Page 247 - Effective group discussion theory and practice by Adams, Katherine H. Brilhart, John K. Galanes, Gloria J

230 Chapter 9

and it was staggering. In addition, group members can experience pressures to
conform and may cave in to that pressure, even if they don’t agree. Finally, when the
group process goes badly, relationships among members can become strained,
sometimes permanently, and the parent organization can be harmed.

Factors Affecting Quality of Group Outputs
Several factors affect whether the quality of a group’s output will be better than what
an individual can produce, including the type of task, the abilities of the members,
and the type of communication they engage in. First, groups are better at conjunctive
Conjunctive Task tasks, in which each member possesses information relevant to solving a problem, but
A task where each no one member has all the needed information. However, groups are not better at
member has relevant disjunctive tasks, which require little or no coordination and which the most expert
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information, but no member working alone can answer correctly. Often, groups cycle between conjunc-
one member has all tive and disjunctive tasks and must know when to switch from individual to group
the information decision making. For instance, teams can be more efficient when members work indi-
needed; thus, a high vidually and then pool their insights to create a team- designed solution. The key is
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level of coordination to recognize which type of task you are working on and which type of strategy is most
among members is suitable.
necessary.
The abilities of members is another factor that affects output quality. Group
potential, as defined by individual members’ abilities, strongly influences group per-
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formance. Members with high integrative complexity— the ability to engage in highly
Disjunctive Task
complex reasoning processes— produced group interaction that was more complex and
A task in which
members work on better able to incorporate diverse points of view into the ultimate decision, especially
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parts of the group on conjunctive tasks. Similarly when members are predisposed to process informa-
problem tion cognitively— that is, they have a high need for cognition— decision quality is
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independently, with improved. Overall decision- making performance is hurt by weaker members, whose
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little or no impaired abilities to reason and hypothesize correctly affected the entire group. The
coordination and relationship between member abilities and group performance is an important one.
group discussion Communication among members, the essential group throughput process, affects
needed. the quality of a group’s output. Verbal interaction itself, not just a summing of individ-
ual members’ perceptions of opinions, contributes to the increased quality that groups
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usually exhibit. Group studies suggest that task- relevant communication is perhaps
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even more important than originally thought. Communication that is goal directed,
with issues handled systematically and assertions documented, produces increased
decision quality. Effective groups do a better job of sharing and providing informa-
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tion; focus more of their talk on understanding and establishing criteria for evaluat-
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ing decisions; and spend more time analyzing the problem, establishing group
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procedures, and evaluating alternatives. Groups whose members carefully assessed
their options produced better decisions as do groups that demonstrate integrative
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capacity, the ability to combine diverse bits of knowledge. Groups also can over-
come information- processing mistakes when they are reflexive, willing, and able inten-
tionally to discuss team goals, processes, and outcomes. 23
Bona fide group members themselves were asked which behaviors help or hurt
small group decision making. Three factors emerged as being important. By far the
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most influential factor is the full participation of all group members and includes

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