Small Group Research

Social dilemma logic has provided an important paradigm for the laboratory study of how people respond to choice situations in which one option advances individual welfare but detracts from social welfare, and the research agenda based on this logic has been to discover circumstances that promote "cooperation. " Yet the power of various social dilemma metaphors may have turned experimentalists' attention from other members of a more general family in which cooperation's desirability is often more ambiguous and in which, therefore, the normative and ethical issues underlying the individual's choices are more difficult. We present a typology of 12 such "complex social dilemmas, " discussing, with examples, the behavioral, ethical, and experimental-design issues the different types raise.

A growing tradition in analyzing bargaining behavior uses an experimental setup to provide intstrumenits to control the parameters of the underlying conflict. Game theory is used to model the conflict, to analyze the possible actions of the agents and the arguments that might be lused within the bargaining process, and to understand the results of the bargaining. Especially in face-to-face bargaining, we find a large variance in the results within a given class of situations (even when the same game is used). It is a major task of bargaining research to explain this variance. This article describes a trial using the concept of the social field to allow for consideration of social forces that may critically influence the possible development of an agreement.

Some for,ns of computer-mediated communication enable groups to engage simultaneously in multiple electronic conversations. One interesting aspect of this technology, in addition to this parallelism, is that the channel is configurable to support forms of group interaction that were previously difficult, if not impossible. This article reports a laboratory experiment that examined the effects of group size (3 and 9 members) and group member anonymity on the performance of groups using a computer-mediated idea-generation system. Although group members in all conditions made, on average, the same number of comments, larger groups generated significantly more ideas (and higher-quality ideas as rated by judges) than did smaller groups. Anzonymity had no effect on ideational performance. Members of small-idenitified groups made the fewest critical remarks, were the most satisfied, and rated themselves more effective than group members from the other experimental conditions.

This article examines the potential impact of the sex and gender composition of small groups on tile facilitation process. It explores the theory and research that yield insights into how sex or gender influenices leadership emergence, examining the comparative effectiveness of female and male leaders and considering the conceptual relationship between leadership and facilitation. By reviewing past research on sex differences in leadership emergence, stereotypic perceptions of gender differences in leadership style and speech, and the gender bias of many tasks used in small group research, it argues that facilitators would benefit from studying and understanding such important theoretical constructs as role theory, structural theory, expectation states theory, and attribution theory, so as to approach the group facilitation process more thoughtfully and strategically. The article further challenges traditional task-oriented views of leadership and concludes by affirming the equal potential of males and females to facilitate small groups.

The purpose of this study was to use recent conceptual and methodological advances in the area of personality and group processes to reexamine the relationship between personality and individual behavior in groups. Two self-report dispositional measures, the Masculinity and Femininity scales of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, were used as predictors of interpersonal behavior as measured by the System for the Multiple Level Observation of Groups (SYMLOG). As predicted, masculinity was positively associated with dominant behavior in the group. The hypothesized relationship between femininity and positive, friendly interpersonal behavior was found using retrospective ratings of behavior but failed to reach significance using the observational method. The current findings show that personality is an important variable affecting interaction in groups. Implications for the design and performance of task groups are explored.

The present research seeks to further understanding of the relationship between self-monitoring and leader emergence in groups. It does so by focusing on two proposed moderators of this relationship: sex of the group members and nature of the task confronting the group. On the basis of previous research, it was hypothesized that high self-monitoring would be related to leader emergence for males, but not for females, in mixed-sex groups. Further, the relationship between self-monitoring and leader emergence was hypothesized to be stronger for a task providing minimal feedback on the task competence of group members. These hypotheses were tested in a long-term study of natural mixed-sex groups. The sex-moderator hypothesis was supported, but the task-moderator hypothesis was not. Post hoc analyses suggested that high self-monitors emerge as group leaders because they are more adaptive in their behavior than low self-monitors. Both theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Both the skills and the attitudes of Estonian leaders have been shaped by 50 years of collectivization under Soviet communism. Autocratic leadership is the norm, stemming from rigidity of attitudes in the older leaders and insecurity and inexperience in the younger leaders. A program of leadership and social competence training is presented through a series of case examples and role-play exercises. Although most of the cases and exercises deal with the problems of managing collective farms, the problems that they present are widespread. Implications are discussed for the future of Estonian agriculture and business.