The Köhler Group Motivation Gain: How to Motivate the ‘Weak Links’ in a Group

Abstract

A recurring question of successful group work is how to maintain high task motivation of the individual members. This paper reviews research on one well documented group motivation gain phenomenon, where group members are more highly motivated than comparable individual performers – the Köhler motivation gain effect. The basic effect is attributed to two psychological mechanisms, one involving upward social comparisons and a second involving the indispensability of group members’ efforts. In addition to summarizing research on the discovery and causes of the basic effect, this review identifies probable moderators of each contributing causal mechanism. Moreover, promising topics for future research as well as implications for the application of the Köhler effect in real group work are discussed.

Aerobic Exercise Is Promoted when Individual Performance Affects the Group: A Test of the Kohler Motivation Gain Effect

“…peddling an exercise bike). Second, unlike previous laboratory studies [13], Feltz et al [18] found that motivation gain was entirely due to social comparison-that is, making the task into a conjunctive group task did not boost effort above that level obtained with coacting but otherwise independent exercisers. They speculated that this may have been because their one-time exercise session was approached by their participants as an inherently competitive-not as a collaborative-task setting.…”

“…Considerable basic laboratory research has shown that having people work together at a task can, under the right conditions, reliably boost their task motivation [11,12]. The best documentation of such group motivation gains is the Köhler effect [13,14] -compared to working individually, the weaker member of the group tends to be more motivated when working together with a moderately more capable partner, especially when the group's final level of performance depends primarily upon the weaker member (i.e., when the group task has conjunctive task demands [15]. This motivation gain appears to arise from two processes-a tendency to strive to match or exceed the performance of one's more capable partner (via social comparison process [16]) and a tendency to work harder when the group's outcome (and/or one's evaluation by the group) hinges crucially on one's own level of effort (via an indispensability process) [17].…”

To pay or not to pay? Do extrinsic incentives alter the Köhler group motivation gain?

“…The Köhler effect literature points to a number of social contexts that can dramatically bolster task motivation, including the motivation to exercise. These include making one's efforts indispensible for collective success and one's evaluation in the group, making the group important, and making it easy for teammates to monitor and evaluate each others' performances continuously (see Kerr & Hertel, 2011). The present paper suggests that minimizing extrinsic incentives for exercising is yet another motivation-enhancing contextual feature.…”

“…Most importantly, the demands of the group task can be crucial; group tasks that make the least capable member's performance critical for group success (e.g., a mountain climbing team tethered together and able to climb at the speed of the slowest climber--what Steiner, 1972, called a conjunctive group task) generally results in the strongest Köhler effect (Hertel et al, 2008;Kerr et al, 2007). See Weber & Hertel (2008) for a meta-analytic or Kerr & Hertel (2011) for a narrative review of this literature.…”

“… been down so long …”: Perpetual vs. intermittent inferiority and the Köhler group motivation gain in exercise groups.

“…Most importantly, the demands of the group task can be crucial; group tasks that make the least capable member's performance critical for group success (e.g., a mountain climbing team tethered together and able to climb at the speed of the slowest climber--what Steiner, 1972, called a conjunctive group task) generally results in the strongest Köhler effect (Hertel et al, 2008; See Weber and Hertel (2007) for a meta-analytic or Kerr and Hertel (2011) for a narrative review of this literature.…”