Observational assessment of situation awareness, team differences and training implications

The two goals were to investigate, first, the practicability and reliability of observational assessment of team situation awareness (SA) and, second, the nature of any team differences, their consistency and training implications. Five shift teams tackled three scenarios, each with three probe events concerning SA, and three observers viewed and rated concurrently each shift. This methodology was found to be practicable and achieved satisfactory rater reliability as indicated by intraclass and inter-rater correlations. Team differences in SA emerged although there was no consistent pattern. A retrospective analysis of individual and team behaviours relating to SA was performed using the Critical Incident Technique. A total of 75 incidents and 20 behavioural dimensions relevant to SA were identified and these were subsumed under planning, problem solving, team coordination, attention, communication and knowledge. These findings are discussed with regard to the nature and measurement of SA, and the content of training to improve SA for control room teams.     

Is SA shared or distributed in team work? An exploratory study in an intelligence analysis task

This study compared two theoretical approaches to Situation Awareness (SA): the psychological school of thought and the systems ergonomics school of thought, by assessing measurement of team SA within these frameworks. Two teams were assigned and organised into either a traditional Hierarchy or a Peer-to-Peer organisational structure in a single case study design. Measures derived from the psychological and systems ergonomics perspectives were applied to assess their sensitivity for assessing team SA. No statistically significant differences were found between the two teams when measures originating in the psychological tradition were considered: differences were found, however, for measures originating in the systems ergonomics tradition. Literature concerned with team SA reveals a lack of consensus with regards to explaining the nature of the phenomenon as well as its measurement. This paper argues for a debate in the field to clarify what constitutes appropriate measurement techniques for team SA and suggests that these are taken from the systems ergonomics tradition, as suggested by the present studies findings.

Relevance to industry

Teams are a major feature of most industrial applications of work, and maintaining good situation awareness is important to successful performance. A method for examining the situation awareness of teams is proposed and compared with the individual models. Analysing the team as a functional unit of situation awareness is presented for future work.     

On the utility of experiential cross-training for team decision-making under time stress

This study investigated the effectiveness of experiential cross-training in a team context for team decision-making under time stress in a simulated naval surveillance task. It was hypothesized that teams whose members explicitly experience all team positions will perform better under time pressure due to a better shared Team Interaction Model (Cannon-Bowers et al. 1993). In addition, it was posited that experiential cross-training would reduce the negative effect of member reconfiguration that can occur in certain military situations. Three groups of teams participated in this study (cross-trained, reconfigured and control). The experiment involved three team training sessions, followed by three time-stressed exercise sessions. During training, one group of teams was cross-trained (CT) by asking each member to perform an entire session at each of the three team positions. Member reconfiguration (where each member was shifted to another's position) was unexpectedly introduced at the first of the exercise sessions for the CT group and for another group (reconfigured) that had not been cross-trained. A third (control) group was neither cross-trained nor reconfigured. During training, the performance of non-CT teams improved more quickly than that of CT teams. During the exercise, the CT group did not achieve the level of performance of the control teams. The immediate effect of team member reconfiguration was to degrade performance significantly for the non-CT teams, but not for CT teams. The findings are discussed in terms of the multiple mental models' view of team performance (Cannon-Bowers et al. 1993) and the authors discuss the relative utility of cross-training when overall training time is fixed.     

On the utility of experiential cross-training for team decision making under time stress

