Complexity and Cognitive Equilibrium: Experimental Results and Their Implications 1

Abstract

During the past decade, numerous data have been collected and analyzed relating to group performance in organizing knowledge for decision-making purposes. These data reveal results that have been viewed as surprising by scholars. Generally speaking, the data provide new insights into necessary conditions for groups to arrive at cognitive equilibrium in relation to complex issues.

The data further provide insights that show how poorly past conceptualizations related to group activity have been conceived; and especially the inadequacy (and sometimes the irrelevancy) of the assumptions that have justified past approaches to group activity. When these experimental results and their interpretations are combined with prior research results of Bales, Tuckman, Miller, Simon, Argyris, Janis, and others; a new paradigm for people working together on complex issues emerges in clear perspective.