The Relative Contribution of Emotional Competence and Cognitive Ability to Individual and Team Performance

The relative contributions of emotional competence and cognitive ability to individual and team performance, team-member attitudes, and leadership perceptions were examined. Focusing on emotional competencies, we predicted that, although both cognitive ability and emotional competence would predict performance, cognitive ability would account for more variance on individual tasks, whereas emotional competence would account for more variance in team performance and attitudes. We also predicted that emotional competence would be positively related to team attitudes and to both leader emergence and effectiveness. Using a sample of undergraduate business majors who completed tasks alone and as members of teams, our results generally supported the hypotheses. Implications for the reach and impact of work relating emotional competencies to performance are offered.     

Self‐directed work groups and team competence

The study examines the impact of self‐directed group work on team competence. The sample consists of 83 production groups from 20 medium‐sized enterprises: 44 self‐directed work groups and 39 traditional work groups. Results based on process‐analytic behavioural data, collected at the group level of analysis, show that self‐directed teams are more competent than traditional work groups on seven out of 12 aspects of competence. Self‐directed teams show greater methodological competence, to some extent greater professional and self‐competence but no greater social competence when completing optimization tasks. In addition, the work characteristics participation, formal team communication, continuous improvement process, training and team‐oriented tasks were related to team competence in the subsample of self‐directed work teams.     

Harming high performers: a social comparison perspective on interpersonal harming in work teams

This study developed a multilevel model of the interpersonal harming behavior associated with social comparison processes in work teams. We tested this model using temporally lagged data from a sample of student teams (Study 1) and cross-sectional data from a sample of work teams in a telecommunication services company (Study 2). In both studies, social relations analyses revealed that in teams with less cooperative goals, comparison to a higher performing team member was positively associated with interpersonal harming behavior, but only when expectations of future performance similarity to that member were low. The interactive relationship of social comparison and expected future performance similarity with interpersonal harming was buffered, however, in teams with more cooperative goals.     

Are Pre-Assembly Shared Work Experiences Useful for Temporary-Team Assembly Decisions? A Study of Olympic Ice Hockey Team Composition

The purpose of this study was to investigate if pre-assembly shared work experiences among temporary team members facilitate individual and team performance. Archival data from the 2014 Men’s Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament (12 teams, 25 players each) was used in the study. Measures of social network centrality were computed based on the pre-assembly shared work experiences among national team members derived from professional and amateur affiliations. These measures were used to predict objective individual and team performance criteria. Players’ closeness centrality scores, from pre-assembly shared work experience networks, positively predicted their goals, assists, and being involved in more positive than negative plays. Teams with less centralized pre-assembly shared work experience network structures tended to perform better than teams with more centralized pre-assembly shared work experience network structures. Temporary teams are commonly used by organizations to perform tasks that are specific, important, and of short duration. Because temporary teams have little time to develop the shared properties required for effective team functioning, assembly decisions are of paramount importance. The results from this study suggest that centrality measures derived from pre-assembly shared work experiences are useful to consider when assembling temporary teams. Few studies have investigated the impact of pre-assembly shared work experiences on individual and team performance. Using objective data, this study provides evidence that pre-assembly shared work experiences relate to individual and team performance in temporary teams, supporting the need for expanded research in this area.     

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.     

The Effects of Team Context on Peer Ratings of Task and Citizenship Performance

Recent trends indicate that organizations will continue their strategic pursuit of teamwork for the foreseeable future, which will create a need for accurate assessments of individuals’ performance in teams. Although individual behaviors can be perceived and assessed by fellow team members (i.e., peers), the extent to which the team shapes perceivers’ judgments versus the target’s behavior is unclear. We conducted two studies to understand how and why team context influences peer ratings of individual performance. In study 1, we conducted cross-classified modeling on a sample of 7160 performance observations of 568 targets made by 567 perceivers, who were each members of four separate teams. Results indicated that team membership accounted for a substantially higher proportion of perceiver, relative to target, variance. In study 2, we conducted social relations modeling with a sample of 679 performance observations collected from 217 individuals nested in 46 teams to test the effects of psychological safety on perceiver, target, and team variance components. Perceptions of psychological safety accounted for proportionally larger perceiver, relative to target, variance in OCB, and task performance ratings. Altogether, team context appears to affect perceivers’ judgments of behavior more than the target’s behavior itself, implying that peer ratings sourced from different teams may not be comparable. We consider the implications for the collection and interpretation of peer performance ratings in teams and the potential implications for social cognitive theory, such that certain aspects of the team context, including psychological safety, may act as a cognitive heuristic by molding perceiver judgments of targets.

