scholarly journals The congruence of mental models in entrepreneurial teams – implications for performance and satisfaction in teams operating in an emerging economy

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Ziemiański ◽  
Katarzyna Stankiewicz ◽  
Michał T. Tomczak ◽  
Beata Krawczyk-Bryłka
Keyword(s):  
Mental Models ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Emerging Economy ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Team Mental Models ◽  
Entrepreneurial Teams ◽  
Team Mental Model

Purpose The paper aims to explore the relationship between the congruence of mental models held by the members of entrepreneurial teams operating in an emerging economy (Poland) and entrepreneurial outcomes (performance and satisfaction). Design/methodology/approach The data obtained from 18 nascent and 20 established entrepreneurial teams was analysed to answer hypotheses. The research was quantitative and was conducted using an online questionnaire. Data was collected from each of the teams at two stages. Members of entrepreneurial teams were surveyed independently, which allowed measuring the congruence of their mental models pertaining to running a venture. Findings Findings reveal that team members’ mental model congruence is significantly related to financial performance and members’ satisfaction in the case of established entrepreneurial teams. However, in the case of nascent teams, there is no relationship between analysed variables. Practical implications Implications for theory and practice are offered with a special emphasis on entrepreneurship education. The concept of team mental model congruence is proposed to be included in training of nascent entrepreneurial teams, experienced companies and students. Originality/value The concept of team mental models investigated by the authors has been underexplored in entrepreneurship research. Results indicate that at least in some entrepreneurial teams, team mental models’ congruence is related to obtained outcomes. The paper proposes that principles of effectuation and causation can serve as the lens through which the mental model pertaining to running a venture can be analysed. It allows expanding studies on the congruence of team mental models in entrepreneurial teams beyond the strategic consensus.

Team mental model characteristics and performance in a simulation experiment

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (8) ◽  
pp. 899-924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Yang ◽  
V.K. Narayanan ◽  
Yamuna Baburaj ◽  
Srinivasan Swaminathan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Models ◽  
Performance Feedback ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Simulation Experiment ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Mental Models ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Team Mental Model ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relationship between the characteristics of strategic decision-making team’s mental model and its performance. The authors propose that the relationship between mental models and performance is two-way, rather than one-way. Thus, performance feedback should, in turn, influence strategic behavior and future performance by either triggering or hindering the learning process. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct the research in the setting of a simulation experiment. A longitudinal data set was collected from 36 teams functioning as strategic decision makers over three periods. Findings This study provides support for the positive impacts of both the complexity and centrality of a team’s mental model on its performance. The authors also find that positive performance feedback reduces changes in complexity and centrality of team mental models due to cognitive inertia. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature by investigating the specific mechanisms that underlie mental model evolution. Different from the existing studies on team mental models that mainly focus on similarity of these shared cognitive structures, this study examines another two characteristics of team mental model, complexity and centrality, that are more relevant to the strategic decision-making process but has not been extensively studied in the team literature. In addition, this study reveals that performance feedback has different effects on team mental models depending on the referents – past performance or social comparison – which advances the understanding of the learning effects of performance feedback.

How teams perform under emergent and dynamic situations: the roles of mental models and backup behaviors

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zikai Zhou ◽  
Pilar Pazos
Keyword(s):  
Mental Models ◽  
Team Performance ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Mediation Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Team Mental Models ◽  
Theoretical Support ◽  
Task Requirements

Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate the roles of team mental models (TMMs) and backup behaviors for teams operating under emergent and dynamic situations. Specifically, the authors used a biased-corrected bootstrapping approach to assess the mediation effects of backup behaviors between the similarity of TMMs and team performance. Design/methodology/approach TMMs are a representation of the common understanding and beliefs in terms of task requirements or teamwork skills among different team members. It has wide implementations in various teams that are required to adapt quickly to an emergent and dynamic environment. The construct of TMMs has been studied extensively in previous literature, indicating a strong relationship between TMMs and team performance. However, how TMMs affect team performance under emergent and dynamic situations is only partially understood. Findings The findings of this study suggest that the similarity of task-focused mental models positively affects team performance through the mediation effects of backup behaviors. In contrast, the similarity of team-focused mental models does not positively affect backup behaviors and team performance. Originality/value This study contributes to the TMMs literature by investigating how teams perform in an emergent and dynamic environment. It not only provides theoretical support to the similarity of TMMs–backup behaviors–team performance relationships but has important implications in terms of team training and decision-making for teams operating under such conditions.

scholarly journals Sharedness of team mental models in the course of design-related interaction between architects and clients

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hernan Casakin ◽  
Petra Badke-Schaub
Keyword(s):  
Mental Models ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Design Team ◽  
Concept Generation ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
Team Mental Model ◽  
The Individual

