Diversity and Communication in Teams: Improving Problem-Solving or Creating Confusion?

Frigotto, Maria Laura; Rossi, Alessandro

doi:10.1007/s10726-011-9250-x

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 49 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This greater variety of interaction is assumed, in turn, to lead to a higher level of team information sharing and performance, due to more information and knowledge exchange (Rico, Sánchez-Manzanares, Gil, & Gibson, 2008). Consistent with the idea that compositional heterogeneity is functional for team information sharing (Frigotto & Rossi, 2012), we hypothesize that more diversity in team interaction patterns stimulates team effectiveness through a higher degree of team members' information sharing.…”

Section: Schulzsupporting

confidence: 57%

“…A high degree of team members' sharing of information has been associated with high team performance because the information can be used to make sense of the team's task environment and then take proper action (e.g., Larson, Christensen, Abbott, & Franz, 1996). Although compositional heterogeneity in teams (e.g., in terms of diversity, tenure, or expertise) has been linked to diversity in information and expertise, sparking the interaction and exchange of ideas (Frigotto & Rossi, 2012), heterogeneity in team interaction patterns has not been frequently associated with team performance or information sharing. When teams engage in heterogeneous interaction patterns, team members interact in a more flexible, nonstandard, or prescribed manner with each other (Zijlstra et al, 2012).…”

Section: Schulzmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Complex Adaptive Systems Approach to Real-Life Team Interaction Patterns, Task Context, Information Sharing, and Effectiveness

Hoogeboom

Wilderom

2019

Group & Organization Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Interaction dynamics are considered to be key characteristics of complex adaptive systems (CAS). Taking a CAS approach, this study examines how three team interaction patterns affect team effectiveness. Specifically, we analyze recurring, heterogeneous, and participative patterns of team interaction in routine and nonroutine team-task contexts. Fine-grained coding of video-based footage plus nonlinear dynamical systems (NDS) statistics are used to identify the interaction patterns in a sample of 96 real-life teams, comprising 1,395 team members. We establish that recurring patterns of team interaction reduce perceived team information sharing and, in turn, team effectiveness and that these harmful effects are more pronounced in teams doing nonroutine work than in those engaged in routine work. Participative team interaction was found to be positively related to a high level of perceived team information sharing and effectiveness. Heterogeneous team interaction was not associated with perceived team information sharing and effectiveness. Post hoc analyses, in which the behavioral content of the interaction patterns of the 15 most effective and least effective teams is compared, revealed primarily task-directed patterns in the most effective teams. We offer practical recommendations for team development and call for more CAS research on the communicative behaviors within teams of knowledge workers.

show abstract

Section: Schulzsupporting

confidence: 57%

Section: Schulzmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Complex Adaptive Systems Approach to Real-Life Team Interaction Patterns, Task Context, Information Sharing, and Effectiveness

Hoogeboom

Wilderom

2019

Group & Organization Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Team in the company are goal oriented, the poor communication may have a negative influence when the understanding of scope is very fragmented, or team start walk away from the common goal (Frigotto, Rossi, 2012). Therefore, the physical distance may play a role in communication and the probability of face-to-face communication between two people is inversely related to the distance separating them (Stryker, Santoro, 2012); this conclusion has been well integrated in the SEPOC workplace designing where the team is located in one cubical area aiming to have more verbal communication.…”

Section: Exploration; Way Of Involvements With Other Teamsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Communications Methods on Team’s Productivity and Performance - Oil and Gas case study

Gaghman

2020

TSSJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The development of multidisciplinary team communication in oil and Gas industry is a complex area that increasingly impact on team performance and achieve the common goals. Communication is the exchange of information through actions, speech and writing or symbols. Effective team communication increases; team member’s effectiveness and satisfaction because they are given the appropriate guidelines, tools and direction on how to accomplish tasks. Team members communicate via meeting, phone calls and emails. However, In the latest year’s communication tool has increased significantly as the business world has gone global and more virtual communication options are introduced, (i.e. Skype, WebEx and Smartphones). The aim of this paper was to assess the team communication process and quantity the issues, in order to avoid project delays and suboptimal performance. To determine the extent to which verbal communication approach has an impact among the organization behavior and on the integration, effectiveness and efficiency of the team. This paper had examined this subject in one of the national Oil and Gas company, and concluded that team productivity and performance are highly affected by the way of the communication and the best way is to have effective face-to-face meeting with clear objective in regular basis.

show abstract

“…Problem-solving in teams has been the subject of many studies (Mei-Hsiang et al, 2014;Postrel, 2002;Frigotto and Rossi, 2012;Liu and McLeod, 2014;Hofmann, 2015). There are many different mechanisms of problem-solving in teams (Urlacher, 2014;Hastie and Kameda, 2005;Larrick and Soll, 2006;Brodbeck et al, 2007;Bahrami et al, 2010;Kameda et al, 2011) and their effectiveness may differ.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Iterative problem solving in teams: insights from an agent-based simulation

Martynov

Abdelzaher

2016

Team Performance Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate the effect of knowledge overlap, search width and problem complexity on the quality of problem-solving in teams that use the majority rule to aggregate heterogeneous knowledge of the team members. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses agent-based simulations to model iterative problem-solving by teams. The simulation results are analyzed using linear regressions to show the interactions among the variables in the model. Findings – We find that knowledge overlap, search width and problem complexity interact to jointly impact the optimal solution in the iterative problem-solving process of teams using majority rule decisions. Interestingly, we find that more complex problems require less knowledge overlap. Search width and knowledge overlap act as substitutes, weakening each other’s performance effects. Research limitations/implications – The results suggest that team performance in iterative problem-solving depends on interactions among knowledge overlap, search width and problem complexity which need to be jointly examined to reflect realistic team dynamics. Practical implications – The findings suggest that team formation and the choice of a search strategy should be aligned with problem complexity. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature on problem-solving in teams. It is the first attempt to use agent-based simulations to model complex problem-solving in teams. The results have both theoretical and practical significance.

show abstract

Diversity and Communication in Teams: Improving Problem-Solving or Creating Confusion?

Cited by 14 publications

References 49 publications

A Complex Adaptive Systems Approach to Real-Life Team Interaction Patterns, Task Context, Information Sharing, and Effectiveness

A Complex Adaptive Systems Approach to Real-Life Team Interaction Patterns, Task Context, Information Sharing, and Effectiveness

The Impact of Communications Methods on Team’s Productivity and Performance - Oil and Gas case study

Iterative problem solving in teams: insights from an agent-based simulation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About