Relationships among team ability composition, team mental models, and team performance.

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between the similarity and accuracy of team mental models and compared the extent to which each predicted team performance. The relationship between team ability composition and team mental models was also investigated. Eighty-three dyadic teams worked on a complex skill task in a 2-week training protocol. Results indicated that although similarity and accuracy of team mental models were significantly related, accuracy was a stronger predictor of team performance. In addition, team ability was more strongly related to the accuracy than to the similarity of team mental models and accuracy partially mediated the relationship between team ability and team performance, but similarity did not.

Building the infrastructure: The effects of role identification behaviors on team cognition development and performance.

“…During team compilation, teams turn their focus to task completion, adaptation, and process improvement, relying on their cognitions to smoothly coordinate their efforts and knowledge, refine the flow of work, and continuously improve performance. Teams that have developed accurate mental models through role identification behaviors are better able to communicate and integrate their efforts, performing their shared task more quickly and effectively (e.g., Edwards et al, 2006;Marks et al, 2000). Similarly, as a team's transactive memory system emerges through role identification exchanges, it enhances team performance by allowing members to efficiently divide responsibility and reduce their cognitive load, while remaining able to coordinate the sharing of expertise (e.g., Austin, 2003;Ellis, 2006;Lewis, 2003;Moreland & Myaskovsky, 2000).…”

“…For example, teams may exhibit highly similar mental models that are highly inaccurate. Additionally, for tasks that entail a discrete set of information or optimal strategies, accuracy may serve as a better predictor of team performance than similarity (e.g., Edwards et al, 2006;Ellis, 2006). Therefore, because we are interested in how members' understanding of their teammates' roles develops and acts to positively influence team performance, we focus on the accuracy of team members' team-interaction mental models.…”

“…Because previous researchers have suggested that team cognitive ability (e.g., Edwards et al, 2006) and learning goal orientation (e.g., Bunderson & Sutcliffe, 2003) may be related to the team learning and adaptation associated with cognitive development in teams, we measured and controlled for both. Team cognitive ability was assessed by participant self-reports of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores (e.g., LePine, Hollenbeck, Ilgen, & Hedlund, 1997).…”

“…Although significant research has focused on exploring the potential benefits of these two cognitions on outcomes such as team performance and satisfaction (e.g., Austin, 2003;Edwards, Day, Arthur, & Bell, 2006;Ellis, 2006;Lewis, 2003;Pearsall & Ellis, 2006) as well as identifying their potential antecedents (e.g., Marks, Zaccaro, & Mathieu, 2000;Marks, Sabella, Burke, & Zaccaro, 2002), the processes and developmental phases underlying their emergence in newly formed teams have yet to be explored (e.g., Ilgen et al, 2005;Kozlowski & Bell, 2003;Lim & Klein, 2006;Mohammed & Dumville, 2001). It is clear that shared cognition does not develop automatically; it requires team members to engage in purposeful interpersonal interactions directed towards understanding their teammates' roles and capabilities (see Kozlowski, Gully, Nason & Smith, 1999;Lewis, Lange, & Gillis, 2005).…”

“…Mental models provide team members with a heuristic that can help them interpret information in a similar manner (Hinsz, Tindale, & Vollrath, 1997), enabling them to coordinate their diverse skills and to "describe, explain, and predict events" (Burke, Stagl, Salas, Pierce, & Kendall, 2006, p. 1199 when completing complex tasks. Teams with welldeveloped models are able to anticipate each other's actions, accurately assess a situation, and quickly integrate their behaviors (e.g., Edwards et al, 2006;Marks et al, 2002).…”