Figure 10.1
Potential performance is the highest level possible. In order for an organization to achieve
its goals, managers and work groups need to strive to ensure that a group’s actual
performance comes as close as possible to its potential performance. Research has
shown that process losses – the performance difficulties that a group experiences because
of coordination and motivation problems – are an important factor when a group’s actual
performance falls short of its potential performance.
To increase the effectiveness of a work group, managers need to identify ways to improve
the group’s motivation and coordination to achieve process gains. Process gains are
increases in potential performance that result from new ways of motivating and
coordinating group members.
Problems in Group Motivation and Performance
Social Sucker
LoafingEffect
Social loafing is the tendency for individuals to exert less effort when they work in a group
than when they work alone.
The sucker effect is a condition in which some group members, not wishing to be
considered suckers, reduce their own efforts when they see social loafing by other group
members.
Both are common problems in group motivation and performance.
Causes of Social Loafing
Motivation, effort, and performance are highest when outcomes are administered to
employees contingent on their level of individual performance. If there is a lack of
connection, individuals will not exert the same effort.
Employees may also think that there efforts are not really needed. This belief lowers their
level of motivation.
Several studies have found that the tendency for group members to put forth less effort
increases as the size of the group increases. This increase in social loafing occurs
because larger numbers of people in a group increase the problems associated with
identifying and evaluating each person’s individual performance.
Task Interdependence
As task interdependence within a group increases, the degree and intensity of the
interactions among group members who are required to perform the tasks also increases.
James Thompson identifies three types of task interdependence: pooled, sequential, and
reciprocal.
Types of Task Interdependence
Pooled Task Interdependence: each member of a group makes separate and independent
contributions to group performance.
Sequential Task Interdependence: requires specific behaviors to be performed by group
members in a predetermined order.
Reciprocal Task Interdependence: the activities of all work group members are fully
dependent on one another so that each member’s performance influences the
performance of every other member of the grou
In this type of interdependence, each member’s contribution can be identified and
evaluated. Group performance is determined by summing up the contributions of the
individual members.
Examples of tasks with pooled interdependence include work performed by the members
of a typing pool, by waiters and waitresses in a restaurant, and by a group of physicians in
a health maintenance organization.
One common source of process losses on tasks with pooled interdependence is
duplication of effort. This coordination problem can usually be solved by carefully and
clearly assigning tasks to group members.
Because pooled interdependence allows each member’s contribution to be measured and
rewarded, the potential for process losses due to lack of motivation is relatively low.
In this type of interdependence, the level of each member’s performance affects the
performance of other members down the line. Examples include all types of assembly-line
work from the production of cars to the production of Subway sandwiches.
Sequential interdependence makes identifying individual performance of group members
difficult because each member contributes to the same final product. An error made by a
group member at the beginning of a work sequence can affect how well members later in
the sequence perform their tasks.
The performance level of the least capable or poorest-performing member of the group
determines group performance (weakest link).
The potential for process losses is higher with sequential interdependence than with
pooled interdependence. Motivation and social loafing problems are also encountered
more often because all of the group’s members work on the same product and it is hard to
discern what individual performance levels are.
Managers should consider close monitoring of these groups, forming groups on the basis
of ability, and rewarding group members on the basis of group performance.
When the activities of all work group members are fully dependent one another so that
each member’s performance influences the performance of every other member of the
group, the group tasks are characterized by reciprocal task interdependence. Examples of
work groups whose tasks are reciprocally interdependent include high-tech research and
development teams, top management teams, emergency room personnel, and operating
room teams.
The potential for process loss is highest when tasks are reciprocally interdependent
because motivation and coordination problems can be especially difficult. Motivation
problems like social loafing can ensue because it is difficult, if not impossible, to identify an
individual’s level of performance when the final product is the result of the complex
interplay of the contributions made by everyone.
While the potential for process losses increases as task interdependence moves from
pooled to sequential to reciprocal, the potential for process gains also increases.
As the level and intensity of group members’ interactions increase and the expertise and
skills of group members are brought to the task, the potential for synergy increases.
Synergy is a type of process gain that occurs when members of a group acting together
are able to produce more or better output than would have been produced by the
combined efforts of each person acting alone.
What is Group Cohesiveness?
High
Low
Groups high in cohesiveness are very appealing to their members; those low in
h
w
cohesiveness are not appealing to their members and may even repulse them to the point
where they try to leave the team. Group cohesiveness affects group performance and
effectiveness.
Determinants of Group Cohesiveness
As groups get bigger, their members tend to be less satisfied. Therefore, large groups do
not tend to be cohesive. Groups between 3 and 15 people tend to promote cohesiveness.
People generally like, get along with, and most easily communicate with others who are
similar to themselves. Groups will be more cohesive when group members are
homogeneous.
Competition between groups in an organization increases group cohesiveness when it
motivates members of each group to band together to achieve its goals. Some competition
can be helpful, but too much competition can be dysfunctional.
Nothing breeds success like success. When groups are successful, cohesiveness
increases.
A group’s exclusiveness is indicated by how difficult it is to become a member of the group,
the extent to which outsiders look up to the group’s members, the group’s status within the
organization, and the special rights and privileges accorded to its members.
Important Organizational Groups
The Top Management Team is the team of managers who report to the chief executive
officer (CEO). The quality of decision making in the top management team is a function of
the personal characteristics and backgrounds of team members.
Self-Managed Work Teams are teams in which team members have the autonomy to lead
and manage themselves and determine how the team will perform its tasks. The job
characteristics model of job design provides a good framework for understanding why the
use of self-managed work teams can lead to higher levels of motivation, performance, and
satisfaction.
Research and Development Teams are usually cross-functional teams that are formed to
develop new products. An R&D team that is created to expedite new product designs and
promote innovation in an organization is known as a skunk works.
Virtual Teams are teams in which a significant amount of communication and interaction
occurs electronically rather than face to face. Organizations use virtual teams to help
people in different places and/or time zones work together. Organizations will increase
their reliance on virtual teams because of increasing levels of globalization.