This study investigated the effectiveness of experiential cross-training in a team context for team decision-making under time stress in a simulated naval surveillance task. It was hypothesized that teams whose members explicitly experience all team positions will perform better under time pressure due to a better shared Team Interaction Model (Cannon-Bowers et al. 1993). In addition, it was posited that experiential cross-training would reduce the negative effect of member reconfiguration that can occur in certain military situations. Three groups of teams participated in this study (cross-trained, reconfigured and control). The experiment involved three team training sessions, followed by three time-stressed exercise sessions. During training, one group of teams was cross-trained (CT) by asking each member to perform an entire session at each of the three team positions. Member reconfiguration (where each member was shifted to another's position) was unexpectedly introduced at the first of the exercise sessions for the CT group and for another group (reconfigured) that had not been cross-trained. A third (control) group was neither cross-trained nor reconfigured. During training, the performance of non-CT teams improved more quickly than that of CT teams. During the exercise, the CT group did not achieve the level of performance of the control teams. The immediate effect of team member reconfiguration was to degrade performance significantly for the non-CT teams, but not for the CT teams. The findings are discussed in terms of the multiple mental models' view of team performance (Cannon-Bowers et al. 1993) and the authors discuss the relative utility of crosstraining when overall training time is fixed.     

Improving the Effectiveness of Virtual Teams by Adapting Team Processes

Results are presented from a study on virtual teams and whether appropriate early training can positively influence their effectiveness. Sixteen teams that worked together for periods ranging from three months to three years were studied. Team processes that emerged naturally from long-duration teams were formalized and taught to shorter duration teams. These shorter duration teams comprised three different cohorts, each of which received different levels of training. It was found that the adoption of formal procedures and structured processes significantly increased the effectiveness of virtual teams. Tasks that lend themselves to a structured approach were most effectively accomplished during virtual meetings, whereas face-to-face interactions were better for relatively unstructured, discussion intensive tasks. The performance of a virtual team was significantly improved when team processes were adapted to the affordances of the CMC environment. It is shown that this adaptation can occur very rapidly if teams are trained on the technology as well as on work processes that best exploit it.     

Situation awareness,human error,and organizational learning in sociotechnical systems

In many organizations, the performance of individuals and teams is negatively affected by human error. Studies have shown that these errors can be reduced or even prevented by learning from them and by developing an understanding of error causation and its consequences. The ability to detect, understand, and anticipate errors refers to situation awareness (SA). Although SA is not limited to human error and it is more closely linked with decision making, it is a prerequisite for error reduction in complex sociotechnical work settings. The main objectives of this study were threefold: First, a model that can explain the interrelations between human error, SA, and organizational learning in sociotechnical systems was developed. Secondly, functional and dysfunctional factors that affect human error, SA, and organizational learning were identified. Thirdly, a research methodology was selected and adapted to empirically test the model in a real‐world sociotechnical task environment. To do so, an SA performance test and a human error questionnaire were used to examine SA and respective learning modes of 108 assembly‐line workers in the manufacturing industry. The final test results supported the central assumptions of the applied model. The article concludes by discussing applications in the field of sociotechnical systems analysis, team training, human performance programs, and high‐reliability organizations.     

Training teams for emergency management

Emergency management (EM), the decision making involved in directing the relief operation after a disaster or otherwise catastrophic accident is an issue of great public and private concern because of the high stakes involved. Due to the nature of emergencies, and especially mass emergencies, EM teams are faced with decision making in stressful situations, information ambiguity and overload, and a significant level of uncertainty, whereby non-routine problem solving of a knowledge-based nature is required. An important characteristic of EM is that it is a team of teams; multiple teams that come from different organizations, with different organizational goals and different organizational cultures, that work together to minimize the negative effects of the emergency. As a consequence, EM requires good coordination and communication not just within, but also among the various teams involved. Coordination among teams should, therefore, be a key focus for training. This paper describes EM within the context of naturalistic decision making, and proposes a framework, an event-based approach to training, together with a number of team training strategies that may be applicable to EM. A brief assessment of available training technologies and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

A team building model for software engineering courses term projects

This paper proposes a new model for team building, which enables teachers to build coherent teams rapidly and fairly for the term projects of software engineering courses. Moreover, the model can also be used to build teams for any type of project, if the team member candidates are students, or if they are inexperienced on a certain subject. The proposed model takes students’ preferences and the teacher’s considerations into account when a team building process is required for any type of course. In addition, this paper investigates how team building models (RandomM: teams are built with randomly selected students; TeacherM: teacher selects the members for each team; StudentsM: students build their own teams and the proposed model) affect team performance and how gender differences affect project activities and team performance. A three-year (five semesters) teaching experiment was performed with the participation of 248 male and 79 female university students and a total of 67 software project teams. Two different One-way ANOVA tests were applied on the experimental data, and the results indicated that the proposed model was better than RandomM, TeacherM and StudentsM models in terms of project grades, and the effect of gender differences on the teams’ performance and project activities was negligible.     

