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Social influence interpretation of interpersonal processes and team performance over time using Bayesian model selection

Johnson, Alan ; van de Schoot, Rens ; Delmar, Frédéric LU and Crano, William (2015) In Journal of Management 41(2). p.574-606
Abstract
The team behavior literature is ambiguous about the relations between members’ interpersonal processes—task debate and task conflict—and team performance. From a social influence perspective, we show why members’ interpersonal processes determine team performance over time in small groups. Together, over time, dissenting in-group minorities who share information (via debate) with majorities, who selectively engage with them to consider their alternative proposals (via conflict), can improve their team performance (via innovation). The Context/Comparison Model of social influence and its Leniency Contract extension to the special case of in-group minorities suggest a pattern of members’ interpersonal processes that unfolds over time to... (More)
The team behavior literature is ambiguous about the relations between members’ interpersonal processes—task debate and task conflict—and team performance. From a social influence perspective, we show why members’ interpersonal processes determine team performance over time in small groups. Together, over time, dissenting in-group minorities who share information (via debate) with majorities, who selectively engage with them to consider their alternative proposals (via conflict), can improve their team performance (via innovation). The Context/Comparison Model of social influence and its Leniency Contract extension to the special case of in-group minorities suggest a pattern of members’ interpersonal processes that unfolds over time to reconcile factions with the same social identity who hold different approaches to shared projects. Conditional on typical levels of task debate, we predict that: (1) in early episodes, task conflict increases the relation between task debate and team performance; (2) in middle episodes, it decreases the relation; and (3) in late episodes, it increases it again. We explore our thesis using a longitudinal design with a sample of 60 student teams (360 individuals) working together for course credit over five months (21 weeks) to write a first business plan for a new venture. We use a multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) approach with Bayesian estimation. We found support for our theory expressed in informative hypotheses using Bayesian model selection. These results were not evident from conventional graphing and post hoc statistical probing of simple slopes against the null hypothesis. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
in-group minority, interpersonal processes, debate and conflict, team performance, time, projects, alternative proposals
in
Journal of Management
volume
41
issue
2
pages
574 - 606
publisher
SAGE Publications
external identifiers
  • wos:000348530700009
  • scopus:84922021477
ISSN
1557-1211
DOI
10.1177/0149206314539351
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
65e82156-7dba-4a9a-8c42-a4802731c04e (old id 4935817)
alternative location
http://jom.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/06/19/0149206314539351.abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:07:10
date last changed
2022-04-28 07:20:57
@article{65e82156-7dba-4a9a-8c42-a4802731c04e,
  abstract     = {{The team behavior literature is ambiguous about the relations between members’ interpersonal processes—task debate and task conflict—and team performance. From a social influence perspective, we show why members’ interpersonal processes determine team performance over time in small groups. Together, over time, dissenting in-group minorities who share information (via debate) with majorities, who selectively engage with them to consider their alternative proposals (via conflict), can improve their team performance (via innovation). The Context/Comparison Model of social influence and its Leniency Contract extension to the special case of in-group minorities suggest a pattern of members’ interpersonal processes that unfolds over time to reconcile factions with the same social identity who hold different approaches to shared projects. Conditional on typical levels of task debate, we predict that: (1) in early episodes, task conflict increases the relation between task debate and team performance; (2) in middle episodes, it decreases the relation; and (3) in late episodes, it increases it again. We explore our thesis using a longitudinal design with a sample of 60 student teams (360 individuals) working together for course credit over five months (21 weeks) to write a first business plan for a new venture. We use a multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) approach with Bayesian estimation. We found support for our theory expressed in informative hypotheses using Bayesian model selection. These results were not evident from conventional graphing and post hoc statistical probing of simple slopes against the null hypothesis.}},
  author       = {{Johnson, Alan and van de Schoot, Rens and Delmar, Frédéric and Crano, William}},
  issn         = {{1557-1211}},
  keywords     = {{in-group minority; interpersonal processes; debate and conflict; team performance; time; projects; alternative proposals}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{574--606}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Journal of Management}},
  title        = {{Social influence interpretation of interpersonal processes and team performance over time using Bayesian model selection}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206314539351}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/0149206314539351}},
  volume       = {{41}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}