Individual and Group Electronic Brainstorming in an Industrial Setting

Abstract

An experiment was conducted comparing the effectiveness of individual versus group electronic brainstorming in addressing real-world “wickedly difficult” challenges. Previous laboratory research has engaged small groups of students in answering questions irrelevant to an industrial setting. The current experiment extended this research to larger, real-world employee groups engaged in addressing organization-relevant challenges. Within the present experiment, the data demonstrated that individuals performed at least as well as groups in terms of number of ideas produced and significantly (p<.02) outperformed groups in terms of the quality of those ideas (as measured along the dimensions of originality, feasibility, and effectiveness).

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