Two studies involving 107 undergraduate and 54 MBA teams were conducted to examine the effects of personal values on the performance of individual team members and on the performance of the team as a whole. Values with clear relevance to teams and to work were selected for the studies. To capture the relative importance of these values, they were measured within the context of a broader set of personal values. At the individual level, the importance students ascribed a sense of accomplishment had a significant, but unexpected negative, relationship with individual peer-evaluated performance. Students' prior performance outside their teams had a stronger positive relationship with in-team performance than did their personal values. At the team level, the average importance team members assigned the value of equality had a positive relationship with team performance.The average level of students' prior performance was also related to team performance, but the average importance given to the value equality was a stronger predictor of this fundamental team outcome. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.
This dissertation addresses teamwork with the tools of economics in three specialized settings--I examine (1) how teams form under discrimination, (2) what shareholders can accomplish for themselves and society when operating as group that they cannot as individuals, and (3) ethnicity's role in the performance of pairings between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Adverse Selection in Team Formation under Discrimination The decision to be an entrepreneur or an employee is among the most consequential any individual will ever face. Does race or gender influence that choice? Could discrimination affect occupational performance? Several empirical studies on occupational segregation suggest (1) minorities are more likely to choose (or be chosen for) occupations in which teamwork plays a minimal role and (2) that minorities excel in these individualistic positions. Teamwork and discrimination are fundamentally linked because while teamwork can be synergistic, it obscures team members' individual contributions: managers can try to infer unobservable individual contribution from observable characteristics like race or sex. Thus, a talented minority worker should choose entrepreneurship or other occupation where his individual accomplishments cannot easily be attributed to others, if doing so will make him better off. Could this self-selection sustain discrimination even if managers paid workers proportional to their expected ability; that is, according to their merit? This paper shows that it can. Furthermore, among those choosing to work as entrepreneurs or in other individualistic occupations, discrimination victims outperform beneficiaries. Since beliefs about discrimination influence which teams forms, discriminatory equilibria may be more productive than egalitarianism--the implications are discussed. The model presented here distinguishes itself in a rich literature on statistical discrimination, by explaining empirically observed behavior that has not yet been addressed, elucidating why the prescriptions derived from extant model have had limited success, and by enabling the analysis of additional forms of discrimination. Social Responsibility of Firms beyond Profits Corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditures are often seen as a perquisite of the manager at shareholder expense or an indirect form of profit maximization. The former explanation creates an agency puzzle and ethical dilemma--who should/do managers work for? Empirical support for the latter explanation is mixed, at best. I highlight another possibility consistent with recent findings that absentee managed plants in the US emit more toxins, on average, than other plants (Grant, Jones and Trautner 2010). I develop a model in which a manager who maximizes shareholder welfare will optimally engage in CSR that leaves shareholders with less money. Furthermore, no behavioral motives, such as "warm glow" are required--instead, the familiar public economics framework of pure altruism is used; i.e. shareholders care only about their own private material consumption and their own private benefit from public goods, like clean air. In this framework, (1) a manager will provision more public goods, say by supporting environmental causes, from the profits of the firm than if the manager distributed all profits to shareholders as dividends and left shareholders to contribute in a decentralized manner on their own. (2) If the firm generates negative externalities, like pollution, the firm always produces less than the profit maximizing output. (3) If shareholders would have their manager contribute anything at all to the public good at the socially optimal level of production, the firm will, in fact, produce the socially optimal quantity and provision the public good, without intervention by a social planner. Thus, when this condition holds, government regulation to control the quantity produced by firms can do no better for society than a manager who works only on behalf of her shareholders. Reasons why this condition may be expected to hold in many real world settings are discussed. (4) Finally, when this condition holds, decreasing marginal production costs increase public goods as much as decreasing marginal externalities. This neutrality result implies that government subsidization of technology, which improves the cost-effectiveness of production, may yield cleaner air than subsidization of less polluting technology, if the former is cheaper to develop. The model also yields a number of distinct empirically testable hypotheses, including that, all else being equal, more widely held firms will engage in greater CSR than more closely held firms. At a broader level, the model reveals not only a novel explanation for costly CSR but that making managers more accountable to shareholders confers a social benefit. Can Birds of a Feather Fly Together?--Evidence for the Economic Payoffs of Ethnic Homophily How do ethnic networks influence venture capitalists' choice of companies to invest in, and the performance of the investments? We investigate this question by using data on the ethnic origins of over 22,000 U.S.