Getting groups to develop good strategies: Effects of reflexivity interventions on team process,team performance,and shared mental models

This study examines the effect of guided reflection on team processes and performance, based on West’s (1996, 2000) concept of reflexivity. Communicating via e-mail, 49 hierarchically structured teams (one commander and two specialists) performed seven 15 min shifts of a simulated team-based military air-surveillance task (TAST) in two meetings, a week apart. At the beginning of the second meeting, teams were assigned either to a reflexivity (individual or group) or to a control condition. Results show that reflexivity enhanced performance, the link between reflexivity and team performance being mediated by communication and implementation of strategies as well as by similarity of mental models. Contrary to expectations, individual reflexivity was superior to group reflexivity. Additional analyses suggested that group reflexivity decreased the commanders’ active behavior and increased discussion of strategies that were too general to be helpful. Results point to the usefulness of reflexivity as a generic intervention but underscore the importance of focusing on strategies that are task-specific.     

冲突对绩效的影响：个体、团队宜人性的调节作用

以往个体和团队冲突研究主要考察了个人特征或团队特征对冲突结果的影响, 而尚未充分关注冲突管理过程中个体特征与团队特征间的交互效应。基于个人-团队匹配理论, 本研究探讨了个体层面宜人性与团队层面宜人性异质性对团队中个体冲突(关系冲突、任务冲突)和工作绩效间关系的影响。基于来自64个银行服务团队(包含339名下属和64名主管)的多来源、多时点纵向数据, 本研究所得结果显示：(1)关系冲突显著负向影响工作绩效, 任务冲突对工作绩效的影响不显著。(2)个体宜人性能够显著减弱关系冲突对工作绩效的负面影响, 而增强任务冲突对工作绩效的正向影响。(3)关系/任务冲突、个体宜人性和团队宜人性异质性间存在着三重交互效应, 共同影响工作绩效。具体而言, 当团队宜人性异质性水平较低时, 个体宜人性对关系/任务冲突与工作绩效间关系的调节作用更加显著。     

Crossover of job demands and emotional exhaustion within teams: a longitudinal multilevel study

This study investigated the crossover of job demands and emotional exhaustion among team members and the moderating effect of cohesiveness and social support on this process. Participants were 310 employees of an employment agency in the Netherlands, working in one of 100 teams. Multilevel analysis using a longitudinal design did not reveal a main effect of crossover. However, consistent with the study's hypotheses, the results showed a moderating effect of team cohesiveness and social support. We detected crossover of job demands and emotional exhaustion across time from the group to individual team members only in teams characterized by high levels of cohesiveness and social support. Teams characterized by low levels of cohesiveness and social support showed no crossover of job demands and exhaustion. The findings demonstrate that team-level moderators play an important role in crossover processes. Moreover, social support and cohesiveness may not always be positive.     

Crossover of job demands and emotional exhaustion within teams: a longitudinal multilevel study

This study investigated the crossover of job demands and emotional exhaustion among team members and the moderating effect of cohesiveness and social support on this process. Participants were 310 employees of an employment agency in the Netherlands, working in one of 100 teams. Multilevel analysis using a longitudinal design did not reveal a main effect of crossover. However, consistent with the study's hypotheses, the results showed a moderating effect of team cohesiveness and social support. We detected crossover of job demands and emotional exhaustion across time from the group to individual team members only in teams characterized by high levels of cohesiveness and social support. Teams characterized by low levels of cohesiveness and social support showed no crossover of job demands and exhaustion. The findings demonstrate that team-level moderators play an important role in crossover processes. Moreover, social support and cohesiveness may not always be positive.     

Establishing team knowledge coordination from a learning perspective

Research has identified the importance of knowledge coordination in high-performing teams. However, little is known on the processes through which these cognitive structures are developed, more specifically on the learning occurring as teams communicate and interact to build new team knowledge. In a multiple-measures experiment, 33 teams with no prior experience in flight simulations were assigned to newly formed dyads to complete 4 successive performance episodes of a flight simulation task, modeling a complex, fast-paced, and high workload task context. The study showed how team learning processes (i.e., team learning behaviors and team reflexivity), driven by task cohesion, and group potency supported coordination development, which in turn predicted team performance.     

