The Development and Stability of Norms in Groups Facing Interpersonal and Structural Challenge
Bettenhausen, Kenneth Lee
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/70474
Description
Title
The Development and Stability of Norms in Groups Facing Interpersonal and Structural Challenge
Author(s)
Bettenhausen, Kenneth Lee
Issue Date
1988
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Murnighan, J. Keith
Department of Study
Business Administration
Discipline
Business Administration
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Psychology, Social
Abstract
The study tested two propositions of the Bettenhausen and Murnighan (1985) model of norm formation in competitive decision making groups and examined how diversity among group members' prior experiences affected the development and persistence of social norms in newly formed groups. Prior experience was manipulated in a laboratory setting so that approximately half of the 302 advanced undergraduate business student participants adopted each of two mutually exclusive behavioral responses to a set of objectively equivalent bidding tasks, i.e., they adopted either a cooperative or competitive orientation in a multiple-trial prisoner's dilemma type situation. 139 two person bidding teams were then formed. Group members had either similar or diverse orientation experiences, i.e., both cooperative, both competitive, or one cooperative and one competitive. After these groups formed bidding norms, moderate and strong structural challenges to the new group norms were introduced by increasing or decreasing the expected value of bidding cooperatively by moderate or large amounts.
Several conclusions can be drawn from the results. First, members of the new groups overwhelmingly bid and expected others to bid as they had in their practice groups. Thus, group members based their actions in new groups on the norms they held in other groups facing similar tasks. Second, groups whose members had diverse backgrounds had a more difficult time making their initial decision, indicating that they had to resolve their differences before establishing a new group norm. They were also more responsive to structural challenges than groups whose members shared similar orientations to the task. Finally, the results suggest that competitive structural challenges had greater effect than cooperative ones, but that cooperative interpersonal challenges were more potent than competitive interpersonal challenges. A practical implication of this is that reassigning people who have had cooperative intergroup experiences may be more effective in establishing cooperative intergroup working relationships than changing the reward structure. Additional implications are presented for research and theory regarding corporate culture, organizational socialization, managing ad hoc groups, and the development of social norms.
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