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.     

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.     

Bullying and harassment at work and their relationships to work environment quality: An exploratory study

Team-based working has become a popular model of work organization. One of the expected yields of working in teams is collective learning. As team members work closely together they are likely to exchange information, which can enhance learning. One of the processes that may facilitate team learning is team conflict. In this study, 471 respondents, working in 84 teams in 38 organizations, indicated their perceptions of task conflict, relationship conflict, team learning, and their rating of the performance of the team. Task conflict was not related to team learning but was negatively related to the team members' rating of team performance. As was hypothesized, relationship conflict negatively affected team learning. Importantly, team learning was a strong predictor of the perceived team performance and partially mediated the relation between relationship conflict and performance.     

Harnessing members' positive mood for team-directed learning behaviour and team innovation: The moderating role of perceived team feedback

This study examines the role of individual team members' positive mood and perceived team feedback for their team-directed learning behaviour. Results obtained in a sample of 186 members from 27 work teams showed that positive mood was positively associated with team-directed learning behaviour if individual members perceived that the feedback they received was based on the performance of the team as a whole, but not if they perceived such team feedback to be lacking. Moreover, teams were found to be more innovative to the extent that their members, on average, engaged in team-directed learning behaviour to a greater extent. These results offer new insights into the micro-foundations of team learning. Our findings explicate why the contributions of individual members to their team's learning may differ and suggest that, if managed effectively, members' positive mood may be an important resource in facilitating team learning.     

团队作业与团队互动两类共享心智模型的发展特征

共享心智模型指团队成员关于团队作业、策略、团队情境、团队互动等的共同的知识结构,根据内容不同可以分为团队作业模型和团队互动模型两类。该研究通过实验室实验探讨两类共享心智模型的发展特征。132名大学生组成44个3人团队,随机分为团队绩效反馈组和无团队绩效反馈组。采用相似性评定法在团队执行作业前、中、后三次测量两类共享心智模型。结果发现：（1）共享心智模型随团队运作时间增加而发展;（2）团队互动模型形成和发展的难度高于团队作业模型;（3）团队绩效反馈对两类心智模型发展的作用不同,反馈加速了团队作业模型的发展速度,但却是团队互动模型能否得以发展的决定性因素。两类共享心智模型的不同发展特征应归因于两者特异性高低的不同     

Goal setting in teams: The impact of learning and performance goals on process and performance

This study examined the impact of three alternative types of goals (specific learning, general “do your best” learning, and specific performance) on team performance. Eighty-four-person teams engaged in an interdependent command and control simulation in which the team goal and task complexity were manipulated. Contrary to research at the individual level, teams with specific learning goals performed worse than did teams with general “do your best” learning goals or specific performance goals. The negative effects of specific learning goals relative to general “do your best” learning goals and specific performance goals were amplified under conditions of increased task complexity and were explained by the amount of coordination in the teams.     

Time for temporal team mental models: Expanding beyond “what” and “how” to incorporate “when”

Although often ignored, establishing and maintaining congruence in team members’ temporal perceptions are consequential tasks that deserve research attention. Integrating research on team cognition and temporality, this study operationalized the notion of a temporal team mental model (TMM) at two points in time using two measurement methods. Ninety eight three-person teams participated in a computerized team simulation designed to mimic emergency crisis management situations in a distributed team environment. The results showed that temporal TMMs measured via concept maps and pairwise ratings each positively contributed uniquely to team performance beyond traditionally measured taskwork and teamwork content domains. In addition, temporal TMMs assessed later in teams’ development exerted stronger effects on team performance than those assessed earlier. The results provide support for the continued examination of temporal TMM similarity in future research.     

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.     

Relationships among team ability composition, team mental models, and team performance

This study examined the relationship between the similarity and accuracy of team mental models and compared the extent to which each predicted team performance. The relationship between team ability composition and team mental models was also investigated. Eighty-three dyadic teams worked on a complex skill task in a 2-week training protocol. Results indicated that although similarity and accuracy of team mental models were significantly related, accuracy was a stronger predictor of team performance. In addition, team ability was more strongly related to the accuracy than to the similarity of team mental models and accuracy partially mediated the relationship between team ability and team performance, but similarity did not.     

