Group Cohesion and Org Performance: Nigerian Case Study

The article that is under review is "The Impact of Group Cohesiveness on Organizational Performance: The Nigerian Case" authored by Adeleke Banwo, Jianguo Du, and Uchechi Onokala. The article is featured in the International Journal of Business and Management and Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education in 2015. The authors of this particular study aimed at establishing the possible contribution that group cohesion can have on the performance of an organization.

Main Findings

The results of the study showed that an employee has the ability to post exemplary outcome in the event that he or she positively relate with other group members. As a way of measuring the cohesiveness of the group, the authors used three variables for instance flow of information, common values, and the willingness to terminate team membership. Sharing of the same values with other team members would determine if a member will continue to be part of the team or not. The research failed to establish a link between group cohesion and performance since both the team that posted good performance and the bad performance had strong cohesion. A new finding shows that the number of years that employees have worked in a certain organization has an impact on team performance. The longer the organizational tenure the better performance of a group is realized. Banwo et al. (2015) concluded that group cohesion dictates the decision of an employee either to continue to be part of that group or not and that organizational tenure has an influence on the performance of a team.

Contribution to the Field of Psychology

The results of the study put forward various points that are crucial in the field of psychology. The first idea is the role played by team cohesion in ensuring effective performance which translates to the overall productivity of the organization that they are part of (Banwo et al., 2015). The findings are crucial for psychologists and organizational counselors in diagnosing and addressing challenges that groups and teams face within the organization since it gives a vivid perspective on crucial aspects that possibly affect teamwork.

These factors were elaborated in the definition of group cohesion in his particular context for instance factors that determine whether a person continues to exist as a team member or not, and goals, as well as objectives, set that dictates the behavior of the members. This observation is in line with what Cooke and Hilton (2015) concluded from their study who outlined shared objectives, team cohesion, conflict, as well as common member roles have an influence on team and group effectiveness. Such knowledge is crucial for organizational counselors by feeding them with what they ought to know to establish competency among team members which will translate to team effectiveness. Additionally, the study variables suggestively advocate for the application of transformational leadership more so in maximal performance circumstances since it encourages the motivation of subordinates (Kozlowski & Ilgen, 2006).

Study Methods

The authors administered questionnaires in order to collect the intended data. The questionnaires were distributed to workers of four Nigerian commercial banks. The scale that was used in Beauchamp's et al (2002) was also employed in this particular study to measure the perceived ambiguity that the workers were going through. This scale was made up of 40 items that were distributed in fives to assess the various types of ambiguity.

The measurement of role satisfaction was performed by use of Bray (1998) model that focused on the differentiation between role satisfaction and role acceptance as well as their contribution to group cohesiveness. The model is made up of ten queries that evaluate the feelings of the employees with regards to their roles within their assigned groups. The evaluation utilizes a Likert scale that ranges from 1 to 10 using qualitative statements such as 'not at all' and 'totally'. Further determination of group cohesiveness was performed using the Group Environment Questionnaire crafted by Carron, Widmeyer, and Brawley (2000). This questionnaire evaluated the likelihood of an employee to continue to exist in a particular group which had three parts for instance group cohesion and acceptance, how the employees perceived their roles and finally the demographic part.

After the collection of data, analysis of the same was conducted using the statistical package for social scientists (SPSS). The statistical analyses were based on Pearson's r which was conducted according to the linearity as well as normality assumptions (Atieno, 2009). These included the t-standard multiple regression and the bivariate correlations.

Participants

The respondents of this particular study comprised of 180 employees who were working in commercial banks in Nigeria (Banwo et al., 2015). The participants were served with a total of 109 questionnaires that they were expected to complete. In terms of educational qualification, 49 percent of them had either a Higher National Diploma (HND) or Bachelor's degree while those with a Masters of Business Administration were approximately 43 percent. The average organizational tenure of the selected participant was approximately 5.98 years with 53.2 percent of them having worked in the Nigerian commercial banks for a period ranging from 1-5 years. 12.8percent of the participants had worked in the banks fo11-15 years.

Strengths of the Study

One of the strengths of the study under review is that it addresses the gaps that initially were not covered by previous researchers. Though there are some studies that have analyzed the relationship between group performance and group cohesion, there was no group of researchers who have analyzed the possible impact of group cohesion of the performance of Nigerian organizations. Therefore, this research through its findings presents additional knowledge that was previously not known. Second, the utilization of the qualitative approach provided ease of managing the data that was collected (Atieno, 2009). The technique was found appropriate as the researcher aimed at learning from the perspective of the participants. Third, the researcher conducted a comprehensive review of the literature. For any research, it is important to critically analyze the work done by previous researches in order to establish the existing gaps (Levac, Colquhoun & O'Brien 2010). This way, the author avoided covering areas that are already done and thus bring forth new knowledge that previously was not known.

Limitation of the Study

The research is limited in that the qualitative data collected from the respondents cannot be used as a generalization of a wider population. This is a limitation since statistical significance for such data cannot be established.

References

Atieno, O. P. (2009). An analysis of the strengths and limitation of qualitative and quantitative research paradigms. Problems of Education in the 21st Century, 13(1), 13-38. Retrieved from: http://www.scientiasocialis.lt/pec/files/pdf/Atieno_Vol.13.pdfBanwo, A. O., Du, J., & Onokala, U. (2015). The impact of group cohesiveness on organizational performance: The Nigerian case. International Journal of Business and Management. Retrieved from: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.907.2693&rep=rep1&type=pdfBeauchamp, M. R., Bray, S. R., Eys, M. A., & Carron, A. V. (2002). Role ambiguity, role efficacy, and role performance: Multidimensional and mediational relationships within interdependent sport teams. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 6(3), 229.

Bray, S. R. (1998). Role efficacy within interdependent teams, measurement development and tests of the theory.

Carron, A. V., & Brawley, L. R. (2000). Cohesion: Conceptual and measurement issues. Small group research, 31(1), 89-106.

Cooke, N. J., & Hilton, M. L. (Eds.). (2015). Enhancing the effectiveness of team science. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK310384/#__NBK310384_dtls__Kozlowski, S. W., & Ilgen, D. R. (2006). Enhancing the effectiveness of work groups and teams. Psychological science in the public interest, 7(3), 77-124. Retrieved from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1529-1006.2006.00030.xLevac, D., Colquhoun, H., & O'Brien, K. K. (2010). Scoping studies: advancing the methodology. Implementation Science, 5(1), 69.