     

Analyzing Team Performance: In the Eye of the Beholder?

The effect of team-member experience was examined in relation to perceptions of importance of teamwork behaviors during an analysis of team performance. Impor- tance ratings were collected from military aircrews (i.e., two-member teams) from three distinct types of aircraft. Results indicated that when assessing team behavior importance, less experienced team members weighted difficulty of performing team behaviors more heavily, whereas more experienced team members weighted time spent performing team behaviors more heavily. Implications for analyzing team performance, with respect to the process of conducting such analyses and the type of information collected, are discussed.     

The ‘romance of teams’: Toward an understanding of its psychological underpinnings and implications

Although advocates of teamwork suggest that teams enhance performance, empirical evidence does not consistently, or robustly, support these claims. Still, a belief in the effectiveness of teams—among managers, employees, and the general lay population—seems very strong. What accounts for this ‘romance of teams’? In this paper, we offer a psychological answer to this question. We review evidence regarding the actual effectiveness of teams, in order to show that teams are not as effective as many believe them to be, and we argue that the romance of teams stems from the psychological benefits of group‐based activity. Specifically, we propose that team members experience both social‐emotional, and competence‐related, benefits, and we review an eclectic mix of research in support of this claim. We argue that these psychological benefits of teams lead people to assume that teams are ‘high performance’, thus, causing the romance of teams. Finally, we discuss potential implications of the romance for organizations, researchers, and employees.     

Cultural Intelligence and Language Competence: Synergistic Effects on Avoidance,Task Performance,and Voice Behaviors in Multicultural Teams

Avoidance of culturally diverse peers undermines the benefits of multicultural teams. Using uncertainty reduction theory, we argue that team members’ cultural intelligence (CQ; the capability to work effectively in culturally diverse settings) and language competence (the ability to communicate in a language) exert main and synergistic effects on avoidance behaviors. We further propose that avoidance negatively predicts individuals’ task performance (behaviors that contribute to team outcomes) and voice behaviors (giving suggestions to improve the status quo). Put together, we test a moderated mediation model where the mediating role of avoidance between CQ and outcomes of task performance and voice behaviors is moderated by language competence. Our results, based on data collected from multicultural team members at three time points, showed no main effects of CQ and language competence on avoidance. Instead, we found synergistic effects such that CQ was negatively related to avoidance only when language competence was high. Avoidance was negatively related to peer-rated task performance and voice behaviors. Conditional process analyses supported our moderated mediation hypothesis, suggesting that avoidance explains why people with higher CQ and higher language competence have higher task performance and voice behaviors.     

Person-supervisor fit,needs-supplies fit,and team fit as mediators of the relationship between dual-focused transformational leadership and well-being in scientific teams

Team-based work structures have become prevalent in science. Scientific teams, however, are characterized by competing individual-level and team-level needs (i.e., by mixed-motive situations). This makes leading scientific teams particularly challenging: Balancing competing individual-level goals and common team-level goals requires a specific type of leadership that simultaneously considers both satisfying individual-level needs as well as team-level needs. The current study addresses this issue by combining the dual-focused model of transformational leadership with person-environment fit theory. Specifically, we investigated needs-supplies fit, person-supervisor fit, and team fit as mediators of the relationship between transformational leadership and scientific team members’ job satisfaction and work-related strain. In doing so, we provide a new perspective on leadership in scientific teams by explicitly differentiating individual-level and team-level effects of transformational leadership. We tested our hypotheses using a three-wave design with a sample of 134 members of 42 scientific teams. The relationships between individual-focused transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and work-related strain were mediated by needs-supplies fit and person-supervisor fit. Team-focused transformational leadership was positively related to job satisfaction and negatively related to work-related strain. Our findings contribute to further clarifying the mechanisms underlying the relationship between transformational leadership and members’ well-being in scientific teams.     

