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The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether research and practice on task design and work teams could benefit from a more nuanced perspective on task (inter)dependencies among team members. Prior research often overlooked that task interdependence captures the average exchange of resources, while asymmetrical task dependence captures the inequalities within an individual's work relationships. To date, no study on work teams has combined the two aspects.

Data were obtained from 262 individuals working in 67 work teams. Multilevel and bootstrapping analyses were used.

Drawing from interdependence theory and power-dependence theory it was argued, and subsequently found, that asymmetrical task dependence interacts with task interdependence, and affects the job satisfaction of individuals and their affective commitment to their team.

A key practical implication is that both asymmetrical task dependence and task interdependence should be taken into account when optimizing intra-team task dependencies, for instance when (re-)designing jobs or teams.

This study contributes to research on asymmetrical task dependence within work teams, by investigating its interaction with task interdependence, its effects on the affective reactions of workers, and its effects on the individual level of analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to present the managerial perspectives of building, nurturing and evaluating sales teams in Mexico. This study discusses the impact of sales team design in reference to the underlying rationale of management control and team coordination as indicators of performance and sales unit effectiveness.

The major focus of the study is to discuss the impact of sales team design and task coordination as predictors of effectiveness of sales unit performance. A sample of 258 respondents has been covered under the study, categorizing them in equal proportion into three broad areas,: type of sales team, type of product market, and type of sales operations. Four industrial streams in sales were covered while selecting the sample respondents: consumer goods, consumer durables, industrial products, and consumer services.

The study reveals the balance between team designing and team coordination in performing sales. Work environment is largely governed by team coordination effects for the salespeople. Sales team‐building process has a substantial effect on sales organization effectiveness both directly and indirectly through its relationship with salespeople's behavioral performance.

The results of this study reveal that team performance largely depends on the effectiveness of team coordination, leadership and performance control through behavioral attributes. Sales managers may implement such controls effectively by establishing coordination, training, and feedback process rather than imposing command and control policy.

The thesis of the paper is developed around issues of the cross‐cultural variables and team management affecting workplace environment. The paper explores and maps the symbiosis between cognitive drivers of team members and team culture in performing the tasks.

Building on the resource-based view of the firm and complex systems theory, we argue that the effective utilization of knowledge-intensive teamwork (KITwork) can be a source of sustained competitive advantage for firms that pursue a variety of strategies and compete in a variety of industries. KITwork is a multi-dimensional, multi-level social process that promotes knowledge flows within and between organizations. Through KITwork, the knowledge resources of individual employees are transformed into a capability that contributes to the effectiveness of knowledge-based organizations. After introducing and explaining the concept of KITwork, we explore the challenges that organizations must address in order to design HRM systems that support and facilitate KITwork.

This paper describes the concept of mutual knowledge and its potential impact on virtual team performance. Based on an analysis of extant literature, we argue that there is a gap in our understanding of what is known about mutual knowledge as it impacts team dynamics and virtual team performance. Supporting literature, anecdotes, and case studies are used to discuss the importance of mutual knowledge for virtual team performance and the research issues that need to be addressed in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how team management affects team‐learning activities.

The authors empirically study 68 teams as they operate in the natural business context of a major Spanish bank. Quantitative research utilizing multiple regression analyses is used to test hypotheses.

The leadership behaviour (consideration, initiation of structure) displayed by the team leader plays a key role in facilitating team learning. Team leader behaviour characterised by consideration and in particular by initiation of structure are both positively related to team‐learning activities. Cross‐training of team members also contributes to team‐learning behaviour.

A specific setting may limit the generalizability of findings. Further research may accordingly investigate to what extent these results can be generalized to other settings or other aspects of team learning.

The leadership style adopted by the team leader, as well as cross‐training of members, affect team‐learning activities. These results link leadership theory to collective learning in teams and organizations, and suggest ways leaders can contribute to improved learning.

The study provides new insight into how management of teams facilitates team‐learning activities. While consideration is somewhat related to team learning, initiation of structure as well as cross‐training appear as key variables.

The paper aims to propose a conceptualization of two types of team social capital: team-bonding and team-bridging social capital. Throughout the conceptual effort, the paper provides suggestions for future research avenues that link team social capital, as a distinct team-level construct, with other team research topics.

The conceptualization of team social capital is based on a review and synthesis of prior research about social networks. The propositions about the relationships of team social capital with other team process and effectiveness variables are developed within the classical input-mediator-output framework.

