C-tasks: an Exercise and In-class Experiment in the Effects of Creative and Non-creative Tasks on Group Structures and Group Performance

Classroom exercises have long been used in the teaching of graduate and undergraduate management and organizational behavior courses and have been found to be quite valuable in illustrating a variety of important concepts. The Moon Survival Kit (group decision making), the Disarmament Exercise (inter-group conflict) and the Tinkertoy Tower (effects of structure on performance and satisfaction) are examples of experiential media widely used for developing and demonstrating concepts in group dynamics. In these group exercises, group organization structure is either ignored or is specified and used as an independent variable. An exercise which would demonstrate the sources and effects of an emergent organization, that is; reflecting a contingency theory of organization structure, would seem a particularly useful addition to the repertoire of experiential learning in business education. There is also a need for additional experimental work in “contingency” oriented organization study. Control of conditions and inductions, and accurate measurement are needed, however, to permit the data to be used for research purposes.