This paper offers a plan for increasing communication effectiveness in organizational setting through a team building approach. The first section of the paper provides a scenario that places team building in an organizational development context and presents a detailed description of a team building process used to increase communication…

This paper summarizes and integrates the findings from three separate studies, all of which had as their major objective the investigation of differences in small group behavior between children who have relatively high others-concepts and children who have relatively low others-concepts, as measured by the Paired Hands Test. Group sessions of…

Female college students were selected on the basis of their scores on the Manifest Anxiety Scale. The subjects worked either alone or in pairs. The experiment had a two x two x two design, with group type (nominal versus real), manifest anxiety (low versus high), and induces stress (low versus high) as the three variables. (Author)

Cash games are simulation activities which feature real cash prizes and explore interpersonal skills and concepts. EASY MONEY is one such game, featuring an investment activity which focuses on trust among team members in ambiguous decision-making situations. Directions for administering the game and suggestions for applying a standard six-phase…

This research extended earlier public goods research on individual incentives to use an organizational information commons that was based in Marwell and Oliver's (1993) collective action model. A revised theoretical model that incorporated team-level social influence and technology-specific competence was proposed. The model was tested using…

This research, developed by the Ford Training and Placement Program, observed a cadre or work group as a miniature replication of the social system of a school. The interim report presents the conceptual framework of group development and recording techniques used for analysis. The conceptual framework emphasized three phases of group development:…

Examined group and individual factors that facilitate changes in cooperation and learning outcomes in trained and untrained work groups of elementary school-age children (N=192). Results indicate observable differences between student interactions in the two conditions. Trained students were more cooperative and helpful to each other, compared to…

Although some evidence suggests that providing treatment via service coordination teams is related to improved outcomes among youth in a system of care, the aspects of team structure that contribute to treatment effectiveness are not well understood. This study draws on team membership and attendance data to identify and describe the structure of…

This paper indicates that there are two school locations where the principles of quality are at work: on the team practice field and in the band rehearsal hall. Participants in instrumental music and athletics have shown significantly higher scores on achievement tests, higher grade point averages, and lower absenteeism than the rest of the school…

This report explicates the concrete group development of a cadre of persons from Simeon High School, the University of Chicago, and the Board of Education in the summer sector of the Ford Training and Placement Program. The report is organized around crucial indices of group development, i.e., the problem of leadership. Data were collected from…

The evolution of Project Adventure's Full Value Contract from its original No Discount format is described. Although wording varies among groups, all versions ask the group to create safe and respectful behavioral norms under which it will operate, to commit to those norms, and to accept a shared responsibility for their maintenance. (TD)

A measure of collective efficacy was developed and administered to undergraduates working in project teams in engineering courses. Findings in each of two samples revealed that the measure contained a single factor and was related to ratings of team cohesion and personal efficacy. Collective efficacy was also found to relate to indicators of team…

The 76 tests in this bibliography include descriptions of measures examining the dynamics of functioning groups as a whole and other measures eliciting information concerned with group members on an individual basis. Although all ages are represented, the tests target primarily adults. This document is one in a series of topical bibliographies…

A team theoretic model that establishes a criterion (decision rule) for a financial institution branch to report exceptional loan requests to headquarters for action was compared to such choices made by graduate industrial management students acting as financial vice-presidents. Results showed that the loan size criterion specified by subjects was…