-based V.C. partners and the 98,000 top-level executives of the startup companies they invested in during the years 1991-2010. We construct measures of "ethnic distance" for each potential VC-company pair and find that after controlling for the sorting of ethnic groups into certain industries and geographic areas, a 1% decrease in ethnic distance for the pair increases the probability of investment by up to 0.05%. Evidence for the influence of ethnicity is particularly strong during early-rounds of investment when information costs of the relationship are high, and for ethnic populations associated with "collectivist" cultures such as Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Conditional on investment, a 1% increase in ethnic closeness increases the probability that the portfolio company advances to successive rounds (the effect being strongest for the early rounds), and the probability of successful exits through IPO by 0.6-1.2%. This translates to a striking estimated ex ante increase in IRR between 7% and 15% for the average VC. We conclude that co-ethnic networks have a profound economic influence on venture investments.
Multioperator tasks often require complex cognitive processing at the team level. Many team cognitive processes, such as situation assessment and coordination, are thought to rely on team knowledge. Team knowledge is multifaceted and comprises relatively generic knowledge in the form of team mental models and more specific team situation models. In this methodological review paper, we review recent efforts to measure team knowledge in the context of mapping specific methods onto features of targeted team knowledge. Team knowledge features include type, homogeneity versus heterogeneity, and rate of knowledge change. Measurement features include knowledge elicitation method, team metric, and aggregation method. When available, we highlight analytical conclusions or empirical data that support a connection between team knowledge and measurement method. In addition, we present empirical results concerning the relation between team knowledge and performance for each measurement method and identify research and methodological needs. Addressing issues surrounding the measurement of team knowledge is a prerequisite to understanding team cognition and its relation to team performance and to designing training programs or devices to facilitate team cognition.
Environmental permitting for transportation projects is complex and time consuming. Communication and sharing of information between permitting agency staff can be inefficient, partially due to staff location in different geographic areas. The establishment of a Multi-Agency Permitting (MAP) Team is a project to demonstrate the advantages of co-locating regulatory staff from multiple agencies in a common office to enhance interpersonal communication and interagency coordination. Effective communication early in project development is key to risk identification and project management and consequently, maintaining the planned schedule and budget. The purpose of the MAP Team is to cooperatively process environmental permits for Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) transportation projects while protecting natural resources in the public interest. Participating agencies hope to demonstrate the efficiency and cost effectiveness of this new concept of focused governmental cooperation. The primary goal is to provide thorough, expedited review of permit applications to ensure that transportation projects are consistent with environmental regulations and agency agreements and policies. Project overview and methodology The State of Washington is investing in strategies intended to streamline environmental regulatory and permit processes. The creation of the MAP Team is one such strategic investment that is designed to demonstrate how WSDOT and regulatory agencies can work together to meet transportation and environmental goals. The MAP Team charter agencies include: WSDOT, Washington State Department of Ecology, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, United States Army Corps of Engineers, and King County Department of Development and Environmental Services. MAP Team members are co-located together a minimum of one day a week at the Department of Ecology's Northwest Regional Office in Bellevue. The MAP Team concept is being tested on approximately 52 transportation projects primarily in western Washington. The MAP Team has been up and running since early November 2003 and is scheduled through June of 2007. After initially defining how to work together, the team began communicating with their customer base in an attempt to make permitting processes more consistent and predictable. The MAP Team has been using this feedback to initiate streamlining opportunities to: define complete application(s), create early project coordination and MAP Team permit processes, identify improvement opportunities within each agency, and to create model business practices that will use existing project experiences to deliver future projects. These investments in early project coordination are being tracked through eight performance measures. The MAP Team model is based on developing a foundation of trust and open communication between a diverse, highly capable group of decision makers from the five agencies. This formula provides an accountable, transparent process that is able to identify risks and opportunities and to address and avoid conflicts early, thereby achieving permit decisions in a predictable and timely manner. Current results To date, the MAP Team has been involved in reviewing permits for over 25 transportation projects. The MAP Team work is being evaluated against a number of performance standards. These include permit processing time, baseline comparisons, agency investments, initiating change, conflict resolution, and meeting customer expectations. Evaluation of these performance standards will be used to determine the success of the MAP Team concept. Recommendations for the future Based on the initial stakeholder feedback from this pilot project, the MAP Team business model appears to be a good investment toward the delivery of transportation improvement projects. Because of this feedback, the MAP Team pilot project, which was to sunset in June 2005, was extended to June 30, 2007. After further evaluation, it is possible that Washington State may institute the MAP Team concept as a permanent business practice with the potential for growth in other transportation, intergovernmental, and private venture applications.
