Should we create a niche or fall in line? Identity negotiation and small group effectiveness

A prospective study of 423 MBA students examined the interplay of identity negotiation and group functioning. The findings revealed that self-verifica tion effects (through which group members brought others to see them as the y saw themselves) heightened participants' feelings of connection to their groups (i.e., more identification and social integration and less emotional conflict) and improved group project grades on creative tasks (tasks that benefit from divergent perspectives). Appraisal effects (through which grou ps brought members to see themselves as the group saw them) facilitated gro up project grades on computational tasks (tasks that require deriving one c orrect answer). In addition, self-verification effects were more prevalent than appraisal effects. The authors discuss the implications of these findi ngs for understanding the links among self-verification, self-categorizatio n, and group outcomes.