Investigating work group characteristics and performance over time: A replication and cross-cultural extension.

The authors tested a longitudinal work group model that focuses on the effects of several group characteristics on performance. One main objective was to replicate and extend D. Jung and J. J. Sosik's (1999) findings in both individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Results indicate that potency had a consistently positive relation to performance in the U.S. sample. This generalized to the Korean sample at Time 2. Performance at Time 1 had a positive relation to subsequent perceived homogeneity and outcome expectations for both samples. In the current study, preference for group work had no relation to group performance at Time 1; at Time 2, it was negatively related to performance among Koreans and positively among Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting army leadership ability by modified leaderless group discussion.

"Basic training graduates… (n = 459)… assigned to the Fort Knox, Kentucky, leadership school participated in a leaderless group discussion experiment (designed to substitute peer ratings for observer ratings). The status in the leaderless discussion group… (a forced distribution peer rating)… for each subject correlated… (.44)… with final leadership performance in the school… prior acquaintance with LGD members… was found to be influential in improving the predictive ability of the LGD method." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A motivational investigation of group effectiveness using social-cognitive theory.

The authors developed a model of group effectiveness that emphasizes 3 group-level representatives of the mediators hypothesized in social-cognitive theory. Group affective evaluations, group goals, and collective efficacy were predicted to mediate the influences of performance feedback and vicarious experience on group effectiveness. Covariance structure analysis of data from 81 groups indicated that performance feedback affected both group affective evaluations and collective efficacy, which in turn related to group effectiveness. Furthermore, group affective evaluations and collective efficacy completely mediated the relationship between performance feedback and group effectiveness, and collective efficacy partially mediated the linkage between vicarious experience and group effectiveness. No support was found for the mediating role of group goals. Recommendations for future research and applications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group Leadership: Efficacy and Effectiveness.

A model of leadership effectiveness including leadership efficacy, anxiety, and self- and collective efficacy for the task was hypothesized and tested in 2 laboratory studies. Groups of 3 people, 1 designated as leader, performed distinct employee hiring tasks in both studies. The empirical model from the combined samples indicates that leaders high in leadership efficacy experienced higher levels of self- and collective efficacy for the task and lower levels of anxiety, and lower levels of anxiety were related to higher self-efficacy for the task. Additionally, the model indicates that the leaders' self-efficacy for the task was associated with their collective efficacy, which in turn predicted the followers' collective efficacy. The followers' collective efficacy strongly predicted group performance. The results are discussed in terms of both their practical significance and their theoretical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development of collective efficacy in teams: A multilevel and longitudinal perspective.

The authors developed and tested a longitudinal multilevel model of collective efficacy formation. In 50 self-managing student teams, they investigated the effects of individual-level and team-level factors on observed behaviors and the subsequent development of collective efficacy for mastering a complex team task. Self-efficacy for teamwork, task-relevant knowledge, and collective efficacy predicted individual teamwork behaviors (rated by peers). Aggregated measures of teamwork behavior were related to subsequent collective efficacy, which was significantly related to final team performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group beliefs, ability, and performance: The potency of group potency.

Although it is clear that group members' attitudes, beliefs, and abilities are factors that contribute to group success, the interplay among these factors has received little attention. This study examined the impact of group potency, group goal commitment, and group ability on group performance. One hundred forty-three Officer Cadets, working in 51 groups, participated in this study. Consistent with our hypothesis, group potency contributed to the prediction of group performance over and above group ability. In contrast, group goal commitment did not have a strong relation with group performance. On the basis of these results, it seems that "thinking we can" is an important factor in its own right, regardless of the group's ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult attachment styles and group psychotherapy attitudes.

The current study examined the relationship between 63 intake clients’ and 28 college student’s attachment styles and their attitudes of group psychotherapy. The authors examined the relationship between attachment anxiety and avoidance and the subscales of the Group Therapy Survey-R (Carter, Mitchell, & Krautheim, 2001). Results revealed a significant relationship between attachment avoidance in adult romantic relationships and increased fears of being vulnerable in group psychotherapy. As hypothesized, avoidance in romantic relationships was related to fears of shame and humiliation in group therapy. Contrary to predictions, clients’ anxiety ratings were negatively related to negative myths of group psychotherapy. The greater the clients rated fears of being rejected and abandoned, the less they rated negative myths about group treatment. Neither attachment anxiety nor avoidance was related to ratings of group therapy efficacy. Implications of the findings for future research and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Survival of the fittest: Implications of self-reliance and coping for leaders and team performance.