This study deals with the role of mental models in the coordination of team activities during design problem-solving. The work centers on the sharedness of mental models in a design team setting, mainly on the interaction between an architect and two clients. A major goal is to gain insight into how modifications in mental models affect coordination, and how sharedness develops through the process. Our focus is to explore, through a case study, the individual contributions of the architect and the clients to coordination of the work process, and how sharedness of the development of the team mental model evolves in the early stage of concept generation. Our claim is that work teams develop a certain degree of sharedness of the mental models of individual team members during information exchange. This team mental model can be insufficient or even wrong, but as long as the team members feel agreement in the team, they coordinate their work on that basis. Thus, sharedness of mental models is believed to be a powerful team asset, especially when it is reached in the earlier phases of the design process. Our findings suggest that in order to attain sharedness among design team members, design activities related to the task mental model should be encouraged, specifically the generation of new ideas and the analysis of solutions. Implications for practice and education are suggested.

Mirror, Mirror: Guided Storytelling and Team Reflexivity’s Influence on Team Mental Models

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Tesler ◽  
Susan Mohammed ◽  
Katherine Hamilton ◽  
Vincent Mancuso ◽  
Michael McNeese
Keyword(s):  
Team Performance ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Substantial Evidence ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Team Mental Models ◽  
Team Mental Model ◽  
Model Similarity ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Mirror Mirror ◽  
Methodological Ground

Because substantial evidence supports team mental model similarity as a positive predictor of team performance, it is important that we help team members to develop a shared understanding of relevant team content. The current study extended the list of team mental model antecedents to include guided storytelling as an effective team intervention. In the first known empirical investigation of planned story usage in teams, we broke new methodological ground by pioneering a team intervention to proactively harness the benefits of narrative. Results revealed that the combination of presenting important information in story format and giving members time to reflect upon their strategies had a positive effect on team mental model similarity. In addition, the positive indirect effect of storytelling on team performance via team mental model similarity was stronger when guided team reflexivity was present than absent. These findings provide encouraging evidence for the continued examination of storytelling and reflexivity in teams.

scholarly journals Mental Models, Team Mental Models, and Performance: Process, Development, and Future Directions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janice Langan-Fox ◽  
Jeromy Anglim ◽  
John R Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Models ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Process Development ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
Team Mental Models ◽  
Three Phase ◽  
Long Time ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Team Mental Model

Since the 1940s, researchers have grappled with the notion of a mental model. The concept is eminently reasonable and somewhat seductive, but presents us with a number of difficulties regarding its incompleteness, multiplicity, and inconsistency. Not the least of these difficulties is the problem of “capturing” (measuring) mental models, and still more difficult, capturing a team mental model, an extension of the earlier term. Once captured, finding an appropriate analytic procedure to analyze team mental models has challenged researchers for a long time. Nonetheless, the literature suggests that the construct is well worth the trouble, with many applied benefits especially to industry. In the present work we set out to (a) review the notion of team mental models (TMM); (b) identify the key concepts and thinking behind their development; (c) demonstrate how they support teamworking performance; and (d) outline a three‐phase model of TMM development. Details on TMM measurement are given, before concluding with a discussion of the difficulties facing researchers who wish to study and utilize the notion, and some of the pressing research issues that need investigation.

scholarly journals Team Mental Models

Management ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Mental Models ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Team Effectiveness ◽  
Concept Maps ◽  
Team Member ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Team Mental Models ◽  
Empirical Results

Team mental models have been referred to as one of the most well-developed team-level cognitive constructs studied in applied psychology and organizational behavior. They represent the organization of shared knowledge among team members. Empirical results on team mental models have varied on the basis of the content and property of the mental model examined. Content has typically focused on taskwork and teamwork mental models in which taskwork mental models represent shared knowledge on procedures, strategies, the environment, and team equipment, whereas teamwork mental models represent shared knowledge on the coordination of team responsibilities and team members’ knowledge, skills, and abilities. More-specific forms of content are often discussed in the literature; these have included temporal, situational, strategic, team goal, and team membership mental models. Examining team mental models at a higher level of granularity has often uncovered significant effects that are masked when simply focusing on taskwork or teamwork content. The property of team mental models varies on the basis of its focus on similarity or accuracy. Similarity represents the degree of overlap in knowledge among team members, whereas accuracy represents the overlap between each team member and an expert. Results have shown that oftentimes the effect of team mental model similarity on team effectiveness is moderated by its accuracy. Empirical results also vary on the basis of how the construct is measured and indexed. The most popular measurement technique is paired comparison ratings due to its ability to evaluate both content and structure. Other measurement types include concept maps, card-sorting tasks, questionnaires, text analysis, and interviews. Indexing refers to the method used to aggregate ratings from the individual to the team. These methods can be classified as capturing either consistency (e.g., the closeness index used in Pathfinder) or agreement (e.g., Euclidean distances). Consistency metrics have been shown to more consistently predict team effectiveness but researchers should match their research question to their indexing approach. A variety of variables have been shown to predict team mental models, such as team-training interventions, team member characteristics, attributes of the work environment, and other team emergent states. Team mental models have also been linked to a host of outcomes, including increased team performance, innovation, collective efficacy, decision quality, and team learning. Key research needs for the field include the examination of the construct over time and the differentiation of the construct from other forms of team cognition.

