Team reflexivity, development of shared task representations, and the use of distributed information in group decision making.

Decision-making groups often exchange and integrate distributed information to a lesser extent than is desirable for high-quality decisions. One important reason for this lies in group members’ understanding of the decision task—their task representations—specifically the extent to which they understand the importance of exchange and integration of information. The authors hypothesized that a group’s development of a (shared) understanding of the information elaboration requirements of their task is influenced by collective reflection on the task. When not all group members initially realize the importance of information elaboration, team reflexivity increases the degree to which the group understands the importance of information elaboration. In an experiment, the authors showed that team reflection fostered the development of task representations emphasizing information elaboration and subsequent information elaboration and decision quality. When all members initially already held representations emphasizing information elaboration, team reflection promoted elaboration and performance to a lesser degree. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An examination of organizational and team commitment in a self-directed team environment.

A model hypothesizing differential relationships among predictor variables and individual commitment to the organization and work team was tested. Data from 485 members of sewing teams supported the existence of differential relationships between predictors and organizational and team commitment. In particular, intersender conflict and satisfaction with coworkers were more strongly related to team commitment than to organizational commitment. Resource-related conflict and satisfaction with supervision were more strongly related to organizational commitment than to team commitment. Perceived task interdependence was strongly related to both commitment foci. Contrary to prediction, the relationships between perceived task interdependence and the 2 commitment foci were not significantly different. Relationships with antecedent variables help explain how differential levels of commitment to the 2 foci may be formed. Indirect effects of exogenous variables are reported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transactive memory system links work team characteristics and performance.

Teamwork and coordination of expertise among team members with different backgrounds are increasingly recognized as important for team effectiveness. Recently, researchers have examined how team members rely on transactive memory system (TMS; D. M. Wegner, 1987) to share their distributed knowledge and expertise. To establish the ecological validity and generality of TMS research findings, this study sampled 104 work teams from a variety of organizational settings in China and examined the relationships between team characteristics, TMS, and team performance. The results suggest that task interdependence, cooperative goal interdependence, and support for innovation are positively related to work teams' TMS and that TMS is related to team performance; moreover, structural equation analysis indicates that TMS mediates the team characteristics-performance links. Findings have implications both for team leaders to manage their work teams effectively and for team members to improve their team performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of competitive behavior as a function of culture, age, and social comparison.

Observed the choice behavior of 868 dyads of 2nd-, 4th-, and 6th-grade children from 5 different cultural backgrounds (Mexican-American, Anglo-American, Japanese, Greek, and Belgian) in the maximizing difference game, an outcome interdependence task where individualistic and cooperative motives were placed in opposition to competitive ones. In 4 cultures, boys received either social comparison feedback or only information concerning their own cumulative scores. As predicted, the level of competitive responding increased as a function of age, social comparison information, and number of trials. Further, there were systematic cultural differences. A newly developed covariation analysis revealed that individual dyad variation accounted for more covariation than the main effects noted above. Hence, several types of within-dyad analyses were performed. Finally, cultures were classified in terms of the characteristic play by dyad members and the results compared with a classification developed by M. Mead (1937), in which she ordered the cooperative, competitive, and individualistic orientations of members of 13 "primitive" societies. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information sharing and team performance: A meta-analysis.

Information sharing is a central process through which team members collectively utilize their available informational resources. The authors used meta-analysis to synthesize extant research on team information sharing. Meta-analytic results from 72 independent studies (total groups = 4,795; total N = 17,279) demonstrate the importance of information sharing to team performance, cohesion, decision satisfaction, and knowledge integration. Although moderators were identified, information sharing positively predicted team performance across all levels of moderators. The information sharing–team performance relationship was moderated by the representation of information sharing (as uniqueness or openness), performance criteria, task type, and discussion structure by uniqueness (a 3-way interaction). Three factors affecting team information processing were found to enhance team information sharing: task demonstrability, discussion structure, and cooperation. Three factors representing decreasing degrees of member redundancy were found to detract from team information sharing: information distribution, informational interdependence, and member heterogeneity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Need for Cognition, Task Complexity, and Job Satisfaction

