Social Compensation and the Köhler Effect: Toward a Theoretical Explanation of Motivation Gains in Group Productivity

This chapter begins with brief review of I. D. Steiner theory of group productivity. It analyzes the conditions under which motivation losses have been found in groups and contrast these with the conditions under which motivation gains have been observed. The study of M. Ringelmann was the earliest demonstration of motivation losses in groups. W. Stroebe and B. S. Frey proposed an economic theory of group productivity that attributed this type of motivation loss to differences in incentive structure between individual and group performance. The theoretical and empirical analysis of the factors that are responsible for motivation losses in groups performed previously makes it possible to design group settings in which motivation losses are unlikely to occur. The chapter describes H. Kohler's original studies and his interpretation of the findings. In a series of articles published in the journal Industrielle Psychotechrnik, Kohler reported the results of several experiments using different types of physical tasks.