The Nature and Consequences of Group Cohesion in a Military Sample

The 1st objective of this study was to explore the dimensionality of the work-adapted version of the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ; Carron, Widmeyer, & Brawley, 1985) in a military setting. The 2nd was to investigate how group cohesion relates to job performance, job satisfaction, and psychological distress. To this end, 447 Canadian military employees who worked in units completed the GEQ, along with measures of job performance, job satisfaction, and psychological distress. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the hypothesized 4-factor model of the GEQ provided a better fit to the data than did alternative models. A path analysis indicated that perceptions of task-related cohesion were predictive of job satisfaction, whereas dimensions of cohesion reflecting attraction to the group were inversely associated with psychological distress. The relevance of social identity with respect to psychological dimensions and correlates of group cohesion is discussed.

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