Supervisory procedures and work-team productivity.

"A complex task setting provided by the simulation of a radar air traffic control system was the context employed to evaluate the extent to which work-team productivity is modifiable as a consequence of different supervisors and supervisory procedures under different task loads. Six two-man teams were observed. Each team worked under each of three supervisors. The supervisors shifted from team to team. Three techniques were adopted alternately: laissez-faire, active monitoring, and direct participation. It was observed that the individual supervisor was a more consistent influence on performance than the particular role he employed. The effect of role per se was significant but interpretable only in light of the particular performance criterion used. For example, processing speed was greatest under laissezfaire conditions, while error avoidance was superior under the conditions which required more overt supervisory activity. Task load was not found to be an interactive factor." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relating the Tellegen and five-factor models of personality structure.

With 575 college students, the relationship between A. Tellegen's (1985) personality model, assessed with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), and the Big Five model, operationalized by P. T. Costa and R. R. McCrae's (1985) NEO Personality Inventory, was investigated. Correlations and joint factor analyses indicated that the MPQ constructs could be well-organized under the Big Five model, and the NEO constructs could be well-organized under the Tellegen higher-order dimensions (plus Absorption). Tellegen's higher-order dimensions relate to components of the Big Five hierarchically: Negative Emotionality encompasses Big Five Neuroticism and Agreeableness, Positive Emotionality encompasses Extraversion and the surgent aspect of Conscientiousness, and Constraint encompasses the controlled aspect of Conscientiousness and much of Openness to Experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of justice in team member satisfaction with the leader and attachment to the team.

This study examined the effects of team decision accuracy, team member decision influence, leader consideration behaviors, and justice perceptions on staff members' satisfaction with the leader and attachment to the team in hierarchical decision-making teams. The authors proposed that staff members' justice perceptions would mediate the relationship between (a) team decision accuracy, (b) the amount of influence a staff member has in the team leader's decision, and (c) the leader's consideration behaviors and staff attachment to the team and satisfaction with the leader. The results of an experiment involving 128 participants in a total of 64 teams, who made recommendations to a confederate acting as the team leader, generally support the proposed model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships among team ability composition, team mental models, and team performance.

This study examined the relationship between the similarity and accuracy of team mental models and compared the extent to which each predicted team performance. The relationship between team ability composition and team mental models was also investigated. Eighty-three dyadic teams worked on a complex skill task in a 2-week training protocol. Results indicated that although similarity and accuracy of team mental models were significantly related, accuracy was a stronger predictor of team performance. In addition, team ability was more strongly related to the accuracy than to the similarity of team mental models and accuracy partially mediated the relationship between team ability and team performance, but similarity did not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Team adaptation and postchange performance: Effects of team composition in terms of members' cognitive ability and personality.

The present study extended research on relationships between individual differences and individual-level adaptation (J. A. LePine, J. A. Colquitt, & A. Erez, 2000). This study focused on team-level relationships (N = 73 teams) and demonstrated that after an unforeseen change in the task context, performance was superior for teams with members who had higher cognitive ability, achievement, and openness and who had lower dependability. These relationships were mediated by a measure of role structure adaptation (i.e., the effectiveness with which teams adapted their role structure when faced with an unforeseen change in their task context). Members' individual differences did not explain variance in team performance prior to the unforeseen change in the task context. Overall, results suggest differential relationships for team composition across routine and changing task contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What makes a good team player? Personality and team effectiveness.

Good team players are often defined in trait terms; that is, they are described as dependable, flexible, or cooperative. Our goal is to examine the relationship between team member personality traits and team effectiveness. However, to understand the effects of personality on team performance requires greater specificity in how personality is described and in how team effectiveness is described. A hierarchical model of team member personality is presented that defines higher-level personality traits and specific facets relevant to team performance. Next, a classification of the core teamwork dimensions underlying effective team performance is presented. Finally, predictions are derived linking team member personality facets to specific teamwork requirements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cyclical processes in personality and psychopathology.

