Why Groups Fail to Share Information Effectively | PsyBlog

This link has been bookmarked by 23 people . It was first bookmarked on 10 Aug 2009, by Nancy Blair.

07 Oct 09

Techno Shakti
Thought provoking and exceeds the obvious.

Science Mind Humanity
- Pre-judgements. People make their minds up to varying degrees before they have a group discussion. The information on which they make their pre-judgement is likely to be shared information available to everyone. Then, when the group discussion starts, whether consciously or unconsciously, people tend to only bring up information that supports their pre-judgement. Surprise, surprise, it's the same things everyone else is bringing up.
  Anxiety. Before a meeting people are unsure how important the information they know is, and are also anxious to be seen in a good light by others in the group. Information that emerges during a meeting as shared by the group comes to be viewed as more important and so people repeat it. People are seen as more capable when they talk about shared rather than unshared information (Wittenbaum & Bowman, 2004). To be on the safe side people prefer to stick to repeating things that everyone knows and, bizarrely, others like them better for it.
  
  Together these points begin to show why it is very likely that people will fail to share information known only to themselves.
  - Techno Shakti on 2009-10-07
    
    This seems relevant across the board. Great article!
22 Sep 09

nadege austin
interesting... there's still so much to do to improve communication between humans!

psychology collaboration communication management
16 Sep 09

Chuck Brands
17 Aug 09

anja c. wagner
g collaboration productivity management
Alex Ko
psychology collective-intelligence
- To be on the safe side people prefer to stick to repeating things that everyone knows and, bizarrely, others like them better for it.
- What the experimenters found, though, was the classic dynamic where participants spent more time discussing shared rather than unshared information.
- 2 more annotations...
- - People are more likely to share if they have a higher status in the group. So to encourage lower status members to share, their expertise needs to be specifically acknowledged to the group.
  - people may share information they are unsure about outside a group meeting directly to other individuals
16 Aug 09

miz minh
comms group VoRTCS George
Sharon Elin
leadership communication psychology collaboration
- Groups where members disagree and who display less groupthink are more likely to share unpooled information.
  When people are told to try and recall relevant information before the meeting, this makes them more likely to mention facts that only they know.
  Members of a group should be made aware of each other's expertise, so they know (broadly speaking) what everyone else knows.
  The longer meetings go on, the more likely that people will recall previously unshared information (unfortunately!).
  People are more likely to share if they have a higher status in the group. So to encourage lower status members to share, their expertise needs to be specifically acknowledged to the group.
  
  Next time you're in a decision-making meeting, try consciously noticing the extent to which the group is sharing information that everyone already knows.
- people have their own goals which may conflict with those of the group
- 1 more annotations...
- - Most of these studies assume that the information that is only known to the minority is important for the decision. In the real world this won't always be the case. Also, people may share information they are unsure about outside a group meeting directly to other individuals.
15 Aug 09

Barbara Fillip
sharing information KM
14 Aug 09

Doug Henry
Why groups don't share information effectively

group information sharing psyblog
13 Aug 09

Todd Suomela
information-use group collaboration bias information psychology productivity sharing
Lars Bauer
knowledgemanagement collaboration sharing groups psychology theory enterprise2.0
12 Aug 09

J L
management productivity information
Eric Calvert
- How to encourage people to share
  
  Naturally, then, ever since the first experimental demonstration of this phenomenon by Stasser and Titus (1985), the search has been on to find ways to encourage people to share the information that only they know. Here are some of the attributes of groups that do tend to divulge more of that critical unshared information with each other (from Wittenbaum et al., 2004):
  
  Groups where members disagree and who display less groupthink are more likely to share unpooled information.
  When people are told to try and recall relevant information before the meeting, this makes them more likely to mention facts that only they know.
  Members of a group should be made aware of each other's expertise, so they know (broadly speaking) what everyone else knows.
  The longer meetings go on, the more likely that people will recall previously unshared information (unfortunately!).
  People are more likely to share if they have a higher status in the group. So to encourage lower status members to share, their expertise needs to be specifically acknowledged to the group.
Lawrence Liu
Again and again the results have shown that people are unlikely to identify the best candidate, make the best investment or spot who really committed the crime. When asked to make a group decision, instead of sharing vital information known only to themselves, people tend to repeat information that everyone already knows.
11 Aug 09

evangineer
psychology productivity manager management collaboration groupdynamics
reckoner reckoner
psychology productivity manager management
10 Aug 09

Borne Mace
group information sharing
Nancy Blair
Tips for getting people to share information.

share groupthink psychology study