ABSTRACTKnowledge integration is critical to achieving both objective and subjective team effectiveness goals. Integrating knowledge resources, however, is a challenging activity for teams. Converging the theories of team goal orientation and knowledge integration, in this study we examine how team goal orientation impacts a team's internal knowledge integration, and how knowledge integration, in turn, affects multiple dimensions of team effectiveness. Data were collected from 90 self‐directed teams engaged in an extended business simulation, where each team acted as a top management team of a business firm. Results indicated that both learning and performance‐prove goal orientations positively influenced team knowledge integration, and knowledge integration impacted both objective and subjective dimensions of team effectiveness. We also found partial support for a mediating role of internal knowledge integration. The study recommends a goal orientation approach to integrating knowledge in teams and proposes that this approach has significant implications for both research and practice.
Team Building is an important issue for Youth Development professionals. We utilize team-focused work to achieve our objectives in educating youth. The team building skills we integrate into programming serve to prepare youth for the dynamic, highly interpersonal work environment of today. "Team Building: Proven Strategies for Improving Team Performance, 4th Edition," by W. Dyer, W.G. Dyer, and J. Dyer (2007), provides a practical theoretical framework for those interested in team building application, training, and practice in everyday work.
The social identity approach to stress proposes that the beneficial effects of social identification develop through individual and group processes, but few studies have addressed both levels simultaneously. Using a multilevel person–environment fit framework, we investigate the group-level relationship between team identification (TI) and exhaustion, the individual-level relationship for people within a group, and the cross-level moderation effect to test whether individual-level exhaustion depends on the level of (in)congruence in TI between individuals and their group as a whole. We test our hypotheses in a sample of 525 employees from 82 teams. Multilevel polynomial regression analysis revealed a negative linear relationship between individual-level identification and exhaustion. Surprisingly, the relation between group-level identification and exhaustion was curvilinear, indicating that group-level identification was more beneficial at low and high levels compared with medium levels. As predicted, the cross-level moderation of the individual-level relationship by group-level identification was also significant, showing that as individuals became more incongruent in a positive direction (i.e., they identified more strongly than the average team member), they reported less exhaustion, but only if the group-level identification was average or high. These results emphasize the benefits of analyzing TI in a multilevel framework, with both theoretical and practical implications.
Complexity comes from dramatic structural changes to organizations and governments such as globalization, global competition, workforce diversity, and continual innovations. Complex adaptive systems (CAS) are organizations that are a composite of the interconnected whole. Teams must manage and operate in emerging ecosystems, understand factors that lead to team effectiveness when managing and facilitating teams and team conflict, and understand the development of conflict models. This chapter provides an overview of teams, CAS, conflict stages, and conflict models. This chapter presents adaptive leadership as one leadership style that offers organizations with the capabilities of reacting to changing environments quickly. Adaptive leadership offers a prescriptive approach for managers and leaders to follow when dealing with organizational conflict while operating in today's complex and global environment.
