Collective Behavior and Team Performance

Modern complex systems require effective team performance, yet the question of which factors determine effective teams remains to be answered. Group researchers suggest that collective or interdependent behavior is a critical component of team interaction. Furthermore, anecdotal evidence suggests that some team members are less collectively oriented than others and that the tendency to ignore task inputs from others is one factor that contributes to poor team performance. In this study we develop a procedure for differentiating collectively oriented versus egocentric team members. Experimental results confirm that collectively oriented team members were more likely to attend to the task inputs of other team members and to improve their performance during team interaction than were egocentric team members.