Assessing team performance: Moderating roles of transactive memory,hypercompetition, and emotional regulation

This study proposes a model based on transactive memory theory to analyze team performance. In the proposed model, team performance is influenced by hypercompetition and emotional regulation directly and indirectly via the mediation of transactive memory and knowledge sharing. According to the model, the direct effect of knowledge sharing on team performance is moderated by both hypercompetition and emotional regulation. Empirical testing of this model, using team personnel in banking, insurance, and financing firms, confirmed the applicability of the transactive memory theory among these service firms’ work teams. Managerial implications and research limitations are discussed.     

First,get your feet wet: The effects of learning from direct and indirect experience on team creativity

How does prior experience influence team creativity? We address this question by examining the effects of task experience acquired directly and task experience acquired vicariously from others on team creativity in a product-development task. Across three laboratory studies, we find that direct task experience leads to higher levels of team creativity and more divergent products than indirect task experience. Moreover, our results show that the difference in team creativity between direct and indirect task experience persists over time. Finally, our findings demonstrate that transactive memory systems fully mediate the effect of direct task experience on team creativity. Teams who acquired task experience directly are more creative because they develop better transactive memory systems than teams who acquired experience vicariously. We discuss how our findings contribute to understanding the effects of prior experience on team creativity, and the role of transactive memory systems in creative tasks.     

The Benefits of Stepping Into Others' Shoes: Perspective Taking Strengthens Transactive Memory

Perspective taking is an important requirement for effective communication. Teams working on knowledge-intensive tasks should benefit particularly. In a laboratory study, we examined whether perspective taking (vs. egocentrism) facilitated transactive memory when team members' knowledge was either different or similar. Perspective taking led teams to form more accurate transactive memory and agree more regarding each other's knowledge assessments. Corresponding effects were found when knowledge was similar. However, no interaction emerged. Our study shows that perspective taking is a cognitive state that can be induced with a short intervention and that can positively influence team-level outcomes such as transactive memory.     

团队断裂带对团队绩效的影响：团队交互记忆系统的作用

对团队构成与团队绩效关系的认识有助于充分利用团队结构优势、提高团队效能、建立竞争优势。理论界对团队断裂带与团队绩效的关系给予了极大关注, 然而遗憾的是, 研究结果还存在较大分歧。通过明确团队断裂带的属性类别, 探索团队断裂带与团队绩效之间的中介机制, 试图系统解释分歧产生的原因。基于115个实际工作团队配对样本数据的结构方程模型分析表明, 信息相关断裂带通过提高团队交互记忆系统水平促进团队绩效; 社会属性断裂带与团队交互记忆系统或团队绩效都无显著关系。本研究结果有助于深化对团队断裂带内涵及效能机制的认识, 推动团队断裂带理论的发展。     

Transactive memory system links work team characteristics and performance

Teamwork and coordination of expertise among team members with different backgrounds are increasingly recognized as important for team effectiveness. Recently, researchers have examined how team members rely on transactive memory system (TMS; D. M. Wegner, 1987) to share their distributed knowledge and expertise. To establish the ecological validity and generality of TMS research findings, this study sampled 104 work teams from a variety of organizational settings in China and examined the relationships between team characteristics, TMS, and team performance. The results suggest that task interdependence, cooperative goal interdependence, and support for innovation are positively related to work teams' TMS and that TMS is related to team performance; moreover, structural equation analysis indicates that TMS mediates the team characteristics-performance links. Findings have implications both for team leaders to manage their work teams effectively and for team members to improve their team performance.     

Phase-specific relationships between team learning processes and transactive memory development

With this study we seek to contribute to the research on the emergence of transactive memory, that is, the knowledge of “who knows what”, as part of the structural component of transactive memory systems (TMSs). Based on our theoretical model of team learning and transactive memory development, we analyse the relationships among different team learning behaviours and transactive memory during various phases of team development. We use a longitudinal design with three points of measurement at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of a semester, to examine real student project teams over their full life cycle. The results support our presumptions of phase-specific influences of team learning behaviours on transactive memory development. This shows that knowledge-based processes (storage and retrieval) play a more important role during early stages of project-based teamwork, followed by a shift to a higher relevance of communication-based processes (reflection and co-construction) in later stages. Implications for further research and team management phenomena are discussed.     

Transactive memory in organizational groups: the effects of content, consensus, specialization, and accuracy on group performance

Previous research on transactive memory has found a positive relationship between transactive memory system development and group performance in single project laboratory and ad hoc groups. Closely related research on shared mental models and expertise recognition supports these findings. In this study, the author examined the relationship between transactive memory systems and performance in mature, continuing groups. A group's transactive memory system, measured as a combination of knowledge stock, knowledge specialization, transactive memory consensus, and transactive memory accuracy, is positively related to group goal performance, external group evaluations, and internal group evaluations. The positive relationship with group performance was found to hold for both task and external relationship transactive memory systems.     

