Measuring motivation for team science collaboration in health teams

Abstract

The Motivation Assessment for Team Readiness, Integration, and Collaboration (MATRICx) is a psychometric instrument that measures individual motivation for collaboration. It was validated using Rasch Analysis to create an indicator hierarchy on two dimensions: cooperation and collaboration. Six domains provide the basis for the tool to identify team member readiness for collaboration and a means by which to understand motivational strengths in a team based on degree of past self-reported experience. This brief report provides an overview of the development of the tool, how science teams may use it, and how to interpret results to advance team member readiness for greater collaboration. The paper also draws attention to ongoing work in progress to develop learning interventions to accompany the MATRICx instrument.

Similarities and differences in motivation in cross-disciplinary biomedical, policy, and education health science teams: a mixed methods comparative case study using the MATRICx

“…The MATRIC x tool measures motivators and is a unique metric to understand the role of motivation in KPTs (Hays, 2008; Lotrecchiano et al , 2020; Mallinson et al , 2016). It is a reliable and valid tool for measuring motivation that has been used across numerous health scientific teams (Mallinson et al , 2016).…”

“…The psychometric items used to build the MATRIC x tool were drawn from the literature from 1950 through 2013 dedicated to individual characteristics found in teaming from psychological, management, leadership, philosophy and social science scholarship. A subsequent scoping review and domain analysis explored the team science literature that considered intrapersonal indicators of collaboration as motivations and threats to participating in collaborative KPTs (Lotrecchiano, 2017; Lotrecchiano et al , 2020). From the work of Lotrecchiano and colleagues six domains of motivations and threats emerged and informed the MATRIC x tool and its conceptual model.…”

“…The MATRIC x quantifies a hierarchy of motivators for teamwork which are useful in understanding different degrees of engagement. Degrees of engagement are quantified on collaborative and cooperative scales (Lotrecchiano et al , 2020; Mallinson et al , 2016). Persons completing the MATRICx identify how easy or challenging it is to endorse each item (Figure 2, center).…”

Introduction to the themed issue on the design, development, evaluation, and dissemination of team science interventions in clinical and translational research

“…• Translational teams have team science needs that are specific to the characteristics of CTR, including needing techniques to deal with the challenges of increased interdisciplinarity, the engagement of community partners and other lay stakeholders, and the focus on the development of some sort of product (e.g., intervention, drug, device), which often intensifies intellectual property concerns. Furthermore, CTR teams have different needs at different points in that lifecycle, requiring a variety of interventions and ways to understand which interventions work in different contexts [7][8][9]. While most of the interventions described in this issue target early team stages, there is clearly a need for interventions throughout the lifecycle of a translational team.…”

“…Making them available "on demand" as teams encounter developmental challenges will be key to their adoption and effectiveness. Effective and systematic team assessments to help teams know which interventions to incorporate and when would be beneficial [9].…”