Goal Striving in Groups with Implementation Intentions : Collective Planning Improves Performance

Abstract

The present research investigates group performance from a goal-striving perspective. A model of goal striving in groups with implementation intentions (GSG-II) is developed by connecting individual-level theory that planning when, where, and how to act (forming implementation intentions, Gollwitzer, 1999) promotes goal achievement and group-level theory suggesting that groups can strive for goals individually or collectively. The GSG-II model proposes a new type of plan that refers to the group, collective implementation intentions (cII). The model’s main prediction that cII promote group performance found consistent support in six experiments with three common obstacles to keeping goal striving on track in representative group tasks (expected muscle pain in physical persistence, unexpected normative impact on creative idea generation and consumer impulse purchases, goal conflict in mixed-motive decisions) covering all performance quadrants (McGrath, 1984) and permitted processes (Steiner, 1972). Collective if-then planning thus improves group performance. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed.