Group Cohesion

"We all have a social need to be accepted, to identify with a group and be a part of it," says Stewart. "So much so that peer pressure from team members is more effective than money in prompting strong performances from workers."

However, this works only when team members get along. When they don't, then self-managed teams perform worse than cohesive teams. When team members don't much care for each other, Courtright says appealing to team spirit as a motivating factor won't work because there is no team spirit to appeal to, so money becomes the primary motivating factor to improve productivity.

"Teams perform better when there is social pressure from peers to perform well than when peers wave a carrot and stick," Courtright says. "However, the carrot and stick method works pretty well when team members just can't get along." - Science Daily