Social: Social Cognition and Teamwork - Foundations for Designing User-Centered Systems - page 229

from diffusion of responsibility. Here, emotional bonds decrease anxiety and the
risk is perceived as shared. Collins and Guetzkow ( 1964 ) suggested that high-risk-
takers are more confident and hence may persuade others to take greater risks. This
can result in those who tend toward less risky behavior becoming more risky; social
pressure (I do not want to let my colleagues down) translates to moving to a riskier
position. Familiarity and increased knowledge of a situation also leads people to
feel that situations are less risky; more people may equate to more knowledge and
deeper exploration of the issues, so perceived risk is diminished (Bateson 1966 ).
However, sometimes the opposite can occur; this is called cautious shift (Stoner
1968 ). Here the group moves to a more conservative, less risky position.
8.2.5 Summary
The effects of the social context on decisions are strong in situations that have
social components. These effects arise when there are other parties to the decision
and when there are other parties making the decision.
Social effects occur in individuals when they are part of a team but also occur in
individuals in social situations where there are no organized teams such as chat
rooms and forums. Some of these effects can be anticipated and can be marshaled
to help systems, and some can be avoided with forethought.
There are further influences of decision making that arise from social effects. It
is these social effects that keep life interesting. If you are interested, see the section
on Other Resources.
8.3 Factors Affecting Team Performance
8.3.1 Introduction
It is important to understand the factors that underpin good teamwork so that you
can facilitate and support teams with any system you design or develop. A team's
performance, and whether it achieves its desired goals, will depend on collabo-
ration and communication between the team members. Teamwork is based upon
multiple components, including the team's set of competencies—that is, knowl-
edge, skills, and attitudes (or KSAs). The relationship between the KSAs and
teamwork is shown in Fig. 8.3 .
Your system design should provide the appropriate levels and types of support
to encourage team members to participate in team performance. Participation can
range from simply making a comment on a bulletin board that can be seen by other
members of a group, to interactively working with other people as part of a team to
carry out a task. There are several situational factors that affect how users interact
socially with others.