Complex Problem Solving in Teams: The Impact of Collective Orientation on Team Process Demands

Abstract

Complex problem solving is challenging and a high-level cognitive process for individuals. When analyzing complex problem solving in teams, an additional, new dimension has to be considered, as teamwork processes increase the requirements already put on individual team members. After introducing an idealized teamwork process model, that complex problem solving teams pass through, and integrating the relevant teamwork skills for interdependently working teams into the model and combining it with the four kinds of team processes (transition, action, interpersonal, and learning processes), the paper demonstrates the importance of fulfilling team process demands for successful complex problem solving within teams. Therefore, results from a controlled team study within complex situations are presented. The study focused on factors that influence action processes, like coordination, such as emergent states like collective orientation, cohesion, and trust and that dynamically enable effective teamwork in complex situations. Before conducting the experiments, participants were divided by median split into two-person teams with either high (n = 58) or low (n = 58) collective orientation values. The study was conducted with the microworld C3Fire, simulating dynamic decision making, and acting in complex situations within a teamwork context. The microworld includes interdependent tasks such as extinguishing forest fires or protecting houses. Two firefighting scenarios had been developed, which takes a maximum of 15 min each. All teams worked on these two scenarios. Coordination within the team and the resulting team performance were calculated based on a log-file analysis. The results show that no relationships between trust and action processes and team performance exist. Likewise, no relationships were found for cohesion. Only collective orientation of team members positively influences team performance in complex environments mediated by action processes such as coordination within the team. The results are discussed in relation to previous empirical findings and to learning processes within the team with a focus on feedback strategies.

Changes of collective orientation through a medical student’s anaesthesia simulation course – simulation-based training study with non-technical skills debriefing versus medical debriefing

“…The second factor was called “Dominance” and demonstrates a priority in having power and control over a cooperate working style. “Collective Orientation” is an attitude which effectively supports team processes [12, 13]. It can be positively changed by training of health care providers, if the participants believe it is important to their work [14].…”

A novel agent-based, evolutionary model for expressing the dynamics of creative open-problem solving in small groups

“…Creating a shared memory model between participants has been an important objective in team training, e.g., teams in commercial aviation [42,43,45]. Alternatively, the occurrence of discontinuities in large communities, like paradigm shifts, has been a main recent research topic in sociology and social networking with the main goal of understanding technological trends and which outcomes are more likely to produce a significant impact [6,8,16,[46][47][48]. There is a consensus among researchers that knowledge dynamics in a group or community includes a sequence of four stages: stagnation when little new information is created as current barriers are difficult to overcome, marginal and incremental change of the current paradigms, short periods of radical changes when new insight and solutions become available to the group, and swift adaptation of the new yet superior paradigm [49,50].…”

“Let’s Get Out of Here!”: Cognitive Motivation and Maximizing Help Teams Solving an Escape Room

“…Complex problem solving concerns reducing the barrier between start and end goal with the help of cognitive activities and behavior ( Funke, 2012 ). Teams that are highly interdependent require a higher degree of interaction compared to teams with lower levels of interdependence ( Wageman, 1995 ), and this also requires various cognitive and social skills ( Hagemann and Kluge, 2017 ).…”

“… Hagemann and Kluge (2017) presented a teamwork process model that applies to complex problem-solving teams, where they suggest various teamwork competencies and teamwork processes that affect team performance in complex environments. In short, the model suggests that team members interact interdependently and convert inputs to outcomes through cognitive verbal and behavioral activities.…”