Abstract
This chapter integrates the six chapters in Part I of this book. They offer different treatments of the theoretical aspects of small group coordination, thereby providing a framework for how coordination behaviour can be studied from the perspectives of social psychology and primatology. Although we have a good working definition of group coordination and have scientifically established that groups of all primates, including humans, are adapted to improve survival, we are less informed about the behaviours that keep groups together and resolve conflicts. Chapter 2 helps to narrow this gap by integrating contemporary thought on coordination and offering an inclusive model for investigators to use in their analysis of both human and non-human primate groups. Chapter 3 informs us about how and why group movements of non-human primates offer a particularly rich arena with which to study primate group coordination. Chapter 4 presents a thorough analysis of a classic tool in group coordination theory (Wittenbaum and colleagues’ Coordination Mechanism Circumplex) and how it can be used to understand behaviours of both an observable and tacit nature that occur before and during the actual coordination task. Chapter 5 takes another perspective – that of high-dynamic anaesthesia teams – to show how theories of coordination can be applied to prevent harm in the operating room. The final chapter offers an outline of how the analysis of the group task itself can be used to develop categories of group processes and performance, adapting hierarchical task analysis tool for in-depth structural analysis.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Arrow H, McGrath JE, Berdahl JL (2000) Small groups as complex systems: formation, coordination, development, and adaption. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA
Baron RS, Kerr NL (2003) Group process, group decision, group action. Open University Press, Buckingham, UK
Boesch C, Tomasello M (1998) Chimpanzee and human cultures. Curr Anthropol 39:591–614
Boos M (1996) Entscheidungsfindung in Gruppen: Eine Prozessanalyse [Decision-making in groups. A process analysis]. Huber, Bern
Boos M, Sassenberg K (2001) Koordination in verteilten Arbeitsgruppen [Coordination in distributed work groups]. In: Witte EH (ed) Leistungsverbesserungen in aufgabenorientierten Kleingruppen: Beiträge des 15 Hamburger Symposiums zur Methodologie der Sozialpsychologie. Papst, Lengerich, pp 198–216 [Improvements of performance in task-oriented small groups: Contributions to the 15th Hamburger Symposium of Methodology in Social Psychology]
Boos M, Strack M (2008) The destiny of proposals in the course of group discussions. XXIX International Congress of Psychology, Berlin
Buss DM (2004) Evolutionary psychology: the new science of mind. Pearson, Boston
Caporael L, Wilson DS, Hemelrijk C, Sheldon KM (2005) Small groups from an evolutionary perspective. In: Poole MS, Hollingshead AB (eds) Theories of small groups: interdisciplinary perspectives. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp 369–391
Chapais B (2010) The deep structure of human society: primate origins and evolution. In: Kappeler P, Silk JB (eds) Mind the gap. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 19–51
Clark HH (1991) Grounding in communication. In: Resnick LB, Levine JM, Teasley SD (eds) Perspectives on socially shared cognition. American Psychological Association, Washinton, DC
Conradt L, List C (2009) Group decisions in humans and animals: a survey. Philos Trans Roy Soc Lond B Biol Sci 364:719–742
Conradt L, Roper TJ (2003) Group decision-making in animals. Nature 421:155–158
Cornelius C, Boos M (2003) Enhancing mutual understanding in synchronous computer-mediated communication by training. Trade-offs in judgemental tasks. Commun Res 30:147–177
Daly M, Wilson MI (1999) Human evolutionary psychology and animal behavior. Anim Behav 57:509–519
de Waal F (2006) Der Affe in uns. Warum wir so sind, wie wir sind [in German]. Hanser, München
Festinger L (1957) A theory of cognitive dissonance. Row Peterson, Evanston, IL
Fischer J, Hammerschmidt K, Cheney DL, Seyfarth RM (2001) Acoustic features of female chacma baboon barks. J Ethol 107:33–54
Forsyth DR (2006) Group dynamics. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA
