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Groupthink: Team Information Processing
Going against the conventional belief that teams would produce more and better outputs than individuals—and despite their superior cognitive and motivational capacities—teams often fail to fully leverage their collective potential. Specifically, the phenomenon of groupthink refers to groups’ consensus-seeking tendency, by which group discussion is biased toward information and perspectives shared by the majority and neglects perspectives that are unique and unshared (Janis, 1982). In this line of research, I examine the factors that contribute to group discussion quality and team information processing; specifically, what facilitates (a) team members’ expression of unique ideas and (b) teams’ considerations of different opinions.
Teamwork: Dynamics of Performing as a Team
Working effectively as a team requires optimal coordination of team members’ different knowledge, dispositions, and motivations, which impact the team’s progress toward team goals. In this second line of research, I focus on the ways team members work together (i.e., teamwork), how these lead to different team outcomes, and how teamwork can be shaped by team compositional factors such as team structure and team personality. In particular, I examine how we can understand teamwork using motivational perspectives, how different team members’ unique dispositions influence the way they work together, and how a team’s structural differences influence team dynamics.
Inter-team Coordination and Conflict
Though hailing from vastly different eras, both ancient human groups (i.e., ancestral tribes) and work groups in modern organizations strive to leverage collective advantages through teamwork and remain competitive against rival groups. Intergroup competition and tensions, however, can cause extensive damage to anyone caught in the crossfire. Whether competing groups are nations, political parties, ethnic groups, or companies, egregious acts are repeatedly committed by groups against one another. What psychological mechanisms cause intergroup tensions and conflict? Why are groups so shortsighted that they choose an extreme act instead of being flexible? How can groups resolve conflicts and cooperate?
Emotions and Teamwork
Emotions are one of the fundamental evolutionary forces that have shaped human behaviors. My research on emotions focused on their unique impact on teamwork. For example, in my conceptual paper on team emotions, I delineated how the six universal emotions (i.e., fear, anger, sadness, disgust, surprise, and happiness) could have differential impacts on how teams work together. For example, when teams feel surprised, they start exploring new information and engage in a mode of deliberative discussions. When teams feel disgusted (from observing unethical conduct) in organizations, we see that they eject those members who are considered to be contaminated. Therefore, I would like to combine the evolutionary functional approach of emotions to teamwork and team performance.
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