Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The composition of 3-man military teams was varied experimentally by assigning members according to team composition in terms of all possible combinations of levels of ability and motivation. The teams (64 in all) performed real military tasks in a military field setting and unit commanders ranked the effectiveness of their performance at the end of 2 months of military activity. It was found that both ability and motivation had an additive effect on crew performance, thus leading to the conclusion that when teams perform highly interdependent tasks, performance is apparently unlikely to be affected in a nonadditive manner by team composition. The data were analyzed with a new statistical procedure developed to substitute for the Friedman two-way analysis of variance, argued to be inappropriate for testing the significance of main effects and interactions in a blocked fractional factorial design.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Amir, Y. , Kovarsky, Y. , & Sharan, S. (1970). Peer nominations as a predictor of multistage promotions in a ramified organization. Journal of Applied Psychology, 54, 462-469.

Bernardin, J.H. , & Beatty, R. (1984). Performance appraisal in organizations. Boston: Kent-Wadsworth.

Box, G.E.P. , & Hunter, J.S. (1961). The 2k-p fractional factorial design. Technometrica, 3, 311-352, 449-458.

Eden, D. , & Shani, A.B. (1982). Pygmalion goes to boot camp: Expectancy, leadership, and trainee performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67, 194-199.

Egerbladh, T. (1976). The function of group size and ability level in solving a multidimensional complementary task. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 805-808.

Ghiselli, E.E. (1973). The validity of aptitude tests in personnel selection . Personnel Psychology, 26, 461-478.

Hackman, R.J. , & Morris, G.C. (1983). Group tasks, group interaction process, and group performance effectiveness. In H. H. Blumbert , A. P. Hare , V. Kent , & M. F. Davies (Eds.), Small groups and social interaction. New York: John Wiley.

Hays, W.L. (1981). Statistics (3rd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston .

Hill, G.W. (1982). Group versus individual performance: Are N + 1 heads better than one? Psychological Bulletin, 91, 517-539.

10.

John, P.W.M. (1971). Statistical design and analysis of experiments . New York: Macmillan.

11.

Jones, M.B. (1974). Regressing groups on individual effectiveness . Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 11, 426-451.

12.

Kerr, N.L. (1983). Motivation losses in small groups: A social dilemma analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 819-828.

13.

Nevin, A. , Johnson, D.W. , & Johnson, R. (1982). Effects of group and individual contingencies on academic performance and social relations of special needs students. Journal of Social Psychology, 116, 41-55.

14.

O'Brien, G.E. (1984). Group productivity. In M. Bruneberg & T. Wall (Eds.), Social psychology and organizational behavior (pp. 37-50). New York: John Wiley.

15.

O'Brien, G.E. , & Owens, A.G. (1969). Effects of organizational structure on correlations between members' abilities and group productivity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 53, 525-530.

16.

Pinder, C.C. (1984). Work motivation: Theory, issues, and applications . Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman .

17.

Reeb, M. (1976). Differential test validity for ethnic groups in the Israel Army, and the effects of educational level. Journal of Applied Psychology, 61, 253-261.

18.

Rohrbaugh, J. (1981). Improving the quality of group judgment: Social judgment analysis and the nominal group technique. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 28, 272-288.

19.

Senn, D.J. (1971). Attraction as a function of similarity-dissimilarity in task performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 18, 120-123.

20.

Shaw, M.E. (1976). Group dynamics: The psychology of small group behavior (2nd ed.). New York : McGraw-Hill.

21.

Siegel, S. (1956). Nonparametric methods for the behavioral sciences . New York: McGraw-Hill.

22.

Steiner, I.V. (1972). Group process and productivity. New York: Academic Press.

23.

Szilagyie, A.D. , & Wallace, M.Y. (1982). Organizational behavior and performance (3rd ed.). Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.

24.

Terborg, J.R. , Castore, C. , & De Ninno, J.A. (1976). A longitudinal field investigation of the impact of group composition on group performance and cohesion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 782-790.

25.

Tziner, A. , & Dolan, S. (1983). Identifying female officer potential: An exploration in predictors' payoff. Unpublished manuscript, Tel Aviv University, Israel.

26.

Vroom, V.H. (1960). Some personality determinants of the effects of participation. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

27.

Winer, B.J. (1971). Statistical principles in experimental design (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Effects of Team Composition On Ranked Team Effectiveness

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References