Old wine in a new bottle: Impact of membership change on group creativity

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of membership change on group creativity. Based on the literature suggesting stimulating effects of membership change in groups, we hypothesized that membership change would enhance the creativity of groups. Membership change involved randomly rotating a subset of group members among groups during a series of creative tasks. Using an idea generation paradigm, we compared the creativity of open groups (i.e., groups that experienced a change in their membership across tasks) with that of closed groups (i.e., groups whose membership was invariant across tasks) in two experiments. In both experiments, we found that open groups generated more ideas and more different kinds of ideas than did closed groups. Moreover, Experiment 2 revealed that it was the productivity of “newcomers” (measured in terms of their creative idea generation in a previous task) that exerted a positive impact on groups. We also found that the entry of more productive newcomers increased the creativity of “oldtimers” (i.e., people who remained in one group across tasks). Implications for the role of membership change in groups are discussed.     

Effects of management communication, opportunity for learning, and work schedule flexibility on organizational commitment

In the current career climate characterized by change and turbulence, employees may demonstrate limited organizational commitment to their employers. Rousseau (1998) suggests that two key ways to elicit loyalty from employees today are to reinforce perceptions of organizational membership and demonstrate organizational care and support for employees. Based on her conceptual framework, we examined the separate and synergistic effects of three valued aspects of the work environment—management communication, opportunity for learning, and work schedule flexibility—on organizational commitment. With 1770 full-time and 273 part-time workers of a large national retailer, we found that all three variables had positive main effects on organizational commitment. Also, they three-way interacted to affect part-time workers’ organizational commitment. The implications of these findings for research on organizational commitment and on comparisons of full-time and part-time workers are discussed.     

Perceived collective continuity and ingroup identification as defence against death awareness

Perhaps unique among the animal species, humans are aware that they will ultimately die. Terror management theory (TMT) posits that investing in a social group helps people to manage paralysing anxiety stemming from death awareness. In line with this proposition, research to date has shown that when reminded of their own mortality, people increase their identification with a relevant group and defend its beliefs, values, and practices. In the reported study, we demonstrate that a mortality salience induction enhances people’s perceptions of group temporal endurance—or perceived collective continuity (PCC), as we define it. Enhanced PCC leads, in turn, to enhanced group identification. This is in line with the TMT assumption that death awareness leads people to invest in a social group because this constitutes a temporally enduring meaning-system that imbues life with meaning, order, and permanence, and promises death transcendence to those who meet the prescribed standards of value.     

The faultline activation process and the effects of activated faultlines on coalition formation,conflict, and group outcomes

This research examines the effects of group faultline activation on coalition formation, conflict, and group outcomes. We distinguish between dormant faultlines (potential faultlines based on demographic characteristics) and activated group faultlines (members actually perceive subgroups based on the demographic characteristics) and hypothesize that while dormant faultlines do not automatically turn into active group divisions, a group’s entitlement configuration can activate divisions among group members. Study 1 was a construct validity study to verify the psychometric properties of the activated group faultline measure and explain its connection to other process variables. In Studies 2 and 3, we tested our hypotheses and found that groups with activated faultlines were more likely to form coalitions, have high levels of group conflict, and lower levels of satisfaction and group performance than dormant faultline groups. Furthermore, team identification moderated the effects of activated faultlines on group processes such that a strong workgroup identity decreased the likelihood that activated faultlines led to coalition formation and conflict.     

Ageing and the group-reference effect in memory

The present study examines age differences in the memory benefits from group-referncing. While prior work establishes that the memory performance of younger and older adults similarly benefits from relating information to the self, this study assessed whether those benefits extend to referencing a meaningful group membership. Young and older adult participants encoded trait words by judging whether each word describes themselves, describes their group membership (selected for each age group), or is familiar. After a retention interval, participants completed a surprise recognition memory test. The results indicate that group-referencing increased recognition memory performance compared to the familiarity judgements for both young and older groups. However, the group-reference benefit is limited, emerging as smaller than the benefit from self-referencing. These results challenge previous findings of equivalent benefits for group-referencing and self-referencing, suggesting that such effects may not prevail under all conditions, including for older adults. The findings also highlight the need to examine the mechanisms of group-referencing that can lead to variability in the group-reference effect.     

