Task complexity moderates group synergy
Name
pnas.2101062118.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.12 MB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
7e86fd117b0ff7fab3d81dccad1ad834
Author(s)
Almaatouq, Abdullah
Alsobay, Mohammed
Yin, Ming
Watts, Duncan J
Date Issued
2021
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publisher
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Citation
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).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Significance
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.
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.
MIT Department
Sloan School of Management
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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.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.2101062118
