Search results

Extending a model of how teams learn, this paper aims to present a model of multiteam system (MTS) learning, comparing similarities and differences between how MTSs learn and how component teams learn. The paper describes the value of adaptive, generative and transformative learning for increasing MTS development over time.

The model proposes that environmental demands trigger adaptive, generative and transformative MTS learning, which is further increased by the MTS’s readiness to learn. Learning can happen during performance episodes and during hiatus periods between performance episodes.

Learning triggers coupled with readiness to learn and the cycle and phase of MTS process influence the learning process (adaptive, generative or transformative), which in turn influences the learning outcomes.

The study offers a number of research propositions with the idea that the model and propositions will stimulate research in this area.

This model allows MTS and component team leaders and facilitators to recognize that MTS learning is a process that is needed to help component teams work together and help the MTS as a whole perform in current and future situations, thereby improving MTS effectiveness.

Little attention has been given to the notion that MTSs learn and develop. This manuscript is the first to emphasize that MTSs learn and identify processes that can improve learning. Adaptive, generative and transformative processes describe how MTSs learn and produce changes in MTS structure and actions.

Multi-team systems (MTSs) are expected to respond effectively to complex challenges while remaining responsive and adaptable and preserving inter-team linking mechanisms. The leadership team of an MTS is expected to configure and reconfigure component teams to meet the unique needs of each situation and perform. How do they learn to do this? This paper, using a recent MTS learning theory as a basis, aims to begin to understand how MTSs learn and stimulate ideas for future research.

The authors use two case studies to address research questions. The first case was a snapshot in time, while the second case occurred over several months. Interviews, documents and participant observation were the data sources.

As suggested by theory, findings support the idea that learning triggers, the timing of the triggers and readiness to learn (RtL) affect the type of learning process that emerges. The cases showed examples of adaptive and generative team learning. Strong and clear triggers, occurring during performance episodes, led to adaptive learning. When RtL was high and triggers occurred during hiatus periods, the associated learning process was generative.

Using an available theoretical model and case studies, the research describes how MTS readiness to learn and triggers for learning affect MTS learning processes and how learning outcomes became codified in the knowledge base or structure of the MTS. This provides a framework for subsequent qualitative and quantitative research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between CEO narcissism and strategic decision-making (SDM) processes (decision comprehensiveness and decision speed), and to explore the mediating role of top management team (TMT) members’ participation in decision making and the moderating role of TMT power distance.

Data were collected from a multisource, time-lagged survey of 103 CEOs and their corresponding TMT members in China. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

The results indicated that CEO narcissism was negatively related to decision comprehensiveness and positively related to decision speed. These relationships were mediated by TMT members’ participation in decision making, especially when TMT power distance was high.

The results show the potential negative effects of CEOs’ narcissistic personality and suggest ways to attenuate it by increasing TMT participation and decreasing TMT power distance.

This study is an initial attempt to empirically examine how and under what conditions CEOs’ narcissism is a barrier to more comprehensive and more deliberate (slower) SDM.

Drawing on existing theory, a model is developed to illustrate how the interaction between leaders and followers similarity in narcissism and goal congruence may influence subgroup formation in teams, and how this interaction influences team identification and team performance.

The proposed model draws on dominance complementary, similarity attraction, faultline formation and trait activation theories.

Leader–follower similarity in narcissism and goal congruence may stimulate subgroup formation, possibly resulting in conformers, conspirators, outsiders and victims, especially when performance pressure on a team is high. Followers who are low in narcissism and share goals with a leader who is narcissistic are likely to become conformers. Followers who are high in narcissism and share goals with a narcissistic leader are likely to become confederates. Followers who do not share goals with a narcissistic leader will be treated by the leader and other members as outsiders if they are high in narcissism, and victimized if they are low in narcissism. In addition, the emergence of these subgroups leads to reduced team identification and lower team performance.

Higher level managers, coaches and human resource professions can assess and, if necessary, counteract low team identification and performance resulting from the narcissistic personality characteristics of leaders and followers.

The model addresses how and under what conditions narcissistic leaders and followers may influence subgroup formation and team outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a rationale for developing interprofessional competencies among graduates from professional and graduate programs, so that they are well prepared to participate in local, national and global social change strategies.

After reviewing the literature on strategic social change initiatives the authors briefly describe two such initiatives: corporate social responsibility initiatives and social entrepreneurial ventures. After reviewing the interprofessional literature from various disciplines and professions, the authors categorized them into “competencies,” “rationale,” “conceptual framework,” “principles” and “challenges.” An examination of exemplar pedagogy from this body of literature suggests ways to prepare students to lead and actively participate in innovative, collaborative social change initiatives.

Interdisciplinary competencies include teamwork, communication, contextual understanding, negotiation, critical thinking, leadership, openness and adaptability. Interprofessional educational models are difficult to implement, however, ethical responsibility of educators to prepare students for complex realities trumps the challenges.

Interprofessional educational experiences can enable students to engage in generative and transformational learning which can later facilitate in creation of innovative solutions for society's recalcitrant physical, social and environmental issues.

Based on the system's perspective, the paper provides guidelines and strategies for implementing interprofessional pedagogical initiative.

Career motivation is usually examined among young or mid‐career workers. The older worker is left alone. Unfortunately, in an environment in which the older person represents the fastest growing segment of the labour force, this critical resource is being frittered away. Examination of current practices suggests a large portion of older workers are persuaded by their employers′ actions that their careers are at an end. Alternatives to extend and increase this group′s career motivation are discussed.

This paper examines how management promotion decisions are made in a large organisation, drawing upon interview and survey data and the results of a decision‐making simulation completed by managers at three organisational levels. The findings describe the relationship between elements of decision process, such as the number of candidates considered to fill a vacancy, and the types of information available and the decision outcome. Implications of the results are discussed in terms of how individual needs and desires formulated during career planning may be taken into account when making promotion decisions. The paper concludes with recommendations for making promotion decisions.

Discusses abusive management – extreme behaviours that can result in a subordinate or work group being plagued by uncertainty, anxiety, and fear. Examines the prevalence of the problem and its implications for management development, in terms of both the development of abused employees and the control of the abuser. Describes abusive behaviours, considers some likely antecedents of workplace abuse, examines subordinates′ reactions to abuse, and suggests ways organizations can diffuse or prevent these behaviours through management development.

The aim of this study is to analyze a framework of team learning that includes three learning processes (adaptive, generative, and transformative), factors that stimulate these processes, and consequences of them. The variables provided a field study of the model.

In the field study, 69 project teams of 3 to 11 students and their instructors responded to surveys.

Positive learning stimuli were related to adaptive and generative learning processes, while negative stimuli were related to transformative learning processes. Learning processes were related to individual student learning outcomes. In addition, adaptive and generative learning processes were positively related to team and instructor ratings of outcome quality, while transformative learning was negatively related to team ratings of outcome quality.

The results were subject to the following limitations: cross‐sectional design, mostly self‐report measures, and the lack of control endemic to field research. As such, this study is viewed as an initial test of the team‐learning model in a field setting. Additional research, including longitudinal designs and experimental designs, are called for.

This study adds to the growing literature on group learning. Educators and managers need to be aware that there are different kinds of learning processes in which groups can engage and that these are stimulated to occur differently and have a different impact on outcomes.

Team learning is rarely assessed directly as a construct in its own right and there is a lack of empirical support delineating causes and consequences of team learning. This field study is a first step in this direction.