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AbstractIn this study, we analysed the effects of team leadership style and magnitude of change on team behavioural interaction patterns (TBIPs) and performance in teams coping with unexpected task changes. Sixty‐seven 3‐person teams took part in a computer‐based fire‐fighting simulation task and were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions resulting from our 2 (leadership style: directive vs. empowering) × 2 (magnitude of change: high vs. low) longitudinal factorial design. Our results showed that empowering‐led teams tend to display more TBIPs than directive‐led teams. Through discontinuous random coefficient growth modelling, we observed that prechange TBIPs negatively affect teams' transition adaptation. However, postchange TBIPs were beneficial for teams' reacquisition adaptation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

In this article, we build on theories of team adaptation by exploring the role of team members' cognitive knowledge structures in team adaptation to a changing task context. We introduce the notion of mental model updating as the extent to which team members update their mental models in reaction to a change in the task situation. In a laboratory study we investigate the relations between initial mental model similarity and accuracy, team mental model updating, the development of novel interaction patterns, and postchange team performance. The results indicate that mental model updating is positively related to postchange team performance. Also, team adaptation patterns accounted for the effect of mental model updating on postchange team performance. We did not find evidence for a positive relation between initial mental model similarity and accuracy and mental model updating.

Drawing on the concept of requisite complexity, we propose that mental model complexity is crucial for teams to thrive in dynamic complex environments. Using a longitudinal research design, we examined the influence of team mental model complexity on team information search and performance trajectories in a sample of 64 teams competing in a business strategy simulation over time. We found that team information search positively influences performance growth over time. More specifically, and consistent with requisite complexity, we found that mental model complexity positively influences both performance growth and information search over time, above and beyond the effects of mental model similarity and accuracy.

Here, we report a longitudinal experiment testing the combined effects of leadership style and the magnitude of the disruption on team adaptive performance over time. We hypothesized that teams led by a directive leader would outperform teams led by an empowering leader when task conditions do not change (pre-change), while teams with an empowering leader would outperform teams with a directive leader under changing task conditions (post-change), especially when task changes are high in magnitude. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a 2 (leadership: directive/empowering) x 2 (magnitude of the disruption: low/high) experiment with repeated measures of team performance before and after the change occurred. Sixty-seven three-member teams participated in a computer-based firefighting simulation. Evidence from discontinuous growth modeling partially supported our hypotheses by showing that before the task change, directively led teams outperformed teams led by an empowering leader. After the task change, however, directively led teams still outperformed teams with empowering leaders. The magnitude of the disruption had a significant main effect on team adaptive performance but did not significantly moderate the effect of leadership style. Implications for the team adaptation literature and the management of teams under complex, changing conditions are discussed.

We assess the relative value of participative and directive leadership for improving the accuracy and speed of decision-making in crisis management teams, contingent on whether teams face an emergency that is familiar or unfamiliar to them. Testing our theory, using randomized experiments, with 72 teams tasked with managing simulated crises, we found that participative leadership improves decision accuracy in unfamiliar emergencies, whereas directive leadership improves accuracy in familiar crises; directive leadership produces speedier decisions than participative leadership when the team is familiar with the crisis. We discuss implications of our findings for leaders and crisis management experts.

Research has demonstrated the value of team adaptation for organizational teams. However, empirical work on interventions that teams can take to increase adaptive team performance is scarce. In response, this study proposes a concept mapping intervention as a way to increase teams' ability to adapt following a task change. Particularly, this study examines the effect of a concept mapping intervention on team transition adaptation (the drop in performance after a change) and reacquisition adaptation (the slope of performance after the change) via its effect on task mental models and transactive memory systems. We conducted a longitudinal experimental study of 44 three-person teams working on an emergency management simulation. Findings suggest that the concept mapping intervention promotes reacquisition adaptation, task mental models, and transactive memory systems. Results also suggest that task mental models mediate the effect of the concept mapping intervention on reacquisition adaptation. A post hoc analysis suggests that the concept mapping intervention is only effective if it leads to high task mental model accuracy. Our study presents concept mapping as a practical intervention to promote shared cognition and reacquisition adaptation.