Group Performance

Group performance is the process and outcome of members' joint efforts to achieve a collective goal. That goal could be nearly anything—to reach a decision, to solve a problem, to generate an idea, to negotiate a contract, to build a house. The scientific study of group performance has been central to several disciplines, particularly social psychology and industrial/organizational psychology (where it is more likely to be referred to as the study of team effectiveness). Thus, it is not surprising that a vast amount of research on group performance has been done—literally thousands of studies. There are many reasonable ways to describe and summarize this research literature. This entry considers three questions that have dominated and guided much of this research: (1) Are groups more productive ...