Building team adaptive capacity: the roles of sensegiving and team composition

The current study draws on motivated information processing in groups theory to propose that leadership functions and composition characteristics provide teams with the epistemic and social motivation needed for collective information processing and strategy adaptation. Three-person teams performed a city management decision-making simulation (N=74 teams; 222 individuals). Teams first managed a simulated city that was newly formed and required growth strategies and were then abruptly switched to a second simulated city that was established and required revitalization strategies. Consistent with hypotheses, external sensegiving and team composition enabled distinct aspects of collective information processing. Sensegiving prompted the emergence of team strategy mental models (i.e., cognitive information processing); psychological collectivism facilitated information sharing (i.e., behavioral information processing); and cognitive ability provided the capacity for both the cognitive and behavioral aspects of collective information processing. In turn, team mental models and information sharing enabled reactive strategy adaptation.     

The roles of leader emotion management and team conflict for team members' personal initiative: A multilevel perspective

Employees' personal initiative (i.e., their active and future-oriented engagement at work) is of high relevance to organizations that strive for innovation and competitiveness. To better understand its drivers and diminishers, the present study refers to Affective Events Theory and examines the impact of leader emotion management, team conflict, and affective well-being on personal initiative. Data from 300 members of 59 work teams in Germany were gathered from multiple sources at three points in time over the course of 2 weeks. Multilevel analyses indicated that leader emotion management positively affected team members' personal initiative and that this effect was mediated by team members' affective well-being. Data also revealed a contrasting negative indirect effect of task conflict within the team on team members' personal initiative via team members' affective well-being. The study's results suggest that the improvement of leaders' emotion management as well as the establishment of work conditions and experiences that foster affective well-being should be seriously considered by organizations wishing to facilitate personal initiative in team settings.     

The team role test: development and validation of a team role knowledge situational judgment test

The main objectives in this research were to introduce the concept of team role knowledge and to investigate its potential usefulness for team member selection. In Study 1, the authors developed a situational judgment test, called the Team Role Test, to measure knowledge of 10 roles relevant to the team context. The criterion-related validity of this measure was examined in 2 additional studies. In a sample of academic project teams (N = 93), team role knowledge predicted team member role performance (r = .34). Role knowledge also provided incremental validity beyond mental ability and the Big Five personality factors in the prediction of role performance. The results of Study 2 revealed that the predictive validity of role knowledge generalizes to team members in a work setting (N = 82, r = .30). The implications of the results for selection in team environments are discussed.     

Revised Space Fortress: A validation study

We describe briefly the redevelopment of Space Fortress (SF), a research tool widely used to study training of complex tasks involving both cognitive and motor skills, to be executed on currentgeneration systems with significantly extended capabilities, and then compare the performance of human participants on an original PC version of Space Fortress (SF) with the revised Space Fortress (RSF). Participants trained on SF or RSF for 10 sets of eight 3-min practice trials and two 3-min test trials. They then took tests involving retention, resistance to secondary task interference, and transfer to a different control system. They then switched from SF to RSF or from RSF to SF for 2 sets of final tests and completed rating scales comparing RSF and SF. Slight differences were predicted on the basis of a scoring error in the original version of SF used and on slightly more precise joystick control in RSF. The predictions were supported. The SF group started better but did worse when they transferred to RSF. Despite the disadvantage of having to be cautious in generalizing from RSF to SF, we conclude that RSF has many advantages, which include accommodating new PC hardware and new training techniques. A monograph that presents the methodology used in creating RSF, details on its performance and validation, and directions on how to download free copies of the system may be downloaded from www .psychonomic.org/archive/.     

A validation study of goal orientations and self-efficacy scales

The aim of the current study was to investigate the validity and reliability of goal orientation and self-efficacy scales. The scales were administered to 264 university students (154 from engineering departments, 110 from business administration). Two samples were used. In the first sample, the original factor model was tested with confirmatory factor analysis. In the second sample, the Turkish versions of the scales were factor analyzed. Principal components analysis resulted in three components for the Goal Orientation scale: Learning goal orientation, Performance-prove goal orientation, and Performance-avoid goal orientation. The Self-efficacy scale had one factor as expected. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were satisfactory. The results did not fully support the use of current Turkish versions of the scales. Results of the studies are discussed along with the strengths and limitations of the study and suggestions for further development of the scales.     

Automated analysis of the WISC-R: A validation study

This study evaluated and automated analysis system for the WISC-R Reports generated by psychological examiners and by a comoputer program were rated by a random sample of National Association of School Psychologists menbers using a rating scale developed for this study. The results indicated significantly higher ratings for the automated analysis on an overall item and on items addressing Verbal-Performance discrepancies, relative weaknesses, and relative lack of irresponsible interpretation. These results support cautious use of the automated reports and validation in current practice.     

