58,580 research outputs found
Team Learning: A Theoretical Integration and Review
With the increasing emphasis on work teams as the primary architecture of organizational structure, scholars have begun to focus attention on team learning, the processes that support it, and the important outcomes that depend on it. Although the literature addressing learning in teams is broad, it is also messy and fraught with conceptual confusion. This chapter presents a theoretical integration and review. The goal is to organize theory and research on team learning, identify actionable frameworks and findings, and emphasize promising targets for future research. We emphasize three theoretical foci in our examination of team learning, treating it as multilevel (individual and team, not individual or team), dynamic (iterative and progressive; a process not an outcome), and emergent (outcomes of team learning can manifest in different ways over time). The integrative theoretical heuristic distinguishes team learning process theories, supporting emergent states, team knowledge representations, and respective influences on team performance and effectiveness. Promising directions for theory development and research are discussed
Building the Infrastructure: The Effects of Role Identification Behaviors on Team Cognition Development and Performance
The primary purpose of this study was to extend theory and research regarding the emergence of mental models and transactive memory in teams. Utilizing Kozlowski et al.âs (1999) model of team compilation, we examine the effect of role identification behaviors and argue that such behaviors represent the initial building blocks of team cognition during the role compilation phase of team development. We then hypothesized that team mental models and transactive memory would convey the effects of these behaviors onto team performance in the team compilation phase of development. Results from 60 teams working on a command and control simulation supported our hypotheses
Computer-mediated knowledge communication
New communication technologies enable an array of new working and learning scenarios in which knowledge is being communicated. This article deals with the question to what extent these technologies can impede or facilitate knowledge communication. First, the various computer-based communication technologies will be classified. Second, effects of the medium on knowledge communication will be discussed based on results of studies of the current special priority program "Net-based Knowledge Communication in Groups". Third and last, computer-based possibilities to facilitate computer-mediated knowledge communication will be reviewNeue Kommunikationstechnologien ermöglichen eine Reihe neuer Arbeits- und Lernszenarien in denen Wissen kommuniziert wird. Dieser Beitrag beschÀftigt sich damit, inwiefern diese Technologien Wissenskommunikation einschrÀnken oder fördern können. Dazu werden in einem ersten Schritt die verschiedenen computerbasierten Kommunikationstechnologien untergliedert. In einem zweiten Schritt werden Wirkungen des Mediums auf die Wissenskommunikation diskutiert. Dazu werden u. a. die Ergebnisse von Studien des aktuellen Forschungsschwerpunkts "Netzbasierte Wissenskommunikation in Gruppen" berichtet. In einem dritten und letzten Schritt werden computerbasierte Möglichkeiten zusammengefasst, computervermittelte Wissenskommunikation zu förd
Shared Mental Models in Creative Virtual Teamwork
This paper presents an experiment on the impact of Shared Mental Models (SMM) on creative virtual teamwork. We tested whether the usage of an online whiteboard influences the building of SMM in the initial phase of virtual teamwork. As SMM are the foundation for successful collaboration in teams, we transferred the construct on measuring the team task and team goal in a creative virtual team process. In the first section of the paper a theoretical discussion on SMM, creativity and virtual teamwork will be presented. Subsequently, our experiment on virtual teamwork via the use of a virtual tool and its impact towards SMM will be introduced and the results will be discussed. We identified that specific creative competencies of virtual tools enhance the level of SMM but still lack in perceived efficiency compared to physically present teamwork. The findings recommend further research on the applicability, effectiveness and capabilities of creative virtual tools
Team Learning, Development, and Adaptation
[Excerpt] Our purpose is to explore conceptually these themes centered on team learning, development, and adaptation. We note at the onset that this chapter is not a comprehensive review of the literature. Indeed, solid conceptual and empirical work on these themes are sparse relative to the vast amount of work on team effectiveness more generally, and therefore a thematic set of topics that are ripe for conceptual development and integration. We draw on an ongoing stream of theory development and research in these areas to integrate and sculpt a distinct perspective on team learning, development, and adaptation
Exploring the Cognitive Nature of Boards of Directors and Its Implication for Board Effectiveness
In this paper we propose a theoretical framework that emphasizes the development of a shared mental model (SMM) of a board of directors and its impact on board effectiveness and suggest that the accuracy and scope of the SMM in a board will moderate the relationship between a boardâs SMM and board effectiveness. Also, we examine the impact of task and relationship conflict on the development of a SMM. Finally, we examine three board attributes (board size, CEO duality, and the proportion of outside directors on a board) as antecedents to the development of conflict among board members.Boards of directors, corporate governance, shared mental models
