What are the mental processes of individuals involved in collective work

1
Aircraft carriers, Choirs, and Attention to the
Self-in-Relation-to-Other Foundations for a
Psychology of Organizing John Paul Stephens,
University of Michigan, Department of Psychology

• What are the mental processes of individuals
  involved in collective work?
• If we think in terms of people working together,
  be it in aircraft carrier flight crews, disaster
  relief teams, product innovation teams or choirs,
  people have to perform actions that are
  interrelated with the actions of others.
• The (positive) outcomes (landing a plan, saving
  lives, creating new products or producing
  beautiful sound) produced by the group or
  collective are due to the coordination between
  individuals activities.
• My dissertation will investigate the role of
  attention in coordinating activities between
  individuals in collective, interdependent work.

THEORETICAL MODEL
METHODS
INTRODUCTION
METHODS
Interdependent Activity

• Quantitative- Song Creation Group Task
• Participants
• 120 undergraduate students
• 3 X 3 Manipulation Design
• ATTENTIONAL FOCUS INTSRUCTIONS
• SELF vs. OTHER vs. SELF-IN-RELATION-TO-OTHER
• TOPIC INSTRUCTIONS
• SELF vs. OTHER vs. SELF-IN-RELATION-TO-OTHER
• Dependent Measure Response latency, creativity
  of song
• Qualitative- Singing UMS Choral Union
• Participants
• Conductor and members of the UMS Choral Union
• Design
• Interviews
• Participant-observation

(Individual A) Attention to self-in-relation-to-ot
her
(Individual A) Attention to self-in-relation-to-ot
her
Coordination quality
Collective Performance
Responsiveness to other
Interdependent Activity
(Individual C) Attention to self-in-relation-to-ot
her
(Individual D) Attention to self-in-relation-to-ot
her
Interdependent Activity

INTERDEPENDENT ACTIVITIES IN COLLECTIVES
THEORETICAL COMPLICATIONS
KEY DEFINITIONS
KEY DEFINITIONS Relatedness and Interdependence
in Organizational Life

• How does this attention vary by levels of
  interdependence (Thompson, 1967)?
• Status/Power (Overbeck Park, 2001)?
• Expertise ?

Organizing the ongoing process of meaningfully
assembling these interdependent actions (Weick,
1979) Organizations assemblages of
interacting human beings (March and Simon, 1958
4) consisting of complementary or interdependent
activities performed by individuals who have a
common goal (Katz and Kahn, 1978) Collective
individuals acting as if they are part of a
group, thus interrelating their actions with some
care for the other members of their group (Weick
Roberts, 1993). Coordination the management
of interdependent activities (Malone Crowston,
1994). Heedful interrelating individuals
contribute (perform actions ) as if they were
part of a system, rather than independent
elements (Weick Roberts, 1993) Responsiveness
the probability of an actual response to the
communication behaviors of another the
proportion of these responses that are actually
relevant to the behavior to which they are a
response the appropriateness of the response
latency and the appropriateness of the response
elaboration (Davis Holtgraves, 1984)

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