Effects of team and organizational commitment – A longitudinal study

Retention management, i.e., keeping qualified employees, is a top priority for contemporary organizations. Commitment, and especially team commitment, can be the key to mastering this challenge. There is a lack of longitudinal research concerning the development and the direction of the effects of team commitment over time. In a longitudinal field-study design with three points of measurement, a total of 360 employees in 52 semi-autonomous industrial teams were surveyed over a period of three years. On the one hand, organizational commitment showed stronger effects on organization-related criteria (job satisfaction and intention to leave). These effects were consistent over the three points of measurement. Team commitment, on the other hand, affected team-related criteria (team performance and altruism). Longitudinal analyses confirmed the effects of organizational commitment on job satisfaction and intention to leave, and of team commitment on team performance and altruism. Moreover, these effects increased over time. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

团队权力分布差异对团队冲突的影响：程序公平和合法性的作用

近年来团队权力分布差异与团队冲突间关系受到了学界较大关注, 但相关研究结果仍存在分歧。通过对70个工作团队的调查, 探讨了团队权力分布差异对团队冲突(任务冲突、关系冲突)作用的边界条件。结果发现, 程序公平调节了两者间关系：当程序公平较高时, 团队权力分布差异与任务冲突、关系冲突负相关; 当程序公平较低时, 团队权力分布差异与任务冲突、关系冲突正相关。此外, 被中介的调节模型分析显示, 团队合法性感知中介了程序公平的上述调节作用。     

The Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces: A validation study

Although affective facial pictures are widely used in emotion research, standardised affective stimuli sets are rather scarce, and the existing sets have several limitations. We therefore conducted a validation study of 490 pictures of human facial expressions from the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces database (KDEF). Pictures were evaluated on emotional content and were rated on an intensity and arousal scale. Results indicate that the database contains a valid set of affective facial pictures. Hit rates, intensity, and arousal of the 20 best KDEF pictures for each basic emotion are provided in an appendix.     

The family of origin scale: A construct validation study

Data from 69 women and 63 men along with ratings from a panel of expert judges were used to assess the construct validity of the Family Of Origin Scale as a measure of family health. Loevinger's conception of construct validity, focusing on the substantive, structural, and external components of validity, was employed to organize the research procedures followed and the data analytic techniques used. Results showed that the instrument appears to be a useful measure of a warmth-coldness affect dimension in the family of origin, but the multi-dimensional structure of the test, as a measure of family-of-origin health, could not be validated. Suggestions for use, score interpretation, and further development are discussed.     

Spatial memory in rats: A cross validation study

Two experiments were performed to investigate whether two measures of spatial memory, working memory (WM) and reference memory (RM), can be generalized over learning situations. In the first experiment, outbred WU rats were used; in the second four inbred strains. In both experiments rats were given 50 training trials in both a holeboard and a high-sided radial maze: 4 out of 16 holes and 4 out of 8 arms were baited. The number of WM (revisits to baited holes/arms) and RM (visits and revisits to never baited holes/arms) errors were calculated for 5 blocks of 10 trials; odd-even reliabilities were determined for the last 20 trials and were shown to be satisfactory for both measures in both types of apparatus. Error-decrements were analyzed by trend components. For both WM and RM, simple and canonical correlations were determined between means and significant trends in maze and holeboard as a test for construct validity; in both experiments r's and R_c's were very low. It was concluded that the concepts WM and RM are not validly generalizable over tests.     

A construct validation study of the Human Figure Drawing Test

To assess whether the Human Figure Drawing Test provides an assessment of nonverbal cognitive maturity, correlations for 31 youngsters who ranged in age from 6-0 to 10-10 on the Human Figure Drawing Test and the Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQs of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Revised (WISC--R) were examined. Significant correlations were observed for each of the scales, but the value of .69 for drawings and WISC--R Performance IQs was significant, suggesting the assessment that these tests are largely nonverbal. Implications for the role of language were posited.     

A validation study of driving errors using a driving simulator

BackgroundDriving simulators have become an important research tool in road safety. They provide a safer environment to test driving performance and have the capacity to manipulate and control situations that are not possible on-road.AimTo validate a laboratory-based driving simulator in measuring on-road driving performance by type and mean driving errors.MethodsParticipants were instructed to drive a selected route on-road. The same route was programmed in the driving simulator using the UC/Win-road software. All participants completed a background questionnaire. On-road driving behaviours of participants and driving behaviours in the simulator were assessed by an occupational therapist and two trained researchers using an assessment form. Interclass correlations were calculated to assess the inter-rater agreement between the researchers on driving behaviours. Paired t-tests were used to assess differences in driving performance between the simulator and on-road assessments.ResultsA convenience sample of 47 drivers aged 18–69 years who held a current Western Australian class C licence (passenger vehicle) were recruited into the study. The mean age was 34.80 years (SD: 13.21) with twenty-six males (55.32%) and 21 females (44.68%) completing the study. There was no statistical difference between the on-road assessment and the driving simulator for mirror checking, left, right and forward observations, speed at intersections, maintaining speed, obeying traffic lights and stop signs.ConclusionThe preliminary results provide early support for the relative validity of the driving simulator which may be used for a variety of road safety outcomes with reduced risk of harm to participants.