A quantitative integration of the military cohesion literature

In this article, we review research on group cohesion in military units, us ing meta-analytic techniques that convert research findings to a common met ric. After combining some of the 39 samples to eliminate possible overlap i n participants, we conducted separate analyses for 7 different outcomes. Ef fect sizes (correlation coefficients), weighted by the number of participan ts, were .40 for cohesion and group performance,.20 for cohesion and indivi dual performance, and .47 for cohesion and job/military satisfaction. Cohes ion was also positively related to measures of retention (.22), well-being (.24), and readiness (.30) and was inversely related to rates of indiscipli ne (-.14), although these latter results are not definitive because of the smaller number of samples involved. Effect sizes weighted by the number of groups generally tended to decrease the number of cases, increase the effec t sizes, and broaden the confidence intervals. We conclude that group cohes ion results in desirable outcomes for the military and that the research ha s implications for policy and training issues. We recommend that future coh esion researchers include all basic data in their research reports, delinea te their concepts explicitly, use valid and reliable measures, and give car eful consideration to the level of analysis and other moderator variables.