Using a laboratory methodology, the authors sought to establish an association between self-reliance (based on attachment theory) and team performance and satisfaction. Three hypotheses (direct effect, mediator, and moderator) were tested. With a sample of 187 students, the authors compared leader self-reliance characteristics with group member self-reliance characteristics (group n?=?50) as predictors of group performance and satisfaction. Only group member counterdependence was predictive of decreased performance. Further, the authors examined the possible mediating and moderating effects of coping on the self-reliance–group effectiveness relationships. Coping did not mediate the relationship but did operate as a significant moderator in some instances. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Impact of Perceived Loafing and Collective Efficacy on Group Goal Processes and Group Performance

This paper presents two studies investigating the influence of social perceptions (perceived loafing, collective efficacy, and cohesion) on group goal processes (difficulty and commitment) and group performance. The role of group goal processes as mediators of the relationships between social perception variables and group performance was also tested. The first study involved a sample of 247 college students in 59 groups working on a team interdependent, divisible academic task. Results supported all but one hypothesis. The mediation hypothesis was not supported as both group goal and social perception variables related similarly to group performance. The second study employed a different design to address some limitations of the first study and to extend those findings. Results from the second study, using 383 college students in 101 groups, were consistent with Study 1 with two exceptions. First, the mediation hypothesis was supported in Study 2, replicating the findings of Klein and Mulvey (1995). Second, anticipated lower effort and the sucker effect, additional intervening variables examined in Study 2, partially mediated the relationship between perceived loafing and collective goal difficulty as hypothesized. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.     

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)     

Explaining radical group behavior: Developing emotion and efficacy routes to normative and nonnormative collective action.

A recent model of collective action distinguishes 2 distinct pathways: an emotional pathway whereby anger in response to injustice motivates action and an efficacy pathway where the belief that issues can be solved collectively increases the likelihood that group members take action (van Zomeren, Spears, Fischer, & Leach, 2004). Research supporting this model has, however, focused entirely on relatively normative actions such as participating in demonstrations. We argue that the relations between emotions, efficacy, and action differ for more extreme, nonnormative actions and propose (a) that nonnormative actions are often driven by a sense of low efficacy and (b) that contempt, which, unlike anger, entails psychological distancing and a lack of reconciliatory intentions, predicts nonnormative action. These ideas were tested in 3 survey studies examining student protests against tuition fees in Germany (N = 332), Indian Muslims' action support in relation to ingroup disadvantage (N = 156), and British Muslims' responses to British foreign policy (N = 466). Results were generally supportive of predictions and indicated that (a) anger was strongly related to normative action but overall unrelated or less strongly related to nonnormative action, (b) contempt was either unrelated or negatively related to normative action but significantly positively predicted nonnormative action, and (c) efficacy was positively related to normative action and negatively related to nonnormative action. The implications of these findings for understanding and dealing with extreme intergroup phenomena such as terrorism are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is! Explaining Collective Action Tendencies Through Group-Based Anger and Group Efficacy.

Insights from appraisal theories of emotion are used to integrate elements of theories on collective action. Three experiments with disadvantaged groups systematically manipulated procedural fairness (Study 1), emotional social support (Study 2), and instrumental social support (Study 3) to examine their effects on collective action tendencies through group-based anger and group efficacy. Results of structural equation modeling showed that procedural fairness and emotional social support affected the group-based anger pathway (reflecting emotion-focused coping), whereas instrumental social support affected the group efficacy pathway (reflecting problem-focused coping), constituting 2 distinct pathways to collective action tendencies. Analyses of the means suggest that collective action tendencies become stronger the more fellow group members "put their money where their mouth is." The authors discuss how their dual pathway model integrates and extends elements of current approaches to collective action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pride in group performance and group-task motivation.

This experiment tested the propositions that pride in one's group results from the members' perceptions of effective task performance of the group as a whole and is directly associated with high motivation toward the assigned task of the group. 25 3-man groups assigned to work on a simulated Air Defense task were distributed among 5 experimental conditions. The measure of task motivation was the amount of task-oriented discussion during a "break" period. "Evidence is cited supporting the hypothesis that the high group-task motivation results from a perception of interdependence among the group members with respect to the attainment of reward." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-efficacy and work-related performance: A meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis (114 studies, k?=?157, N?=?21,616) examined the relationship between self-efficacy and work-related performance. Results of the primary meta-analysis indicated a significant weighted average correlation between self-efficacy and work-related performance, G(r±)?=?.38, and a significant within-group heterogeneity of individual correlations. To account for this variation, the authors conducted a 2-level theory-driven moderator analysis by partitioning the k sample of correlations first according to the level of task complexity (low, medium, and high), and then into 2 classes according to the type of study setting (simulated-lab vs. actual-field). New directions for future theory development and research are suggested, and practical implications of the findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correlated and Coupled Cognitive Change in Older Adults With and Without Preclinical Dementia.

