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We present an analysis of the effects of status on the information that members of an inter-organizational team contributed in decision-making meetings. Our analysis shows that the amount and content of members' participation was systematically related to their status in the group. More specifically, team members who occupied managerial levels in their respective organizations contributed ideas and opinions (as well as other information types) at higher rates than those not holding such higher status positions in their organizations. This bias occurred even though team members agreed that abilities related to managerial level were not relevant to the decision-making task. What is particularly striking about these findings is that the members of this team had participated in team building training prior to embarking on the decision-making task, and reported a high concern for and commitment to equal participation in the decision-making task. Our results clearly demonstrate the ubiquitous effects of social status on participation in teams, even when: (1) the basis for status is not necessarily relevant to the group's objective, and (2) team members have explicit awareness of such status processes and are committed to overcoming them. These results along with the conceptual framework we elaborate suggest that team building training alone may not be sufficient to overcome the powerful and often detrimental effects of status processes on effective decision making. We discuss alternatives and supplements to team building training that may increase the advantages and effectiveness of teamwork in organizations.

This paper proposes an organizational change process to prepare physicians and other health professionals for their new roles in patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs). It provides physician-centered tools, models, concepts, and the language to implement transformational patient-centered medical care.

To improve care delivery, quality, and patient engagement, a systems approach to care is required. This paper examines a systems approach to patient care where all inputs that influence patient interactions and participation are considered in the design of health care delivery and follow-up treatment plans. Applying systems thinking, organizational change models, and team-building, we have examined the continuum of this change process from ideation through the diffusion of new methods and behaviors.

PCMHs make compelling business sense. Studies have shown that the PCMH improves patient satisfaction, clinical outcomes and reduces underuse and overuse of medical services. Patient-centered care necessitates transitioning from an adversarial to a collaborative culture. It is a transformation process predicated on strong leadership able to align an organization toward a vision of patient-centered care, creating a collaborative culture committed to health-goal achievement.

This paper proposes that the PCMH is a rigorous team-building transformational organizational change, a radical departure from the current hierarchical, silo-oriented, medical practice model. It requires that participants within and across health care organizations learn new skills and behaviors to achieve the anticipated quality and efficiency improvements. It is an innovative health care organization model of the future whose success is premised on teams supplanting the individual as the building block and unit of health care performance.

Appreciative Inquiry has clearly made a significant impact on the field of organization development and change. This article presents an assessment of 50 studies based on a review of more than 400 publications and papers. The article covers four sections: first, an overview of the growing significance of AI since the initial Cooperrider and Srivastva article in 1987, with a brief summary of the history, definition, awards, and chronological presentation of the growing body of AI literature. The second section presents a description of the data search process and descriptions of data categories. The third section describes the nature and extent of AI activities and results based on the review of the 50 studies. The final section includes a summary and discussion of the current state of Appreciative Inquiry.

Despite air travel having become a widely used means of transportation, the technological sophistication and human skill required for flying an aircraft remains a source of fascination and admiration. Aviation has been coined an ultra-safe system, coping with the duality of safety and efficiency by emphasizing expertise and learning, but also standardization and automation. Highly selected and continuously trained pilots have to work with increasingly complex and autonomous technology, which creates tensions between routinization and responsible action. Research on leadership and coordination in aircrews is reviewed in light of these tensions, pointing to the benefits of a functional approach to leadership which promotes optimal use of all resources in the team toward adaptive coordination. Furthermore, the leadership requirements arising from the fact that aircrews are ad hoc teams, usually only formed for a few flights, are discussed in terms of fast team-building coupled with the reliance on shared knowledge stemming from high levels of standardization. Due to the complex demands for leadership in aircrews, special training programs were developed early on, which have become a standard that many other high-risk industries are still striving for. The generalizability and need for further development of concepts embedded in successfully leading aircrews is scrutinized, focusing especially on leadership in ad hoc teams, the interplay of standardization and leadership, and the balance between shared and formal leadership.

We develop and test an innovative approach to teaching financial statement analysis (FSA) and assessing student learning outcomes based on making complex stock investment decisions compared to professional analysts. We train students to apply FSA and emphasize interdisciplinary factors and high integrative complexity. Our innovative FSA teaching approach, which we apply in an MBA financial reporting course, involves the instructor lecturing on FSA as a tool for integrative and complex decision making, students researching and applying FSA to public companies, and presenting the rationale for individual and group stock investment decisions. The instructor gives high-quality and timely feedback on the students’ application of FSA with a focus on investment judgments involving critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork skills. Our detailed efficacy analysis shows that our FSA teaching approach is effective. Students who perceive a public company to have credible management, effective competitive strategy, and an acceptable level of financial flexibility make comparable individual and group stock investment decisions as professional analysts.

Teachers play a vital role in the structure of their classrooms. Part of this structure is having a clear understanding of the importance of not only supporting their students, but also the teacher assistants/support staff with whom they collaborate. Providing teacher assistants/support staff with guidance, information on student needs and classroom structures, team-building strategies, training, and supervision sets the stage for a positive climate for collaboration, teamwork, and learning. Consequently, teachers should be proactive and diligent to ensure high-quality training and supervision for teacher assistants/support staff, as this will have a direct impact on the services and learning opportunities being provided to the students.

Organization development is focused on implementing a planned process of positive humanistic change in organizations through the use of social science theory, action research, and data-based feedback methods. The role of personality in that change process, however, has historically been ignored or relegated to a limited set of interventions. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a conceptual overview of the linkages between personality and OD, discuss the current state of personality in the field including key trends in talent management, and offer a new multi-level framework for conceptualizing applications of personality for different types of OD efforts. The chapter concludes with implications for research and practice.