Recent research in group behavior and organizational development is centered around increasing the individual's self-esteem and on developing individual participation in group success. Effective groups depend on a variety of individual contributions and shared decision making, while in turn satisfying human needs for security, achievement, and…

Recent investigations of the effects on group output of competitive contingencies, reward deliveries to group members contingent upon achieving a higher or lower task rate than another group, have suggested that competitive contingencies are a positive function of group output. When rewards are contingent upon a higher comparison outcome, group…