The Relationship between Group Cohesiveness and Performance: An Empirical Study of Cooperatives Movement in Malaysia

Abstract

One of the most constantly studied constructs in group dynamic research in cohesiveness. Indeed it is refers to two main construct namely task and social cohesion. Since organizations become increasingly depend on group cohesiveness to strive for better performance, these two construct (social and task cohesion) had consistently effect the performance as suggested in many studied. However, limited attention has been focused to explore these relationships in the context of cooperatives movement. Therefore this study examines the extent to which respondent’s perceptions of the relationship between task and social cohesion and performance in the cooperatives movement. Data was collected from a 371 respondents via questionnaire. The results showed that group cohesiveness significantly related to the organizational performance. In addition both task and social cohesion were significantly correlated with organizational performance as predicted by hypotheses. The results also present new perspectives for cooperative movement where members’ strong relationship can further contribute to the growth of the movement’s performance. The degree of cohesiveness among members determines the success of cooperative’s performance in stirring toward its future direction. The study also highlighted the need for future empirical research on group cohesion and performance in others context.