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This paper draws from research on the phenomenology of how people experience time to examine how groups internally synchronize their work. We begin by reviewing the current paradigm on group temporal alignment, derived from biological and physical principles of entrainment. We argue that despite its many strengths, the greatest weakness of entrainment-based approaches is that they overlook the experience of the individual group member. Instead, we suggest that pace alignment in work groups stems from the individual-level tendency to prefer the experience of feeling in-pace to that of feeling out-of-pace with other members. We label this the in-synch preference, and assert that it is a core construct for understanding temporal performance in work groups. We then use this construct to examine: (a) the mechanisms that facilitate and motivate intra-group synchronization (i.e. getting in-pace) and (b) the role of pace-aligned coalitions and attributional processing in maintaining synchronization (i.e. staying in-pace).

The reliance on teams in today’s work environment underscores the importance of understanding how teams function. To better understand teams, one must be able to measure team dynamics or interaction. The purpose of this chapter is to outline an unobtrusive approach to measuring team dynamics from verbal communications.

The basic premise of this approach is that the words we use provide insight into how we feel and think at any given time. The methodology described in this chapter employs a lexical analytic approach to examining team dynamics. To best accomplish this, we first identify the principal features or dimensions of teamwork and then we propose lexical measures that may map to these processes.

This approach can be employed to track team functioning over time “at a distance” without interrupting task performance.

This chapter describes an approach to measuring relevant teamwork dimensions through verbal content. This approach has the potential to give us direct, unobtrusive insight into the emotional and cognitive states of teams. It is original in its examination of how team dynamics can be indexed in speech.