You can't put old wine in new bottles: the effect of newcomers on coordination in groups

PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e55058. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055058. Epub 2013 Jan 30.

Abstract

A common finding in social sciences is that member change hinders group functioning and performance. However, questions remain as to why member change negatively affects group performance and what are some ways to alleviate the negative effects of member change on performance? To answer these questions we conduct an experiment in which we investigate the effect of newcomers on a group's ability to coordinate efficiently. Participants play a coordination game in a four-person group for the first part of the experiment, and then two members of the group are replaced with new participants, and the newly formed group plays the game for the second part of the experiment. Our results show that the arrival of newcomers decreases trust among group members and this decrease in trust negatively affects group performance. Knowing the performance history of the arriving newcomers mitigates the negative effect of their arrival, but only when newcomers also know the oldtimers performance history. Surprisingly, in groups that performed poorly prior to the newcomers' arrival, the distrust generated by newcomers is mainly between oldtimers about each other rather than about the newcomers.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cooperative Behavior*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Interpersonal Relations*
  • Male
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Trust
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This research was made possible by the generous funding of the Argyros School of Business and Economics provided to both authors, the Wang-Fradkin Research Fund awarded to the first author, and the facilities at the Economic Science Institute at Chapman University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.