Task complexity moderates group synergy
<jats:title>Significance</jats:title> <jats:p>Scientists and managers alike have been preoccupied with the question of whether and, if so, under what conditions groups of interacting problem solvers outperform autonomous individuals. Here we describe an experiment in whi...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144060 |
| _version_ | 1811098196590460928 |
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| author | Almaatouq, Abdullah Alsobay, Mohammed Yin, Ming Watts, Duncan J |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Almaatouq, Abdullah Alsobay, Mohammed Yin, Ming Watts, Duncan J |
| author_sort | Almaatouq, Abdullah |
| collection | MIT |
| description | <jats:title>Significance</jats:title>
<jats:p>Scientists and managers alike have been preoccupied with the question of whether and, if so, under what conditions groups of interacting problem solvers outperform autonomous individuals. Here we describe an experiment in which individuals and groups were evaluated on a series of tasks of varying complexity. We find that groups are as fast as the fastest individual and more efficient than the most efficient individual when the task is complex but not when the task is simple. We then precisely quantify synergistic gains and process losses associated with interacting groups, finding that the balance between the two depends on complexity. Our study has the potential to reconcile conflicting findings about group synergy in previous work.</jats:p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T17:11:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/144060 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T17:11:25Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1440602023-02-15T20:39:06Z Task complexity moderates group synergy Almaatouq, Abdullah Alsobay, Mohammed Yin, Ming Watts, Duncan J Sloan School of Management <jats:title>Significance</jats:title> <jats:p>Scientists and managers alike have been preoccupied with the question of whether and, if so, under what conditions groups of interacting problem solvers outperform autonomous individuals. Here we describe an experiment in which individuals and groups were evaluated on a series of tasks of varying complexity. We find that groups are as fast as the fastest individual and more efficient than the most efficient individual when the task is complex but not when the task is simple. We then precisely quantify synergistic gains and process losses associated with interacting groups, finding that the balance between the two depends on complexity. Our study has the potential to reconcile conflicting findings about group synergy in previous work.</jats:p> 2022-07-26T18:29:49Z 2022-07-26T18:29:49Z 2021 2022-07-26T18:23:46Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144060 Almaatouq, Abdullah, Alsobay, Mohammed, Yin, Ming and Watts, Duncan J. 2021. "Task complexity moderates group synergy." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118 (36). en 10.1073/PNAS.2101062118 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences PNAS |
| spellingShingle | Almaatouq, Abdullah Alsobay, Mohammed Yin, Ming Watts, Duncan J Task complexity moderates group synergy |
| title | Task complexity moderates group synergy |
| title_full | Task complexity moderates group synergy |
| title_fullStr | Task complexity moderates group synergy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Task complexity moderates group synergy |
| title_short | Task complexity moderates group synergy |
| title_sort | task complexity moderates group synergy |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144060 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT almaatouqabdullah taskcomplexitymoderatesgroupsynergy AT alsobaymohammed taskcomplexitymoderatesgroupsynergy AT yinming taskcomplexitymoderatesgroupsynergy AT wattsduncanj taskcomplexitymoderatesgroupsynergy |