Using Narratives to Study Task Group Effectiveness

Abstract

This study uses narrative data from participating group members to identify retrospective accounts of why groups succeed or fail. Analysis of stories describing task group success and failure revealed seven general categories of themes that people in the American culture believe influence group performance: relationships, group structure, group process, member emotions, group communication, member attributes, and external forces. Of those, a comparison of standardized frequencies revealed significant differences between the group success and failure stories in regards to relationships, member emotions, and member attributes.