Teamwork in planning innovative projects: improving group performance by rational and interpersonal interventions in group process

Management research has suggested that consensus (interacting) groups exhibit superior performance on many organizational tasks such as selecting R&D proposals for funding, planning innovative projects, and exercising quality control during implementation. The objective of this research was to investigate or not the already good performance of consensus groups on project planning tasks could be further improved by a diagnosis and feedback intervention concerning the nature of a group's rational and interpersonal processes. Data from a total of 114 groups (547 individuals) were collected. Feedback on rational processes had a more significant impact on performance than did feedback on interpersonal processes, but only for high-ability groups. The implications of these findings for project management are discussed.>