William K. Graham

Tasks and Task Consequences as Factors in Individual and Group brainstorming

Summary The present study investigated the effects of relevant versus irrelevant tasks and task consequences on individual and group brainstorming performance. As hypothesized, significantly fewer ideas were produced by groups than by individuals, and by subjects working on an inherently salient, or “relevant,” task, than on an innocuous, or “irrelevant,” task. The effect of knowing that the ideas might actually be used by a familiar organization depressed brainstorming effectiveness further. It was concluded that the ability to brainstorm is impaired when the task is one in which people are genuinely interested and which they care about.

Creative Supergroups: Group Performance as a Function of Individual Performance on Brainstorming Tasks

Summary This study investigated the reliability of individual brainstorming performance and the relative productivity of groups comprised of high (“supergroups”) versus low individual performers. Over a six-week period, and across different problems, the reliability coefficient for individual brainstorming performance was .54. Supergroups were found to be significantly more productive than groups comprised of low individual performers. Moreover, the mean number of ideas produced by the supergroups was substantially higher than the means obtained in three prior studies which used the same brainstorming problem. It was concluded that group performance can be markedly improved by selecting members on the basis of their ability to work alone on productive thinking problems.

Multivariate Relationships Between Job Characteristics And Job Satisfaction In The Public Sector: A Triple Cross-Validation Study.

This study investigated multivariate relationships between task characteristics, measured by the Job Diagnostic Survey, and satisfaction with work outcomes, measured by the Triple Audit Opinion Survey, for 1,972 workers in the public sector. The obtained canonical correlations were high and stable across independent samples of public employees as indicated by a triple cross-validation design. The results support the predictions derived from the Hackman and Oldham model that job characteristics are more important for feelings of intrinsic job satisfaction than feelings of extrinsic job satisfaction, and that job characteristic - job satisfaction relationships are higher for high self-actualization need strength employees than for low self-actualization need strength employees. It was concluded that previous job characteristic - job satisfaction relationships established for private sector employees can be generalized to public sector employees.

Leader Behavior, Esteem for the Least Preferred Co-Worker, and Group Performance

Summary This study investigated relations between Fiddlers esteem for the least preferred co-worker (LPC) measure, leader behavior, and group performance among 53 first-line supervisors of life insurance agents. The overall findings indicated that the relative amount of consideration given to subordinates increased with increased group performance. However, this general trend was particularly marked with respect to low LPC supervisors. It was concluded that LPC measures a triggered behavioral disposition reflecting the degree to which leaders are responsive to task-related feedback.

Polarity and "accuracy" of ratings and the meaningfulness of personality dimensions

Summary This study investigated the relative polarity and “accuracy” of ratings on personally meaningful versus meaningless personality dimensions. In contrast to previous studies, ratings on dimensons regarded as meaningful were no more polar than ratings on dimensions regarded as meaningless. With respect to accuracy, ratings on the least meaningful personality dimensions were significantly more accurate than ratings on meaningful dimensions when personality test scores and self-ratings were used as criteria. When mean peer ratings were used as criteria, accuracy was higher regardless of the meaningfulness of the dimensions. The results were interpreted in terms of the kinds of dimensions selected as most and least meaningful.