Doctoral Dissertation Research: How Collaboration Affects Group Dynamics

艾奥瓦大学博士论文研究建议：协作如何影响群体动力摘要群体规模如何影响群体成员的信任和凝聚力？在非结构化任务小组中，当小组成员太多时，凝聚力和绩效就会开始下降。然而，团队规模也可能是一个优势，因为它为从事共享任务的团队增加了不同的技能集。随着团队规模的扩大，协调问题往往会导致官僚主义，而官僚主义又会为有效的合作带来新的问题。调查有效的、非结构化的任务组的最大成员数量对于了解团队如何合作实现目标以及官僚作风如何成为解决协作问题的一种策略变得有吸引力都很重要。这个项目考察了非结构化任务组的最大有效规模如何受到个人贡献对任务完成的核心程度的影响，这种现象被称为“任务联合”。这项研究涉及一系列涉及面对面小组的实验室实验，在这些实验中，小组规模和任务结合度有系统地变化。对社会心理学理论的假设进行了检验：1)从事联合任务的群体成员比从事加性任务的群体成员和具有纯社交互动的群体成员报告的信任度更高。2)完成联合任务的7人和8人的群体比从事加性任务的类似群体或从事纯粹社交活动的群体表现出更高的信任度和凝聚力。3)随着群体规模的增加，从事联合任务的群体成员不太可能选择离开他们的群体，而不是附加任务群体或纯粹的社会群体的成员。更广泛的影响这项关于有效团队合作决定因素的研究结果对商业和复杂组织中的人感兴趣，无论是在营利部门还是非营利部门和政府部门。结果旨在为组织设计以及工作流程和相关工作场所活动提供信息。研究将在全国知名的小团体研究中心进行。这项研究将产生实验和定性数据，这些数据可以作为未来研究、理论发展和研究生数据分析培训的基础。P.I.将对本科生研究人员进行实验方法、数据收集和分析方面的培训。结果将在关于小组研究的多学科会议上传播，并准备在适当的学术期刊上发表。

SES - 1129584Michael Lovaglia (PI)Shane Soboroff (co-PI)University of IowaDoctoral Dissertation Research Proposal: How Collaboration Affects Group DynamicsAbstractHow does group size affect group member trust and cohesion? In unstructured task groups, cohesion and performance begin to decline when the group has taken on too many members. Yet group size can also be an advantage, because it adds diverse skill sets to groups working on shared tasks. As group size increases, the problem of coordination often results in bureaucracy, which in turn can create new problems for effective collaboration. Investigating the maximum number of members for effective, unstructured task groups is important for understanding both how teams work together to achieve goals and how bureaucracy becomes attractive as a strategy for solving problems of collaboration. This project examines how the maximum effective size of unstructured task groups is affected by the degree to which individual contributions are central to task completion, a phenomenon known as "task jointness." The study involves a set of laboratory experiments involving face-to-face groups, in which group size and task jointness are systematically varied. The following hypotheses derived from social psychological theory are tested: 1) Members of groups working on joint tasks will report higher trust than members of groups working on additive tasks and members of groups having a purely social interaction. 2) Groups with seven and eight persons working on joint tasks will report higher trust and cohesion than similar groups working on additive tasks, or than groups engaging in purely social interaction. 3) Members of groups working on joint tasks will be less likely to choose to leave their group as group size increases than members of additive task groups or purely social groups. Broader Impacts The results of this study on the determinants of effective team work are of interest to people in business and complex organizations, both in the profit and non-profit and governmental sectors. Results seek to inform organizational design, as well as workflow and related workplace activities. Research will be conducted at a nationally known center for small-group research. The study will generate experimental and qualitative data that can serve as the basis for future research, theory development, and graduate student training in data analysis. The P.I.s will train undergraduate researchers in experimental methods, data collection, and analysis. Results will be disseminated at a multi-disciplinary conference on small-group research and prepared for publication in an appropriate academic journal.