Are facilitated mentoring programs beneficial? A randomized experimental field study

Results from a pretest–posttest randomized field experiment study with a control group comparing the impact of high- and low-level-facilitated mentoring programs on new employees’ performance and perceptions about their jobs and organization were reported in this paper. Results indicated increases in job satisfaction, organizational commitment, person-organization fit and performance by participants in both mentoring programs with larger gains made by the high-level-facilitated group. These results suggest that a formal mentoring program can have positive effects on employee’s work-related attitudes, cognition and behavior with significantly greater gains made by formal mentoring programs with higher levels of facilitation.     

Indispensability and group identification as sources of task motivation

Traditional Instrumentality × Value (I × V) models have attributed gains in performance groups to various conditions affecting the instrumentality of group members’ effort for a variety of valued outcomes. Social identity models have challenged this interpretation, suggesting that the instrumentality of effort may be irrelevant when group identification is high. A laboratory study is reported in which both indispensability and group identification are manipulated, and participants’ effort on a physical persistence task is assessed. Contrary to the social identity predictions but consistent with I × V predictions, the indispensability of effort had a positive effect on participants’ effort. Group identification had no direct or moderating effects on effort.     

Intuitive theories of group types and relational principles

Three studies investigated perceivers’ beliefs about the principles by which different kinds of social groups govern interactions among group members. In Study 1, participants rated a sample of 20 groups on a set of group properties, including measures of relational principles used within groups. Results showed that people believe that interactions in different types of groups are governed by different blends of relational principles unique for each type of group. Study 2 experimentally demonstrated that perceivers could use minimal group property characteristics of different types of groups (i.e., extent of group member interaction, group size, duration, and permeability) to make inferences about the relational principles used in different types of groups. Study 3 demonstrated that relational style information influences people’s judgments of a group’s entitativity and collective responsibility.     

Effectiveness of group cognitive-behavioral treatment for childhood anxiety in community clinics

This study evaluated the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral treatment for childhood anxiety in a community clinic setting in Hong Kong, China. Forty-five clinically-referred children (age 6-11 years) were randomly assigned to either a cognitive-behavioral treatment program or a waitlist-control condition. Children in the treatment condition showed significant reduction in anxiety symptoms—both statistically and clinically—whereas children in the waitlist condition did not. After the waitlist period was over, the control group also received the treatment program and showed a similar reduction in symptoms. For the full sample of 45 children, the effectiveness of the intervention was significant immediately after treatment and in 3- and 6-month follow-ups. In addition, children’s anxiety cognition and their ability to cope with anxiety-provoking situations fully mediated the treatment gains. These results offer empirical support for cognitive-behavioral treatment programs in a non-Western cultural context and plausible mediators for how cognitive-behavioral therapy works.     

A particular resiliency to threatening environments

Being in the numerical minority can impair intellectual performance. We suggest, however, that these negative effects need not extend to everyone because some people—specifically high self-monitors—can overcome the effects of situationally activated stereotypes. In two studies, we manipulated the race/sex composition of small groups and assessed intellectual performance. Results revealed that: (a) self-monitoring moderated the effects of group-composition on performance, such that it was positively related to performance in stressful minority settings, (b) the number of out-group members in a group caused a linear effect on performance that differed for high and low self-monitors, and (c) stereotype activation mediated self-monitoring’s moderating effect on performance. Thus, high self-monitors may be resilient to threatening environments because they react to negative stereotypes with increased (and not decreased) performance. We discuss these results in relation to theories of inter-group contact, stereotype threat, and stress and coping.     

