Cognitive distance, absorptive capacity and group rationality: a simulation study.

Petru Lucian Curşeu,Joep H M Evers,Oleh Krehel,Adrian Muntean,Frederic Amblard

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0109359

Petru Lucian Curşeu, Joep H M Evers + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109359

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Abstract

We report the results of a simulation study in which we explore the joint effect of group absorptive capacity (as the average individual rationality of the group members) and cognitive distance (as the distance between the most rational group member and the rest of the group) on the emergence of collective rationality in groups. We start from empirical results reported in the literature on group rationality as collective group level competence and use data on real-life groups of four and five to validate a mathematical model. We then use this mathematical model to predict group level scores from a variety of possible group configurations (varying both in cognitive distance and average individual rationality). Our results show that both group competence and cognitive distance are necessary conditions for emergent group rationality. Group configurations, in which the groups become more rational than the most rational group member, are groups scoring low on cognitive distance and scoring high on absorptive capacity.

Highlights

As groups become ubiquitous information processing units in modern organizations, emergent group level cognitive properties received considerable attention in the literature [1]
Our study provides initial support for using simulation studies to explore group decision making and in particular our results speak to the need of using more computational experiments that extend our understanding of the emergence of collective group level properties, in particular group rationality
We extend the insight of Meslec and Curseu [7], namely that cognitive distance has a decelerating relationship with strong cognitive synergy in groups and we show that groups’ absorptive capacity tends to change the shape of this relationship

Summary

Introduction

As groups become ubiquitous information processing units in modern organizations, emergent group level cognitive properties received considerable attention in the literature [1]. Previous research builds on the group synergy framework [5] [6] and defines group rationality as the rationality gain, as compared to a simple aggregation of group members’ rationalities (e.g., average or best individual rationality), that can be attributed to interpersonal interactions [2] [7]. Of particular interest for research advancement and practice is strong cognitive/rational synergy, reflecting the extent to which the group as a whole is more rational than the most rational member of the group. Previous research pointed towards the fact that strong synergy is not achieved [5] [6] and in rationality terms, groups are often less rational than the most rational member of the group [2] [7]. Finding ways to foster strong group synergy has important implications for managing decision-making groups and has the potential to extend the research on group cognition, in particular the emergence of collective cognitive competencies

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