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Abstract Previous experimental studies of participation have typically examined its motivational (especially commitment) benefits. These studies showed that these benefits are neither large nor consistent. The present study focused on the cognitive benefits of participation in decision making (pdm) and on the role of a different motivational mediator, self‐efficacy. Unlike previous research which claimed to study the cognitive (informational) effects of participation, the present experiment: (a) allowed the information concerning task strategies to emerge from group discussion rather than being manipulated by the experimenter; (b) measured the actual strategies that were developed and used by subjects in the pdm condition; and (c) measured self‐efficacy which was associated with the discovery and use of these strategies. It was found that the strategies developed by the subjects and their self‐efficacy completely mediated the effect of participation on performance. Further, participation in setting goals, consistent with previous studies, did not affect performance but did affect self‐efficacy.
Latham et al. (Sat,) studied this question.