Can confidence come too soon? Collective efficacy,conflict and group performance over time

Groups with a strong sense of collective efficacy set more challenging goals, persist in the face of difficulty, and are ultimately more likely to succeed than groups who do not share this belief. Given the many advantages that may accrue to groups who are confident, it would be logical to advise groups to build a high level of collective efficacy as early as possible. However, we draw on Whyte’s (1998) theory of collective efficacy and groupthink, to predict that when confidence emerges at a high level toward the beginning of a group’s existence, group members may be less likely to engage in process conflict; a form of conflict that may be beneficial in the early phase of a group project. We found support for this prediction in two longitudinal studies of classroom project teams.     

The influence of social groups on goal contagion

Goal contagion is the automatic adoption of a goal upon perceiving another’s goal-directed behavior (Aarts, H., Gollwitzer, P. M., & Hassin, R. R. (2004). Goal contagion: Perceiving is for pursuing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(1), 23-37). This paper tests the hypothesis that goal contagion is more likely between people who belong to the same groups. Because past work on goal contagion has required participants to read about the behavior of others, we also test whether goals are caught when one sees rather than reads about another’s motivated behavior. Across three studies, this ecologically valid methodology reliably produced goal contagion, and this effect was more likely to emerge when participants shared a group membership with those they observed. In Study 1, participants were more likely to take on the goal of individuals who belonged to their same university. Study 2 demonstrated that this effect occurred even when participants were not explicitly focused on the group membership of others. A final study verified that our effects were motivational by demonstrating that failing at a goal relevant task increased negative affect, but only for those who viewed the motivated behavior of someone from their own group.     

Media Effects and Communication Bias in Diverse Groups

This paper extends research on factors influencing effective communication in diverse groups. The effects of social group membership on attention and influence were examined using 17 groups of three men and three women. Each group discussed a controversial topic face-to-face or using either an anonymous or an identified group support system environment. Social group membership biased both attention and influence; these effects were eliminated when discussions were conducted electronically—even when social group membership of participants was identifiable in the electronic media.     

Membership in a Devalued Social Group and Emotional Well-Being: Developing a Model of Personal Self-Esteem,Collective Self-Esteem,and Group Socialization

We proposed and tested a theoretical model that links membership in a devalued social group to emotional health. People who identify with devalued social groups (e.g., ethnic minorities, gay men/lesbians, bisexuals, women) may be at increased risk for distress via 3 different pathways. First, some members of devalued groups may internalize negative stereotypes about their group, which negatively impact personal self-esteem. Second, being devalued simply on the basis of one's group membership could lead to emotional distress independent of one's own personal self-esteem. Third, some members of devalued groups may be socialized to develop attitudes and behaviors that increase their risk for emotional distress. Data were collected from a sample of White, middle-to-upper-class undergraduate women and men with respect to personal self-esteem, collective self-esteem on the basis of their gender group, attitudes and behaviors associated with female socialization, and emotional distress. Results supported the direct effect of each pathway in predicting concurrent depression and partially supported the prediction of concurrent anxiety. Each pathway fully accounted for women's greater levels of depression relative to men's. Implications for the study of devalued groups are discussed.     

Changes in team cognition after a retention interval: the benefits of mixing it up

This paper examines the retention of team cognition with changes in team membership. Hypotheses are developed from shared cognition and interactive team cognition theories. We report a study of the effects of Short (3-6 weeks) versus Long (10-13 weeks) retention intervals and change (Mixed) versus no change (Intact) in team membership during the interval on shared knowledge, team process, and team performance. The study context was a three-person Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) simulator. The long retention interval resulted in significantly lower team process scores and, except for the Short-Intact condition, all teams suffered a drop in performance after the break. However, those teams recovered prebreak levels of performance after one UAV mission. The counterintuitive result was that team mixing resulted in significant knowledge and process gains. An exploratory communication analysis indicated that Mixed team communication is longer in duration than Intact team communication, and Long-interval teams communicated more frequently than Short-interval teams. Unlike the Long-interval communication frequency effect, the Mixed team communication duration effect lasted throughout the experiment, suggesting greater interaction experience for Mixed teams. An exploratory mediation analysis indicated that the shared cognition Input-Process-Output framework was a good fit for the Intact team data, but not for the Mixed team data. We conclude that there are team-learning benefits of team mixing and that the interactive team cognition theory accounts better for those benefits than shared cognition theory.     

