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Organizations are increasingly using team-based work structures to solve complex challenges and issues. Such teams require team members to have shared cognitions – a shared, accurate and complimentary understanding of team processes – to enhance team performance. The purpose of the current research is to explore the impact of shared cognitions on team processes and team performance.

The current research focused on shared cognitions of teammate knowledge and expertise while working in a team environment. Using an experimental design with 20 teams collaborating on six problem-solving questions, the authors test hypotheses pertaining to the relationship between shared cognitions about team member expertise and team processes and team performance.

Analysis of variance finds that teams with a greater level of shared cognitions of team member expertise have enhanced team process and greater team performance than teams without shared cognitions.

Recommendations are made for future research and practice based on such findings. The authors discuss ways in which the findings of this study can contribute to greater team process and performance in schools, organizations and athletic teams, noting the additional ability to apply such findings in virtual settings.

Cognition, conflict and cohesion constitute an inseparable body of group dynamics in entrepreneurial teams. There have been few studies of how entrepreneurial team members interact with each other to enhance venture performance. The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model that explains the trinity of cognition, conflict and cohesion in terms of social interaction between entrepreneurial team members.

Drawing upon the existing literature concerning entrepreneurial teams, the hypothesized model posits that shared cognition influences team cohesion through the mediating effects of intra-team conflicts. The model also postulates that team cohesion is positively associated with new venture performance and entrepreneurial satisfaction. Structural equation modeling is used to test the hypothesized model, using data that were collected from 203 entrepreneurial teams from technology-based companies in Taiwan.

The results show that shared cognition in entrepreneurial team members maintains team cohesion by restraining conflict and that team cohesion has a positive influence on entrepreneurial members’ satisfaction and new venture profitability.

The leader of a new venture team must endeavor to improve shared cognition between entrepreneurial members. To strengthen shared cognition, the leader can hold formal workshops to build consensus, informal meetings to share views, or use social media to enhance common understanding.

This paper verifies the connections between shared cognition, conflicts and cohesion in entrepreneurial teams in predicting new venture success and highlights the importance of cultivating a shared cognition in an entrepreneurial team to manage conflicts.

This qualitative study investigated how small group communication influences the development of shared mental models in a committee of public librarians addressing a problem-solving task. It examines the influence of communication themes, functions, roles, and rules on the group's development of shared mental models about the task and about team interaction. Data were collected over the course of a year from group meetings, email messages, group documents, and participant interviews and then analyzed using existing coding schemes and qualitative coding techniques. The findings indicate that within the group there was a strong superficial convergence around the task mental model and the team interaction mental model but a weaker convergence at a deeper level. Analysis of the group communication data shows that the group focused discussion on understanding the problem and identifying tasks, enacting group roles and rules that facilitated sharing information. The functions of their messages focused on task communication. The findings suggest that, in this group, communication themes most heavily influenced the development of a shared mental model about the task, while communication roles, rules, and functions were more influential toward the development of a shared mental model about team interaction. Implications for practice include adopting intentional tactics for surfacing mental models at various points in the group life and anchoring the emerging model within the collective cognition of the group through devices such as narratives, objects, or documentary materials.

Temporal leadership is a new construct that predicts team outcomes. This study examines the mediating role of shared temporal cognitions and the moderating role of time pressure in the relationship between temporal leadership and project success within sustainable construction projects.

The multi-source and multi-wave data were collected via self-administered questionnaires from teams working on sustainable construction projects. The direct and mediating hypotheses were tested using multi-level structural equation modelling, while moderated mediation hypotheses were examined by applying the bootstrap method using SPSS Process Macro.

The results showed that temporal leadership enables project success via shared temporal cognitions. Temporal leadership is most beneficial for facilitating project success via shared temporal cognitions when teams experience high time pressure.

This is the first study examining shared temporal cognitions as a mediator of the relationship between temporal leadership and project success. Also, this is the first study that considered time pressure as a boundary condition that influences the relationships between temporal leadership, shared temporal cognitions and project success within sustainable construction projects. The study provides valuable advice to project managers and project-based construction organizations about using and managing time within projects.

This paper aims to examine the shared mental models (SMMs) of a top management team (TMT) using an emergent perspective in conditions of uncertainty. The paper examines how a TMT conversation represents an emergent cognitive process to reach an action for future planning.