The relationship between need for cognition and task complexity was tested with 37 work teams in the Korean civil engineering management industry. Individual team members’ job satisfaction was predicted by an individual factor (the interaction between individual need for cognition and individual task complexity) and a team factor (team need for cognition). Individuals high in need for cognition were more satisfied with their jobs when they perceived their task to be complex. Individual team members who belong to teams high in team need for cognition were more satisfied with their jobs, regardless of team task complexity. Regarding the relationship between team type and individuals, it was found that for individual members of teams high in both team need for cognition and in task complexity, individuals’ job satisfaction was positively related to their individual need for cognition and also to their individual task complexity. These and other findings are discussed in detail and implications for the findings are provided.     

Where is the relationship in research on the alliance? Two methods for analyzing dyadic data.

Researchers examining the therapy relationship are encouraged "to study both patients' and therapists' contribution to the relationship and the ways in which these contributions combine to impact treatment outcome" (Steering Committee, 2002, p. 443). Research on the therapeutic alliance, however, is dominated by studies that examine the individual contributions of the counselor and client. Relationship researchers have developed alternative ways to analyze dyadic data that do take into account the relationship. One alternative paradigm is to model the interdependence in dyadic alliance data with the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM; D. A. Kashy & D. A. Kenny, 2000). The APIM examines interdependence by modeling the impact of 1 dyad member's alliance ratings on the other member's session impact rating. APIM can also examine how alliance agreement interacts with alliance ratings to predict session impact. The other alternative paradigm is to use the latent group model (R. Gonzalez & D. Griffin, 2002) to examine the individual-level and dyad-level covariance in alliance and session impact ratings. The APIM and latent group models are illustrated with alliance and session impact measures from 53 client-counselor dyads. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Complex interdependence in task-performing groups.

Proposed a model of work group performance based on the consequences of complex interdependence (CI), which is defined as the interactive effects of task, goal, and feedback combinations. The study consisted of a 4 (task interdependence: pooled, sequential, reciprocal, or team)?×?2 (goal interdependence: individual or group)?×?2 (feedback interdependence: individual or group) completely crossed factorial design using 118 3-person groups working in a laboratory setting on a performance appraisal task. The results of group-level analyses demonstrated the impact of CI on the perceived effectiveness of group task strategy. In turn, task strategy and intragroup conflict partially mediated the effects of CI on group performance quantity and quality. Design applications for group work are presented and discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of work task cues and play task cues on information processing, judgment, and motivation.

Explored how task cues affect cognition, attitudes, and behavior in this laboratory study with 82 MBA students. Linguistic analysis of responses to the same puzzle task, cued as either work or play, revealed that task cues influenced how information was perceived and was used to form judgments and to shape behavioral responses. Ss performing work tasks attended more to information about the quantity of their performance and made more streamlined, goal-directed responses. Ss performing play tasks attended more to information about the quality of their performance; made more elaborated, image-laden responses; and were more intrinsically motivated. Links among task cues, cognitive processes, and performance were explicated through path analysis. Task cues affected performance outcomes indirectly by instantiating associated cognitive orientations: a means orientation in play and an ends orientation in work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivated information processing, strategic choice, and the quality of negotiated agreement.

The authors tested a motivated information-processing model of negotiation: To reach high joint outcomes, negotiators need a deep understanding of the task, which requires them to exchange information and to process new information systematically. All this depends on social motivation, epistemic motivation (EM), and their interaction. Indeed, when EM (manipulated by holding negotiators process accountability or not) was high rather than low and prosocial rather than proself, negotiators recall more cooperative than competitive tactics (Experiment 1), had more trust, and reached higher joint outcomes (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 showed that under high EM, negotiators who received cooperative, rather than competitive, tactics reached higher joint outcomes because they engaged in more problem solving. Under low EM, negotiators made more concessions and reached low joint outcomes. Implications for negotiation theory and for future work in this area are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attendance dynamics at work: The antecedents and correlates of presenteeism, absenteeism, and productivity loss.

