Coordination of Cognitive Activity during Group Performance

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

9410584 Stasser ABSTRACT Members of decision-making groups often have access to different information, and one aim of discussion is to pool members' unique knowledge. Pooling information is particularly important if the combination of members' unique information will reveal a superior decision alternative. However, previous work shows that discussions tend to focus on commonly-held knowledge, and groups risk overlooking an option supported by their collective knowledge. This program of empirical work examines how perceptions of knowledge distribution and task demands affect information processing and communication styles. Of particular interest is the process of tacit coordination whereby members of a group adjust their selection, rehearsal and communication of information to obtain varying degrees of informational diversity depending on perceived task demands. This coordination can be based on direct knowledge of others' access to information or on acquired knowledge of what others have done on similar tasks in the past. It is hypothesized that some types of tasks (collective recall, idea generation, intellective problems) will encourage diversity of informational input whereas other types (judgmental tasks) will promote uniformity of input. It is also hypothesized that concerns about recall accuracy may promote redundancy of informational sampling in order to provide social validation. It has been found that, in the process of decision making, groups tend to focus on the information that is commonly held by all members, ignoring information that is not shared by all but that could lead to a better decision. By advancing our understanding of the conditions under which unique information is likely to be shared, this research will provide knowledge relevant to improving the quality of decision making in groups. As such, it will have implications for various initiatives in industry and government that have emphasi zed the importance of basing decisions on the best information available from groups or teams. At the heart of these initiatives is the goal of empowering people who are uniquely aware of crucial information that could be used to improve processes and procedures, getting them to speak up and make a difference. The proposed research will help to provide a sound basis for such attempts to enhance worker productivity.