Team Workload in Action Teams: Exploring the Impact of Interdependence

Abstract

Team workload is a team-level construct considered similar to, but not reducible to, individual workload and mediated by team coordination. Despite this, the conceptualization and measurement of team workload in action teams lags behind that of individual workload. In most empirical studies, team workload is often simply considered as the sum or average of individual team members’ workload. However, unique characteristics of action teams, such as interdependence and heterogeneity, suggest that traditional approaches to conceptualizing and measuring team workload may be inadequate or even misleading. As such, innovative approaches are required to accurately capture this complex construct. This paper presents the development of a simulation designed to investigate the influence of interdependence and demand levels on team workload measures within a 3-person action-team command and control scenario. Preliminary results, which suggest that our manipulations are effective, are provided and discussed.