A field study of team working in a new human supervisory control system

This paper presents a case study of an investigation into team behaviour in an energy distribution company. The main aim was to investigate the impact of major changes in the company on system performance, comprising human and technical elements. A socio-technical systems approach was adopted. There were main differences between the teams investigated in the study: the time of year each control room was studied (i.e. summer or winter), the stage of development each team was in (i.e. < 3 months or > 10 months), and the team structure (i.e. hierarchical or heterarchical). In all other respects the control rooms were the same: employing the same technology and within the same organization. The main findings were: the teams studied in the winter months were engaged in more 'planning' and 'awareness' type of activities than those studies in the summer months. Newer teams seem to be engaged in more sharing of information than older teams, which may be indicative of the development process. One of the hierarchical teams was engaged in more 'system-driven' activities than the heterarchical team studied at the same time of year. Finally, in general, the heterarchical team perceived a greater degree of team working culture than its hierarchical counterparts. This applied research project confirms findings from laboratory research and emphasizes the importance of involving ergonomics in the design of team working in human supervisory control.     

Examining the effects of communication training and teamcomposition on the decision making of Patriot air defense teams

An experiment investigating the effect of communication training and three group composition variables was performed with Patriot air defense teams for two different types of aircraft identification tasks. It was predicted that communication training would significantly enhance communication quantity and quality and, in turn, team performance for both tasks. Although the training did sometimes improve team communication processes, it did not improve team performance. The variable that had the biggest positive effect on communication quality and team performance was the number of hours a team had worked together. This effect was only found, however, for the type of task for which Patriot teams routinely train. It did not transfer to the less frequent and more cognitively stressing task where there is conflicting information about unknown aircraft, as in the USS Vincennes tragedy     

Comparative study of three training methods for enhancing process control performance: Emphasis shift training,situation awareness training,and drill and practice

Three training methods to improve attention management skills in process control were compared. Forty students from technical disciplines participated in a five-hour module of emphasis shift training (EST), EST combined with situation awareness training (EST/SA), and drill and practice (D&P) on a simulated process control task. Participants were then tested three times for 45 min each (immediately after training, two weeks after training, and six weeks after training) for system control performance and diagnostic performance on familiar and nonfamiliar fault states. D&P led to superior diagnostic performance on familiar system faults. EST/SA training supported the diagnosis of novel system faults. EST was less effective than expected for system control performance. Implications for training design in process control are discussed.     

A field study of team working in a new human supervisory control system

This paper presents a case study of an investigation into team behaviour in an energy distribution company. The main aim was to investigate the impact of major changes in the company on system performance, comprising human and technical elements. A socio-technical systems approach was adopted. There were main differences between the teams investigated in the study: the time of year each control room was studied (i.e. summer or winter), the stage of development each team was in (i.e. < 3 months or > 10 months), and the team structure (i.e. hierarchical or heterarchical). In all other respects the control rooms were the same: employing the same technology and within the same organization. The main findings were: the teams studied in the winter months were engaged in more ‘planning’ and ‘awareness’ type of activities than those studies in the summer months. Newer teams seem to be engaged in more sharing of information than older teams, which may be indicative of the development process. One of the hierarchical teams was engaged in more ‘system-driven’ activities than the heterarchical team studied at the same time of year. Finally, in general, the heterarchical team perceived a greater degree of team working culture than its hierarchical counterparts. This applied research project confirms findings from laboratory research and emphasizes the importance of involving ergonomics in the design of team working in human supervisory control.     

