Predictors of Employee Group Cohesion and Group Performance: A Study of Primary Care Practices

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2013-08-29

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Abstract

Research regarding organizational workgroups has substantially increased over the past two decades given that successful groups and teams are associated with having several important attributes, including group cohesion and group performance. The researcher of the current study examined the relationship between group cohesion and performance as well as among several other key factors (including communication/ cooperation, quality decision making, perceived organizational support, supportive supervision, task interdependence, and goal commitment) based on the perceptions of selected primary health care organizational staff members. A 45-item survey was used to collect the data. Both electronic as well as printed copies were distributed throughout a 12 month period from September 2011 through August 2012. The sample included 207 respondents representing Pediatric, Family Medicine, and Specialty practices in Texas. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA?s, Cronbach?s alpha reliability analysis, confirmatory factory analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling were the analytical methods used in the study.

The results from the analyses suggested that quality decision making was a strong predictor of social cohesion and that perceived organizational support (POS) was also a strong predictor of both goal commitment and social cohesion. Task interdependence was a large and significant predictor of goal commitment.

Regarding mediation effects, neither goal commitment nor social cohesion mediated the relationship between POS and group performance. Also, goal commitment did not mediate the relationship between task interdependence and group performance. Goal commitment and social cohesion were not strong predictors of group performance. Rather, task interdependence and supportive supervision were the best direct predictors of group performance.

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