Group rewards, group composition and information sharing: A motivated information processing perspective

• Group performance-based pay increases the sharing of dispersed information.
• Group performance-based pay can substitute for low group openness to experience.
• Group performance-based pay can substitute for low group agreeableness.
• Discussion time mediates performance-based pay and dispersed information sharing.
• Group performance-based pay enhances decision-making quality.

Invoking the Motivated Information Processing in Groups (MIP-G) model, we argue that group performance-based pay plays a dual role in stimulating both epistemic and prosocial motivation. We experimentally examine the effects of group incentives on information sharing both directly and as a substitute for personality-based epistemic and prosocial motivators. Results support a relationship between group performance-based pay and increased dispersed information sharing. The interaction effects of pay conditions and group composition provide additional support for a dual role for group-based pay. For groups low in openness-to-experience, pay based on group-performance enhances dispersed information-sharing. For groups low in agreeableness, a group pay-for-performance condition leads to more time in discussion which leads to greater sharing of dispersed information. Finally, through effects on discussion time and information sharing, group performance-based rewards increase task performance. By explicating the role of group rewards on information sharing, our study contributes to the MIP-G and decision-making literatures.