Some effects of time-pressure on vertical structure and decision-making accuracy in small groups

Eighteen four-person groups were given a decision-making task to perform in one of three time-pressure conditions—3 min, 5 min, and 15 min (high, moderate, and low time-pressure, respectively). Observers recorded the number of times each group member communicated to other group members and to the group as a whole. As predicted, there were significant and strong effects of time-pressure on vertical structuring within the groups. Specifically, groups in the high time-pressure condition shared air-time less equally than did groups in the low time-pressure condition. Furthermore, group members in the high time-pressure condition reported more salient leadership than did group members in the low time-pressure condition. Finally, consistent with contingency theory, there was some evidence to indicate that unequal sharing of air-time was associated with low intermember attraction in the low time-pressure groups, but there was no such relationship for the high time-pressure groups. The decision-accuracy data showed some significant quadratic trends, but no effects of time-pressure on indices of efficiency. The vertical structuring findings were interpreted in terms of social expectations about how to behave under time-pressure, whereas the decision-accuracy findings were interpreted within a performance-arousal perspective.