Differential challenge stressor-hindrance stressor relationships with job attitudes, turnover intentions, turnover, and withdrawal behavior: a meta-analysis

In this article, a 2-dimensional work stressor framework is used to explain inconsistencies in past research with respect to stressor relationships with retention-related criteria. Results of meta-analyses of 183 independent samples indicated that whereas hindrance stressors had dysfunctional relationships with these criteria (negative relationships with job satisfaction and organizational commitment and positive relationships with turnover intentions, turnover, and withdrawal behavior), relationships with challenge stressors were generally the opposite (positive relationships with job satisfaction and organizational commitment and negative relationships with turnover intentions and turnover). Results also suggested that the differential relationships between challenge stressors and hindrance stressors and the more distal criteria (withdrawal behavior and turnover) were due, in part, to the mediating effects of job attitudes.     

What Differentiates Employees' Job Performance Under Stressful Situations: The Role of General Self-Efficacy

The aim of this research is to verify the two-dimensional challenge–hindrance stressor framework in the Chinese context, and investigate the moderating effect of general self-efficacy in the stress process. Data were collected from 164 Chinese employee–supervisor dyads. The results demonstrated that challenge stressors were positively related to job performance while hindrance stressors were negatively related to job performance. Furthermore, general self-efficacy strengthened the positive relationship between challenge stressors and job performance, whereas the attenuating effect of general self-efficacy on the negative relationship between hindrance stressors and job performance was nonsignificant. These findings qualify the two-dimensional challenge–hindrance stressor framework, and support the notion that employees with high self-efficacy benefit more from the positive effect of challenge stressors in the workplace. By investigating the role of an individual difference variable in the challenge–hindrance stressor framework, this research provides a more accurate picture of the nature of job stress, and enhances our understanding of the job stressor–job performance relationship.     

Transactive memory in decision-making teams: implications for team effectiveness

The transactive memory system (TMS) construct is one of the most extended theoretical approaches to understand the role of cognitive processes at group level in the effectiveness of work teams. This study examined the relationships among TMS, performance, satisfaction and functional communication in decision-making teams. 40 four-person teams were asked to suppose they were expert consulting teams advising a fictitious organization on how to solve a problem with their employees. Results showed a mediating effect of TMS on the relationships between functional communication, perceived team performance and satisfaction. Contrary to our expectations, TMSs were not related to performance as evaluated by external raters. These findings suggest the importance of team communication in the formation of TMSs, as well as their implications for the effectiveness of decision-making teams.     

Benefits of team participative decision making and its potential to affect individual creativity

How does team participative decision‐making affect individual creative performance? Building on team climate theory (Anderson & West, 1998; West 1990, 2002; West & Sacramento, 2012), this study investigates the indirect effect of team participative decision making on employee creativity through individual perception of cognition team diversity and psychological safety. Results from 256 supervisor–subordinate dyads in 45 teams show that team participative decision making is positively associated with cognitive team diversity and psychological safety. For the mediating effects, team participative decision‐making climate is positively indirectly related to creative performance via psychological safety but not via cognitive team diversity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The role of decision influence and team performance in member self-efficacy, withdrawal, satisfaction with the leader, and willingness to return

This study examines team performance as a moderator of the relationship between decision influence and outcomes relevant to team effectiveness in hierarchical teams with distributed ex pertise. In this type of team staff members have unique roles and make recommendations to the team leader, who ultimately makes the team's final decisions. It is suggested that the positive rela tionship between decision influence and favorable outcomes (e.g., satisfaction) consistently described in the literature is dependent on team performance in this type of team. Specifically, team effec tiveness outcomes are proposed to be consistently more favorable in higher performing than in lower performing teams. Decision influence is proposed to relate positively to member satisfaction with the leader, willingness to return, and self-efficacy and to relate negatively to withdrawal in higher performing teams. The opposite pattern of relationships is expected in lower performing teams. A laboratory study was conducted with 228 undergradu ates performing a computer task as subordinates in 76 four-person teams with a confederate leader. The results generally support the hypotheses and illustrate a dilemma for leaders attempting to manage team effectiveness.     

Relations entre réflexivité d’équipe,mémoire transactive et efficacité interventionnelle perçue chez les policiers-opérateurs du RAID

The objective of this study is to examine the influence of explicit (team reflexivity) and implicit (transactive memory) coordination processes on the perceived interventional effectiveness of specialized elite units (RAID) of the French national police. We test the hypothesis that transactive memory is a mediating process in the relationship between team reflexivity and perceived effectiveness. One hundred and three police-officers representing the seven French police special units replied to a questionnaire. The results show that perceived effectiveness is positively related to task reflexivity and transactive memory. The relationship between task reflexivity and perceived effectiveness is mediated by the integrated component of transactive memory (bootSE = 0.05, 95% BCa CI [0.004, 0.19]). The theoretical and practical implications are discussed with regard to the development of debriefing methods and teamwork training for the development of shared mental models.     

