The Use of Distributed Information in Decision Making Groups: The Role of Shared Task Representations

Belangrijke beslissingen in organisaties worden veelal aan groepen in plaats van aan individuen overgelaten. Eén van de voornaamste redenen hiervoor is dat men ervan uit gaat dat groepen over meer relevante informatie beschikken dan individuen en hierdoor betere beslissingen kunnen nemen. Echter, onderzoek heeft laten zien dat groepen vaak onvoldoende gebruik maken van de informatie waarover zij beschikken. Informatie waarover slechts één van de groepsleden beschikt wordt minder uitgewisseld en meegenomen in de beslissing dan informatie waarover alle leden beschikken. Wanneer informatie die slechts één van de groepsleden bezit van belang is voor het nemen van een hoge kwaliteit beslissingen, kan het onvoldoende benutten van deze informatie leiden tot een lagere kwaliteit van beslissingen. Het is daarom van belang om factoren te identificeren, die het informatie gebruik in besluitvormingsgroepen beïnvloeden. In het huidige onderzoek beargumenteer ik dat het begrip dat groepsleden van hebben van de rol van informatie voor groepsbesluitvorming bepalend is voor hun informatie gebruik. Een fundamentele reden voor het onvoldoende benutten van unieke of ongedeelde informatie lijkt te liggen in dat groepsleden vaak het belang van het bespreken van ongedeelde informatie onvoldoende inzien. Groepsleden lijken het vinden van ‘common ground’ en het met elkaar eens worden vaak te zien als belangrijker dan het bespreken van informatie. In dit proefschrift onderzoek ik in hoeverre het taakbegrip van groepsleden of met andere woorden, hun cognitieve representatie van de taak, het informatiegebruik in groepen beïnvloedt. Ik laat zien dat wanneer groepen een taakrepresentatie hebben die het belang van informatie gebruik benadrukt zij meer informatie bespreken en betere beslissingen nemen. Daarnaast identificeer ik verschillende factoren, zoals reflexiviteit en leiderschap, die de ontwikkeling van taakrepresentaties in besluitvorminggroepen beïnvloeden.Organizations frequently rely on groups for purposes of decision making, because groups are supposed to posses more relevant informational resources than individuals, which should allow them to make higher-quality decisions. Yet, research has shown that groups tend to be quite poor users of their informational resources. That is, information that only one of the group members possesses gets exchanged less than information that all members possess. Moreover, when this information does get exchanged, groups often fail to adequately integrate it in coming to a decision. This can lead to lower-quality decisions than when groups fully capitalize upon individual members’ unique information. It therefore is of importance to identify factors that affect decision-making groups’ use of distributed information. In the present research I argue that group members’ understanding of their task and its informational requirements is critical for groups’ use of distributed information. A fundamental reason for groups’ insufficient information use seems to be that groups often fail to see the necessity of elaborating on distributed information. Group members’ understanding of the decision-making task often seems to centre more on the need to find common ground than on the discussion of information. In the present dissertation I examine the effect of groups’ understanding of their decision task, as reflected in their shared task representations, on groups’ use of distributed information by means of a series of experiments. I show that when groups hold task representations that stress the value of exchanging and integration distributed information before coming to a decision, they discuss more distributed information and make higher-quality decisions. In addition, I identify several factors, like group reflexivity and leadership, that are able to influence the development of shared task representations and therefore also group information use and performance in decision making groups with distributed information

The catalyst effect: how meta-knowledge can improve team performance

__Abstract__ Effective teamwork is critical given the complexities of doing business today. However, it is all too often the case that teams fail to get the best out of the specialist knowledge they possess. Addressing this problem, new research shows that understanding who knows what within a team may improve its effectiveness

The interplay of diversity training and diversity beliefs on team creativity in nationality diverse teams

Attaining value from nationality diversity requires active diversity management, which organizations often employ in the form of diversity training programs. Interestingly, however, the previously reported effects of diversity training are often weak and, sometimes, even negative. This situation calls for research on the conditions under which diversity training helps or harms teams. We propose that diversity training can increase team creativity, but only for teams with less positive pretraining diversity beliefs (i.e., teams with a greater need for such training) and that are sufficiently diverse in nationality. Comparing the creativity of teams that attended nationality diversity training versus control training, we found that for teams with less positive diversity beliefs, diversity training increased creative performance when the team’s nationality diversity was high, but undermined creativity when the team’s nationality diversity was low. Diversity training had less impact on teams with more positive diversity beliefs, and training effects were not contingent upon these teams’ diversity. Speaking to the underlying process, we showed that these interactive effects were driven by the experienced team efficacy of the team members. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for nationality diversity management

How to boost creativity within diverse teams

Researchers and managers alike have often portrayed diversity as a key driver of team creativity. However, recent findings suggest that getting team members to take their fellow workers’ perspective is essential to the process of benefiting from diversity

Minority status, access to information, and individual performance

With growing nationality diversity in organizations, the question under which circumstances differences in nationality background between team members affect individual performance increases in importance. Research showed that dissimilarity may negatively affect individual performance and that the status difference between nationality majority and nationality minority moderates this effect. We take this analysis an important step further by recognizing that not all nationality minorities are low status and propose that status differences among nationality minority groups influence the extent to which nationality minority background affects individual performance. We identify the elaboration of distributed information in the team as a mediator and process accountability as a moderator in this effect. Results of a multilevel team experi

Managing the downside of goal orientation diversity

Differences in individual goal orientations within a team can significantly impair group performance. Fortunately for companies, there are ways to mitigate these effects

Diversity mindsets and the performance of diverse teams

Diversity can enhance as well as disrupt team performance. Diversity beliefs and climates may play an important moderating role in these effects, but it is unclear what form these should take to promote the positive effects of diversity. Addressing this question in an integration of research in team cognition and diversity, we advance the concept of diversity mindsets, defined as team members’ mental representations of team diversity. These mindsets capture diversity-related goals and associated procedural implications for goal achievement. We develop theory about the accuracy, sharedness, and awareness of sharedness of mindsets as moderators of the diversity-performance relationship. We also identify the determinants of these aspects of diversity mindsets. Finally, we discuss the implications of our model for the management of diversity

Challenging experiences: gender differences in task choice

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine: gender differences in the choice to perform challenging tasks, gender differences in the actual performance of challenging tasks, and the impact of challenging experiences on supervisors' evaluations of individuals' potential for career advancement. Design/methodology/approach - In study 1, a sample of 158 students participated in a laboratory study that examined gender differences in choosing to perform challenging tasks in a situation that stressed individual performance. In study 2, a sample of 93 interns completed questionnaires in which the authors measured their challenging job experiences. Interns' supervisors evaluated interns' potential for career advancement. Findings - In an achievement situation, women chose to perform fewer challenging tasks than men (study 1). During their internships, females had fewer challenging job experiences than males (study 2). Having challenging experiences was positively related to supervisors' evaluations of interns' potential for career advancement (study 2). Research limitations/implications - The use of student samples may be considered a limitation of these studies. However, the nature of the research questions justifies an initial examination among students. Moreover, small gender differences in experiences at the start of individuals' careers may ultimately lead to increasing discrepancies between men's and women's careers. Originality/value - The study is the first to examine individuals' own impact on the extent to which they experience job challenge. Moreover, it is the first that empirically examines the relationship between job challenge and evaluations of career potential