The Color of Safety: Ingroup Associated Colors make Beer Safer

Individuals display high levels of trust and express feelings of safety when interacting with social ingroup members. Here, we investigated whether cues related to ingroup membership would change perceptions of the safety of alcohol. Participants were exposed to images of beer in either a standard can or a can featuring the colors of their university (i.e., ‘fan cans’). We hypothesized that exposure to fan cans would change perceptions of the risks of beer drinking. Results showed that participants exposed to fan cans rated beer consumption as less dangerous (Experiment 1), were more likely to automatically activate safety-related mental content after unconscious perception of beer cues (Experiment 2), and viewed their ingroup's party practices as less dangerous (Experiment 3). These results provide evidence that ingroup-associated colors can serve as a safety cue for alcohol, which may in theory perpetuate alcohol-related risk-taking, already a cause for concern on college and university campuses.     

Collective motivation beliefs of early adolescents working in small groups

This study examined collective efficacy, group cohesion, and group performance in 125 randomly assigned groups of older (mean age 13.45 years) and younger (mean age 11.41 years) early adolescents working on three cooperative tasks. Collective motivation significantly predicted performance, even after controlling for past performance and self-efficacy for the older but not the younger participants. For the older (but not the younger) participants, groups with high collective efficacy and group cohesion scored higher on performance tasks than groups with low collective efficacy and group cohesion. The results point to the emergence of collective motivation beliefs in early adolescence, consistent with theories of social and cognitive development. Implications for theory and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Unfair treatment and self-regulatory focus

Ample correlational evidence exists that perceived unfair treatment is negatively related to well-being, health, and goal striving but the underlying process is unclear. We hypothesized that effects are due in part to contextual priming of prevention focus and the negative consequences of chronic prevention-focused vigilance. Indeed, reasonable responses to unfair treatment—to avoid situations in which it occurs or if this is not possible, confront it head on—fit prevention self-regulatory focus response patterns. Results from three experiments support this notion. Priming stigmatized social category membership heightened students’ prevention (not promotion) focus (n = 117). Priming non-stigmatized social category membership (i.e., white) did not change prevention focus (n = 46). Priming prevention (not promotion) increased perceptions of unfair treatment (and aroused prevention-relevant fight or flight responses) in response to a negative ambiguous job situation among low and moderate income adults (n = 112).     

What Do Groups Learn from Their Worldliest Members? Direct and Indirect Influence in Dynamic Teams

This study investigated the consequences of temporary membership changes for itinerant members (who leave their group of origin temporarily to visit a foreign work group) and indigenous members of those origin and foreign groups. We tested the hypothesis that itinerant members' unique knowledge and experience can be transferred from the group where it originated to another group engaged in the same activities. Results showed that all members produced more unique ideas after itinerant members returned to their group of origin than before they left or while they were away; however, the ideas of itinerant members were significantly less likely to be utilized by the group in an essay on group work. After their return, itinerant members were perceived as highly involved in group activity, but also more argumentative, and although they produced more unique ideas than indigenous members, their essay contributions were perceived as less valuable. As a result, itinerant group members had less direct influence after changing groups than they did prior to the membership change.     

Validation de l'échelle de mémoire transactive en langue française et adaptation au contexte académique

This study presents a validation of a French version of the Transactive Memory Scale (TMS, Lewis 2003) adapted to educational context. The system of transactive memory refers to three distinct components: coordination, credibility and specialization. Studies using this scale confirm the importance of this construct on the group processes and collective performance. The results of this study, among a field sample of 45 learning groups (N = 180), indicated that the French TMS scale adapted in an educational context is internally consistent, and had good convergent, predictive and discriminant validity. These findings provide a valuable instrument that managers can use to better understand and regulate the coordination between members of their work-teams.