Getting the Knack for Team-Improvised Adaptation: The Role of Reflexivity and Team Mental Model Similarity

Abstract

Organizational teams operate in increasingly volatile environments in which the speed and degree of change accelerates, demanding rapid adaptation processes namely of the improvisational type. It is therefore essential to understand how to prepare teams to operate in such contexts. This work investigates the effects of team mental model similarity, in-action reflexivity, and transitional reflexivity on team-improvised adaptation performance and on team-improvised adaptation learning. Two experiments were conducted with a total of 121 teams. We manipulated the independent variables and used an overtime design to measure team-improvised adaptation learning. Our findings suggest that teams operating in unpredictable environments that require rapid adaptation should be able to reflect collectively, both while acting and between tasks. These teams should also develop a common understanding of the main elements of the context and the task, so that they are effective in the face of unpredictability and rapid change.

Sharing time and goals in dyads: how shared tenure and goal interdependence influence perceived shared mental models

“…Secondly, given that we found a link between perceived SMM similarity and dyadic performance, practitioners might want to facilitate the development of perceived SMMs. This can, for example, be done via cross-training (Marks et al , 2002) as this would improve mutual understanding between both team members, via a concept mapping intervention (Santos et al , 2021), as this would allow the dyadic partners to share and integrate important information, or via reflexivity, drawing on shared reflection on successes and failures to integrate information from feedback processes (Abrantes et al , 2022; Gabelica et al , 2014). This would serve not only to develop SMMs but also raise individuals’ awareness of their SMMs, thus enabling them to draw on their SMMs to predict one another’s behaviour and function better together.…”

Looking at Team Improvised Adaptation Through a Paradoxical Lens: The Role of Team Plasticity

“…For that purpose, they can reflect while they act or implement small reflection breaks. When teams integrate thinking and acting into TIA episodes, they increase the likelihood of achieving better performance because they are able to optimize the task at hand (Abrantes et al, 2021; Schmutz & Eppich, 2017). Moreover, the reflection that takes place during action also gives sense retrospectively to the improvised actions (Weick, 1998).…”

“…These moments also allow members to coordinate better and to exercise backup actions. These are also moments that enable team members to intersperse action with collective reflection, which allows for the delineation of alternative solutions and the eventual adjustment of the course of action (Abrantes et al, 2021).…”

The skills that help employees adapt: Empirical validation of a four-category framework

“…Christian et al [17] propose that team process and other emergent states will vary as a function of the event (adaptive stimulus) the team is adapting to, which can vary in origin (internal or external to the organization) and duration (temporary or sustained). More recent work on team adaptation has begun to empirically test various aspects of the process, such as transactive memory systems and implicit coordination [21], the different phases of team adaptation [22], shared team mental models [e.g., 23], in-action team reflection [24], and how team leadership interacts with team behavioral interaction patterns [25].…”