The dramatically changing landscape of teams -- 3-D team leadership -- The first dimension : the "I's" in teams -- The second dimension : the team as a whole -- The third dimension: subteams -- Knowing when to focus on what in your team -- 3-D team leadership across cultures -- 3-D team leadership in virtual teams -- What it takes to be a 3-D team leader -- Assessing your 3-D team leadership skills
Background Within critical care, it is necessary to have an awareness ofwhat is going on in order to be able to make the right decision at the right time.Situation awareness (SA) is a non-technical skill (NTS) that is important instressful, complex environments such as the intensive care unit (ICU).Deficiencies in NTS are well known to impact performance and thereby causeadverse events. More knowledge about how background factors are associatedto team performance and explore critical care team members experiencesteamwork are of importance to develop models for improving teamwork. Aneducational intervention aiming to improve SA during critical events might bevaluable to improve the performance of interprofessional teams. For this,instruments for assessment of SA and NTS are needed. Aim The aim of this thesis was to test different instruments for measuringSA, team performance and task performance for feasibility and reliability; to investigate the relationship between team background characteristics, teamperformance and task performance; to evaluate an educational programme inSA for intensive care teams; and to explore team members' experience ofteamwork. Methods This thesis was based on data from 69 different video-recordedteam training sessions with a simulator as a patient (studies I–III) and ninefocus group interviews (Study IV). In Study I, the participants were 55 medicalstudents, and the sessions took place at a clinical training centre. Theparticipants in Study II (n=105) and III (n=75) were ICU staff members fromtwo different hospitals, and the sessions took place in situ at the respectiveICUs. In Study III, the participants were randomized into control orintervention group, where the intervention group received an educationalintervention comprising lectures and reflective discussions. The control grouponly performed team training without lectures and reflective discussions. Thetraining sessions were analysed with a focus on team and task performanceusing the TEAM instrument and the ABCDE checklist, respectively. Inaddition, a questionnaire (SAGAT) was used to assess individuals' SA (StudyI and III). The data in Study I–III were quantitatively analysed. In Study IV,focus group interviews with staff members (n= 31) from the ICUs wereanalysed using qualitative content analysis. Results The findings in Study I showed that SAGAT was feasible to use andthat the inter-rater reliability for the ABCDE checklist and the TEAMinstrument indicated sufficient stability. In Study II, higher age wasassociated with several aspects of good team performance such as teamwork,task management, team overall and total team. Prior team training withoutvideo was associated with better task performance, while prior education incommunication was negatively associated with leadership. In Study III, theresults demonstrated that the educational intervention improved theperformance of the intervention group in the TEAM subscales of leadershipand task management, as well as in the total score. In Study IV, the mainfinding presented as a theme was balancing knowledge and behaviour inteamwork. The interviews revealed three categories of aspects that facilitatevor act as barriers to teamwork: (1) having potential for excellence while copingwith members who do not act as team players; (2) creating a safe atmospherewhile working in an unknown environment and struggling to maintain one'spositions; and (3) being in a workflow without becoming overwhelmed. Conclusions By implementing an educational programme focusing on SA,different parts of interprofessional team performance could be improved. Foroptimal interprofessional teamwork in the ICU, both knowledge andbehaviours were essential components. For the studies in this thesis, thedifferent instruments used were both feasible and reliable. High age wasrelated to good team and task performance, indicating that generic factors thatis associated with age might influence team and task performance.This