Peter Cauwelier, Vincent Michel Ribiere and Alex Bennet
This paper aims to explore the impact of team psychological safety and team learning on the creation of team knowledge. When teams engage in learning, their interactions…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the impact of team psychological safety and team learning on the creation of team knowledge. When teams engage in learning, their interactions contribute to improved performance. Very little research evaluates whether the learning also creates new knowledge related to the task or the team itself.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model is evaluated through a mixed method research design around a team problem-solving experiment. Task- and team-related team mental models are elicited using concept mapping and questionnaires and are measured before and after the experiment. The model is evaluated in engineering teams from the USA and France.
Findings
The findings confirm the proposed model; team psychological safety and team learning positively impact team knowledge creation for both task- and team-related knowledge.
Originality/value
This research has theoretical, methodological and practical implications. The team psychological safety model is expanded, team learning is evaluated from the team interactions instead of members’ self-assessments and team knowledge is measured dynamically. Developing team psychological safety and creating team learning opportunities positively impacts the team’s knowledge.
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Vidal Ashkenazi, David Park and Mark Dumville
Presents an overview of how satellite‐based positioning techniques could be used to develop novel navigational methods for use on mobile robotic platforms. Details are given of…
Abstract
Presents an overview of how satellite‐based positioning techniques could be used to develop novel navigational methods for use on mobile robotic platforms. Details are given of the major terrestrial techniques, both internal and external to the robot, which have been traditionally used to meet positioning requirements. A descriptive summary of the global positioning system of navigation satellites (GPS) is followed by an introduction to Galileo, the European project on the development of a comparable system. A small number of examples, either near to market or in use now, are used to illustrate the use of robotic systems that use GPS as a source of 3D absolute position information, but also velocity, attitude and time. Concludes that GPS is likely to become the universal positioning standard for outdoor applications, with future augmentations and developments enhancing the reliability, integrity and accuracy of the system. Nevertheless, in most cases it will still be necessary to use GPS in combination with alternative positioning sensors.
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Mental model convergence occurs as team members interact. By collecting information and observing behaviors through their interactions, team members’ individual mental models…
Abstract
Mental model convergence occurs as team members interact. By collecting information and observing behaviors through their interactions, team members’ individual mental models evolve into shared mental models. This process requires a cognitive shift in an individual's focal level. Specifically, the individual assigned to the team must shift his or her focus from thinking about the team domain using an individual perspective to thinking about it from a team perspective. Thus, mental model convergence may be the key to understanding how individuals are transformed into team members. This chapter presents a framework describing the mental model convergence process that draws on the extant research on group development and information processing. It also examines temporal aspects of mental model convergence, the role of mental model contents on the convergence process, and the relationship between converged mental models and team functioning. Preliminary evidence supporting the framework and the important role that converged mental models play in high-performing teams is provided. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of this mental model convergence framework for research and practice.
Lynne J. Millward, Adrian Banks and Kiriaki Riga
The purpose of this paper is to describe and defend a generative model for understanding effective self‐regulating teams from a distinctively psychological perspective that has…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe and defend a generative model for understanding effective self‐regulating teams from a distinctively psychological perspective that has implications for both research and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper complements Hackman's work on the critical conditions for effecting “self‐regulated” teamwork with an understanding of team psychology, as the basis for evolving a propositional model of effective teamwork.
Findings
Assuming various structural pre‐requisites, it is proposed that effective teamwork is generated by a social self‐identification process, upon which there are “emergent states” across affective (commitment, cohesion), motivational (drive to secure and maintain positive self‐esteem), cognitive (shared cognition) and behavioural (intra‐team and inter‐team processes) dimensions.
Research limitations/implications
Considerations for further testing, conceptual and methodological refinement, are highlighted.
Practical implications
The model affords clear pragmatic implications for leveraging more effective teamwork in organizational contexts.
Originality/value
The propositional model in the paper integrates and builds on previous thinking into a more generative understanding of effective team work (i.e. what makes teamwork possible and how can this be sustained) that takes into account the importance of context in accounting for team success.
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There can be few libraries where the need for reorganization has not at some time been felt, and it is therefore a subject of very wide interest. The previous paper dealt with the…
Abstract
There can be few libraries where the need for reorganization has not at some time been felt, and it is therefore a subject of very wide interest. The previous paper dealt with the planning of special library buildings, with their equipment, and administration—the present paper will deal with reorganization as applied to the stock of a library, and with the more usual aspects of that type of reorganization, namely recataloguing and reclassification. As would be expected, a fair amount has been written about the problem. Unfortunately, it is a matter in which so much depends on local conditions, on the scale of the operations, on what has gone before and what is to follow, and on the resources available, that it is difficult to give comprehensive practical advice. Most of the literature is therefore confined to generalities, and many of these, though arrived at by investigation of reorganization in a large number of libraries, might equally well have been reached by the use of common sense. This particular attribute has always had a very high value in special librarianship, and if, at the end, you are able to dismiss this paper as ‘just common sense’, then I shall feel that it has been a most useful contribution to the problem!