Team innovation and team effectiveness: The importance of minority dissent and reflexivity

Past research suggests that minority dissent in teams may foster team innovations. It is hypothesized, however, that minority dissent would predict team innovations only when teams have high levels of reflexivity - the tendency to overtly reflect upon the group's objectives, strategies, and processes and adapt them to current or anticipated circumstances. This hypothesis was tested in a field study involving a heterogeneous sample of 32 organizational teams performing complex, ill-defined tasks. Results showed more innovation and greater team effectiveness under high rather than low levels of minority dissent, but only when there was a high level of team reflexivity. Avenues for future research are discussed.     

The Performance of Pre‐Founding Entrepreneurial Teams: The Importance of Learning and Leadership

Entrepreneurial teams often struggle with simultaneous task and team challenges at an early stage of new venture creation. The way in which teams shape their teamwork is key in leveraging performance in the pre‐founding phase. Learning should help the team in establishing good teamwork and in expanding its members’ entrepreneurial capabilities. Leadership is needed to facilitate and guide this learning. Accordingly, we investigated learning and leadership as facilitators of performance in the pre‐founding phase. Specifically, we examined team reflexivity as a collective internal learning process and boundary spanning behaviour as an externally directed individual activity, operating at different levels in fostering team and individual performance. Charismatic team leadership was examined as a catalyst of learning, shaping team and individual performance ultimately. The multilevel mediation model was tested based on data from 196 members of 58 teams of a venture creation programme. Team reflexivity predicted team and individual performance. Boundary spanning behaviour was not related to performance. As hypothesised, charismatic team leadership predicted team and individual performance, both mediated by team reflexivity. This research highlights the relevance of team learning in pre‐founding teams and emphasises leadership in shaping learning and moving new ventures forward.     

PATTERNS OF INTERDEPENDENCE IN WORK TEAMS: A TWO-LEVEL INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONS WITH JOB AND TEAM SATISFACTION

A questionnaire study in 17 school and 24 engineering teams examined affective reactions to task and goal interdependence at the group and individual level of analysis. Group-level task interdependence was positively related to group members' job and team satisfaction. Within-group differences in the degree of task interdependence were unrelated to affective responses. Interactions revealed that within-group task interdependence is positively related to both job and team satisfaction only if the degree of goal interdependence in the work team is high.     

How and for Whom Time Control Matter for Innovation? The Role of Positive Affect and Problem-Solving Demands

Job resources are essential for higher performance. Focusing on innovation, we examine how and for whom the job resource of time control is related to the implementation of novel ideas in the workplace. Drawing on the job demands-resources model and affect-as-information theory, we propose that positive affect explains how the association of time control with innovation unfolds and how this psychological process depends on the extent to which employees work under problem-solving demands. Using a survey study, conducted with 198 employees from diverse organisations, we supported a mediation mechanism in which time control was positively associated with positive affect, which is turn was positively related to innovation. Furthermore, the strength of this mediation process depended on problem-solving demands, such that positive affect and innovation resulting from time control was stronger for those working in complex environments. These results corroborate and expand knowledge on the job demands-resources, affect and innovation literatures, showing that job resources matter for performance, particularly in conjunction with job complexity denoting challenging performance. Thus, organisations should be aware of opportunities to manage the degree of job control and complexity if they aim to foster employee innovation.     

Effects of guided reflexivity and team feedback on team performance improvement: The role of team regulatory processes and cognitive emergent states

The effectiveness of decision-making teams depends largely on the quality of information processing. Prior research has shown that guided team reflexivity and team feedback are important means of advancing team information processing and outcomes. However, the nature of the relationships, and how these relate to team regulatory processes, cognitive emergent states, and ultimately team performance, is currently poorly understood. Drawing on reflexivity and team information-processing theory, we proposed and found that teams that received guided team reflexivity or a combination of both guided reflexivity and feedback showed higher levels of actual reflection than teams that received neither a reflexivity intervention nor feedback. Conditional process analysis showed that the effects of team reflection on team performance improvement were mediated by a path from shared team mental models to shared task mental models and to adaptation. Finally, we also expected that team reflection would be lower in virtual teams than in face-to-face teams. These hypotheses were tested experimentally among 98 student teams that communicated either face-to-face or virtual (via chat) while completing a collective decision-making task. The information distribution among team members constituted a hidden profile. The results supported all our hypotheses, except for the one relating to virtuality.     

