When Private Beliefs Shape Collective Reality: The Effects of Beliefs About Coworkers on Group Discussion and Performance

The study presented in this paper examines how beliefs about coworkers affect group discussion and performance. Two beliefs are considered: (1) Perceptions of coworker task competence, and (2) achievement motivation. This study investigates whether these perceptions can actually hinder group discussion and performance, and considers the contexts in which these detrimental effects are more or less likely to arise. Results indicate that although perceptions of higher achievement motivation in coworkers lowered performance when task information was partially shared, they raised performance when task information was fully shared. A content analysis of group discussions reveals that the discussion behaviors examined by this study, rather than the more frequently examined bias toward discussing common information, mediated these results.