Team learning from setbacks: A study in the context of start‐up teams

Abstract

Although setbacks often happen as a collective experience, teams are an underresearched organizational unit when it comes to learning from setbacks. Despite the popular view that experiencing setbacks may facilitate learning, there are conflicting theoretical assumptions about the influence of setbacks on learning. Whereas one theoretical perspective in this topic area is in line with the proverbial learning from failure, a competing perspective argues that setbacks impede learning processes. This study aims to reconcile these conflicting assumptions by proposing team reflexivity as a moderator between team-experienced setbacks and team learning.Building on social cognitive theory, we develop a model of learning from experienced setbacks at the team level. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 57 start-up teams. Our results show that the effects of team-experienced setbacks differ depending on whether the focus is on affective reactions to or cognitive perceptions of the setback experience. Although the cognitive perception of setbacks generally shows a detrimental effect on team learning, the pattern of results for an affective reaction to setbacks is more complex: The relationship between negative affective reactions to setbacks and team learning is negative for teams with low reflexivity and positive for teams with high reflexivity.

The consequences of (not) seeing eye‐to‐eye about the past: The role of supervisor–team fit in past temporal focus for supervisors' leadership behavior

“…Shipp and colleagues have introduced the notion that an individual's temporal focus may change as a result of critical events and experiences. A supervisor who faces a traumatic work event (e.g., Yuan et al, ) or a team experiencing repeated performance setbacks (e.g., Rauter, Weiss, & Hoegl, ), for example, may subsequently alter their temporal focus. Examining such events in both field and laboratory settings may help to better comprehend the potentially dynamic nature of supervisor–team past temporal focus incongruence and its leadership consequences.…”

Tell Me How You Got Those Numbers: A Review of the Methodology Section

“…Here, Raykov (2004) highlighted the advantages of using SEM: "The approach provides both point and interval estimates of scale reliability, and in addition allows one to examine measurement DOI: 10.1002/piq Performance Improvement Quarterly and reliability invariance across independent or related groups" (p. 314). In other studies, Rauter, Weiss, and Hoegl (2018) identified the statistical technique while providing advantages of the techniques used. They utilized multiple-regression analysis with interactions.…”

Are goals scored just before halftime worth more? An old soccer wisdom statistically tested

“…There is indeed an emotional impact of performance outcomes, and this impact is processed and stored differently when it is considered during a break and when there is no subsequent break, but rather continued effort without close interaction of team and coach. The gain in motivation for a team that has just received positive feedback through scoring a goal can indeed lead to improved performance and a win through a cognitive confirmation bias or through conservation of emotions [5][6][7][8]. This finding is important theoretically because there is yet little work on how such motivational effects linger under some circumstances and dissipate under other circumstances.…”