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1 – 10 of over 78000This qualitative study investigated how small group communication influences the development of shared mental models in a committee of public librarians addressing a…
Abstract
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.
Mary J. Waller, Sjir Uitdewilligen, Ramón Rico and Marie S. Thommes
In order to deepen understanding of team processes in dynamic organizational contexts, we suggest that analyses employing techniques to identify and analyze team member interaction…
Abstract
In order to deepen understanding of team processes in dynamic organizational contexts, we suggest that analyses employing techniques to identify and analyze team member interaction patterns and trajectories are necessary. After presenting a brief review of interaction data coding and reliability requirements, we first review examples of two approaches used in the identification and analysis of interaction patterns in teams: lag sequential analysis and T-pattern analysis. We then describe and discuss three statistical techniques used to analyze team interaction trajectories: random coefficient modeling, latent growth modeling, and discontinuous growth analysis. We close by suggesting several ways in which these techniques could be applied to data analysis in order to expand our knowledge of team interaction, processes, and outcomes in complex and dynamic settings.
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Zhipeng Zhang, Li Zhu, Gong Chen, Lu Shang, Qiuyun Zhao and Feng Ren
Existing studies mostly rely on the static characteristics of team members, and there is still a lack of empirical investigation on how entrepreneurial team members make decisions…
Abstract
Purpose
Existing studies mostly rely on the static characteristics of team members, and there is still a lack of empirical investigation on how entrepreneurial team members make decisions through dynamic team process and how team members’ cognition influences team decision-making. The purpose of this study is to validate how entrepreneurial team heterogeneity affects team decision-making performance from the perspective of dynamic team process.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the theory of input-process-output model, this study proposed and examined the mediating role of team interaction as well as the moderating role of proactive socialization tactics in the relationship between entrepreneurial team heterogeneity and decision-making performance. Based on a sample of 162 entrepreneurial teams that include pairing superiors and subordinates, hierarchical regressions and moderated mediation tests were used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The research results show that the heterogeneity of entrepreneurial teams is positively correlated with both team interaction and decision-making performance. Team interaction plays a mediating role between entrepreneurial team heterogeneity and decision-making performance; information seeking of proactive socialization tactics moderates the impact of entrepreneurial team heterogeneity on team interaction.
Originality/value
Contributing to the literature on entrepreneurial team decision-making performance, this study identifies that proactive socialization tactics with a high level of information seeking can help entrepreneurial team members respond to environmental and organizational changes more effectively during team development and increase the effectiveness of team interaction. This finding helps us better understand the mechanism and context under which entrepreneurial heterogeneity may enhance the team’s decision-making performance.
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Patrícia Lopes Costa, Ana Margarida Passos, Arnold B. Bakker, Rafael Romana and Cláudia Ferrão
The aim of this study is to describe work-engaged teams in terms of interpersonal interaction.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to describe work-engaged teams in terms of interpersonal interaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Six teams (N = 31 individuals) were videotaped during a decision-making task, for one hour. Based on a priori defined categories, the authors coded the videos in terms of the degree of interaction between team members, the physical distance between members, the degree of team’s activation and the valence of their interaction. The videos were also coded in terms of motivational and affective processes. Team work engagement was assessed using questionnaires.
Findings
Highly engaged team members work physically close and have an increment on their interactions up until the task’s temporal midpoint. They have an initial peak of activation and show more positive emotional valence in the first and the last moments of the task. The most interpersonal processes used are affective. The worst performing team had the highest initial interaction levels followed by an abrupt decrease both in their levels of interaction and in their levels of activation. Simultaneously, they present higher peaks of positive emotional valence.
Practical implications
Although engaged teams are essentially characterized by the presence of positive interactions, it is fundamental to alternate more “exited” and fun moments with more task focused ones and collective interaction moments with individual work.
Originality/value
This study answers to Kozlowski and Chao’s (2012) call for studying emergence in a more direct way, using qualitative analysis of video data.
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Tony Lingham, Bonnie A. Richley and Ricard S. Serlavos
The purpose of this paper is four‐fold: to highlight the emerging stream of team interaction in research; to present a methodology to measure and map out team interaction; to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is four‐fold: to highlight the emerging stream of team interaction in research; to present a methodology to measure and map out team interaction; to compare team interaction between US and Spanish MBA teams so as to identify any differences between the two cultures; and to propose team interaction focused programs in educational institutions and organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a quantitative research design and administered a survey that captures ten aspects of team interaction in four major dimensions to 32 US MBA teams (n = 176) and 31 Spanish MBA teams (n = 152) engaged in the same group exercise and used ANOVA analysis to compare the two groups.
