Extending the Stepladder Technique: An Examination of Self-Paced Stepladder Groups

The stepladder technique was developed to facilitate group effectiveness by sequen- tially entering members into a group. Unlike past research where the experimenter regulated the entry of members into a group (Rogelberg, Bames-Farrell, & Lowe, 1992), this study examined 26 4-person stepladder groups that proceeded through the stepladder process at a self-determined pace (i.e., group members decide how much time to take at each step). Self-pacing stepladder groups produced significantly higher quality group decisions than did the 26 4-person conventional groups studied. Further- more, members with the best individual decisions in self-pacing stepladder groups, on average, exerted the greatest amount of influence in their respective groups and had more influence on group decision quality than best members in conventional groups.