After viewing the first 28 minutes of the film, Twelve Angry Men, 60 groups of eight male students each were randomly assigned to one of six different physical seating arrangements. Each student first made a private ranking of the order in which he thought the jurors in a murder trial would change their vote from “guilty” to “not guilty”. Group members then worked toward a consensual ranking. The consensual rankings of the groups placed in a circle arrangement with no table were found more accurate (p < .05) than those for groups placed in the other five arrangements, all of which utilized work tables. Potential implications for conference room design and furnishings were noted, along with suggestions for follow-on research.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CochL.FrenchJ.R.P.Jr.Overcoming resistence to change. Human Relations, 1948, 1, 512–532.
2.
FleishmanE. A.Attitude versus skill factors in work group productivity. Personnel Psychology, 1965, 18, 253–266.
3.
FrenchJ. R. P.Jr.Field experiments: Changing group productivity. In MillerJ. G. (Ed.), Experiments in social process: A symposium on social psychology.New York: McGraw-Hill, 1950.
4.
FrenchJ.R.P.IsraelJ.Jr.AsD.An experiment on participation in a Norwegian factory. Human Relations1960, 13, 3–19.
5.
GyllenhammarP. G.How Volvo adapts work to people. Harvard Business Review July-August, 1977, pp. 102–113.
6.
HollomanC. R.HendrickH. W.Individual versus group effectiveness in solving factual and nonfactual problems. Proceedings of the 78th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, 1970, 5, 673–674. (Summary).
7.
HollomanC. R.HendrickH. W.Problem solving in different sized groups. Personnel Psychology, 1971, 3, 489–500.
8.
HollomanC. R.HendrickH. W.Adequacy of group decisions as a function of the decision-making process. Academy of Management Journal, 1972, 2, 175–184.
9.
MarrowA. J.BowersD. G.SeashoreS. E.Management by participation.New York: Harper and Row, 1967.
10.
VroomV. H.YettonP. W.Leadership and decision-making.Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1973.
