Will we be working together again? The impact of future interdependence ongroup members' task motivation

The extent to which group members contribute effort efficiently, i.e. to th e extent that their efforts add to the group product, or equally to their f ellow worker is investigated as a function of group members' expectations a bout future interdependence. An experimental set-tip was employed in which (1) participants were able to determine what would be an efficient and what would be tin equal amount of effort to exert, and (2) in which efficiency and equality required different levels of effort: Participants worked on a physical motor-production task and expected to work with a partner twice (c ontinued interdependence) or only on the first task (no continued interdepe ndence). Before working on the first task, they, received information about their relative task ability, (high versus low) and information about their partner's effort expenditure (high versus low). It is argued and demonstra ted that group members expecting continued interdependence are likely, to e qual their fellow worker's effort expenditure, whereas group members expect ing no continued interdependence are likely, to exert effort efficiently. T he results are discussed from various theoretical perspectives. (C) Copyrig ht 2001 John Wiley, & Sons, Ltd.