Team Dispersion, Emergent States, and Performance in Virtual IT Service Provisioning Teams

Today, virtual teams composed by dispersed team members relying on computer-supported collaborative work are common in the information technology (IT) service provisioning industry. Despite the increasing interest in virtual team research, there is a limited understanding of a multidimensional view of team dispersion and its effect on the performance of virtual teams via the team´s socioemotional states. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of team distribution and variety of work practices on the performance of virtual IT service provisioning teams via the emergent states of trust and cohesiveness. To this aim, an input-process-output framework was adopted to develop a conceptual model and a survey with IT service provisioning professionals was conducted. The results suggest that a variety of work practices constitutes a barrier to the performance of virtual IT service provisioning teams; and that trust and cohesiveness are important mediators in this cause-effect relationship.

An Investigation of Team Inputs, Processes, And Emergent States on Performance in a Spaceship Bridge Simulation

This investigation serves to provide evidence on the effects of various input variables on intact teams through repeated team performance sessions in a team spaceship bridge simulation (i.e. Artemis). The Input Mediator/Moderator Output Input (IMOI) model provides a systems engineering an approach to understand various team and individual input variables contribution to the development of team processes and emergent states, ultimately leading to a team’s ability to perform together. While various prior research initiatives have served to contribute to the pool of evidence of which input variables are most highly predictive of a team’s overall performance, the need for further and recursive input to output investigations is needed. Our results indicate perceived team effectiveness and cohesion are significant predictors in team performance and that skill and knowledge of a simulated environment may overshadow team-specific effectiveness indicators as the team gains experience.

Team-based instructional change in undergraduate STEM: characterizing effective faculty collaboration

Background Team-based instructional change is a promising model for improving undergraduate STEM instruction. Teams are more likely to produce sustainable, innovative, and high-quality outcomes than individuals working alone. However, teams also tend to involve higher risks of failure and can result in inefficient allocation of valuable resources. At this point, there is limited knowledge of how teams in the context of STEM higher education should work to achieve desirable outcomes. Results In this study, we collect semi-structured interview data from 23 team members from a total of 4 teams at 3 institutions across the USA. We analyze the results using a grounded theory approach and connect them to the existing literature. This study builds upon the first part of our work that developed a model of team inputs that lead to team outcomes. In this part, we identify the mechanisms by which input characteristics influence teamwork and outcomes. Team member data expand this initial model by identifying key aspects of team processes and emergent states. In this paper, we present five team processes: strategic leadership, egalitarian power dynamics, team member commitment, effective communication, and clear decision-making processes, that shape how teams work together, and three emergent states: shared vision, psychological safety, and team cohesion, that team members perceived as important aspects of how teams feel and think when working together. Conclusions This work furthers our understanding of how instructional change teams can be successful. However, due to the highly complex nature of teams, further investigation with more teams is required to test and enrich the emerging theory.

With grit to innovative teams?

This article in the Journal Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO) develops a theoretical model for the emergence of team grit, i.e. the competence to pursue long-term goals with passion and perseverance. We examine the role of team grit for today’s dynamic innovation processes, building on findings from research on individual grit. Our model shows how team inputs as well as the dynamic interaction of team processes and affective and cognitive emergent states lead to the emergence of team grit and thus promote team innovation. We explore contagion and crossover processes as mechanisms for team grit to emerge, and examine team processes that we assume to affect team grit. Our model not only provides a starting point for further research on team grit, but also provides practitioners with recommendations to foster team grit in order to improve their innovative performance in the team.

Team Emergent States: What Has Emerged in The Literature Over 20 Years

In this review, we provide a deeper understanding of the team emergent states (TES) literature by building upon Marks et al.’s cognitive, affective, motivational categories, to suggest that TES may also be amalgams (i.e., a blend of two or more categories). In doing so, we review the literature accumulating between 2000 and 2020, focusing on the eight most-researched TES. We highlight numerous gaps within the TES literature and offer promising future research directions. We envision this work as laying the foundation upon which TES research can continue to emerge in the coming decades.

Virtuality and teams: Dealing with crises and catastrophes

BACKGROUND: This article bridges the gap between theory and practice and elaborates, for practitioners, how to convert the COVID-19 and other similar crises into opportunities for keeping their business on track for growth. It shows how movement to virtual modes of working, especially virtual teams, can help practitioners meet the current crisis effectively and also prepare for future crisis efficiently. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article is to show how the concept of virtuality can help design practices which enable managers/practitioners in effectively managing necessary transitions to virtual work. METHODS: The article reviews and integrates essential literature on virtuality and virtual teams. It enumerates the benefits and challenges which accompany a sudden and necessary movement to virtual work in teams. Also used are the recently developed theoretical frameworks of teams as essential emergent states and its implications on virtual work. RESULTS: By distilling insights from past literature, the article advises managers on how to deal with the present and prepare for future disruptions. Usage of overarching frameworks rather than industry/work specific literature enables managers to move away from specific recommendations and focus on general characteristics for wider impact. CONCLUSIONS: The article demonstrates how organizations can meet disruptive challenges successfully and also prepare for future challenges sustainably using virtuality as a starting point.

Team Processes

Team processes refer to the actions team members take to combine their individual resources, knowledge, and skill to resolve their task demands and achieve collective goals. These are distinct from team emergent states which refer to characteristic levels of feelings or thoughts among team members. The distinguishing feature between team processes and emergent states is that team processes represent actions team members take, whereas emergent states represent team member attitudes, values, cognitions, and motivations. Both team processes and emergent states are conceptually dynamic and can vary as a function of the other. Conceptual clarity regarding the nature of team processes has developed only in the prior two decades. Prior to that time team processes were broadly and ill-defined. Team processes have occupied the mediating role in traditional input-process-outcome (IPO) models. However, these models have evolved to position team processes within a larger category of mediating mechanisms in organizing frameworks of overlapping domains capturing team structural features, team compositional features, and mediating mechanisms, all embedded within organizational structure and culture. Team processes are increasingly recognized as having taskwork and teamwork dimensions, with taskwork being represented as creative behavior, decision-making, and boundary spanning; and teamwork being represented by transition, action, and interpersonal processes. The subject of team processes has been represented in nearly all general reviews of small groups and teams, in many primary studies that examine both general and specific team processes, and in several meta-analyses. The fundamental conclusion of this body of research is that teams can learn how to have more effective processes, and teams with more effective processes exhibit higher performance.