What, exactly, is entitativity besides a $4 word for a basic $1 concept?
Campbell (1958) came up with this construct to argue that groups, and not just individuals, can be a unit of analysis for the social sciences. Essentially, groups are a meaningful entity that can be researched just like individuals can. And because the “groupyness of a group” does not sound very fancy, he decided to name this concept “entitativity.”
Let’s take an example. Imagine you saw the people below waiting for a bus. You might drive by and think “There’s a group of people waiting for a bus.” But they are not looking at each other. They are looking at their phones They are not interacting. It doesn’t appear that they know each other at all.
Now imagine the same people sitting around a table during a meeting. They are interacting with each other, they are in an defined space, and they are most likely similar to each other because they are in a meeting together.
Entitativity is the variance of “groupness” from the bus stop to the meeting. The people at the meeting have “more” entitativity than the people at the bus stop.
So what?
Well, entitativity is actually important. If folks at the bus stop experience conflict, they are likely going to call in outside authorities to solve it. If the people in the meeting have conflict, they are more likely to resolve it themselves and it would actually be good for the group if they do. Satisfaction with the bus stop is related to the bus timeliness and route. Satisfaction with the meeting is more closely linked to the people, their discussions, and the meeting’s purpose. Therefore, entitativity is essential for a group to be a “group.” People need to experience some level of entitativity in order to enact group processes and experience group outcomes.
Have you ever been in a meeting that was boring and you had no reason why you were there? You probably were not experiecing enough entitativity within that meeting. Imagine that the people at the bus stop are interacting. They would be much more likely to have a higher level of entitativity. Imagine they are all wearing the same softball uniform and carrying softball equipment. Even if they were not interacting when you drove by, you could reasonably assume they are a team taking a bus to play a game together. They are similar in characteristics (they are on the same team) and they have a similar goals (to play softball). Imagine they are all standing closely together in a bus shelter. Their proximity to each other increases their entitativity. Imagine the first example again with nothing changed but that you have been told those folks have all been using that same bus for the last 5 years. Now we (and they!) think they have more entitativity. Over 5 years, they must have had some interactions and developed a connection with each other even if they are not interacting when you drive by.
So people must experience some level of entitativity in order to “do the things” and “experience the feelings” necessary for a group to actually be a group. Are you in an awful meeting? Is your book club about to die? Is your workgroup not functioning well? They are probably not really a group.
To fix this:
- Make sure that everyone is interacting and contributing to the group.
- Make sure everyone realizes they share the same goal. If you’re the leader, make clear what the shared goal is.
- Make sure people understand their similarities. We are finding that it is very powerful if people think the other group members are like them. Basically, you don’t need to worry about objective similarities. Let people perceive that the other group members are like themselves.
- Make sure there is some psychological or physical boundary around the people.
- Focus on getting the group to survive their start up so that they can develop a meaningful history based on interactions, shared personal characteristics, and shared goals.
Entitativity is as important online as it is face-to-face but it may be harder to create. Our research currently focuses online entitativity in workgroups and are connecting it to productivity, commitment, and satisfaciton. Entitativity is important. Yes, it’s a fancy word for a simple construct. But if you don’t have entitativity, you don’t have a group. And if your group is not functioning well, you may need to back to the basics to ensure that the people actually perceive that they are part of this group.
If you want to know more about the importance of entitativity or how to improve it, please feel free to contact me or check out my research page for some of the research our lab has been working on!