The design uses an emergent SMM approach based on a TMT discussion in an uncertain context. Cognitive mapping techniques illustrate how concepts emerge and are structured. This approach addresses the need for an alternative to aggregate mapping methods and supports the notion of team cognition as an emergent and dynamic process.

Findings showed that the emergence of a SMM could be elicited and represented using cognitive mapping techniques. Domain knowledge and social relationships supported the emergence of shared knowledge relevant for action on team tasks. A SMM based on team contribution and concept connectivity was identified.

The study is based on data collected from a recorded discussion in a quarterly company meeting, ten days before the UK’s original planned exit date, March 2019.

This research study contributes to the SMM and team cognition literature streams by examining the TMT’s shared understanding as an emergent process. Empirical studies using cognitive mapping techniques in this context are rare.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of cognition on knowledge sharing between members of the acquiring and acquired organisations in the post-acquisition integration process. It specifically analyses differentiation between in-groups and out-groups, the perception of organisational identity and interaction among members of the acquired and acquiring organisations and how these three factors affect knowledge sharing.

The authors develop theoretical propositions and conduct an explorative pilot study on the basis of original interview data conducted with ten respondents in four Indian IT companies that have acquired firms abroad.

The authors find evidence for supporting the negative effect of in- and out-groups differentiation and the positive effect of interpersonal interaction on knowledge sharing among employees of the acquired and acquiring organisations. There was indicative, but less compelling, evidence for the negative influence of inter-group competition and the positive influence of perceived shared organisational identity on knowledge sharing. Different from the established view, the authors find that when Indian firms acquire firms abroad, they immediately initiate knowledge flows from the targets rather than going through a long period of integration prior to acquiring knowledge from the targets.

The paper contributes to the scholarly conversation on cognition and knowledge sharing and argues that firms that are located in developing economies and that acquire firms abroad behave in a way somewhat different from what Western literature postulates. This invites for further studies, both theoretical and empirical, to shed light on this phenomenon. The present paper is focused only on one country, India, and on a single industry, the IT industry. It is limited in its empirical part, mainly due to enormous difficulties in getting access to the field.

The study demonstrates how central individuals are to the process of knowledge sharing and the accomplishment of organisational objectives in a post-acquisition context. Managers should understand that the knowledge their employees possess is a strategic asset, and therefore how they use it is influential in attaining organisational goals in general, and acquisition integration objectives in particular. The creation of task- and project-related communities or groups can help in establishing a shared organisational identity, especially after the turbulent event of one company acquiring another one. The creation of communities or groups where socialisation is encouraged can lead to employees interacting with one another and developing a sense of belongingness with the community or group. Over time, this belongingness can translate into a shared organisational identity, which is beneficial for the organisation. The findings suggest that the creation of task- or project-oriented communities and groups is a powerful way to achieve that.

The contribution of the paper is fourfold. First, while macro orientation dominates literature on the growth of the Indian IT industry, this study is conducted at the individual level of analysis, by focusing on managers in acquiring Indian IT firms. Second, whereas studies that have examined cognition and knowledge sharing have done so mainly through social capital lenses, this paper focuses on factors that are based on the inherent tendency of human beings to categorise themselves and other individuals. Third, the paper examines the links between cognition and knowledge sharing in an exciting context, namely, post-acquisition integration. Finally, while research on both post-acquisition integration and knowledge sharing is biased towards a Western context, this study investigates knowledge sharing and post-acquisition integration in the context of a major non-Western emerging economy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of cognitive diversity on strategic issue interpretation among the boards of directors making sense of sustainability management. The study also investigated the centrality of the corporate sustainability issues to identify common interpretative patterns in the shared cognitive maps among the companies. In addition, the aim was to advance quantitative methods for the analysis of decision-makers’ cognition.

The research was an exploratory study analyzing 43 individual cognitive maps collected through surveys from the boards of nine cleantech companies. For the elicitation of the cognitive maps, the study used the hybrid cognitive mapping technique. The diversity of the shared cognitive maps was analyzed using the distance ratio formula and the graph analysis method with eigenvector to measure the centrality of the strategic issue interpretation in the maps.

This study provides evidence through the analysis of distance ratios on the existence of cognitive diversity among companies within the same industry. Surprisingly, despite the cognitive diversity, the study identified strong common patterns on strategic issue interpretations among the companies. In addition, the study shows that the sustainability management issues have gained minor attention from the boards of directors.