thesis will probably contribute to a safer care of seriously ill patients at ICU. ; Att veta vad som händer vid akuta situationer inom intensivvård av svårt sjuka eller skadade är nödvändigt för att kunna ta rätt beslut vid rätt tidpunkt. Arbetsmiljön på intensivvårdsavdelningar (IVA) beskrivs därför som komplex och kräver välutbildad och erfaren personal. Brister i icke-tekniska färdigheter är ett problem i hälso- och sjukvården och inte minst inom intensivvården. Bristerna påverkar kvalitén i utförandet och orsakar vårdskador. Utifrån erfarenhet och kunskap inom flygindustrin har icketekniska färdigheter börjat komma i fokus inom akutsjukvård och intensivvård. En viktig del i icke-tekniska färdigheter ärsituationsmedvetenhet (eng; situation awareness, SA) och under de senaste årtiondena har modeller för SA och teamarbete utvecklats. I dagsläget finns endast ett fåtal studier som specifikt utvärderar utbildning i SA i interprofessionella team, in situ och med hjälp av simulering. Föreliggandeavhandling har därför fokus på interprofessionella IVA-team, SA och teamprestation och förmåga att hantera och genomföra arbetsuppgifter. Avhandlingen omfattar fyra delarbeten. För att genomföra studie II och III krävdes en initial studie (studie I) vars syfte var att kvalitetssäkra tre mätmetoder avseende användbarhet och reliabilitet: dels en teknik för att mäta situationsmedvetenhet (SAGAT), dels ett instrument för att mäta teamets prestation (TEAM instrument) och dels en checklista för att mäta teamets förmåga att hantera arbetsuppgifter (ABCDE checklist). Därefter analyserades relationen mellan teamets bakgrundskaraktäristika och teamets prestation och hantering av arbetsuppgifter (studie II). I studie III utvärderades ett utbildningsprogram med fokus på SA inklusive simuleringsövningar in situ. För att få en djupare förståelse för fenomenet teamarbete inom IVA, genomfördes en intervjustudie där tre personalgrupper som vanligen ingår i IVA-team intervjuades med fokus på erfarenheter om teamarbete. Deltagarna i delstudie 1 var 55 läkarstudenter på termin sju som fördelades i 23 team. De två följande delstudierna (II och III) omfattade undersköterskor (n=30), sjuksköterskor (n=49) och läkare (n=26) som arbetade vid två intensivvårdsavdelningar vid två olika sjukhus i norra Sverige. Deltagarna i studie III delades slumpmässigt in i 11 team (interventionsgrupp) respektive 9 team (kontrollgrupp). I delstudie IV deltog 31 individer från delstudie II och III fördelade på nio fokusgrupper. Interventionen i delstudie III utgjordes av ett kort utbildningsprogram med fokus på att förstå betydelsen av situationsmedvetenhet i teamarbete samt hur den kan uppnås. Den första delen av utbildningen var webbaserad med korta lektioner om situationsmedvetenhet och samarbete varvat med instuderingsuppgifter och reflektionsfrågor. Deltagarna genomförde utbildningen individuellt en vecka före teamträningstillfället. Teamträningstillfället för interventionsgruppen inleddes med en reflektionstimme där olika reaktioner från webutbildningen diskuterades med fokus på hur de olika begreppen skulle omsättas i praktiken. Därefter genomförde teamet ett patientscenario in situ, på en intensivvårdsplats. Efter scenariet återsamlades teamet för en andra reflektion med fokus på hur teamet kan åstadkomma och bibehålla hög situationsmedvetenhet för att gemensamt kunna fatta rätt beslut. Teamträningen avslutades med ytterligare ett patientscenario in situ. Kontrollgruppen teamtränade utan att ha genomfört webutbildningen, utan reflektionen före scenario nummer ett, samt att reflektionen efter scenario nummer ett genomfördes utan specifikt fokus på situationsmedvetenhet. Vid datainsamlingen till studie I-III genomförde deltagarna teamövningar innefattande olika scenarier med svårt sjuk patient (SimMan, en avancerad patientsimulator). Samtliga teamövningar videofilmades och analyserades avseende teamets samarbete och genomförande av arbetsuppgifter. I studie I och III mättes deltagarnas situationsmedvetenhet med frågeformulär under scenariet. Ett kort uppehåll gjordes där deltagarna svarade på frågor. En vecka efter avslutad övning fick deltagarna i studie I besvara en enkät om hur avbrottet påverkat det pågående scenariet. Data från dessa tre första studier analyserades med hjälp av statistiska metoder. Datainsamlingen till studie IV genomfördes