Presenteeism is attending work when ill. This study examined the antecedents and correlates of presenteeism, absenteeism, and productivity loss attributed to presenteeism. Predictors included work context, personal characteristics, and work experiences. Business school graduates employed in a variety of work positions (N = 444) completed a Web-based survey. Presenteeism was positively associated with task significance, task interdependence, ease of replacement, and work to family conflict and negatively associated with neuroticism, equity, job security, internal health locus of control, and the perceived legitimacy of absence. Absenteeism was positively related to task significance, perceived absence legitimacy, and family to work conflict and negatively related to task interdependence and work to family conflict. Those high on neuroticism, the unconscientious, the job-insecure, those who viewed absence as more legitimate, and those experiencing work-family conflict reported more productivity loss. Overall, the results reveal the value of a behavioral approach to presenteeism over and above a strict medical model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of interdependence structure, individual value orientation, and another's strategy in social decision making: A transformational analysis.

The present research examined the influence of the objective interdependence structure of tasks, the values of decision makers, and others' strategies on social decision making and judgment. We observed that subjects' preferences among outcome alternatives that influenced both their own and another's welfare were strongly conditioned by their value orientations and by their expectations concerning the other person's choice behavior. As anticipated, there was no main effect for task structure, but structure interacted with value and with the other's strategy to influence choice behavior. Further, we observed that subjects judged others pursuing a tit-for-tat or a cooperative strategy as fairer and more honest than those pursuing a competitive strategy. They judged others pursuing a tit-for-tat strategy as more intelligent and stronger than those playing cooperatively or competitively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cooperation and competition in means-interdependent triads.

A task was presented to 40 male triads wherein the performance of each participant was maximally determined by the behavior of the other 2. 20 triads received cooperative instructions, 20 received competitive instructions. As predicted the differences between cooperative and competitive groups were particularly great in such a task: cooperative triads, as compared to competitive triads, were more rapid in solving the problem, evaluated fellow team members more favorably, showed less indication of hostility, were more attracted to the task, were more likely to develop leaders. In addition, and contrary to prediction, there was greater concern for personal performance in the cooperative triads. Hypotheses regarding concern for team performance, coalition formation, and the effects of interference with the operations of one member were not supported. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attribution, emotion, and collective efficacy in sports teams.

This study investigated the effect of team-referent attributions on emotions and collective efficacy. A sample of 265 athletes, from 31 interdependent sport teams, completed measures of competition importance, the Sport Emotion Questionnaire (SEQ; Jones, Lane, Bray, Uphill, & Catlin, 2005), and a collective efficacy measure (CEM) immediately prior to competition. Immediately after competition, participants completed self-report measures of performance, the Causal Dimension Scale for Teams (Greenlees, Lane, Thelwell, Holder, & Hobson, 2005), the SEQ, and the CEM. Findings indicated that following team victory attributions of team control were associated with higher levels of postcompetition happiness. Further, an interaction effect for team control and stability demonstrated that if team victory was perceived as stable over time, a team controllable attribution was associated with higher levels of postcompetition collective efficacy. For losing teams, an interaction effect for external control and stability indicated that only when team defeat was not perceived as under the control of others would an unstable attribution favor collective efficacy. This study provides evidence that team-referent attributions contribute to emotions and collective efficacy beliefs in group achievement settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New age-linked asymmetries: Aging and the processing of familiar versus novel language on the input versus output side.

This research demonstrates 3 new age-linked asymmetries between identifying versus retrieving phonological information. Young and older adults read aloud familiar isolated words (e.g., mind) and novel pseudowords (e.g., mond) in a production task and identified lexical status for identical stimuli in a comprehension task. Young adults made fewer errors than older adults in production but not comprehension (an age-related input-output asymmetry), and they produced pseudowords but not words with fewer errors than older adults (a lexical-status asymmetry). The lexical-status asymmetry also occurred for response onset times but not for output durations (an onset-output asymmetry). All 3 asymmetries were predicted under the transmission deficit hypothesis (D. G. MacKay & D. M. Burke, 1990) but contradict theories such as general slowing that cannot explain why aging affects some types of information processing more than others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supervisors' beliefs and subordinates' intrinsic motivation: A behavioral confirmation analysis.