The conceptualizations of team-bonding and team-bridging social capital and the common measures for each are provided. Moreover, a series of testable propositions regarding the associations between team social capital and team process, the influence of team social capital on team effectiveness and the antecedents of team social capital are made.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.

This paper elaborates the concept of team social capital and specifies its implications to various team phenomena. With this conceptual effort, this paper has advanced our knowledge about the nature and role of team social capital in team research.

This chapter describes a neurodynamic modeling approach which may be useful for dynamically assessing teamwork in healthcare and military situations. It begins with a description of electroencephalographic (EEG) signal acquisition and the transformation of the physical units of EEG signals into quantities of information. This transformation provides quantitative, dynamic, and generalizable neurodynamic models that are directly comparable across teams, tasks, training protocols, and team experience levels using the same measurement scale, bits of information. These bits of information can be further used to dynamically guide team performance or to provide after-action feedback that is linked to task events and team actions.

These ideas are instantiated and expanded in the second section of the chapter by showing how these data abstractions, compressions, and transformations take advantage of the natural information redundancy in biologic signals to substantially reduce the number of data dimensions, making the incorporation of neurodynamic feedback into Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) achievable.

This study seeks to: involve team members in part of the actual design of training for their own team leaders; improve team leader knowledge and skills; and demonstrate the use of skill charting (SC) for learning and performance improvement.

Using focus groups of team members and q‐sort methodology we were able to have team members identify practical performance elements regarding the behavior of their team leaders. Integrating these performance elements into the training design for team leaders and using SC as a training tool, we were able to compare two groups of team leaders: one group (the study group) whose training focused, specifically, on the team‐generated performance elements and another group (the traditional group) whose training was focused on general, team leader performance elements.

In the perceptions of the team members, the S group team leaders, following training, performed more effectively regarding: response time, positive reinforcement, and focus on desired behavior of team members, than did the T group team leaders. Mean scores of ratings of performance were higher for S group team leaders than T group team leaders on all variables save one.

Owing to the nature of SC training, sample sizes could not be large; that is, sample sizes could not exceed 35 participants per each condition. Statistical tests are thus influenced. Other limitations involve the obvious time gap between actual training and the subsequent changes in behavior and performance. The study does offer considerable support to other research that makes use of SC training tools.

The activities undertaken in the study serve to involve team members, recognize their knowledge and skill, and empower them via decision making and personal recognition.

This study points to ways to involve team members directly in performance improvement and learning.

The purpose of this paper is to stimulate future research on entrepreneurial teams (ET).

This paper presents a literature‐driven definition of ET and model of factors influencing entrepreneurial team performance.

The paper illustrates potential fruitful areas for future research on entrepreneurial teams.

A literature‐driven approach on ET provides an improved basis for future research. Modeling entrepreneurial team performance factors based on a heuristic model provides a basis for both conceptual and empirical research in the future.

By stimulating additional research on entrepreneurial teams, this paper assists in creating a better distinction on how and why the entrepreneurial team influences new venture performance.

Most research on ET is based on an inadequate definition of the concept. This paper adds value by presenting a literature‐driven definition of entrepreneurial teams. Research on ET tends to focus on demographic heterogeneity. This article adds value by illustrating potential fruitful areas of research on ET based on a heuristics team performance model from the organizational literature.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how perceptions of team performance and teamwork processes relate to functional diversity appropriateness perceptions (FDAP), that is, whether one believes that the right functions are represented in a team. Thereby, the authors distinguish between perceptions of team managers and team members.

The study involved a cross-sectional survey study among 48 sourcing teams from 12 multinational companies, all from different industries.

Members’ and managers’ congruent perceptions of performance showed differential relationships with their perceptions of the team’s functional diversity appropriateness. For managers, perceptions of team performance and functional diversity appropriateness were directly and positively related. For team members, this relationship was moderated by teamwork behavior. Moreover, unlike team members, purchasing managers did not consider functionally diverse teams to be more suitable for executing sourcing tasks.

This study identified teamwork behavior as a critical element for explaining the differences in FDAP of members and managers of sourcing teams.

Rather than homogenizing team structures, managers should stimulate good teamwork behavior that allows for an the integration of interests and insights from different functional areas.

This study adds to functional diversity literature as well as perceptual distance literature by revealing how different team effectiveness criteria shape managers’ and members’ perceptions of functional diversity appropriateness.