med fokusgruppsintervjuer. Intervjuerna ljudinspelades och analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultatet från studie I visade att det fanns en god samstämmighet mellan de fyra bedömare som skattade teamets prestation. Med hjälp av ett frågeformulär angav studenterna att tekniken som användes för att mäta teamets situationsmedvetenhet var användbart och användarvänligt. Resultatet i delstudie II visade att det fanns ett positivt samband mellan genomsnittlig ålder och teamets övergripande prestation och samarbete, samt hur teamet prioriterade och hanterade arbetsuppgifter. Vidare visade resultatet att tidigare erfarenhet av att ha tränat i team också innebar bättre förmåga att hantera arbetsuppgifterna. Däremot visade analyserna att tidigare utbildning i kommunikation också innebar sämre ledarskap. Huvudresultatet i denna avhandling visar på positiva skillnader i prestation hos team som fått utbildning med fokus på situationsmedvetenhet jämfört med kontrollgruppen som inte fått utbildning. De team som erhållit utbildning presterade bättre. Förbättringen kunde mätas i subskalorna ledarskap och prioritering av arbetsuppgifter. Inga skillnader kunde dock påvisas i situationsmedvetenhet eller i genomförande av arbetsuppgifter. I fokusgruppsintervjuerna (delstudie IV) beskrev deltagarna sina erfarenheter av teamarbetet i det interprofessionella teamet som bestod av både främjande och hindrande aspekter: 1) att ha potential för excellens och samtidigt hantera teammedlemmar som inte agerar som lagspelare, 2) att skapa en säker atmosfär och samtidigt arbeta i en okänd omgivning och kämpa för att upprätthålla sin position i teamet, samt 3) att vara i ett flöde av arbetsuppgifter utan att bli överbelastad. Av kategorierna framgår att fenomenet teamarbete handlar om att balansera kunskap och beteende vilket också bildade temat i delstudien. Deltagarna upplevde att det var viktigt att arbeta i en trygg miljö som präglades av respekt och stöd på intensivvårdsavdelningen men även när de arbetade på exempelvis akutmottagningen. Det framkom också att även om arbetet kunde upplevas stressigt och rörigt kunde det ändå finnas ett flyt. Sammantaget bidrar avhandlingens resultat till att visa att en utbildning med fokus på situationsmedvetenhet kan förbättra hur team inom intensivvården presterar. Vidare har balansen i kunskap och beteende lyfts fram som viktigt för samarbetet inom teamet. De instrument som använts för att mäta deltagarnas prestationer och situationsmedvetenhet var tillförlitliga och användbara i denna kontext. Slutligen fanns ett positivt samband mellan hög ålder och god teamprestation, samt till genomförande av arbetsuppgifter. Detta samband fanns inte till yrkeserfarenhet vilket antyder att det i bakgrunden skulle kunna finnas någon icke teknisk färdighet som samvarierar med ålder.
Sharing knowledge among team members is critical to accomplishing innovation. However, there are motivation and communication barriers to sharing knowledge in teams. In this study of 219 work teams, two mechanisms that have potential for encouraging knowledge sharing (social capital and extrinsic incentives) are examined as they relate to tacit knowledge sharing, explicit knowledge sharing, and team innovation. Tacit knowledge sharing mediated the relationships between cognitive social capital and team innovation as well as between explicit knowledge sharing and team innovation. Explicit knowledge sharing mediated the relationship between relational social capital and team innovation, while both forms of knowledge sharing mediated the relationship between extrinsic incentives for knowledge sharing and team innovation.
This paper studies whether team members' past collaboration creates team-specific human capital and influences current team performance. Using administrative Medicare claims for two heart procedures, I find that shared work experience between the doctor who performs the procedure ("proceduralist") and the doctors who provide care to the patient during the hospital stay for the procedure ("physicians") reduces patient mortality rates. A one standard deviation increase in proceduralist-physician shared work experience leads to a 10–14 percent reduction in patient 30-day mortality. Patient medical resource use also declines with shared work experience, even as survival improves. (JEL I10, J24, M12, M54)