Development and Validation of Team Creativity Measures: A Complex Systems Perspective

Without formalizing the team creativity (TC) concept with reliable and valid measurement, it is difficult to conduct rigorous research to help teams generate creative ideas and problem solving at a high level, of good quality and great value. The one‐sidedness and lack of depth of existing research on team creativity leads to the limited reliability and validity of team creativity measurements. In order to solve these problems, we introduce the complex system theory and develop the TC Scale with nine items for team creativity from three dimensions: team creative thinking, team creative action and team creative outcome. The data is collected from three distinct positions of respondents (managers, team leaders and senior staff) in 183 creative teams. The results of reliability measures, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis strongly support our scale. Further, we test the correlation between team trust and team creativity to establish its predictive validity and make a further verification on the scale structure through second‐order confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, we discuss the implications for research and practice.     

Training to improve virtual team communication

Abstract. Organizations are utilizing virtual teams, comprising workgroup members who communicate and collaborate with technology, to accomplish tasks. These teams are geographically distributed and communicate via computer-mediated communication systems (CMCS), and may never or rarely meet face-to-face. Relational links among team members have been found to be a significant contributor to the effectiveness of information exchange in the use of CMCS. In most cases, team members receive little or no training to improve the effectiveness of this form of communication. When training is used, it often focuses on software utilization skills, not on interpersonal communication dynamics. This paper discusses the effect of virtual team communication training on group interactions, especially for enhancing these relational links and thereby improving communication and information exchange in virtual teams. It was found that teams that were given appropriate training exhibited improved perceptions of the interaction process over time, specifically with regard to trust, commitment and frank expression between members. Discussion of the role of training on virtual team processes and outcomes is discussed and future research implications are presented.     

The effects of extended work under sleep deprivation conditions on team-based performance

Teamwork is becoming increasingly common in today's workplaces; however, little research has examined how well teams perform under sleep deprivation conditions. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of extended work under sleep deprivation conditions on team performance. A total of 24 participants were sleep deprived for 30 h and completed 16 h of sustained operations during the last portion of the sleep deprivation period. The participants completed the Wombat, a complex task including vigilance and cognitive components, with a partner in four 24-min testing sessions during the sustained operations period. The results indicated that team performance increased during the work period while, within each testing session, team performance on vigilance tasks remained stable and overall performance decreased. The current results suggest that performance on two-person teams results in improved performance but does not fully counteract the decreases in performance within each work period. Performance in two-person teams increased across an extended work shift under sleep deprivation conditions. However, vigilance performance remained stable while overall performance decreased when examining performance in 8-min segments. These results suggest that averaging team-based performance over a longer testing period may mask the negative effects of sleep deprivation.

Statement of Relevance: Performance in two-person teams increased across an extended work shift under sleep deprivation conditions. However, vigilance performance remained stable while overall performance decreased when examining performance in 8-min segments. These results suggest that averaging team-based performance over a longer testing period may mask the negative effects of sleep deprivation.     

Team dynamics in virtual,partially distributed teams: Optimal role fulfillment

In this study, we explored team roles in virtual, partially distributed teams, or vPDTs (teams with at least one co-located subgroup and at least two subgroups that are geographically dispersed but that collaborate virtually). Past research on virtual teams emphasizes the importance of team dynamics. We argue that the following three roles are particularly important for high functioning virtual teams: Project Coordinator, Implementer and Completer-Finisher. We hypothesized that the highest performing vPDTs will have 1) a single Project Coordinator for each subgroup, 2) multiple Implementers within the team, and 3) fewer Completer-Finishers within the team. A sample of 28 vPDTs with members working on two different continents provides support for the second and third hypothesized relationships, but not the first.     

