International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Interest in the relationship between group communication and group problem-solving performance has a long and somewhat controversial history (→  Group Communication ). Many trace interest in problem-solving in the group context back to the early work of Maximilian Ringelmann (1861–1931). Ringelmann first measured the effort of a single individual working alone, then measured how much more effort was achieved by two, and then three, people working together. He found that the triad exerted the most effort, but the intriguing aspect of this finding was that the addition of each person did not increase the performance by the average effort of a single individual. Triads, for example, only exerted 2.5 times more effort than individuals working alone. In short, Ringelmann discovered an inverse relationship between the number of people in a group and the magnitude of individual performance on additive tasks. This finding contradicts the notion that groups work harder than individuals, and became known as the Ringelmann effect . Subsequent work carried out by Ingham and colleagues (1974) essentially replicated Ringelmann's original findings. Since the days of Ringelmann, group interaction and communication have taken on increasing importance in the study of group problem-solving effectiveness. The presumed importance of group interaction is clearly implied in Steiner's (1972) oft-cited ... log in or subscribe to read full text