Gouran DS, Hirokawa RY, Julian KM, Leatham GB (1993) The evolution and current status of the functional perspective on communication in decision-making and problem-solving groups. In: Deetz SA (ed) Communication yearbook 16. Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA, pp 573–600
Hackman JR, Wageman R (2005) A theory of team coaching. Acad Manage Rev 30:269–287
Hogg MA, Abrams D (1989) Social psychology: a social identity perspective. Methuen, London
Kappeler P (2006) Verhaltensbiologie [in German]. Springer, Berlin
Kerth G (2010) Group decision-making in animal societies. In: Kappeler P (ed) Animal behavior: evolution and mechanisms. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 241–265
Kolbe M (2007) Koordination von Entscheidungsprozessen in Gruppen [in German]. Die Bedeutung expliziter Koordinationsmechanismen, VDM, Saarbrücken
Larson JR, Foster-Fishman PG, Franz TM (1998) Leadership style and the discussion of shared and unshared information in decision-making groups. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 24:482–495
Orlitzky M, Hirokawa RY (2001) To err is human, to correct for it divine. A meta-analysis of research testing the functional theory of group decision-making effectiveness. Small Group Res 32:313–341
Poole MS, Hollingshead AB, McGrath JE, Moreland RL, Rohrbaugh J (2004) Interdisciplinary perspectives on small groups. Small Group Res 35:3–16
Rendall D, Seyfarth RM, Cheney DL, Owren MJ (1999) The meaning and function of grunt variants in baboons. Anim Behav 57:583–592
Schauenburg B (2004) Motivierter Informationsaustausch in Gruppen: Der Einfluss individueller Ziele und Gruppenziele [Motivated information sampling in groups: The influence of individual and group goals]. Dissertation. University of Goettingen, Goettingen. Available at http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/diss/2004/schauenburg/
Schulz-Hardt S, Frey D, Lüthgens C, Moscovici S (2000) Biased information search in group decision-making. J Pers Soc Psychol 78:655–669
Schweiger DM, Sandberg WR (1989) Experiential effects of dialectical inquiry, devil’s advocacy and consensus approaches to strategic decision making. Acad Manage J 32:745–772
Semmann D, Krambeck HJ, Milinski M (2003) Volunteering leads to rock-paper-scissors dynamics in a public goods game. Nature 425:390–393
Silk JB, Brosnan SF, Vonk J, Henrich J, Povinelli DJ, Richardson AS, Lambeth SP, Mascaro J, Schapiro SJ (2005) Chimpanzees are indifferent to the welfare of unrelated group members. Nature 437:1357–1359
Stasser G, Titus W (1985) Pooling of unshared information in group decision making: biased information sampling during discussion. J Pers Soc Psychol 48:1467–1578
Steiner ID (1972) Group processes and productivity. Academic, New York
Stroebe W, Frey BS (1982) Self-interest and collective action: the economics and psychology of public goods. Brit J Soc Psychol 21:121–137
Trillmich J, Fichtel C, Kappeler PM (2004) Coordination of group movements in wild Verreaux’s sifakas (Propithecus verreaux). Behaviour 141:1103–1120
Voland E (2000) Grundriss der Soziobiologie [in German]. Spektrum, Heidelberg
West MA (2004) Effective teamwork. Practical lessons from organizational research. BPS Blackwell, Oxford
Williams K, Harkins S (2003) Social performance. In: Hogg M, Cooper J (eds) The Sage handbook of social psychology. Sage Publications, London, pp 327–346
Wilson DS (1997) Incorporating group selection into the adaptionist program: a case study involving human decision making. In: Simpson JA, Kenrick DT (eds) Evolutionary social psychology. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, pp 345–386
Wilson DS, Sober E (1994) Reintroducing group selection to the human behavioral sciences. Behav Brain Sci 17:585–654
Wittenbaum GM, Hollingshead AB, Botero IC (2004) From cooperative to motivated information sharing in groups: moving beyond the hidden profile paradigm. Commun Monog 71:286–310
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Boos, M., Kolbe, M., Kappeler, P.M. (2011). Coordination in Human and Non-human Primate Groups: Why Compare and How?. In: Boos, M., Kolbe, M., Kappeler, P., Ellwart, T. (eds) Coordination in Human and Primate Groups. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15355-6_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15355-6_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-15354-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-15355-6
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)