La recherche psychosociale sur le processus d’innovation individuelle et d’équipe: un bilan des connaissances

The enterprises’ competition depends on motivation and actions from individuals and work teams who answer to their job demands and task in every day. The management in the world stimulate the employees to be proactive and innovate for coping and manage the changes and market demands. It is important to analyse and understand the factors which are able to activate the process through with the individuals contribute to innovation in the work context, and understand how the process can develop in the organisation for produce generation and realisation of innovations. These last years, the research in individual and team innovation is advanced. This article presents a synthesis of certain antecedents of the innovation process at individual and team level. It suggests new avenues of research on the innovation behavior based on multilevel research.     

Flow Experience in Design Thinking and Practical Synergies with Lego Serious Play

The flow experience can be an important precursor to high levels of creativity and innovation. Prior work has identified and conceptualized the key elements of the flow experience in cocreative activities as individual flow corridor, individual flow feeling, and group flow. Surprisingly, the flow experience is underrepresented in theory and practice of design thinking. In this empirical study, the flow experience at the individual and group level was investigated in a 1-day design thinking exercise. The findings from partial least squares (PLS) modeling of 230 observations confirm previously untested conjectures that (a) the elements of individual and group flow experience were prevalent and highly correlated in the design thinking activities and (b) the nature of the design thinking task had an impact on the flow experience. Finally, results confirm that Lego Serious Play skills-building as a creative warm-up had a positive effect on 2 of the 3 flow experience elements: individual flow feeling and individual flow corridor.     

Stressors and Stressor Appraisals: the Moderating Effect of Task Efficacy

Employees’ cognitive appraisals play important roles in determining how they perceive and react to challenge and hindrance stressors. This study examined the stress process by studying employees’ cognitive appraisals using time-lagged data collected with a time interval of 4 months. There were three major findings. First, challenge appraisals mediated the relationship of job complexity with work motivation and task persistence. Hindrance appraisals mediated the relationship of role conflict with work motivation and task persistence. Second, task efficacy significantly moderated the relationship between job complexity and challenge appraisal, as well as the relationship between role conflict and hindrance appraisal. Employees high in task efficacy were more likely to report challenge appraisals of job complexity than employees low in task efficacy. Employees low in task efficacy were more likely to report hindrance appraisals of role conflict than employees high in task efficacy. Finally, data supported the moderated mediation model in which task efficacy moderated the indirect effect of job complexity on motivation via challenge appraisal. Our study provided important input to the development of stress management interventions.     

Testing relations between group cohesion and satisfaction in project teams: A cross-level and cross-lagged approach

Based on a two-dimensional perspective of group cohesion, this study examines the emergence of task cohesion and interpersonal cohesion in project teams and their roles in changes in members’ individual satisfaction with the team. Specifically, we tested a direct-effect and mediation model of the cross-level relationship between team task and interpersonal cohesion and individual satisfaction with the team over time. With a sample of 74 newly created project teams, the hypotheses were tested using a two-wave panel design. Results indicate that task cohesion emerges more strongly than interpersonal cohesion during the first stages of work in project teams. Moreover, the cross-lagged relationship between team interpersonal cohesion and individual satisfaction with the team was mediated by team task cohesion.     

A multi‐level mediation model of the relationships between team autonomy,individual task design and psychological well‐being

The past decade and a half witnessed a global trend towards the use of participatory team‐based interventions. In the present contribution, we address the widespread idea that the resulting increase in team autonomy fosters employee psychological well‐being. Specifically, we address the common but mostly implicit rationale for this widespread idea that the well‐being effect occurs because the increase in team autonomy is reflected in individual task design. We collected survey data from 733 members of 76 healthcare teams. The results of multi‐level mediation analyses were supportive of our theoretical framework. The higher the team autonomy, the more active learning behaviour and the less emotional exhaustion team members reported. These relationships were mediated by the individual job characteristics of autonomy, variety and demands. These results draw attention to individual task design in a team context.     