Numerous studies have documented that when supervisors are more supportive of autonomy and less controlling, subordinates demonstrate higher levels of intrinsic motivation. The present research examined the role of supervisors' beliefs about a subordinate's intrinsic or extrinsic motivation in explaining this relation. A teaching paradigm was used in which participants were assigned the role of supervisors or subordinates. Supervisors were given no information regarding the subordinate, told that the subordinate was extrinsically motivated, or told that the subordinate was intrinsically motivated. Results revealed that subordinates who were believed to be intrinsically motivated perceived their supervisor as being significantly more supportive of autonomy, reported significantly more intrinsic interest, and spent significantly more time on the task during the free-choice period than subordinates whose supervisors believed them to be extrinsically motivated. Theoretical implications of the behavioral confirmation process for social perception and intrinsic motivation research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Linguistic Attention Control: Attention Shifting Governed by Grammaticized Elements of Language.

In 2 experiments, the authors investigated attention control for tasks involving the processing of grammaticized linguistic stimuli (function words) contextualized in sentence fragments. Attention control was operationalized as shift costs obtained with adult speakers of English in an alternating-runs experimental design (R. D. Rogers & S. Monsell, 1995). Experiment 1 yielded significant attention shift costs between tasks involving judgments about the meanings of grammatical function words. The authors used a 3-stage experimental design (G. Wylie & A. Allport, 2000), and the emerging pattern of results implicated task set reconfiguration and not task set inertia in these shift costs. Experiment 2 further demonstrated that shift costs were lower when the tasks involved shared attentional resources (processing the same grammatical dimension) versus unshared resources (different grammatical dimensions). The authors discuss the results from a cognitive linguistic perspective and for their implications for the view that language itself can serve a special attention-directing function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood, reasoning, and central executive processes.

How positive induced mood states affect reasoning was investigated in three experiments. In Experiment 1, consistent with resource allocation theory (H. C. Ellis & P. W. Ashbrook, 1987), both positive and negative mood suppressed performance on a deontic version of Wason's selection task (P. W. Cheng & K. J. Holyoak, 1985)—participants confirmed where they normally falsify. Experiment 2 revealed the same confirmatory responses for participants performing a concurrent distracter task, indicating that induced mood states suppress reasoning by depleting central executive resources. This hypothesis was directly tested in Experiment 3. Participants in a positive, but not in a negative, mood state showed suppressed performance on the Tower of London task (T. Shallice, 1982)—the classical central executive task. The robust positive mood effects and the confirmation effects are discussed in terms of the D. A. Norman and T. Shallice (1986) model of central executive function and recent accounts of selection task performance (L. Cosmides, 1989; K. I. Manktelow & D. E. Over, 1991; M. Oaksford & N. Chater, 1994). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Between-Individual Comparisons in Performance Evaluation: A Perspective From Prospect Theory.

This article examines how between-individual comparisons influence performance evaluations in rating tasks. The authors demonstrated a systematic change in the perceived difference across ratees as a result of changing the way performance information is expressed. Study 1 found that perceived performance difference between 2 individuals was greater when their objective performance levels were presented with small numbers (e.g., absence rates of 2% vs. 5%) than when they were presented with large numbers (e.g., attendance rates of 98% vs. 95%). Extending this finding to situations involving trade-offs between multiple performance attributes across ratees, Study 2 showed that the relative preference for 1 ratee over another actually reversed when the presentation format of the performance information changed. The authors draw upon prospect theory (D. Kahneman & A. Tversky, 1979; A. Tversky & D. Kahneman, 1981) to offer a theoretical framework describing the between-individual comparison aspect of performance evaluation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Target selection difficulty, negative priming, and aging.

It has been recently suggested that the presence of identity negative priming effects in old adults could occur when there is substantial processing of the distracting information in a selective attention task (J. M. Kieley & A. A. Hartley, 1997). In three experiments, using a letter identification task, it was found that making target selection more difficult increased the magnitude of the negative priming effect to a similar extent in both young and old adults. Moreover, the size of the negative priming effect did not differ between young and elderly participants. These results are discussed with respect to the issue of age-related deficits in the mechanisms underlying negative priming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)