The relation between group cohesiveness and performance: An integration.

TLDR

Group cohesiveness has been studied as a potential predictor of group performance, but its exact influence remains debated. The authors performed a meta‑analytic integration of studies examining the relationship between group cohesiveness and performance. The cohesiveness‑performance effect was significant but small; it was stronger when cohesiveness was measured via members’ perceptions than via experimental inductions, and the analysis suggests a stronger reverse causal direction from performance to cohesiveness.

Abstract

Abstract : This paper reports on a meta-analytic integration of the relation between group cohesiveness and performance. Overall, the cohesiveness-performance effect was highly significant and of small magnitude. Several theoretically informative determinants of the cohesiveness-performance effect were examined. This effect was significantly stronger when cohesiveness was operationalized in terms of measurements of group members' perceptions of cohesiveness than when cohesiveness was operationalized in terms of experimental inductions of cohesiveness. The results of this analysis suggest that the more direct effect may be from performance to cohesiveness rather than from cohesiveness to performance. Discussion considers the implications of these results for future research on the relation between cohesiveness and performance.