Intervenes: Organizations as Organisms Discovering Organizational Needs Recognizing the Importance of Environment: Organizations as Open Systems Contingency Theory: Adapting Organization to Environment The Variety of the Species Contingency Theory: Promoting Organizational Health and Development Natural Selection: The Population-Ecology View of Organizations Organizational Ecology: The Creation of Shared Futures Strengths and Limitations of the Organismic Metaphor 4. Learning and Self-Organization: Organizations as Brains Images of the Brain Organizations as Information Processing Brains Creating Learning Organizations Cybernetics, Learning, and Learning to Learn Can Organizations Learn to Learn? Guidelines for "Learning Organizations" Organizations as Holographic Brains Principles of Holographic Design Strengths and Limitations of the Brain Metaphors 5. Creating Social Realty: Organizations as Cultures Culture and Organization Organization as a Cultural Phenomenon Organization and Cultural Context Corporate Cultures and Subcultures Creating Organizational Reality Culture: Rule Following or Enactment? Organization: The enactment of a Shared Reality Strengths and Limitations of the Cultural Metaphor 6. Interests, Conflict, and Power: Organizations as Political Systems Organizations as Systems of Government Organizations as Systems of Political Activity Analyzing Interests Understanding Conflict Exploring Power Managing Pluralist Organizations Strengths and Limitations of the Political Metaphor 7. Exploring Plato's Cave: Organizations as Psychic Prisons The Trap of Favored Ways of Thinking Organization and the Unconscious Organization and Repressed Sexuality Organization and the Patriarchal Family Organization, Death, and Immortality Organization and Anxiety Organization, Dolls, and Teddy Bears Organization, Shadow, and Archetype The Unconscious: A Creative and Destructive Force Strengths and Limitations of the Psychic Prison Metaphor 8. Unfolding Logics of Change: Organization as Flux and Transformation Autopoiesis: Rethinking Relations With the Environment Enactment as a Form of Narcissism: Organizations Interact With Projections of Themselves Identity and Closure: Egocentrism Versus Systemic Wisdom Shifting "Attractors": The Logic of Chaos and Complexity Managing in the Midst of Complexity Loops, Not Lines: The Logic of Mutual Causality Contradiction and Crisis: The Logic of Dialectical Change Dialectical Analysis: How Opposing Forces Drive Change The Dialectics of Management Strengths and Limitations of the Flux and Transformation Metaphor 9. The Ugly Face: Organizations as Instruments of Domination Organization as Domination How Organizations Use and Exploit Their Employees Organization, Class, and Control Work Hazards, Occupational Disease, and Industrial Accidents Workaholism and Social and Mental Stress Organizational Politics and the Radicalized Organization Multinationals and the World Economy The Multinationals as World Powers Multinationals: A Record of Exploitation? Strengths and Limitations of the Domination Metaphor Part III. Implications For Practice 10. The Challenge of Metaphor Metaphors Create Ways of Seeing and Shaping Organizational Life Seeing, Thinking, and Acting in New Ways 11. Reading and Shaping Organizational Life The Multicom Case Interpreting Multicom Developing and Detailed Reading and "Storyline" Multicom From Another View "Reading" and Emergent Intelligence 12. Postscript Bibliographic Notes Introduction The Machine Metaphor The Organismic Metaphor The Brain Metaphor The Culture Metaphor The Political Metaphor The Psychic Prison Metaphor The Flux and Transformation Metaphor The Domination Metaphor The Challenge of Metaphor Reading and Shaping Organizational Life Postscript Bibliography
6,597 citations
TL;DR: The Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) as discussed by the authors was developed to diagnose existing jobs to determine if (and how) they might be redesigned to improve employee motivation and productivity, and to evaluate the effects of job changes on employees.
Abstract: The properties and uses of the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) are described The JDS is intended (a) to diagnose existing jobs to determine if (and how) they might be redesigned to improve employee motivation and productivity, and (b) to evaluate the effects of job changes on employees The instrument is based on a specific theory of how job design affects work motivation, and provides measures of (a) objective job dimensions, (b) individual psychological states resulting from these dimensions, (c) affective reactions of employees to the job and work setting, and (d) individual growth need strength (interpreted as the readiness of individuals to respond to "enriched" jobs) Reliability and validity data are summarized for 6S& employees on 62 different jobs in 7 organizations who have responded to a revised version of the instrument
6,555 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the scope and range of ethnocentrism in group behavior is discussed. But the focus is on the individual and not on the group as a whole, rather than the entire group.
Abstract: INDIVIDUAL PROCESSES IN INTERGROUP BEHAVIOR 3 From Individual to Group Impressions 3 GROUP MEMBERSHIP AND INTERGROUP BEHAVIOR 7 The Scope and Range of Ethnocentrism 8 The Development of Ethnocentrism 9 Intergroup Conflict and Competition 12 Interpersonal and intergroup behavior 13 Intergroup conflict and group cohesion 15 Power and status in intergroup behavior 16 Social Categorization a d Intergroup Behavior 20 Social categorization: cognitions, values, and groups 20 Social categorization a d intergroup discrimination 23 Social identity and social comparison 24 THE REDUCTION FINTERGROUP DISCRIMINATION 27 Intergroup Cooperation and Superordinate Goals " 28 Intergroup Contact. 28 Multigroup Membership and "lndividualizat~’on" of the Outgroup 29 SUMMARY 30
6,550 citations
Book•
14 Oct 2020
TL;DR: In this article, Fields has given us a splendid new translation of the greatest work of sociology ever written, one we will not be embarrassed to assign to our students, in addition she has written a brilliant and profound introduction.
Abstract: "Karen Fields has given us a splendid new translation of the greatest work of sociology ever written, one we will not be embarrassed to assign to our students. In addition she has written a brilliant and profound introduction. The publication of this translation is an occasion for general celebration, for a veritable 'collective effervescence.' -- Robert N. Bellah Co-author of Habits of the Heart, and editor of Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society "This superb new translation finally allows non-French speaking American readers fully to appreciate Durkheim's genius. It is a labor of love for which all scholars must be grateful." --Lewis A. Coser
5,158 citations