Antecedents of daily team job crafting

This study investigated potential antecedents of team job crafting defined as the extent to which team members engage together in increasing (social and structural) job resources and challenges, and decreasing hindering job demands. Mindful of the teamwork literature, we hypothesized that individual employee factors (self-efficacy for teamwork, daily affect), team features (team cohesion, climate) and the organizational context of teams (engaging leadership and organizational resources for teamwork) relate positively to daily team job crafting behaviour. Data were collected among 46 multi-professional rehabilitation teams whose members completed two daily surveys after their weekly meetings. Multilevel regression analyses showed that self-efficacy for teamwork and team members’ positive affect were positively associated with team job crafting behaviour at the individual (within-team) level. In addition, a team climate characterized by a clear vision of the teams’ targets, supportiveness and innovation and connecting leadership were positively related to daily team job crafting at both the within- and between-team levels of the data. Overall, the study offers novel insights into the antecedents of teams’ daily job crafting behaviours. For practice, the results suggest that actions and interventions conducive to positive team processes offer the most promising route to enhancing team job crafting behaviour.     

The role of self-guided training in the relationship between task conflict and innovation in virtual teams

This study was conducted to evaluate the moderating role of self-guided training in the relationship between task conflict and team innovation in synchronic computer-mediated communication (SCMC) teams. For this purpose, a laboratory study was carried out in which 26 teams were assigned to the training condition and 24 to the control condition. Results confirmed that SCMC teams develop a negative relationship between task conflict and innovation, but also revealed that self-guided training may slow these counterproductive effects down. Our study provides new evidence of the linear relationship between task conflict and team innovation in SCMC teams, extending previous research findings obtained in face-to-face teams to virtual context and suggest that self-guided training can be useful for virtual team innovation.     

Job demands, job resources and individual innovation at work: going beyond Karasek's model?

The job demands-control model is one of the most recognized models in occupational stress research. It has, however, provided contradictory results, and the active learning hypothesis derived from this model has been under-researched in comparison with research on the stress hypothesis. The main aim of this study is to test the Job Demands Resources Model in the prediction of individual innovation at work as an active coping strategy. Results with hierarchical multiple regression analyses provide empirical support for this model. We found a positive relationship between job demands and individual innovation in situations characterized by high job resources. Finally, we discuss the limitations and practical implications of this study.     

团队情绪氛围对团队创新绩效的影响机制

基于85个团队的团队领导和475名团队成员的配对数据, 考察了团队情绪氛围、情绪劳动及团队效能感对团队创新绩效的影响机制。结果发现：团队中有两种类型的情绪交换—— 团队情绪氛围是团队内部的情绪交换, 而情绪劳动是团队成员对外的情绪交换。高强度的情绪劳动(高外部情绪交换)具有情绪资源攫取的效果, 削弱了团队积极情绪氛围与团队创新绩效之间的关系; 当团队工作的情绪劳动程度较高时, 团队较低的积极情绪氛围对于团队创新反而有更强的促进作用。团队积极情绪氛围(团队内部的积极情绪交换)对于团队效能感有促进作用。团队情绪氛围与情绪劳动的交互作用以团队效能感为完全中介进而影响团队创新绩效。     

Self-efficacy and work-related performance: the integral role of individual differences

The present study estimated the unique contribution of self-efficacy to work-related performance controlling for personality (the Big 5 traits), intelligence or general mental ability, and job or task experience. Results, based on a meta-analysis of the relevant literatures, revealed that overall, across all studies and moderator conditions, the contribution of self-efficacy relative to purportedly more distal variables is relatively small. Within moderator categories, there were several cases in which self-efficacy made unique contributions to work-related performance. For example, self-efficacy predicted performance in jobs or tasks of low complexity but not those of medium or high complexity, and self-efficacy predicted performance for task but not job performance. Overall, results suggest that the predictive validity of self-efficacy is attenuated in the presence of individual differences, though this attenuation does depend on the context.