Findings
The findings show that the US and Spanish teams differ only in the diverging dimension of their actual team interaction (F = 26.42, p < 0.000). A comparative analysis of the ideal team interaction show that both MBA samples desire increased levels of the diverging (F = 37.7, p < 0.000) and recursiveness (F = 23.65, p < 0.000) dimensions.
Practical implications
The study provides a methodology and highlights the significance of employing a team interaction perspective for team learning and development programs in educational and organizational settings.
Originality/value
The paper presents team interaction along four major dimensions – divergent, convergent, status and recursiveness – and provides a brief overview of the theory of Conversational Learning. The approach used in this study contributes to this emerging stream of team research and presents the significance of focusing on the social‐emotional aspects of team interaction in educational and organizational team development programs.
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Paul Kim, Donghwan Lee, Youngjo Lee, Chuan Huang and Tamas Makany
With a team interaction analysis model, the authors sought to identify a varying range of individual and collective intellectual behaviors in a series of communicative intents…
Abstract
Purpose
With a team interaction analysis model, the authors sought to identify a varying range of individual and collective intellectual behaviors in a series of communicative intents particularly expressed with multimodal interaction methods. In this paper, the authors aim to present a new construct (i.e. collective intelligence ratio (CIR)) which refers to a numeric indicator representing the degree of intelligence of a team in which each team member demonstrates an individual intelligence ratio (IR) specific to a team goal.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analyzed multimodal team interaction data linked to communicative intents with a Poisson‐hierarchical generalized linear model (HGLM).
Findings
The study found evidence of a distinctive IR for each team member in selecting a communicative method for a certain task, ultimately leading to varying degrees of team CIR.
Research limitations/implications
The authors limited the type and nature of human intelligence observed with a very short list of categories. Also, the data were evaluated by only one subject matter expert, leading to reliability issues. Therefore, generalization should be limited to situations in which teams, with pre‐specified team goals and tasks, are collaborating in multimodal interaction environments.
Practical implications
This study presents potential ways to directly or indirectly optimize team performance by identifying and incorporating IRs and CIRs in team composition strategies.
Originality/value
In the literature of team cognition and performance, the authors offer a new insight on team schema by suggesting a new task‐expertise‐person (TEP) unit integrating information on who uses what communicative methods to best tackle on what cognitive task (i.e. optimum cognition with least cognitive burden). Individual and collective intelligence ratios should be considered as new extensions to conventional transactive memory systems in multimodal team interaction scenarios.
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This paper deals with the organizing of interactive product development. Developing products in interaction between firms may provide benefits in terms of specialization…
Abstract
This paper deals with the organizing of interactive product development. Developing products in interaction between firms may provide benefits in terms of specialization, increased innovation, and possibilities to perform development activities in parallel. However, the differentiation of product development among a number of firms also implies that various dependencies need to be dealt with across firm boundaries. How dependencies may be dealt with across firms is related to how product development is organized. The purpose of the paper is to explore dependencies and how interactive product development may be organized with regard to these dependencies.
The analytical framework is based on the industrial network approach, and deals with the development of products in terms of adaptation and combination of heterogeneous resources. There are dependencies between resources, that is, they are embedded, implying that no resource can be developed in isolation. The characteristics of and dependencies related to four main categories of resources (products, production facilities, business units and business relationships) provide a basis for analyzing the organizing of interactive product development.
Three in-depth case studies are used to explore the organizing of interactive product development with regard to dependencies. The first two cases are based on the development of the electrical system and the seats for Volvo’s large car platform (P2), performed in interaction with Delphi and Lear respectively. The third case is based on the interaction between Scania and Dayco/DFC Tech for the development of various pipes and hoses for a new truck model.
