Improving Group Performance by Training in Individual Problem Solving

This laboratory study investigated the group performance effects of an intervention to improve individual members' use of task knowledge. Subjects were 169 managers (M age = 40 years; 90% men and 10% women) and 207 MBA students (M age = 28 years; 82% men and 18% women) working in 80 groups. The task was the Moon Survival problem. A bivariate, repeated measures analysis-of- variance statistical model was used. The intervention, based on suggestions by Maier (1970) and Janis and Mann (1977), upgraded both group resources (by 0.6 SD, p < .05) and group performance (by 0.6 SD, p < .05). The increment of group performance over average member scores was similar to that achieved by process and structural interventions reported in earlier studies. Supporting the proposition that group performance is strongly determined by member task ability, these results suggest that individual task training complements, if not supplements, the dominant process-train- ing approach in a laboratory setting. © 1987 American Psychological Association.