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This study investigated impression management tactic use during structured interviews containing both experience-based and situational questions. Specifically, the authors examined whether applicants' use of impression management tactics depended on question type. Results from 119 structured interviews indicated that almost all of the applicants used some form of impression management. Significantly more assertive than defensive impression management tactics were used, and among assertive tactics, applicants tended to use self-promotion rather than ingratiation. However, different question types prompted the use of different impression management tactics. Ingratiation tactics were used significantly more when applicants answered situational questions, whereas self-promotion tactics were used significantly more when applicants answered experience-based questions. Furthermore, the use of self-promotion and ingratiation tactics was positively related to interviewer evaluations.

The movement toward positive psychology has uncovered the important role that positivity plays in both individual and organizational success. Given that work teams are becoming increasingly embedded in organizational structures, it is surprising that few researchers have investigated positivity at the team level. The present study examines the emergence of team level positive psychological capacities and their relationship with team outcomes (e.g., cohesion, cooperation, coordination, and conflict and team satisfaction) during two team sessions. Results from 101 teams suggest that team optimism is an important predictor of team outcomes when teams are newly formed, whereas team resilience and team efficacy show greater explanatory power after several team interactions. Implications of the findings are discussed, as well as possible avenues for additional research.

This article tests the degree to which personal and situational variables impact the acquisition of knowledge and skill within interactive project teams. On the basis of the literature regarding attentional capacity, constructive controversy, and truth-supported wins, the authors examined the effects of cognitive ability, workload distribution, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, and structure on team learning. Results from 109 four-person project teams working on an interdependent command and control simulator indicated that teams learned more when composed of individuals who were high in cognitive ability and when the workload was distributed evenly. Conversely, team learning was negatively affected when teams were composed of individuals who were high in Agreeableness. Finally, teams using a paired structure learned more than teams structured either functionally or divisionally. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as well as possible limitations and directions for future research.

This article develops and tests a structurally based, integrated theory of person-team fit. The theory developed is an extension of structural contingency theory and considers issues of external fit simultaneously with its examination of internal fit at the team level. Results from 80 teams working on an interdependent team task indicate that divisional structures demand high levels of cognitive ability on the part of teammembers. However, the advantages of high cognitive ability in divisional structures are neutralized when there is poor external fit between the structure and the environment. Instead, emotional stability becomes a critical factor among teammembers when a divisional structure is out of alignment with its environment. Individual differences seem to play little or no role in functional structures, regardless of the degree of external fit.

Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. Backing Up Others 2 REPORT DATE AbstractBacking up behavior has generally been defined as helping other team members perform their roles and is thought to be critical for effective performance in teams. To date, there has been no empirical investigation of backing up in teams, despite its importance. We develop and test an input process output model of backing up behavior in teams, proposing that backing up behavior in teams can be predicted at the team level by two types of team inputs: (1) team composition characteristics in terms of the personality of the members of the team and (2) team task characteristics in terms of the extent to which the nature of the task is one that legitimately calls for backing up behavior by members of the team. Results from a study of 71 teams performing a computerized tactical decision-making task suggest that the legitimacy of the need for back up has an important main effect on the extent to which team members provide assistance to and receive assistance from each other. In addition, legitimacy also has important interactive effects with both the personality of the back up recipient and the personality of the back up providers on backing up behaviors in teams. Backing Up Others 3 Backing Up Behaviors in Teams:The Role of Personality and Legitimacy of Need While researchers and organizational practitioners have long been aware of the criticality of teamwork to effective team performance, to date, many of the specific aspects of teamwork have received little or no empirical attention. McIntyre and Salas (1995) identified four essential aspects of teamwork (performance monitoring, closed-loop communication, feedback, and backing up behaviors). They further suggested that backing up behaviors, the degree to which team members effectively help each other perform their roles, is perhaps the most critical of these four components of teamwork. Specifically, they noted that, "this skill is at the heart of teamwork, for it makes the team truly operate as more than the sum of its parts" (p. 26).The purpose of the present study was to extend the empirical literature on teamwork by focusing on backing up behaviors in work teams. The model tested here is based on an input process out...

Drawing from positive psychology and positive organizational behavior (Luthans, 2002a, 2002b) this study utilized a field study in a high tech manufacturing firm to demonstrate how positive psychological capital reduces levels of both involuntary and voluntary absenteeism. Previous studies setting out to determine job attitude antecedents of absenteeism have been generally disappointing and account for only small levels of variance. In addition, with few exceptions conceptualization of absenteeism has been uni-dimensional despite calls by previous researchers to consider the significant differences in semantic networks of voluntary and involuntary absenteeism as separate metrics. We make this dual dimension distinction and show how previous antecedents of absenteeism contribute to one dimension more than the other. The utility of the study findings conclude the article.

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