Agenda

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Agenda

• Recap on Individual Decision-Making
• Group Dynamics
• Group Decision-Making
• Carter Racing Exercise
• Debriefing
• Asch Experiment

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Recap on Individual Decision-Making

• Perfect vs. Bounded Rationality
• Heuristics
• Escalation of Commitment
• War in Iraq
• Short vs. long-term focus
• Enron

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Agenda

• Announcements
• Recap on Individual Decision-Making
• Group Dynamics
• Group Decision-Making
• Carter Racing Exercise
• Debriefing
• Asch Experiment

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Groups Definition

• Two or more people.
• Interact interdependently.
• Act to achieve a common goal.

J. Orton
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Groups Key Concepts

• Task Characteristics
• Additive.
• Disjunctive.
• Conjunctive.
• Size
• Optimal size?
• Group composition
• Homogeneous vs. heterogenous?

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Groups Task Characteristics
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Groups Size and Composition

• Key question Whats the optimal group size?
• Answer Depends!
• For additive and disjunctive tasks, group
  performance generally increases with greater
  sizeup to a certain point.
• For conjunctive tasks, group performance
  generally decreases with greater size.
• Another key question Better to have similar or
  dissimilar group members?

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Groups Composition
Homogeneous Teams
Heterogeneous Teams

• Less conflict
• Faster team development
• Perform better on cooperative tasks
• Better coordinated

• More conflict
• Longer team development
• Perform better on complex problems
• More creative

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Groups Development
Forming
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Groups Social Loafing

• Social LoafingThe tendency to withhold effort
  when performing a group task.
•   A couple of general reasons
• Free-rider effect
• Sucker effect

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Groups Social Loafing

• Managerial Initiatives
• Form smaller groups.
• Specialize tasks.
• Measure individual performance.
• Increase motivation

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Agenda

• Announcements
• Recap on Individual Decision-Making
• Group Dynamics
• Group Decision-Making
• Carter Racing Exercise
• Debriefing
• Asch Experiment

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Carter Racing Exercise Instructions

• You are members of a board of directors charged
  with making a recommendation to the owners of a
  car racing team, Carter Racing.
• The decision concerns whether to go ahead with a
  race that is scheduled to begin in less than one
  hour.

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Carter Racing Exercise Instructions

• Read the materials with your group (10 minutes).
• Meet with your group for no more than 40 minutes.
• Prepare reasons to support your decision.
• You can ask me for additional information, but
  you have to be specific about the information
  that you want.
• You have to make a decision
• before it is time to race!

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10 Minute Break
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Agenda

• Announcements
• Recap on Individual Decision-Making
• Group Dynamics
• Group Decision-Making
• Carter Racing Exercise
• Debriefing
• Asch Experiment

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Asch Experiment

• Conformity The Asch Experiment (1958)
• Which line in the right box (1, 2, or 3) matches
  the line in the left box?

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Asch Experiment
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Asch Experiment
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Asch Experiment
This person is the only real research
participant, but he does not know that.
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Asch Experiment

• 12 rounds.
• 74 of the participants conformed at least once
  during the 12 rounds.
• Overall conformity rate 33.
• One ally decreases conformity by 75.

Source Bond, R., Smith, P. B. (1996). Culture
and Conformity A Meta-Analysis of Studies Using
Asch's (1952b, 1956) Line Judgment Task.
Psychological Bulletin, 119, 111-137.
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Have a great week!