Here's something you and your boss can agree on:Workplace teams are better when they include your friends. Researchers analyzed the results of 26 different studies and found that teams of friends performed better on a number of tasks than groups of acquaintances or strangers. Teams with friends were particularly effective when groups were larger and their focus was on maximizing output.
The researchers analyzed studies on teams that used participants with established friendships and that included teams with non-friends or acquaintances as a comparison group. All studies also have a clearly measured task performance. Ultimately, the 26 studies they analyzed included 1,016 groups with 3,467 participants. Overall, the results showed that friendship groups had a clear performance advantage, whether the tasks required physical strength or brains. The benefit was found in all age groups. The larger the teams studied, the greater the positive effect of friendship groups, the study found. The findings showed that friendship groups were better at tasks where the goal was to produce the most output, but there was no benefit if the goal was to find the optimal solution to a problem.