Common factor aging theories state that correlations among cognitive age effects signify a single underlying causal process. The logic underlying this proposition was evaluated by examining correlated cognitive change in a sample of 391 initially nondemented older adults who were tested annually for up to 16 years. Between-person correlations among rates of change (range=.56-.61) were partly attributable to model misspecification and the aggregation of heterogeneous groups of individuals. Correlated within-person cognitive change was much stronger in the cases (.45-.51) than in the noncases (.07-.18). These results demonstrate that correlated change may either signify causal commonality or the cumulative effects of multiple age-related conditions that can affect multiple cognitive systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Process and outcome evaluation of an on-line support group for Asian American male college students.

This study examined the process, outcome, and utilization patterns of an on-line support group (OSG) for Asian American male college students. Outcome measures indicated that the group participants felt supported, perceived the discussion topics as relevant, felt comfortable and connected to other group members, and preferred using aliases instead of their real identities. The discourse contained a high proportion of self-disclosure and provision of information, and more than half of the messages (58%) were responses to messages of other group members. These findings suggest that many of the components of group process theorized to be essential for effective groups can take place in OSGs. There were no significant posttest differences between the OSG (n?=?16) and control group (n?=?16) in ethnic identity or collective self-esteem. Implications of these findings for improving mental health and counseling services for culturally diverse populations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leader group prototypicality and job satisfaction: The moderating role of job stress and team identification.

The authors examined the relationship between leader group prototypicality (the extent to which a leader is representative of the collective identity) and job satisfaction as an indicator of leadership effectiveness. Leader group prototypicality was expected to interact with job stress and team identification, such that leader group protototypicality is more strongly related to job satisfaction for followers with higher job stress and team identification. Two cross-sectional surveys (N = 329 and N = 89) conducted with the employees of 4 Italian organizations provided support for this hypothesis. The authors discuss how these findings extend our understanding of leadership effectiveness within the social identity model of leadership. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rating group therapist interventions: The validation of the Group Psychotherapy Intervention Rating Scale.

The present study seeks to establish the validity of the Group Psychotherapy Intervention Rating Scale (GPIRS), an observer-rated measure of the quality of group leader interventions. Concurrent validity was tested by comparing GPIRS results to 2 group gold standard process measures, the Hill Interaction Matrix and the Group Climate Questionnaire. Significant correlations between leader intervention scores and group member perceptions of group climate, as well as verbal interaction scores, were found. In addition, results indicated correlations between interventions aimed to gain balance between confrontation and warmth and member-rated levels of cohesion. Results lend support for the concurrent validity of the GPIRS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Persuasion and praise as techniques for modifying verbal behavior in a "real-life" group setting.

Investigated the effectiveness of using antecedent persuasive stimulation and response-contingent praise, within a small discussion group context, to modify the rate of verbal participation of Ss in an independent, classroom situation. Ss were 96 male college students who were divided into 12 treatment subgroups and 4 control subgroups of 6 Ss each. 3 treatment conditions were employed: (1) maximum persuasion, (2) maximum praise, and (3) neutral (i.e., minimum persuasion and praise). The treated Ss showed more criterion verbal participation than did the control Ss (.01 level). No differences were found among the 3 treatment conditions. Behavior changes in the treated Ss were attributed to the effects of nonspecific factors in the treatments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paired-associate learning and recall of high and low imagery words: moderating effects of hypnosis, hypnotic susceptibility level, and visualization abilities

Relationships between recall of low and high imagery paired-associate (P-A) words and hypnotic susceptibility, and the influence of hypnosis on recall as moderated by hypnotic level were examined. Subjects were assessed on 2 hypnotic susceptibility scales [Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility; Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSS:C)]. Forty-one low (0-4 SHSS:C) and 41 highly (9-12 SHSS:C) hypnotizable college students were assigned to 1 of 4 experimental groups: waking-hypnosis, hypnosis-waking, waking-waking, or hypnosis-hypnosis. Recall was significantly better for high than low imagery words. In the more sensitive within-subjects design, high hypnotizables recalled more P-A words during hypnosis than waking, and lows did not differ. In the between-subjects design, hypnotic level was not a moderator of performance during hypnosis. Low hypnotizables recalled more words in the within-subjects design. Visualization ability was a poor moderator of imagery-mediated learning. High imagery recall correlated significantly with Marks's (1973) Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (.25) and Paivio and Harshman's (1983) Individual Differences Questionnaire (IDQ) Verbal scale (.29), but not with the IDQ Imagery scale, the Mental Rotations Test (Vandenberg & Kuse, 1973), or the revised Minnesota Paper Form Board Test (Likert & Quasha, 1941).