Both the understanding of psychopathology and the ability to intervene therapeutically are enhanced by an appreciation of the central role of vicious circles in the development and maintenance of psychological disorder. It is usually possible to discern a structure to people's difficulties in which internal states and external events continually recreate the conditions for the reoccurrence of each other in an all too real psychological version of the mythical perpetual motion machine. This article illustrates how such circular processes work in a number of representative types of psychological difficulty and discusses the implications of this conception for understanding psychopathology and for therapeutic intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding team innovation: The role of team processes and structures.

The present study focused on innovation of teams, examining the contributions of team interaction processes (exchanging information, learning, motivating, and negotiating) and structures (functional heterogeneity and frequency of meetings) to innovation. Specifically, it was hypothesized that (a) team structures will be positively related to team innovation, (b) team heterogeneity will be positively related to team interaction processes, (c) team interaction processes will be positively related to team innovation, and (d) team interaction processes will mediate the relationship between team heterogeneity and team innovation. Results from a sample of 48 intact teams in elementary and secondary schools supported the main hypotheses. These results imply that the development of mutual interaction processes is a crucial mechanism for translating team heterogeneity into innovation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A contingency model of conflict and team effectiveness.

The authors develop and test theoretical extensions of the relationships of task conflict, relationship conflict, and 2 dimensions of team effectiveness (performance and team-member satisfaction) among 2 samples of work teams in Taiwan and Indonesia. Findings show that relationship conflict moderates the task conflict–team performance relationship. Specifically, the relationship is curvilinear in the shape of an inverted U when relationship conflict is low, but the relationship is linear and negative when relationship conflict is high. The results for team-member satisfaction are more equivocal, but the findings provide some evidence that relationship conflict exacerbates the negative relationship between task conflict and team-member satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task versus relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction: A meta-analysis.

This study provides a meta-analysis of research on the associations between relationship conflict, task conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction. Consistent with past theorizing, results revealed strong and negative correlations between relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction. In contrast to what has been suggested in both academic research and introductory textbooks, however, results also revealed strong and negative (instead of the predicted positive) correlations between task conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction. As predicted, conflict had stronger negative relations with team performance in highly complex (decision making, project, mixed) than in less complex (production) tasks. Finally, task conflict was less negatively related to team performance when task conflict and relationship conflict were weakly, rather than strongly, correlated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting group task effectiveness from member characteristics.

Studies relating premeasures of member characteristics to small-group task performance are reviewed. The individual traits used to predict performance are grouped into 6 categories: ability, adjustment, extraversion, dominance, authoritarianism, and "other characteristics." 2 member characteristics have been used as predictors in a sufficient number of studies to permit a tentative conclusion, namely, that member ability (both specific and general) and member adjustment are significantly related to group effectiveness. It is less clear however, whether extraversion, dominance, and authoritarianism would be useful for predicting group task performance. Both the requirements of the situation and social structural constraints must be taken into account when predicting group effectiveness from member traits. Specifically the type of group task and the organization of the group are seen to have a decided influence on the relationship. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between work values similarity and team–member and leader–member exchange relationships.

Residence hall advisor teams and hall directors were surveyed to investigate the relationship of work values and actual and perceived similarity on these values with leader–member exchange (LMX) and team–member exchange (TMX). Demographic attributes were also investigated. Results showed that perceived similarity on the Protestant work ethic and preference for the work environment were positively related to LMX and that actual values and demographic attributes were not. TMX was positively related to actual similarity on several values but not to perceived similarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some personality correlates of the ability to stop smoking cigarettes.

4 groups of male college students were compared on the Edwards EPPS: (a) Ss who never smoked, (b) current cigarette smokers who never tried to stop smoking, (c) current smokers who tried to stop smoking but failed, and (d) former smokers who had succeeded in breaking the smoking habit. An effort to stop smoking was associated with low-deference and high-aggression needs. Success in such an effort was associated with these 2 variables plus low-affiliation, low-change, and high-achievement needs. Concern with the consequences of smoking to health as a stated reason for making an effort to stop smoking was not associated with success in that effort. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of cross-training on team effectiveness.

