Team versus individual behavior in the minimum effort coordination game

Ananish Chaudhuri*, Tirnud Paichayontvijit, Tony So

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)
Plum Print visual indicator of research metrics
  • Citations
    • Citation Indexes: 6
  • Captures
    • Readers: 27
see details

Abstract

We compare coordination success of individuals and teams in the minimum effort coordination game. The game is played by groups of either five individuals or five two-person teams with either fixed or random re-matching protocols. When groups are fixed, teams perform at least as well as individuals, if not better, in terms of coordinating to the payoff dominant outcome. But with random re-matching, teams experience pervasive coordination failures. A public recommendation to a strategy or a performance bonus exhorting players to coordinate to the payoff-dominant equilibrium has similar impact on coordination for both individuals and teams playing with fixed matching. However, coordination is far more difficult to achieve with teams playing under random re-matching. Our results have implications for the design of work-groups in organizations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)85-102
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Economic Psychology
Volume47
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Coordination
  • Performance bonus
  • Recommendation
  • Teams
  • Weak-link games

Cite this

Chaudhuri, A., Paichayontvijit, T., & So, T. (2015). Team versus individual behavior in the minimum effort coordination game. Journal of Economic Psychology, 47, 85-102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2015.02.002