Page 158 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

structure (e.g. group membership, allocated roles) or prior experience working together. Yet, these

groups still express high levels of interdependence and coordinate knowledge, resources, and tasks.

(Majchrzak, Jarvenpaa, & Hollingshead, 2007)

Joining Groups

Joining a group is determined by a number of different factors, including an individual's

personal traits (Lucas & Deiner, 2001); gender (Gore, Cross, & Morris, 2006); social motives such

as need for affiliation (McAdams & Constantian, 1983), need for power (Turner, 1974), and need

for intimacy (McAdams & Constantian, 1983) ; attachment style (Rom & Mikulincer, 2003); and

prior group experiences (Bohrnstedt & Fisher, 1986). Groups can offer some advantages to its

members that would not be possible if an individual decided to remain alone, including

gaining social support in the forms of emotional support (McGuire, 2007), instrumental support

(Uchino, 2004), and informational support (Uchino, 2004). It also offers friendship, potential new

interests, the learning new skills, and enhancing self-esteem (Hogg & Abrams, 1993). However,

joining a group may also cost an individual time, effort, and personal resources as they may

conform to social pressures and strive to reap the benefits that may be offered by the group (Hogg

& Abrams, 1993).

The Minimax Principle is a part of social exchange theory that states that people will join

and remain in a group that can provide them with the maximum amount of valuable rewards while

at the same time, ensuring the minimum amount of costs to themselves (Kelley & Thibaut,1978).

However, this does not necessarily mean that a person will join a group simply because the

reward/cost ratio seems attractive. According to Howard Kelley and John Thibaut, a group may

be attractive to us in terms of costs and benefits, but that attractiveness alone does not determine

139