The authors review team research that has been conducted over the past 10 years. They discuss the nature of work teams in context and note the substantive differences underlying different types of teams. They then review representative studies that have appeared in the past decade in the context of an enhanced input-process-outcome framework that has evolved into an inputs-mediators-outcome time-sensitive approach. They note what has been learned along the way and identify fruitful directions for future research. They close with a reconsideration of the typical team research investigation and call for scholars to embrace the complexity that surrounds modern team-based organizational designs as we move forward.

This study examined the influences of team charters and performance strategies on the performance trajectories of 32 teams of master's of business administration students competing in a business strategy simulation over time. The authors extended existing theory on team development by demonstrating that devoting time to laying a foundation for both teamwork (i.e., team charters) and taskwork (performance strategies) can pay dividends in terms of more effective team performance over time. Using random coefficients growth modeling techniques, they found that teams with high-quality performance strategies outperformed teams with poorer quality strategies. However, a significant interaction between quality of the charters of teams and their performance strategies was found, such that the highest sustained performances were exhibited by teams that were high on both features. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

SummaryWe developed and tested a model that bridges existing team effectiveness theory with new ideas aimed at understanding the complexity of multiple team membership and virtuality. Using a sample of 60 global, virtual supply teams from a large multi-national organization, we propose that even for new team configurations, transactive memory systems and preparation activities are critical for effectiveness. We also examined the association between members' percentage of time allocated to a team, team virtuality, and interdependence on preparation activities. Our findings suggest that preparation activities related significantly to effectiveness as mediated by transactive memory systems. Furthermore, interdependence interacted with members' percentage of time allocated to the team as related to preparation activities. Specifically, members' percentage of time allocated to the team shifted from being a positive influence on preparation activities to a negative influence as team interdependence went from relatively high to relatively low levels. We discuss implications for theory, research, and practice. The simple fact is that team arrangements suitable for IPO-style investigations may be more the exception than the rule in modern-day organizations. Therefore, our challenge for future researchers is to embrace the complexity of current team arrangements. Rather than viewing the complex features of organizational teams as confounds or design problems to overcome, we submit that they are important variances to assess, model, and understand (p. 463).Similarly, the call for this special issue of the Journal of Organizational Behavior submitted the following: "changes in communications technology, organizational purposes, and the social dynamics of new generations of young professionals are together leading to the emergence of new kinds of teams in organizational life." With team phenomena starting to look significantly different, we propose to expand what we know about the antecedents, mediators, and outcomes of today's complex, dynamic teams by developing and testing a model that bridges what we "know" about teams, with newer practices emerging in organizations. Even though what teams look like has changed dramatically over the last decade, teams are still used to perform organizationally relevant tasks. Consequently, we submit that it is important not to disregard what we know about traditional teams but rather to leverage the lessons learned from prior research while simultaneously incorporating the complexity of modern-day arrangements into models of team effectiveness.

In this research we integrate resource allocation and social exchange perspectives to build and test theory focusing on the moderating role of time management skill in the nonmonotonic relationship between organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and task performance. Results from matching survey data collected from 212 employees and 41 supervisors and from task performance metrics collected several months later indicate that the curvilinear association between OCB and task performance is significantly moderated by employees' time management skill. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

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