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.     

Effective coordination in medical emergency teams: The moderating role of task type

Coordination in health care action teams is an important factor in clinical performance and patient safety. Implementing a high-fidelity in situ simulation study, we investigated the performance-relevant effects of task distribution, provide information without request (PIWR) and closed-loop communication (CLC) in 68 medical emergency teams (METs) composed of fully qualified clinicians. We differentiated between two task types: algorithm-driven and knowledge-driven tasks. We assigned two different emergency tasks to each task type. We proposed not only a direct relationship between the three coordination behaviours and clinical performance, but also a moderating role for the type of task. Only CLC was related to performance and also moderated by task type. There was no relationship between the coordination behaviours task distribution and PIWR and performance. We discuss the differential effects of the three coordination behaviours on performance and emphasize the importance of the task in team research. In particular, we highlight theoretical and practical implications.     

Team Mental Models,Team Goal Orientations,and Information Elaboration,Predicting Team Creative Performance

This study aimed to enhance understanding of team creativity by investigating the type of team mental models that team members develop during their work on a creative problem solving task. We hypothesized that teams that develop dissimilar team mental models, compared to similar and complementary team mental models, will achieve a higher information elaboration. This effect will be moderated by the development of a high learning-performance team goal orientation. Information elaboration in turn was hypothesized to predict team creative performance. In a 3 (similar/dissimilar/complementary team mental models) × 3 (learning/performance/learning-performance goal orientation) experimental study on a sample of 33 teams (N = 98) we found that teams that developed more dissimilar team mental models and experienced a learning-performance goal orientation intervention engaged in more information elaboration. Information elaboration, in turn, mediated the relationship between the interaction between team mental models and team goal orientations and team creative performance. Implications for research on team mental models and team creativity 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.     

Interactions of team mental models and monitoring behaviors predict team performance in simulated anesthesia inductions

In the present study, we investigated how two team mental model properties (similarity vs. accuracy) and two forms of monitoring behavior (team vs. systems) interacted to predict team performance in anesthesia. In particular, we were interested in whether the relationship between monitoring behavior and team performance was moderated by team mental model properties. Thirty-one two-person teams consisting of anesthesia resident and anesthesia nurse were videotaped during a simulated anesthesia induction of general anesthesia. Team mental models were assessed with a newly developed measurement tool based on the concept-mapping technique. Monitoring behavior was coded by two organizational psychologists using a structured observation system. Team performance was rated by two expert anesthetists using a performance-checklist. Moderated multiple regression analysis revealed that team mental model similarity moderated the relationship between team monitoring and performance; a higher level of team monitoring in the absence of a similar team mental model had a negative effect on performance. Furthermore, team mental model similarity and accuracy interacted to predict team performance. Our findings provide new insights on factors influencing the relationship between team processes and team performance in health care. When investigating the effectiveness of a specific team coordination behavior, team cognition has to be taken into account. This represents a necessary and compelling extension of the popular process-outcome relationship on which previous teamwork research in health care has focused. Moreover, the current study adds further external validity to the concept of team mental models by highlighting its usefulness in health care.     

The Effect of Team Mental Models Divergence on Creative Performance During Situational Changes

This study developed a model of team mental models’ influence on team adaptive performance at different stages. It proposed that mental models have different relationships with adaptive performance as a function of the performance stage when teams experience changes: early on (i.e., during situation assessment) more divergent mental models are needed for performance; later on (i.e., during plan execution) more convergent mental models are needed. The model was tested in an experiment with 33 teams (N= 99) faced with unforeseen change at task midway. Partially supporting the predictions of a divergence-convergence model, at situation assessment, teams that developed more dissimilar mental models attained a higher performance originality, but not higher efficiency or usefulness. However, at plan execution, team mental models’ convergence did not lead to higher performance. Implications for research on team mental models are discussed.     

