Managing in Organizations

Section 1

Several studies have shown that the mere presentation of an audience increases the performance of people performing a well-learned task. In 1925 Travis conducted a study that showed participants making fewer errors when tracking mice in the presence of an audience when compared to their performance at the same task when performed alone. In addition to an audience increasing most individual's performance of physical tasks, an audience also helps increase the performance of mental tasks participants were given. Studies have shown that participants generated more arguments and associations when in the presence of an audience. Although the participants did generate a greater volume of idea, there was some lack in quality when this process was followed. The main conclusion from these studies was that the presence of others improves performance on well-learned or easy tasks but hinders performance on poorly learned or difficult tasks. As such, it appears that this process of social facilitation would be ideal in the scenario discussed above.

Section 2

Psychological theory provides two reasons for implementing such systems. First, [Improves creativity. "Time-Pressure/Creativity Matrix" in Creativity Under the Gun, course pack page 84. Provides constraining principles Principled Problem Solving]

Second, [improves motivation. Goal-setting theory, Lecture 5, slide 9].

First, a system with a target date and accountability will help improve creativity. In the article Creativity Under The Gun, the authors' study suggested that time pressure affects creativity in different ways depending on whether the environment allows people to focus on their work, conveys a sense of meaningful urgency about the tasks at hand, or stimulates or undermines creative thinking in other ways. A system with a focused deadline and accountability will allow the team to focus on one activity for a significant part of the day and allow the team to be undisturbed or protected while they focus on the task at hand. This system will also allow the team to believe they are doing important work and feel positively challenged and involved in the work while utilizing creative thinking equally oriented towards identifying problems and generating or exploring ideas. A system designed as such will foster the highest levels of creativity according to the authors of Creativity Under The Gun. This system is also advantageous as it provides constraining principles, which are key to creativity as discussed in the article Principled Problem-Solving. This study showed that principled problem solving focuses on the basic principles or prerequisites of any solution and allows problem solvers to limit their attention to the class of solutions that comply with the principles required for the problems' solution.