Virtual Team Common Knowledge: Construct Specification and Effect on Knowledge Integration Effectiveness
Common wisdom in the literature on virtual team is that rigid, explicit and formal forms of coordination are required for the integration of different expertise to take place, while tacit forms of coordination are difficult to establish and maintain. This study challenges this claim and evaluates the contribution of virtual team common knowledge â a tacit coordination mechanism â on virtual teamsâ knowledge integration effectiveness. In an attempt to reconcile the different theoretical stances adopted in previous studies, we offer a new conceptualization for âvirtual team common knowledgeâ and assess its structural and psychometric properties. A measure is developed and tested with 700 individuals spread across 102 virtual teams in the field. The evidence suggests that virtual team common knowledge is formed by common task knowledge, common expertise knowledge, common IT interaction knowledge, and common specialized knowledge. Virtual team common knowledge is also found to positively influence knowledge integration effectiveness
Metacognition and Reflection by Interdisciplinary Experts: Insights from Cognitive Science and Philosophy
Interdisciplinary understanding requires integration of insights from
different perspectives, yet it appears questionable whether disciplinary experts
are well prepared for this. Indeed, psychological and cognitive scientific studies
suggest that expertise can be disadvantageous because experts are often more biased
than non-experts, for example, or fixed on certain approaches, and less flexible in
novel situations or situations outside their domain of expertise. An explanation is
that expertsâ conscious and unconscious cognition and behavior depend upon their
learning and acquisition of a set of mental representations or knowledge structures.
Compared to beginners in a field, experts have assembled a much larger set of
representations that are also more complex, facilitating fast and adequate perception
in responding to relevant situations. This article argues how metacognition should be
employed in order to mitigate such disadvantages of expertise: By metacognitively
monitoring and regulating their own cognitive processes and representations,
experts can prepare themselves for interdisciplinary understanding. Interdisciplinary
collaboration is further facilitated by team metacognition about the team, tasks,
process, goals, and representations developed in the team. Drawing attention to
the need for metacognition, the article explains how philosophical reflection on the
assumptions involved in different disciplinary perspectives must also be considered
in a process complementary to metacognition and not completely overlapping with
it. (Disciplinary assumptions are here understood as determining and constraining
how the complex mental representations of experts are chunked and structured.) The
article concludes with a brief reflection on how the process of Reflective Equilibrium
should be added to the processes of metacognition and philosophical reflection in
order for experts involved in interdisciplinary collaboration to reach a justifiable
and coherent form of interdisciplinary integration. An Appendix of âPrompts or
Questions for Metacognitionâ that can elicit metacognitive knowledge, monitoring,
or regulation in individuals or teams is included at the end of the article
Theory of the Avatar
The internet has given birth to an expanding number of shared virtual reality spaces, with a collective population well into the millions. These virtual worlds exhibit most of the traits we associate with the Earth world: economic transactions, interpersonal relationships, organic political institutions, and so on. A human being experiences these worlds through an avatar, which is the representation of the self in a given physical medium. Most worlds allow an agent to choose what kind of avatar she or he will inhabit, allowing a person with any kind of Earth body to inhabit a completely different body in the virtual world. The emergence of avatar-mediated living raises both positive and normative questions. This paper explores several choice models involving avatars. Analysis of these models suggests that the emergence of avatar-mediated life may increase aggregate human well-being, while decreasing its cross-sectional variance. These efficiency and equity effects are contingent on the maintenance and protection of certain rights, however, including the right of agents to free movement, unbiased information, and political participation.information and internet services, computer software, equity, justice, inequality, synthetic worlds
How do teams complete tasks in virtual worlds? Toward an iterative process of task completion
Given the unique affordances of virtual worlds, it is important to study how teams function in such environments to complete tasks. One framework that has been used to understand how teams function is the punctuated equilibrium (PE) model, which provides an explanation for how teams complete tasks in a temporal frame, but falls short in explaining why teams carry out processes in certain ways. Preliminary analysis of data collected from 84 teams performing a complex decision-making task in the virtual world of Second Life shows evidence for the PE model. However, there is also evidence of unique social and contextual affordances of virtual worlds that enable members to use boundary objects and revise individual and shared mental models as they interact. Based on these preliminary results, we hope to arrive at a model of how teams complete tasks in virtual worlds
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