teams, collaboration

• Social Facilitation


  The positive impact of working in the presence of other people. Social Facilitation occurs through coaction* and through having an audience.
• Coaction situation


  People working in the presence of other people, but not necessarily interacting with them
• If the dominant response is correct or appropriate

  Social facilitation occurs
• If the tasks needs a nondominant response

  The presence of others interferes with performance
• Dominant responses


  Simple tasks
• Nondominant responses


  Complex tasks
• Why does Social Facilitation Occur?

  1. Zajonc's drive theory - Compresence elevates drive levels that triggers social facilitation when only dominant responses are required

  2. In drive theory, social facilitation will occur even when all forms of social interaction, communication, and evaluation between the individual and the observer are blocked

  3. Physiological Process - People react physiologically to the presence of people but the magnitude of this change depends on the type of situation and on who is watching. The presence of others triggers cardiac and vascular reactivity

  4. Neurological process - areas in our brain are activated in the presence of other people. Our brain is a social brain

  5. Motivational Processes - Through experience, people learn to associate the presence of others with evaluation; this evaluation apprehension facilitates performance on well learned tasks or simple tasks but becomes debilitating on more difficult projects/tasks

  6. Attentional Processes - When people work in the presence of other people, they must split their attention between the task they are completing and the other person. They may become more self-aware, and end up focusing on themselves rather than the task

  7. Personality Processes - Individuals who display a positive interpersonal orientation and are more motivated to present themselves positively to others are more likely to show social facilitation effects
• Challenge response


  Individual is confident they can master the task
• Threat response


  Display a stress reaction to a task
• The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (social cognition) is activated in the presence of other people. This activation causes people to lower performance in complex tasks. Studies have shared that it is the brain, not the heart, that overreacts to the presence of others (Ito et al., 2011)
• Coretell's Motivational Apprehension Theory


  Most of us have learned through experience that other people are the source of the rewards and punishments we receive. We associate social situations with evaluation and feel apprehensive when someone is nearby.
• Goffman's Self-presentation theory


  Each of us actively controls others' impressions of us by displaying social behaviors that establish and maintain a particular social image, or face.
• Baron's Distraction-conflict theory


  Distractions don't necessarily lower performance. They interfere with the attention given to the task, but that these distractions can be overcome with effort.
• Sully's Social Orientation Theory


  People differ in their overall orientation toward social situations, and these individual differences in social orientation predict who will show facilitation in the presence of others and who will show impairment.
• Social Loafing


  A decrease in individual effort when performing in groups as compared to when they perform alone.
• Ringelmann effect


  A member's tendency to become less productive as the size of the group increases. This is due to lesser coordination and lesser motivation to work through social loafing.
• Cures for Social Loafing

  1. Increase Identifability - During group tasks, people's individual efforts are given individual evaluation and/or recognition. In group tasks where evaluation is collective, free riding more likely occurs

  2. Set Goals - Groups that set clear, challenging goals outperform groups whose members have lost sight of their objectives

  3. Increase Involvement - Individuals who enjoy competition and working with others in groups are also less likely to loaf. Competition should stay friendly

  4. Increase Identification with the Group - Social identity theory also suggests a way to reduce loafing: increase the extent to which group members identify with their group or organization. In this case, social loafing is replaced by social laboring in which members give extra effort for their group
• Free riding


  Members doing less than their share of the work because others will make up for their slack.
• Steiner's Process Model of Group Performance

  Group's have great potential because they have more resources than an individual. However, process loss tends to prevent groups from reaching their full potential.
• Process loss


  Reduction of performance/effectiveness caused by processes that hinder the group from reaching their full potential. e.g. lack of coordination and communication, ineffective leadership
• Potential Productivity


  Not equal to Actual Productivity. Actual Productivity can be determined by Potential Productivity matched with the Process loss.
• Actual Productivity


  AP = PP - PL
• Task demands


  Problem or task's features, including its divisibility and difficulty, that influence the procedures the group can use to complete the task.
• Divisible


  Can be broken down into subtasks
• Unitary


  Cannot be broken down into subtasks
• Additive tasks


  A task or project that a group can complete by cumulatively combining individual members' inputs.
• Compensatory


  A decision is made by averaging together individual decisions
• Disjunctive


  Task or project that is completed when a single solution, decision, or recommendation is adopted by the group.
• Conjunctive


  A task that can be completed successfully only if all group members contribute.
• Discretionary


  Members themselves can choose the method for combining individual inputs.
• Process Gain


  The result of groups working effectively together.
• Synergy


  When members of the group act together to produce an output that is greater than individual outputs added together.
• Brainstorming


  1. Method for enhancing creativity in groups that calls for heightened expressiveness, postponed evaluation, quantity rather than quality, and deliberate attempts to build on earlier ideas (Piggyback)

  2. Stick to the rules

  3. Pay attention to everyone's ideas

  4. Mix individual & group approaches (e.g. brainwriting)

  5. Take breaks

  6. Do not rush

  7. Persist

  8. Facilitate the Session

  9. Use technology
• Nominal Group Technique


  A group session is prefaced by a session in which individual's work alone to generate ideas. Problem is presented, Individuals write their ideas alone, Ideas are shared and discussed, The group makes a decision and performs
• Delphi Technique


  A group performance method that involves repeated assessment of members' opinions via surveys and questionnaires as opposed to face-to-face meetings.
• Buzz Groups and Step Ladder Technique

  1. Buzz group - small subgroups

  2. Step Ladder Technique - asking each new member to state their ideas before listening to the group's position
• Team


  A group that pursues performance goals through interdependent interaction. In teams, members are working together in pursuit of a specific and shared goal.
• When to work in teams

  1. Level of Difficulty of goal and tasks

  2. Complexity of Interdependence of goal

  3. Importance of goal

  4. The romance of teams
• Types of Teams


  • Work Teams - Produces/Provides specialized goods and services through members' coordinated actions
  • Management Teams - Identifies and solves problems, make decisions about day-to-day operations and production, and set goals for the organization's future
  • Project Teams - Arises when groups encounter issues, problems or challenges that are out of the ordinary in some way. They are given specific tasks and are time-limited
  • Advisory Teams - Studies issues and make recommendations to other individuals and groups in an organizations. Often produces a set of conclusions or a report that analyzes specific issues, and then offering recommendations
• Teamwork


  The process by which members of the team combine their knowledge, skills, abilities, and other resources, through a coordinated series of actions, to produce an outcome.