Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science (2015) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 Overview of the Research on Team Effectiveness
3 Overview of the Research on Team Effectiveness
Pages 59-80
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From page 59... ...
These teams share many of the seven features that can create challenges for team science introduced in Chapter 1. For example, in corporations, top management teams and project teams are often composed of members from diverse corporate functions, and these teams seek to deeply integrate their diverse expertise in order to achieve business goals.
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From page 60... ...
tee believes the evidence on teams in other contexts can be translated and applied to improve the effectiveness of science teams and larger groups. This chapter begins by presenting critical background information -- highlighting key considerations for understanding team effectiveness and presenting theoretical models that conceptualize team processes as the primary mechanisms for promoting team effectiveness.
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From page 61... ...
. Next, the discussion turns to interventions that can be used to improve team processes and thereby contribute to team effectiveness; these are discussed in greater detail in subsequent chapters.
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From page 62... ...
Although team processes are conceptually dynamic, researchers generally assess them at a single point in time. Hence, they are often represented in the research literature by static perceptions or emergent states (Marks, Mathieu, and Zaccaro, 2001)
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From page 63... ...
They then considered actions and interventions in three aspects of a team -- composition, training, and leadership -- that shape team processes and thus can be used to enhance team effectiveness (as shown in the shaded areas of Figure 3-1)
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From page 64... ...
Here we discuss several cognitive and perceptual processes that are related to team effectiveness: team mental models and transactive memory, cognitive team interaction, team climate, and psychological safety. Team Mental Models and Transactive Memory Team mental models are conceptualized as shared understandings about "task requirements, procedures, and role responsibilities" that guide team performance (Cannon-Bowers, Salas, and Converse, 1993, p.
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From page 65... ...
. Accordingly, it is often recommended that training be designed to foster development of appropriate team mental models and transactive memory systems and that leaders shape early team developmental experiences to build shared mental models and transactive memory (Kozlowski and Ilgen, 2006)
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From page 66... ...
These processes can help foster deep knowledge integration in science teams or larger groups. Many of the features that create challenges for team science described in Chapter 1 introduce challenges to cognitive interaction, and, therefore, interventions that bolster cognitive interaction, such as professional development or training to expose teams to different ways of interacting, may be particularly helpful for science teams.
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From page 67... ...
Thus, the research base suggests that appropriate team leadership is a promising way to promote psychological safety, learning, and innovation in science teams and larger groups.
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From page 68... ...
for cohesion and performance was .20 when interdependence was low, but .46 when task interdependence was high. Because high task interdependence is one of the features that creates challenges for team science, fostering cohesion may be particularly valuable for enhancing effectiveness in science teams and larger groups.
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From page 69... ...
. Although conflict is generally viewed as divisive, early work in this area concluded that although relationship and process conflict were negative factors for team performance, task conflict could be helpful for information sharing and problem solving provided it did not spill over to prompt relationship conflict (e.g., Jehn, 1995, 1997)
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From page 70... ...
. Because diverse membership is one of the features that creates challenges for team science introduced in Chapter 1, science teams and groups can anticipate the potential for conflict.
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From page 71... ...
Measuring Team Processes To assess team processes and intervene to improve them, team processes must be measured. Team process factors such as making a contribution to the team's work, keeping the team on track, and appropriately interacting with teammates have traditionally been measured through self or peer reports of team members (Loughry, Ohland, and Moore, 2007; Ohland et al., 2012)
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From page 72... ...
INTERVENTIONS THAT SHAPE TEAM PROCESSES AND EFFECTIVENESS Table 3-1 identifies actions and interventions that have been found to influence team processes related to three aspects of a team -- its composition, professional development, and leadership. This section and the associated three chapters that follow provide detail on each of these three aspects.
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From page 73... ...
• Team member interaction Psychological • Leader coaching, inclusion • Systematic empirical support Safety • Positive interpersonal climate Team Cohesion • Antecedents not well specified • Systematic empirical support • Theory = team composition • Meta-analytic support (Gully et al., • Theory = leadership 1995; Beal et al., 2003) Team Efficacy • Mastery experiences • Systematic empirical support • Vicarious observation • Meta-analytic support (Gully et al., • Verbal persuasion 2002)
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From page 74... ...
, these teams face many of the same process challenges as science teams and groups, resulting from features, such as high diversity of membership, geographic distribution, and deep knowledge integration. Further evidence supporting training as an intervention to facilitate positive team processes is reviewed in Chapter 5, along with discussion of educational programs dedicated to preparing individuals for future participation in team science.
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From page 75... ...
phases of storming, norming, forming, and performing, these models incorporate elements specific to science teams and larger groups, such as deep knowledge in interdisciplinary teams, to meet scientific and societal goals. They provide different windows into team science and serve different purposes with respect to team science practice and policy.
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From page 76... ...
Team processes that enhance effectiveness at this stage include developing shared language, such as by using analogies and lay language in place of disciplinary jargon; developing transactive memory (similar to non-science teams) ; and developing a transdisciplinary team orientation, which in corporates both the critical awareness described above and team self efficacy, as described earlier in this chapter.
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From page 77... ...
Although further research is needed to test these two new models of team science, they begin to illuminate how science team processes are related to sci entific and translational effectiveness. They also help to address the challenges for team science created by the seven features introduced in Chapter 1.
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From page 78... ...
Features That Create Challenges for Team Science and Team Processes Most of the key features that create challenges for science teams and larger groups have direct impacts on team processes: • As noted by Hall et al.
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From page 79... ...
Thus these features demand high-quality team processes while also posing barriers that thwart them, creating a team process tension. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION Based on its review of the robust research on teams in contexts outside of science and the emerging research on team science, the committee concludes that team processes (such as shared understanding of goals and team member roles, team cohesion, and conflict)
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From page 80... ...
are related to team effectiveness. Actions and interventions that foster positive team processes offer the most promising route to enhance team effectiveness; they target three aspects of a team: team composition (assembling the right individuals)
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