The analysis is focused on what different dependencies the firms considered and dealt with, and how product development was organized with regard to these dependencies. It is concluded that there is a complex and dynamic pattern of dependencies that reaches far beyond the developed product as well as beyond individual business units. To deal with these dependencies, development may be organized in teams where several business units are represented. This enables interaction between different business units’ resource collections, which is important for resource adaptation as well as for innovation. The delimiting and relating functions of the team boundary are elaborated upon and it is argued that also teams may be regarded as actors. It is also concluded that a modular product structure may entail a modular organization with regard to the teams, though, interaction between business units and teams is needed. A strong connection between the technical structure and the organizational structure is identified and it is concluded that policies regarding the technical structure (e.g. concerning “carry-over”) cannot be separated from the management of the organizational structure (e.g. the supplier structure). The organizing of product development is in itself a complex and dynamic task that needs to be subject to interaction between business units.
Yanjun Qin and Jun Wang
Based on commitment system theory and commitment-trust theory, this study aims to reveal the effects of participating teams’ multiple commitments (i.e. synergistic commitments and…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on commitment system theory and commitment-trust theory, this study aims to reveal the effects of participating teams’ multiple commitments (i.e. synergistic commitments and conflicting commitments) on the performance of open innovation projects through the mediating role of trusted knowledge interaction and vigilant knowledge interaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Primary survey data collected from 242 respondents of 47 open innovation projects in the manufacturing industry was used to test eight hypotheses. Correlations between multiple commitments, knowledge interaction and the performance of open innovation projects were investigated.
Findings
The findings reveal that synergistic commitments improve the performance of open innovation projects through enhancing trusted knowledge interaction. Synergistic commitments reduce the level of vigilant knowledge interaction, and the performance of open innovation projects follows an inverted U-shaped relationship with vigilant knowledge interaction. Conflicting commitments negatively moderate the effect of synergistic commitments on trusted knowledge interaction and vigilant knowledge interaction.
Originality/value
The authors extend commitment system theory and commitment-trust theory to open innovation project field. The findings bridge the gaps in isolated and static focus in previous commitment literatures and innovation management literatures, and provide practical guidance for how to better manage the dynamic combination of multiple commitments and knowledge interaction among participating teams in open innovation projects.
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Gary Kleinman, Philip Siegel and Claire Eckstein
The pace of organizational and environmental change seems to demand that such professional organizations as CPA firms become learning organizations in order to compete adequately…
Abstract
The pace of organizational and environmental change seems to demand that such professional organizations as CPA firms become learning organizations in order to compete adequately with other firms. The flattening out of traditional hierarchical structures within organizations argues that traditional mentoring and supervisory structures may be inadequate for fostering needed individual learning and personal learning. One effect of the lack of such learning may be increased role stress, job burnout, loss of commitment to the organization, intention to leave, and diminished job satisfaction. Using a sample of 440 accounting professionals from major CPA firms in several regions of the USA, studies the ability of team social interaction processes within work teams to foster the personal, organizational, and team‐source learning, and also to influence attitudinal outcomes directly and indirectly. Also examines whether personal learning, organizational socialization and team‐source learning mediate the impact of team social interaction process on attitudinal outcomes. Uses a hierarchical regression‐based test to evaluate our hypotheses. The results supported our expectations. A structural equation modeling test of the model showed that organizational and personal learning mediated the relationship between team social interaction processes and the attitudinal outcomes, but team‐source learning did not.
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Ethlyn A. Williams and Stephanie L. Castro
In light of contradictory research findings, the purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effects of team setting (face‐to‐face or online) on the relationship that team…
Abstract
Purpose
In light of contradictory research findings, the purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effects of team setting (face‐to‐face or online) on the relationship that team member affect and interaction processes have on individual team source learning, and at the team level on the relationship between group cohesiveness and perceived team performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Students enrolled in graduate level organizational behavior classes at a large university in the southeastern United States responded to the survey. The final sample included 79 students in 21 on‐campus teams and 97 students in 26 online teams. All classes surveyed required a detailed team project. Tests of the moderator hypotheses were conducted using hierarchical linear multiple regression.
Findings
Team setting moderated the relationship that member teamwork orientation and member social interaction had on individual team‐source learning; the relationships were stronger in online teams.
Practical implications
The results have implications for teams in a variety of settings since the team composition and nature of the work conducted by student teams are similar to that in Western organizational contexts. To avoid possible conflicts that impede learning and performance in online teams, administrators should ensure that team members are chosen carefully and give members a strong reason for being on the team.
Originality/value
This paper extends the model examined by Williams et al. to include member social interaction and consider the context in which teamwork occurs and its effects on personal learning and team performance.
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