People interact and perform in group settings in all areas of life. Organizations and businesses are increasingly structuring work around groups and teams. Every day, we work in groups such as families, friendship groups, societies and sports teams, to make decisions and plans, solve problems, perform physical tasks, generate creative ideas, and more. Group Performance outlines the current state of social psychological theories and findings concerning the performance of groups. It explores the basic theories surrounding group interaction and development and investigates how groups affect their members. Bernard A. Nijstad discusses these issues in relation to the many different tasks that groups may perform, including physical tasks, idea generation and brainstorming, decision-making, problem-solving, and making judgments and estimates. Finally, the book closes with an in-depth discussion of teamwork and the context in which groups interact and perform. Offering an integrated approach, with particular emphasis on the interplay between group members, the group task, interaction processes and context, this book provides a state-of-the-art overview of social psychological theory and research. It will be highly valuable to undergraduates, graduates and researchers in social psychology, organizational behavior and business.

Creativity often involves the development of original ideas that are useful or influential. Most research and writing on creativity has focused on individual creativity. However, with the information explosion and growing necessity of specialisation, the development of innovations will increasingly require group interaction at some stage of the process. Most organisations and much of the scientific process now rely on work of teams with diverse skills and knowledge. Fortunately, in recent years there has been an increasing acknowledgement of the importance of social and contextual factors in creativity. Group Creativity summarises the exciting new developments in the research on the processes involved in group or team creativity and innovation.

The volume draws from a broad range of perspectives, such as cognition, groups, creativity, information systems, and organisational psychology. These different perspectives have been brought together in one volume in order to focus attention on this developing literature and its implication for theory and application. The chapters of this volume are organized into two sections. The first section deals with group processes in creative groups, and considers issues of cognitive fixation and flexibility, group diversity, minority dissent, group decision-making, brainstorming, and group support systems. Special attention is devoted to the various processes that can inhibit or facilitate group creativity. Although much research on group processes has demonstrated that groups often fail to meet their productivity or problem solving potential, recent studies have highlighted conditions and processes related to effective functioning of teams or groups that work on creative tasks. The second section deals with the impact of various contextual or environmental factors on the creative group process. The chapters deal with issues of group autonomy, group socialisation, mentoring, team innovation, knowledge transfer, and creativity at the level of cultures and societies. It is argued that a full understanding of group creativity cannot be accomplished without adequate attention to the group environment.

The volume provides a basis for future theoretical development and application. It will be a useful source of information for scholars, practitioners and students and can be used as a textbook on courses on creativity and innovation.