This paper aims to examine the shared mental models (SMMs) of a top management team (TMT) using an emergent perspective in conditions of uncertainty. The paper examines how a TMT…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the shared mental models (SMMs) of a top management team (TMT) using an emergent perspective in conditions of uncertainty. The paper examines how a TMT conversation represents an emergent cognitive process to reach an action for future planning.
Design/methodology/approach
The design uses an emergent SMM approach based on a TMT discussion in an uncertain context. Cognitive mapping techniques illustrate how concepts emerge and are structured. This approach addresses the need for an alternative to aggregate mapping methods and supports the notion of team cognition as an emergent and dynamic process.
Findings
Findings showed that the emergence of a SMM could be elicited and represented using cognitive mapping techniques. Domain knowledge and social relationships supported the emergence of shared knowledge relevant for action on team tasks. A SMM based on team contribution and concept connectivity was identified.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based on data collected from a recorded discussion in a quarterly company meeting, ten days before the UK’s original planned exit date, March 2019.
Originality/value
This research study contributes to the SMM and team cognition literature streams by examining the TMT’s shared understanding as an emergent process. Empirical studies using cognitive mapping techniques in this context are rare.
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Changlong Ma, Yuhui Ge and Heng Zhao
Although strategic scholars have made great effects to exploring the moderating roles of team interaction in explaining the effect of top management team (TMT) diversity, they…
Abstract
Purpose
Although strategic scholars have made great effects to exploring the moderating roles of team interaction in explaining the effect of top management team (TMT) diversity, they have adopted seemingly conflicting theoretical perspectives to explain how it works. Drawing on ideas from the threat rigidity theory, the authors integrated these perspectives by proposing a contingency model in which the relationships between TMT diversity and adaptive firm performance depend on the matching between the internal context (i.e. overlapping team tenure) and external context (i.e. severity of threat).
Design/methodology/approach
This study sampled 579 Chinese A-share listed companies that have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and multilevel linear regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis.
Findings
Results provided support for this hypothesis. Specifically, the interaction between TMT age/tenure diversity and overlapping team tenure is significant only when the severity of threat is high, while the interaction between TMT functional diversity and overlapping team tenure is significant only when the severity of threat is low.
Originality/value
The results of this study provide a comprehensive perspective to predict the performance impact of team diversity and contribute to diversity research and practice.
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Roni Reiter-Palmon, Anne E. Herman and Francis J. Yammarino
This chapter provides an in-depth understanding of the cognitive processes that facilitate creativity from a multi-level perspective. Because cognitive processes are viewed as…
Abstract
This chapter provides an in-depth understanding of the cognitive processes that facilitate creativity from a multi-level perspective. Because cognitive processes are viewed as residing within the individual and as an individual-level phenomenon, it is not surprising that a plethora of research has focused on various cognitive processes involved in creative production at the individual level and the factors that may facilitate or hinder the successful application of these processes. Of course, individuals do not exist in a vacuum, and many organizations are utilizing teams and groups to facilitate creative problem solving. We therefore extend our knowledge from the individual to the team level and group level, providing more than 50 propositions for testing and discussing their implications for future research.
Kasim Randeree and Mathews Ninan
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of leadership and team processes in information technology (IT) projects in business environments. The paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of leadership and team processes in information technology (IT) projects in business environments. The paper contextualizes the study in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper addresses two central questions: what is the level of IT project team effectiveness in the UAE context? What is the maturity level of leadership in IT project management in the UAE? A tailored instrument, based on Cohen and Bailey's team effectiveness evaluation model, was used in this study of 42 project teams in the UAE across various sectors.
Findings
The findings demonstrate that IT projects in the UAE demonstrate a maturity level that is transactional, with task‐focused teams and people‐oriented leadership styles.
Research limitations/implications
The implications of the paper can facilitate broader contextualized research on leadership and IT project team effectiveness, with particular emphasis on developing economies. This is important in addressing the issue of high failure rates in IT projects in general.
Practical implications
Understanding the role of leadership and its responsibility in facilitating teams in technical and high failure environments can impact on productivity and success rates in future projects.
Originality/value
This paper is unique in providing collated opinion about constructs within IT project team processes and leadership effectiveness in the context of businesses in developing economies. The use of a maturity structure addressing leadership, trust, teams and cohesion is distinctive.
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It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields…
Abstract
It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.