Abstract
Whether it be a rugby team or a rescue crew, ensuring peak group performance is a primary goal during collective activities. In reality, however, groups often suffer from productivity losses that can lead to less than optimal outputs. Where researchers have focused on this problem, inefficiencies in the way team members coordinate their efforts has been identified as one potent source of productivity decrements. Here, we set out to explore whether performance on a simple object movement task is shaped by the spontaneous emergence of interpersonally coordinated behavior. Forty-six pairs of participants were instructed to either compete or cooperate in order to empty a container of approximately 100 small plastic balls as quickly and accurately as possible. Each trial was recorded to video and a frame-differencing approach was employed to estimate between-person coordination. The results revealed that cooperative pairs coordinated to a greater extent than their competitive counterparts. Furthermore, coordination, as well as movement regularity were positively related to accuracy, an effect that was most prominent when the task was structured such that opportunities to coordinate were restricted. These findings are discussed with regard to contemporary theories of coordination and collective performance.
Highlights
Many of life’s most valued outcomes are only attainable by combining efforts with others
By focusing on an ecologicallyrelevant outcome of group work – productivity – we aimed to identify whether performance in this sense is influenced by the spontaneous emergence of interpersonally coordinated behavior
For actual pairs there were main effects of both aperture size, F(1,44) = 13.51, p = 0.001, η2p = 0.24, and instructions, F(1,44) = 22.38, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.34, which were qualified by an interaction between these factors, F(1,44) = 6.88, p = 0.012, η2p = 0.14
Summary
Many of life’s most valued outcomes are only attainable by combining efforts with others. Achievements in a modern operating theater, flight deck, boardroom, or restaurant kitchen are enabled to the extent that individual agents act in concert with colleagues. Can group performance exceed the capacity of individual members, but teams can underperform by failing to optimally realize their collective potential. While researchers have identified several phenomena that characterize specific aspects of group productivity (e.g., social loafing, social facilitation, Köhler effect), the issue, in essence, is one of coordination. Combining efforts leads to the emergence of dependencies (i.e., links) between team members. The efficiency of these links, that is, the extent to which each member’s actions are functionally coordinated, in large part determines the effectiveness of the group
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