Effects of task complexity on individual creativity through knowledge interaction: A comparison of temporary and permanent teams

Using the interactionist’s perspective of creativity, this paper proposes a new research model of creativity manifestation to explore how factors affecting individual creativity depend on team characteristics. We investigated the antecedents of creativity in the literature—task complexity, team member exchange, and knowledge sharing—and then examined the relationships and differences between temporary and permanent teams. To maximize practical implications, we studied two team types like project task force (PTF) and research and development (R&D) teams in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry in Korea, where strong creativity is required for team performance. PTF teams operate with a clear mission to be completed on a deadline, while R&D teams create scientific enhancements for existing products. The proposed structural model was tested empirically with cross-sectional data from 289 professionals from the two team types. Results indicated that, in the case of PTF teams, task complexity had an indirect relationship with individual complexity through knowledge interaction among team members, while for R&D teams, task complexity was directly associated with individual creativity, and indirectly associated with the creativity through team member exchange. Thus, team characteristics must be considered together with task complexity and knowledge interactions in order to achieve team goals more effectively by maximizing each member’s creativity.     

Some years of lectures and practicals in computer graphics

Combined with lectures in computer graphics, practicals have been held with students of informatics during the past six and a half years. It was a mandatory part of the final semester at the Fachhochschule für Technik Konstanz (FRG). The programming tasks were given individually (without repetition) to each team and were related to problems in different fields of application. From the total of seventy-seven tasks, twelve were selected and are described herein, showing the results achieved by the teams. Further comments are made upon the design concepts of the practicals as well as the time needed by the teams to complete the practicals. The average number of teams per semester was six, composed of two or three students per team.     

PROJECT TEAM SELECTION USING FUZZY OPTIMIZATION APPROACH

With their high potential, high motivation, great problem-solving ability and flexibility, project teams are important work structures for the business life. The success of these teams is highly dependent upon the people involved in the project team. This makes the project team selection an important factor for project success. The project team selection can be defined as selecting the right team members, which will together perform a particular project/task within a given deadline. In this article, an analytical model for the project team selection problem is proposed by considering several human and nonhuman factors. Because of the imprecise nature of the problem, fuzzy concepts like triangular fuzzy numbers and linguistic variables are used. The proposed model is a fuzzy multiple objective optimization model with fuzzy objectives and crisp constraints. The skill suitability of each team candidate is reflected to the model by suitability values. These values are obtained by using the fuzzy ratings method. The suitability values of the candidates and the size of the each project team are modeled as fuzzy objectives. The proposed algorithm takes into account the time and the budget limitations of each project and interpersonal relations between the team candidates. These issues are modeled as hard-crisp constraints. The proposed model uses fuzzy objectives and crisp constraints to select the most suitable team members to form the best possible team for a given project. A simulated annealing algorithm is developed to solve the proposed fuzzy optimization model. Software based on C + + computer programming language is also developed to experiment on the proposed model in forming project teams.     

Keeping it together: The role of transactional situation awareness in team performance

It has been argued that communications in teams are a means of transmitting Situation Awareness to improve performance. This study explored the frequency and types of situation awareness transactions in two groups of teams. Twelve teams were grouped into either more effective or less effective teams, based on performance measures. Distributed Situation Awareness theory predicts that Situation Awareness transaction are a medium for co-ordinating teamwork, and that more of these transaction will lead to improved performance. Differences in the frequency and type of transactions were observed between the more effective teams and the less effective teams with the former having a higher frequency of overall communications and, more importantly, a higher number of relevant situation awareness transaction types compared to less effective teams. Situation awareness transactions supported the team in making sense of the situation they found themselves in as it unfolded and enabled team members to perform their discrete tasks and therefore contribute to overall team success.Relevance to industry: Teams are a major feature of most industrial applications of work and communication play an important role in coordinating team work. Communication has been found to be linked to both team performance and situation awareness. Situation awareness is distributed in teams through transactions of information. A study was devised to explore the differences between more effective and less effective teams on a number of situation awareness transactional factors. Analysing the team as a functional unit of situation awareness is presented for future work.