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ABSTRACT The United States Army currently uses after action reviews (AARs) to give personnel feedback on their performance. However, due to the growing use of geographically distributed teams, the traditional AAR, with participants and a moderator in the same room, is becoming difficult; therefore, distributed AARs are becoming a necessity. However, distributed AARs have not been thoroughly researched. To determine what type of distributed AARs would best facilitate team training in distributed Army operations, feedback media platforms must be compared. This research compared three types of AARs, which are no AAR, teleconference AAR, and teleconference AAR with visual feedback, to determine if there are learning differences among these conditions. Participants completed three search missions and received feedback between missions from one of these conditions. Multiple ANOVAs were conducted to compare these conditions and trials. Results showed that overall the teleconference AAR with visual feedback improved performance the most. A baseline, or no AAR, resulted in the second highest improvement, and the teleconference condition resulted in the worst overall performance. This study has implications for distributed military training and feedback, as well as other domains that use distributed training and feedback. ; 2008-12-01 ; Ph.D. ; Sciences, Department of Psychology ; Doctorate ; This record was generated from author submitted information.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation between team political skill, i.e., the mean level of political skill among team members, and team performance. Specifically, it proposes that the link between team political skill and team performance is ambiguous and contingent upon a common professional background as well as collective team commitment within the team. Design/methodology/approach - Data from 45 service teams with 295 team members and their supervisors were analyzed. Hypotheses were tested using OLS regression. Findings - The results show that a common professional background and collective team commitment serve as crucial contingencies for the relationship between team political skill and team performance. Research limitations/implications - This study complements previous individual-level research demonstrating a positive relation between political skill and relevant outcomes by highlighting that the link between team political skill and team performance is ambiguous and contingent upon other team characteristics. Practical implications - To enhance team performance, managers should carefully consider the interplay between team political skill and other team characteristics when making staffing decisions. Originality/value - The study highlights the relation of political skill with team performance and points to a potential downside of political skill in organizations.

Although Jordan suffered from violent attacks since the 1970s, radicalization as a major issue emerged in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks and Amman Hotels attacks in 2005. At the same time, Jordanians have suffered for long decades from the lack of economic prosperity, unemployment, unequal opportunities, widespread corruption, nepotism, lack of respect for the rule of law and the failure of the government to prevent such injustices. This has fostered insecurity among Jordanians, especially the youth, creating a dangerous and vulnerable social and political environment. The latter raised the government and the public opinion's awareness of the danger of radical movements in the country and led to the adoption of several legal measures to tackle radicalisation and terrorism. However, it has become clear that an exclusively legal approach is not sufficient and since 2005 civil society has been urged to take part in countering extremism. Awareness programs, workshops, and trainings have been organised, but they do not seem to help much, especially because they often lack a strategic vision.

The critical dependence of armed forces on teams carrying out tasks in a continuously changing, uncertain and often dangerous environment, raises questions about how to better understand factors that enable or hamper effective team learning. So far there is no developed field of research into team learning in the Swedish Armed Forces. This is the first of several studies within the Swedish Armed Forces to explore and gain a better understanding of team learning. In this first study of team learning we followed a military staff exercise. The theoretical base in this study is Amy Edmondson's theoretical model for studying and analyzing team learning. The model consists of context support, team leader coaching, team psychology safety and team learning behavior. The results of this study supports the theoretical model of team learning and describe factors that are important for creating good conditions for team learning behavior.

Women's representation on corporate boards, political committees, and other teams is increasing, in part because of legal mandates. Data on team dynamics and gender differences in preferences (risk-taking behavior, taste for competition, prosocial behavior) show how gender composition influences group decision-making and subsequent performance through channels such as investment decisions, internal management, corporate governance, and social responsibility.

Women's representation on corporate boards, political committees, and other decision-making teams is increasing, this is in part because of legal mandates. Evidence on team dynamics and gender differences in preferences (for example, risk-taking behavior, taste for competition, prosocial behavior) shows how gender composition influences group decision-making and subsequent performance. This works through channels such as investment decisions, internal management, corporate governance, and social responsibility.

This paper examines trust in global military teams. The relationship between perceived levels of trust and efficiency in working in virtual military teams is investigated. The issue of trust is considered in a number of situations. Questionnaires were used to gather factual data about respondents, how often they worked within a global design team, and their preferred method of communication, how their global military teams compared to military team-working carried out with co-located members; and their opinion of how the operation of global teams could be improved, particularly related to trust. In addition, there was a focus group meeting consisting of team leaders, to explore the concerns and issues highlighted through the questionnaire.

The aim of this study is to analyse diversity in team learning behaviour between and among national respondents' perceptions during a military staff exercise (CJSE). Edmondson's team learning behaviour model is used as the theoretical basis of the study. The results showed statistically significant differences both between and among national respondents' perceptions. The research results indicate that team leader coaching, team psychological safety, the importance of obtaining expert knowledge as well as pre-exercise training are perceived to be crucial for team learning behaviour. The study has theoretical and practical implications for a more nuanced understanding of the diversity of team learning behaviour in the context of a multinational military teamwork exercise and for working as a part of multinational temporal teams in particular.

There is a growing realisation that to better understand and intervene in the interconnected political, cultural and psycho-social dynamics that constitute the contexts for these current global challenges requires transdisciplinary and intersectoral approaches; approaches that include and value diverse perspectives and pay particular attention to the perspectives and experiences of those who are the most vulnerable and those who are currently excluded from the knowledge creation processes. This article discusses the learning gained from an inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional project entitled Transformative Engagement Network (TEN).

The aim of this study is to analyse diversity in team learning behaviour between and among national respondents' perceptions during a military staff exercise (CJSE). Edmondson's team learning behaviour model is used as the theoretical basis of the study. The results showed statistically significant differences both between and among national respondents' perceptions. The research results indicate that team leader coaching, team psychological safety, the importance of obtaining expert knowledge as well as pre-exercise training are perceived to be crucial for team learning behaviour. The study has theoretical and practical implications for a more nuanced understanding of the diversity of team learning behaviour in the context of a multinational military teamwork exercise and for working as a part of multinational temporal teams in particular. ; peerReviewed

Many decisions in politics and business are made by teams rather than by single individuals. In contrast, economic models typically assume an individual rational decision maker. A rapidly growing body of (experimental) literature investigates team decisions in different settings. We study team decisions in a public goods contribution game with a costly punishment option and compare it to the behavior of individuals in a laboratory experiment. We also consider different team decision-making rules (unanimity, majority). We find that teams contribute significantly more and punish less than individuals, regardless of the team decision rule. Overall, teams yield higher payoffs than individuals.

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.

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.

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.

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.