scholarly journals Exploring the drivers of tensions in social innovation management in the context of social entrepreneurial teams

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 1344-1361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédéric Dufays
Keyword(s):  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Innovation Management ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Innovation Implementation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Entrepreneurial Teams ◽  
The Social ◽  
Entrepreneurial Team

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify tensions that are emerging in the invention and implementation of social innovation by social entrepreneurial teams and highlights elements that influence the type of tension encountered. Design/methodology/approach Four cases are selected theoretically, studied individually, and compared to one another to identify tensions and patterns of tensions. Findings The findings reveal the predominant tensions related to goals and identity during social innovation invention and those related to time and knowledge during social innovation implementation. The size of the entrepreneurial team, the nature of the social innovation, and the interest orientation – that is, the overlap between entrepreneurial team members and beneficiaries – are found to play a role in the type of tensions encountered and their content. Research limitations/implications The chosen research approach limits the generalizability of the research results. Replication in other settings and with other types of social innovation is therefore encouraged. Originality/value In contrast to most existing studies, this research focuses on nascent social innovation projects borne by teams. It proposes that social-business tensions are not necessarily predominant in social innovation management. It suggests the importance of interest orientation as an underestimated factor in the study of social entrepreneurship.

Servant leadership and the Scrum team’s effectiveness

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 873-882 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Holtzhausen ◽  
Jeremias J. de Klerk
Keyword(s):  
Servant Leadership ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Organizational Level ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Software Development Teams ◽  
Leader Role

Purpose Scrum is a development methodology that has been rapidly gaining popularity over the last decade particularly for software development teams. The Scrum master is sometimes viewed as a servant leader of the Scrum team. The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent Scrum masters actually make use of servant leadership and how this impacts on the team’s effectiveness via mediating processes. Design/methodology/approach The research followed a quantitative approach. An online questionnaire was prepared and completed by 71 Scrum team members (excluding Scrum masters) and 22 Scrum masters in more than ten organizations based in Western Cape, South Africa. Findings Scrum masters in this sample extensively used the servant leadership approach, but those who are also appointed as formal team leaders are seen to be considerably better servant leaders by team members. There is a moderately strong correlation between servant leadership of the Scrum master and team effectiveness. It was found that high levels of psychological safety do not necessarily translate into team performance. Research limitations/implications Research was only performed at the unit level of analysis and not the team or organizational level. This was a cross-sectional study and variations over time were not considered. Practical implications The results confirm the importance of servant leadership skills when identifying and developing Scrum masters, appointing the formal team leader role in Scrum teams and implementing Scrum practices effectively. Originality/value As could be established, this is the first time that the role of servant leadership in Scrum teams was formally investigated.

Cultural values, entrepreneurial team structure and performance of SMEs

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Bashokuh-E-Ajirloo ◽  
Bahman Khodapanah ◽  
Mehdi Alizadeh ◽  
Mehdi Ebrahimzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Team Performance ◽  
Discriminant Validity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Team Structure ◽  
Entrepreneurial Teams ◽  
Reliability Indicator ◽  
Entrepreneurial Team ◽  
And Performance

PurposeThe main objective of this study is to explain the relationship between members' cultural values on structure and performance of the entrepreneurial teams that located in Tehran.Design/methodology/approachData used in this study are collected by a questionnaire distributed among managers and other executive members of SMEs located in Tehran. One hundred and thirty-nine participants completed the questionnaires, and their responses were analyzed using partial least squares technique. Measures showed good convergent and discriminant validity. Furthermore, Cronbach's alpha, as reliability indicator for all measures, is at the acceptable level.FindingsResearch finding shows that all hypothesis supported in Iran contex. Entrepreneurial team members' cultural values have positive and significant effect on the entrepreneurial team structure. Entrepreneurial team members' cultural values have significant effect on the entrepreneurial team performance and also, the structure of the entrepreneurial team has a positive and significant effect on the entrepreneurial team performance.Originality/valueThese studies mostly focused on technical dimensions of entrepreneurial teams and overlooked the cultural values of their members.

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