Effects of Size and Task Type on Group Performance and Member Reactions

J. Richard Hackman · Neil J. Vidmar

250 citations0/0 files storedSociometry

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Team Dynamics and Performance Social and Intergroup Psychology Social Power and Status Dynamics

Abstract

The effects of group size (2 through 7 members) and certain task characteristics (production, discussion, and problem solving type tasks) on group performance and member reactions were assessed. Subjects were students at two universities who performed three 15-minute tasks. Results showed that size had negligible effects on performance characteristics and strong effects on member reactions. Dyads tended to be most satisfied, and dissatisfaction increased in approximately linear fashion for larger groups. Type of task strongly affected both performance characteristics and member reactions. Contrary to expectations, there were no substantial interactions between size and task type in predicting member reactions or group performance. Several implications of the results were discussed: (a) the uniqueness of dyads in comparison to other groups sizes; (b) the question of what is the optimal group size; (c) the means by which the strong effects of task type may take place; and (d) questions raised by the finding that some substantial differences were obtained for subjects run at the two different universities. Many of the most obvious-and most potent-determiners of group behavior are, ironically enough, also among the least investigated and least understood in the group psychology field. Several reviewers (e.g., Golembiewski, 1962; Collins and Guetzkow, 1964; McGrath and Altman, 1966) have documented the dearth of systematic knowledge about two such factors: group size and the nature of the group task. Clearly, both group size and task characteristics should make differences in the ways people interact in groups and in the kinds of reactions they have to the group experience. The scattered empirical work which has in

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 250 citations exist upstream.

References

1965Group Problem Solving 1965A Social Psychology of Group Processes for Decision-Making 1963Effects of group size.1966Models for inferring relationships between group size and potential group productivity

Cited by

2009The CMC interactivity model: How interactivity enhances communication quality and process satisfaction in lean-media groups 2006The Impact of Group Size and Social Presence on Small-Group Communication 2010Are Dyads Really Groups?1991Information Technology for Negotiating Groups: Generating Options for Mutual Gain 2017Cultural Brokerage and Creative Performance in Multicultural Teams 2000Belaboring the Not-So-Obvious: Consensus, Commitment, and Strategy Implementation Speed and Success 1983Operationalizing the effect of the group on the individual: A self-attention perspective 1988Group intelligence: Why some groups are better than others

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.