EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF HIERARCHICAL DECISION-MAKING TEAMS - MUCH-MORE-THAN-G

The authors propose (a) that team members' general cognitive ability ( g) and conscientiousness are key resources for hierarchical decision-m aking teams with distributed expertise; (b) that a conjunctive model i s most appropriate for capturing staff members' standing on these attr ibutes; and (c) that in addition to main effects, staff attributes int eract with those of the leader to determine team performance. Results from a study of 51 four-person teams performing a computerized decisio n-making task show that decision accuracy was highest when both the le ader and staff (defined conjunctively) were high on g and conscientiou sness. Post hoc analyses suggest reactions to the weakest member diffe red depending on whether the member was low in g or conscientiousness. Low-g members were helped, whereas low-conscientiousness members were ignored.