Group Cohesiveness and Quality of Decision Making

Abstract

This article reports the results of a meta-analytic integration of the effects of group cohesiveness on quality of decision making in groups. Overall, there was no significant effect of cohesiveness on the quality of group decisions. However, more cohesive groups rendered poorer quality decisions when additional antecedent conditions of groupthink were present (directive leadership). In addition, the component of cohesiveness that appears to be critical for the emergence of groupthink is interpersonal attraction: Cohesiveness impaired decision quality more as the operationalization of cohesiveness entailed more interpersonal attraction, and less as the operationalization entailed more commitment to task or group pride. Finally, more cohesive groups did render poorer quality decisions as group size increased. Discussion considers the implications of these resultsforfuture research on the relaion between cohesiveness and quality of decision making in particular, and on groupthink in general.