ABSTRACT
In many organizations, work that was once doneby individuals is now done by groups. These groups include top management teams, cross-functional teams, self-managed work teams, and special task forces. The trend toward group work in organizations has generated a parallel trend toward group research among many social scientists, especially organizational psychologists (see Levine & Moreland, 1990; Sanna & Parks, 1997). Much of that research focuses on work group performance. Organizations often use groups to improve worker productivity and the available evidence suggests that this goal is often achieved (see Carr, 1992; Hoerr, 1989; Katzenbach & Smith, 1993; Montebello & Buzzota, 1993; Wellins, Byham, & Dixon, 1994). However, work groups sometimes fail (see Dubnicki & Limburg, 1991; Dumaine, 1994; Hackman, 1998; Vogt & Hunt, 1988) and even when they seem to succeed, further improvements in worker productivity may still be possible. A careful theoretical analysis of work group performance, investigating causal factors that could be managed by an organization, is thus potentially valuable (Dunphy & Bryant, 1996).
