Suchergebnisse

The Bolivian coup of last July violently interrupted a two-and-a-half-year experiment in democracy that was showing heartening signs of success. Indeed, following twelve years of military rule, democracy had begun to reopen the developing society's doors to some new possibilities for social change – possibilities that were brutalized by the military's seizure of power.The new regime soon gained international notoreity as news leaked out of cocaine smuggling by top junta members; of the Argentine military's technical and material assistance to the coup; and the unprecedented, for Bolivia, scale of human rights violations and repression accompanying the military takeover. Despite Bolivia's reputation as a chronically coup-ridden country, it has become apparent that, in many ways, this coup is different.

This article examines the effects of group composition (i.e., member task-related knowledge and cognitive ability) on information sharing, conflict, and group decision effectiveness in a complex low-fidelity management simulation. Controversy within the group over the strategy to employ was strongly related to interpersonal conflict between members, whereas group-level indices of cognitive ability and task knowledge were the best predictors of decision-making effectiveness. As in past studies using relatively simple choice tasks, groups exhibited biased information sampling and generally failed to identify the best course of action suggested by their collective information. The discussion highlights the need for further research using theoretical models that incorporate both composition and process factors.

This study reports the results of several meta-analyses examining the relationship between four operational definitions of cognitive ability within teams (highest member score, lowest member score, mean score, standard deviation of scores) and team performance. The three indices associated with level yielded moderate and positive sample-weighted estimates of the population relationship (.21 to .29), but sampling error failed to account for enough variation to rule out moderator variables. In contrast, the index associated with dispersion (i.e., standard deviation of member scores) was essentially unrelated to team performance (-.03), and sampling error provided a plausible explanation for the observed variation across studies. A subgroup analysis revealed that mean cognitive ability was a much better predictor of team performance in laboratory settings (.37) than in field settings (.14). Study limitations, practical implications, and future research directions are discussed.

This study extends previous work reviewing the cohesion-performance relationship by using meta-analytic techniques to assess the effects of level of analysis and task interdependence on the cohesion-performance relationship. A totel of 51 effect sizes from 46 empirical studies were obtained for the meta-analytic integration. Results suggest that level of analysis and task interdependence moderate the cohesion-performance relationship. Implications of the findings for future research on group cohesion and performance are discussed.

This study extends previous work reviewing the cohesion-performance relationship by using meta-analytic techniques to assess the effects of level of analysis and task interdependence on the cohesion-performance relationship. A total of 51 effect sizesfmrom 46 empirical studies were obtainedfor the meta-analytic integration. Results suggest that level of analysis and task interdependence moderate the cohesion-performance relationship. Implications of the findingsforfuture research on group cohesion and performance are discussed

This article offers a typology of team types found in organizations and reports the results of two surveys sent to U.S. organizations asking about the prevalence, duties, composition, and structure of groups and teams in practice. One sample was randomly selected from the entire population of U.S. organizations; the second sample consisted of organizations known or believed to use teams. Nearly half (48%) of the respondents in the random sample indicated that their organization used some type of team, and ongoing project teams were reported most frequently. Teams were more prevalent in organizations with multiple departments, multiple divisions, higher sales, and more employees. Interpersonal conflict was the best predictor of perceived team effectiveness, but several structural and composition characteristics of the team were related to conflict and/or effectiveness as well. Organizations that reported using teams generally did not support them in terms of team-level performance feedback or compensation practices.