Meeting the need or falling in line? The effect of laissez-faire formal leaders on informal leadership

We consider the utility of two contrasting theoretical perspectives in explaining how laissez-faire formal leaders and team member motivation to lead (MTL) influences informal leadership and team task performance. The first perspective, functional leadership theory, is the dominant lens used currently to understand informal leadership. However, we suggest that social learning theory offers a compelling alternative account. In a multiwave survey study of 344 members of 72 work teams, we find support for the social learning theory predictions that laissez-faire formal leaders are perceived by team members to engage in less modeling of effective leadership and as a result are negatively associated with informal leadership and team task performance. We do not find support for the functional leadership theory predictions that laissez-faire formal leaders are positively associated with team members’ informal leadership and team task performance, which would be due to an increased perceived need for leadership. The social learning effects are stronger for teams that are lower in member MTL and weaker for teams that are higher in member MTL. These results suggest social learning theory may be preferable to functional leadership theory for understanding informal leadership in teams.     

Helping Teams to Help Themselves: Comparing two Team‐Led Debriefing Methods

Team‐based structures have become more widely used in organizations. Therefore, it is important for team members to perform well in their current team and to build skills and enthusiasm for working on future teams. This study examined team debriefing, an intervention in which team members reflect on recent experiences to prepare for subsequent tasks. Prior researchers have shown that facilitated team debriefs work, but they have not examined how to enable teams to conduct their own debriefs or studied how debriefs affect individual level outcomes. Therefore, we compared 2 team‐led debriefing techniques: (a) an unguided debrief and (b) a guided debrief designed to incorporate lessons learned from prior debriefs. We collected data from 174 business students who were members of 35 teams from 9 sections of a Strategic Management course. Class sections were randomly assigned to one of the debriefing conditions, and teams completed 4 business cases over 10 weeks. A multilevel design was employed and a multistage model building approach was used to test the hypotheses using hierarchical linear modeling techniques. Results of this cluster randomized, quasi‐experimental design suggest that the team‐led guided debrief intervention resulted in superior team processes as compared to the unguided debriefing method. Team processes, in turn, related significantly to greater team performance and increased individual readiness for teamwork and enthusiasm for teaming. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Understanding The Curvilinear Relationships between LMX Differentiation and Team Coordination and Performance

The leader–member exchange (LMX) literature argues that leaders develop different quality dyadic relationships with members in the same team (i.e., LMX differentiation). Research has generally not found support for a linear (i.e., main effect) relationship between LMX differentiation and team performance; rather, moderators typically determine whether the relationship is significantly positive or negative. Examining linear effect moderators alone, however, does not account for (a) potential curvilinear (i.e., inverted U‐shaped) effects, (b) explanatory mechanisms of how LMX differentiation influences team performance, or (c) moderators of curvilinear effects. Integrating social identity theory with LMX differentiation research, we propose inverted U‐shaped relationships between LMX differentiation and both team coordination (as a mediator) and team performance (as an outcome), and we examine both team size and team power distance orientation as moderators. Using data from 928 employees in 145 teams in 3 organizations, we found an inverted U‐shaped relationship between LMX differentiation and team coordination, which, in turn, partially mediated LMX differentiation's inverted U‐shaped relationship with team performance. Larger teams, or those with higher team power distance orientation, benefit more from LMX differentiation. By integrating social identity theory with LMX differentiation research, we enhance the understanding of the processes by, and conditions under, which LMX differentiation affects team performance both positively and negatively.     

When mistakes affecting one’s own group result in compensation: Evidence of a compensatory own goal effect

ObjectivesAlthough sports team members often value their teams highly, they sometimes make mistakes and thereby unintentionally put their teams at a disadvantage. Thus, they should be motivated to compensate for their mistake to resolve this discrepancy. To test this hypothesis, we studied whether professional soccer players compensate for their own goals by scoring regular goals in the same game (Study 1) and possible processes underlying such compensation efforts (Study 2).DesignIn Study 1, we compared how frequently prior own goal scorers scored a regular goal in the same game to (a) their expected goal scoring frequencies and (b) their probabilities to score a regular goal following a regular goal by the opposing team. In Study 2, we investigated four possible processes underlying the expected compensatory efforts.MethodWe analyzed all own goals from the first fifty years of the German Bundesliga (N = 889) and possible ensuing regular goals by the own goal scorer. Moreover, we surveyed amateur soccer players about four motives: group performance, individual performance, individual public image, and group public image.ResultsFollowing their own goals, professional soccer players are particularly likely to score regular goals in the same game (i.e., a compensatory own goal effect). Presumably, they primarily do so to secure a good group performance, but the other motives also play a role.ConclusionsGroup members who make highly visible mistakes are motivated to compensate for the disadvantage they caused. Presumably, they mainly do so to secure a good team performance.     