Managing information overload in virtual teams: Effects of a structured online team adaptation on cognition and performance

Information overload (IO) indicates the exchange of too much low-quality information in virtual teams. When being overloaded with information, teams need to adapt and to change communication behaviour. This study introduces and tests a structured online team adaptation (STROTA) procedure that enables virtual teams to reduce IO by improving their team mental model quality. STROTA, built from team adaptation models, is a moderated intervention consisting of three stages: (1) individual situation awareness, (2) team situation awareness, and (3) plan formulation. STROTA was tested in the context of an experimental problem-solving task. Participants (N = 363) worked in virtual teams of three and were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: no STROTA, incomplete STROTA (step 1, steps 1–2), and complete STROTA (steps 1–2–3). We found teams that followed a complete STROTA procedure experienced lessened IO over time. Teams with complete STROTA showed the largest development of TMM immediately after STROTA. Finally, multilevel mediation analyses showed that TMM are mediators that explain the influence of STROTA on IO.     

The effects of situational goal orientation and cultural learning values on team performance and adaptation to change

In this paper, we examine the unique effects of situational goal orientation and cultural learning values on team adaptation to change and the moderating role of cultural learning values in the relationship between goal orientation and team performance and adaptation. To do this, we conducted an experiment using a 2 × 2 × 2 repeated-measures factorial design, consisting of high and low levels of learning values, situational goal orientation (i.e., learning goals and performance goals). The experimental task involved two phases: we looked at team performance in Phase 1 and team adaptation to change in Phase 2. Forty 3-person teams were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions and all teams engaged in a complex bridge-planning task. Performance was measured in terms of the quality of the planned bridge. Results showed independent effects of situational goal orientation and cultural learning values on team performance and adaptation to change. Cultural learning values also moderated the relationship between goal orientation and performance and adaptation to change. Finally, the combination of learning goals and high learning values resulted in the highest levels of initial team performance (Phase 1) and adaptation to change and improved performance (Phase 2), as compared to all other examined conditions.     

Processes and outcomes of team learning

The objective of this study was to make a contribution to the question how team learning can be studied. A model of the constituting activities of the team learning process was articulated, and it was explored whether the learning activities relate to learning outcomes. The sample consists of 29 teams of business students who were assigned to fulfill an assignment for a company. We asked them to fill out a questionnaire at the start and at the end of this project. The teams' performance was rated. The relationships between the learning activities reported, the diversity in attitude towards the task, the amount of team learning, and the team's performance were explored. The propositions were partly supported by the data. Central conclusions are that a higher diversity in attitude towards the task is related to a higher experienced amount of learning and that in projects of short duration it is especially storing and retrieving that leads to higher team performance.     

虚拟团队学习效能研究:社会认知因素的影响

本研究采用现场研究的方法,对21个虚拟团队学习的效能进行了实证研究。研究对社会认知因素中的效能感和目标取向对虚拟团队学习效能(技能改变、工作任务和团队健康水平)的影响进行了研究,并探讨了对虚拟团队的态度在中间所起的作用。研究发现,虚拟团队效能感和学习取向对虚拟团队的学习效能产生作用,而对虚拟团队学习的态度、团队信任对虚拟团队学习的效能起着中介或直接的作用。     

Dissociable behavioural outcomes of visual statistical learning

ABSTRACT

Statistical learning refers to the extraction of probabilistic relationships between stimuli and is increasingly used as a method to understand learning processes. However, numerous cognitive processes are sensitive to the statistical relationships between stimuli and any one measure of learning may conflate these processes; to date little research has focused on differentiating these processes. To understand how multiple processes underlie statistical learning, here we compared, within the same study, operational measures of learning from different tasks that may be differentially sensitive to these processes. In Experiment 1, participants were visually exposed to temporal regularities embedded in a stream of shapes. Their task was to periodically detect whether a shape, whose contrast was staircased to a threshold level, was present or absent. Afterwards, they completed a search task, where statistically predictable shapes were found more quickly. We used the search task to label shape pairs as “learned” or “non-learned”, and then used these labels to analyse the detection task. We found a dissociation between learning on the search task and the detection task where only non-learned pairs showed learning effects in the detection task. This finding was replicated in further experiments with recognition memory (Experiment 2) and associative learning tasks (Experiment 3). Taken together, these findings are consistent with the view that statistical learning may comprise a family of processes that can produce dissociable effects on different aspects of behaviour.