The initial industry sample provided relatively restricted perspectives on managerial cognition, and to confirm the findings regarding the effects of industry on the shared cognitive maps of top decision-makers, wider industry-level data are needed.

This study provides an approach to facilitate the process of strategic decision-making for top decision-makers by identifying the shared beliefs of the selected strategic theme and to concentrate on the most central strategic issues in the company and industry. It reveals asymmetry between the significance of sustainability issues in an open agenda and the real position of sustainability concepts in the shared cognitive maps in the green industry. Also, the study advances cognitive mapping techniques for application in the board’s decision-making.

This paper contributes to brightening the black box of corporate governance by shedding light on the interaction of the concepts of corporate sustainability and other key strategic issues within the shared cognitive maps of the boards. It also provides new empirical knowledge on top decision-making processes and the effects of cognitive diversity on the strategic issue interpretations within the corporate boards of the green industry, and it further develops the methodology for the quantification of cognitive diversity and the content of cognitive maps.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of collaboration mode (face‐to‐face versus non‐collocated using collaborative technology) on team‐based problem solving behaviors associated with team learning, team reflexivity (i.e. reflectiveness) and team mental model development.

The study used a single factor (collaboration mode) between subjects randomized experimental design. The experimental manipulations of collaboration mode were face‐to‐face versus technology‐mediated collaboration. Observer ratings of problem solving behaviors were used to generate data analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance.

Multivariate analysis of variance results indicated that face‐to‐face collaboration is superior to technology‐mediated collaboration in facilitating team level cognitive functions such as team learning, team reflexivity, and shared mental model development.

To better manage the psychological/cognitive aspects of teamwork, managers must detect and accurately interpret the behavioral indicators that evidence the extent of team learning, reflexivity and shared mental model construction of task requirements and execution.

This paper represents one of the first to investigate the impact of technology‐mediated collaboration on team cognition and to conceptualize team cognition as a set of mental processes and intra‐team communication exchanges that facilitate team learning, reflection, and shared understanding.

The purpose of this study is to examine the unique effect that shared metacognition has on negotiation – over and above the effect of simply having similar views.

An experiment was conducted where it was systematically varied whether the negotiators explicitly knew or did not know that their opponent had a similar view of the negotiation task.

Results showed that having shared metacognition promoted: cooperative negotiation, accurate insight into the opponent's point values (which was correlated with increased joint gain), and increased satisfaction regarding the negotiation outcome. Moreover, this was the case across different conditions in which negotiators' negotiation task view and motivation were varied.

The paper suggests that negotiators and mediators can benefit by developing a common understanding of the negotiation and explicitly exchanging this understanding with each other (establishing shared metacognition) prior to engaging in the negotiation. Future studies should examine closely the underlying process of shared metacognition in terms of its impact on negotiation.

Prior research suggests that successful, integrative negotiation depends on negotiators' view of the negotiation task and whether they hold similar views of the negotiation task (shared cognition). Implicit in this research is that the negotiating parties not only had similar views of the negotiation task but also may have explicitly known that they did so (shared metacognition).

Teams, teamwork and team learning have been the subject of many research studies over the last decades. This article aims at investigating and confirming the Team Learning Beliefs and Behaviours (TLB&B) model within a very specific population, i.e. police and firemen teams. Within this context, the paper asks whether the team's beliefs about the interpersonal context and the occurrence of three team learning behaviours (construction, co‐construction and constructive conflict) play a role in building and maintaining mutually shared cognition in a collaborative learning environment leading to a higher effectiveness. Self‐efficacy was added to the original model. Furthermore, the effect of team meeting frequency on the TLB&B model was investigated.

All constructs were measured using the validated Team Learning Beliefs and Behaviours Questionnaire completed with the self‐efficacy scale. Data were collected from 126 teams (n_individuals=769) and analysed using stepwise multi‐level regression analyses and analyses of variance.

The results show that the examined model generally applies to the data. Furthermore, self‐efficacy was found to be a valuable addition to the model.

This article validates an existing team learning model in a new context, namely that of response teams. Furthermore, it adds self‐efficacy as a predictor for team learning behaviours and team effectiveness. A multilevel‐approach was used as a valuable alternative of aggregating individual perceptions to team constructs.