团队学习行为对团队有效性的影响

团队逐渐成为现代企业最基本的工作单元,团队学习水平决定着整个组织学习和适应的能力水平。研究一在杭州的6家企业的多个工作团队中,抽取400名员工,以半结构访谈和问卷调查为研究手段,对团队学习行为的理论结构进行探索性分析和验证性分析;研究二在对30多家企业101个工作团队中500多名员工进行问卷调查,进一步检验团队学习行为对团队绩效的影响效果。研究结果表明,企业中团队成员的学习行为包括两类,即互动性团队学习行为和反思性团队学习行为;互动性团队学习行为对团队有效性具有较好的预测效果,反思性团队学习仅对团队成员满意感具有较好的预测效果,对团队任务绩效则没有预测效果。     

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.     

Substitutes for leadership in anaesthesia teams and their impact on leadership effectiveness

In this study we aim to increase our understanding of leadership in anaesthesia teams by investigating the relationship between substitutes for leadership, leadership behaviour, and team performance in situations with varying levels of routine and standardization. The present study relied on video recordings of 12 anaesthesia teams in a simulated setting with the occurrence of a nonroutine event. Clinical team performance was measured by the speed of adequate team reaction to this event. The leadership behaviours observed were coded either as content oriented (e.g., information transmission) or structuring (e.g., assigning tasks). Results showed that leadership behaviour changed depending upon the level of routine of a situation, the degree of standardization, and, to some extent, on the experience of team members. Leadership tends to be positively related to team performance during nonroutine and low standardized situations but negatively related to team performance in routine and highly standardized situations. Furthermore, leadership is only slightly related to team member experience. This study improves our understanding of influences of substitutes for leadership on successful leadership behaviour in anaesthesia teams. The findings also lead to suggestions for both further research and the enhancement of team leadership in critical care.     

不同任务情境中虚拟团队绩效过程模式

运用模拟实验,通过操纵任务类型和任务依存性,考察了不同任务情境中虚拟团队的各种绩效过程模式及其演化过程。研究发现：（1）三种绩效过程模式对团队任务绩效具有不同的作用,在整个过程中,团队成员都能够设置比较客观的目标;而方法模式只在第一和第三阶段表现出显著作用;信任模式在第一和第二阶段的显著作用,表现出后期受到学习效应的干扰。（2）在概念性任务中,任务依存性对团队任务绩效作用显著,而在行为性任务中,其作用不显著,而且,任务依存性对不同任务类型中的绩效过程模式具有不同的作用。     

Empowering Leadership and Effective Collaboration in Geographically Dispersed Teams

Our research integrates theoretical perspectives related to distributed leadership in geographically dispersed teams with empowering leadership theory to build a multilevel model of virtual collaboration and performance in dispersed teams. We test the model with procurement teams in a major multinational corporation. Our results show a significant cross‐level effect of empowering team leadership, such that under conditions of high empowering team leadership, a team member's virtual teamwork situational judgment (VT‐SJ) is positively and significantly associated with his or her virtual collaboration behaviors and also indirectly with his or her individual performance in the team. At the team level, our findings also suggest that the impact of empowering leadership on team members’ aggregate virtual collaboration, and indirectly on team performance, increases at higher levels of team dispersion. These findings shed important light on the role of team leadership in fostering effective collaboration and performance of geographically dispersed virtual teams.     

Short-term and long-term relationships between reflection and performance in teams: evidence from a four-wave longitudinal study

Previous theory and research suggest that team reflection is beneficial for team performance. We argue that results remain inconclusive because prior studies have not accounted for the dynamic nature of this relationship. This paper addresses this research gap by examining time-specific relationships among variables and the intra-team variability of changes across time. In a four-wave longitudinal field study with 97 teams (N = 453 team members) performing a business simulation task, short-term (i.e., autoregressive, cross-lagged effects) and long-term (i.e., latent trajectories) relationships between team reflection and performance were explored. We found evidence that reflection had negative autoregressive effects and that there were direct positive short-term relationships between reflection and performance. Reflection trajectories were seen to decline across time and performance trajectories to increase across time. In addition, teams with either low initial reflection or low initial performance showed higher increases in reflection across time, whilst higher increase in reflection was negatively related to change in performance. Findings are discussed with respect to how they extend the previous literature and what directions they suggest for future research.