Personality in teams: Its relationship to social cohesion,task cohesion,and team performance

This study continued past research on the relationship between personality composition in teams and social cohesion and team performance (Barrick, Stewart, Neubert, & Mount, 1998). Results from the Barrick et al. sample (N = 50) were compared with data from two new samples, one comprising drilling teams in the US (N = 24), and the other comprising student teams in The Netherlands (N = 25). Furthermore, this study examined the relationship between personality composition and task cohesion, usually considered to be a stronger predictor of team performance than social cohesion. Results partly confirmed the relationships between personality composition, cohesion, and team performance that were found previously. Minimum levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness contributed positively to both task cohesion and team performance. High mean levels of extraversion and emotional stability contributed positively to social cohesion. Some results differed across the three samples, stressing the importance of task characteristics as a factor influencing relationships between team personality, team processes, and team performance. Although significant relationships were found between social cohesion, task cohesion, and performance, cohesion measures did not mediate relationships between personality composition and team performance.     

Reaping the benefits of task conflict in teams: the critical role of team psychological safety climate

Past research suggests that task conflict may improve team performance under certain conditions; however, we know little about these specific conditions. On the basis of prior theory and research on conflict in teams, we argue that a climate of psychological safety is one specific context under which task conflict will improve team performance. Using evidence from 117 project teams, the present research found that psychological safety climate moderates the relationship between task conflict and performance. Specifically, task conflict and team performance were positively associated under conditions of high psychological safety. The results support the conclusion that psychological safety facilitates the performance benefits of task conflict in teams. Theoretical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Learning outcomes in leadership teams: The multilevel dynamics of mastery goal orientation,team psychological safety,and team potency

A sample of 166 individual participants in 47 school leadership teams was used to investigate the multilevel relationships between individual learning outcomes and two dimensions of individual mastery achievement goal orientation—mastery approach goals (MAP), and an emotionally modified measure of mastery avoidance goals (MAV)—and two group-level emergent beliefs, namely, team potency and team psychological safety. All variables were independently positively related to individual learning; however, team potency had no incremental effect above team psychological safety. MAP and team potency interacted negatively on individual learning, indicating that the emergence of high potency in teams may compensate for low average level of MAP in teams. When running the complete research model, MAV and team psychological safety remained positively related to individual learning, in contrast to team potency and MAP. The implications of the findings for leadership teams are discussed.     

The interactive effects of person-focused citizenship behaviour,task interdependence,and virtuality on team performance

A multifactorial between-groups experiment examined the effects of person-focused organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBP) on the performance of teams characterized by different levels of virtuality and task interdependence. Results reveal in low virtual teams the moderating effects of task interdependence on the OCBP–team performance relationship are positive; however, these effects are reversed in high virtual teams. Using social presence and task–technology fit theories, our results indicate that task context affects how OCBP impacts team performance, particularly across different levels of team virtuality. The implications for research on OCB and the management of virtual teams are discussed.     

交互记忆系统研究回顾与展望

交互记忆系统是团队成员之间形成的一种彼此依赖的,用以编码、储存和提取不同领域知识的合作分工系统。其研究有助于发现高效工作团队如何处理解决问题所需要的信息,解释团队成员怎样通过发挥各自的专长去解决团队面临的问题。它是解释团队知识处理过程的一个机制。相关研究已有近20年的历史。文章从交互记忆系统的形成和维护、测量、影响因素及其对团队有效性的作用等几个方面对已有研究进行回顾,并指出其对管理研究和管理实践的借鉴意义及未来可能的研究方向     

团队学习、交互记忆系统与团队绩效：基于IMOI范式的纵向追踪研究

本研究采用纵向追踪设计,以55支实际运行的项目团队作为研究对象,分析检验了交互记忆系统对于团队学习与团队绩效之间关系的作用机制; 并基于理论界近期受到广泛关注的IMOI研究范式,通过两阶段的追踪探索团队学习与团队绩效间关系的动态机制。结果表明: 交互记忆系统对团队学习与团队绩效间关系呈现出显著的中介效应,能够为团队学习的绩效机制提供良好的理论解释力;另一方面,团队学习是一种动态演进的组织行为过程,采用IMOI范式来替代传统的I-P-O模型能够更好地剖析其动态属性。     

The power of "we": effects of psychological collectivism on team performance over time

We examined the influences of different facets of psychological collectivism (Preference, Reliance, Concern, Norm Acceptance, and Goal Priority) on team functioning at 3 different performance depictions: initial team performance, end-state team performance, and team performance change over time. We also tested the extent to which team-member exchange moderated the relationships between facets of psychological collectivism and performance change over time. Results from multilevel growth modeling of 66 teams (N = 264) engaged in a business simulation revealed differential effects across facets of psychological collectivism and across different performance measurements. Whereas facets concerned with affiliation (Preference and Concern) were positively related to initial team performance, reliance was negatively related to initial team performance. Goal Priority was a strong predictor of end-state performance. Team-member exchange moderated the relationship between performance change and 3 of the 5 facets of psychological collectivism (Preference, Reliance, Norm Acceptance). Implications for team composition and team training are discussed.