The authors examined the role of cross-training in developing shared team-interaction mental models, coordination, and performance in a 2-experiment study using computer simulation methodology (for Experiment 1, N=45 teams; for Experiment 2, N=49 teams). Similar findings emerged across the 2 experiments. First, cross-training enhanced the development of shared team-interaction models. Second, coordination mediated the relationship between shared mental models and team performance. However, there was some inconsistency in the findings concerning the depth of cross-training necessary for improving shared mental models. Results are discussed in terms of the impact of different levels of cross-training on team effectiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cooperation structure and the relationship of leader and member ability to group performance.

48 3-S groups of undergraduates with varying levels of creative ability among leaders and subordinates were required to carry out a creative verbal task while working under one form of cooperation structure. Each structure varied in the amount of 2 types of cooperation—collaboration and coordination. Collaboration reflects the degree to which group members have to work simultaneously with one another on each subtask. Coordination depends on the degree to which subtasks are arranged in an order of precedence. Both the form of cooperation and the level of group ability had a significant effect on group creativity. Groups with high ability leaders or subordinates were more productive than groups with low ability Ss; coordinated groups were superior to coacting groups, with collaborative groups being the least productive. There was a significant Leader Ability?×?Collaboration interaction because leader ability did not affect productivity in collaborative groups. Results are discussed in terms of the constraints placed on a leader's effectiveness by different group structures. Results also provide further evidence of the importance of group structure in determining productivity. (25) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Homogeneity of member personality and its effect on group problem-solving.

The capacity to solve problems was studied in 2 groups, one composed of Ss with similar personalities (as measured by the Guilford-Zimmerman Tempermant Survey), the "homogenous" group, and a "nonhomogenous" group. Several aspects of the solution were studied with the result that "The degree of homogeneity of personality of the members of the groups used in this study was seen to have a direct bearing on the effectiveness of the groups in producing solutions to problems," and "The results imply that a multiplicity of perceptions of a problem are productive of creative solutions." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assumed similarity measures as predictors of team effectiveness.

"The present investigations test the hypothesis that group effectiveness is related to the interpersonal perceptions which members of the group have toward one another. Interpersonal perceptions were measured by correlating identical questionnaires which subjects were instructed to fill out (a) describing themselves, (b) predicting the responses of their preferred co-worker, and (c) predicting the responses of their rejected co-worker." The assumed similarity score of the team's most preferred work companion was found to be negatively correlated with a criterion of team effectiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A field study of job applicants' reactions to personality and cognitive ability testing.

Eighty job applicants were screened through 1 of 3 job-selection conditions depending on the job for which they were applying: interviews only; interviews plus a personality inventory (the NEO Personality Inventory); or interviews, personality inventory, and cognitive ability testing. Applicants' reactions were generally favorable in all conditions but were significantly less positive in the interview plus personality test condition. The condition of a battery of both personality and ability tests (in addition to the interview) was perceived as positively as the no-test control condition. These results suggest that personality inventories can be included in employee-selection procedures without creating adverse reactions among job applicants as long as they are used in conjunction with ability tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations of age and personality dimensions to cognitive ability factors

The relation between three cognitive ability factors - Information Processing Ability (IPA), Manual Dexterity (MD), and Pattern Analysis Capability (PAC) - and three personality dimensions - Anxiety, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience - were examined in three age groups. Subjects were 969 male volunteers ranging in age from 25 to 82. Subjects high in anixety scored lower on all three cognitive factors; subjects open to experience scored higher on IPA and PAC; and introverted subjects scored higher on PAC. Most of these effects remained when the education and socio-economic status were held constant in covariance analyses. Older subjects performed less well than younger ones on MD and PAC, but not on IPA. While personality has some influence on cognitive performance, the declines with age in performance on some cognitive tasks are not mediated by personality.     

Team effectiveness: Beyond skills and cognitive ability.

On the basis of job analysis results, the validity of using measures of general cognitive ability, job-specific skills, and personality traits jointly at both the individual level and the group level to predict the performance of 79 four-person, human resource work teams was evaluated. Team member trait and job skill scores were aggregated with a conjunctive model of task performance. At the individual level of analysis, measures of personality (i.e., Agreeableness and Conscientiousness) predicted peer ratings of team member performance beyond measures of job-specific skills and general cognitive ability. Similarly, at the group level of analysis, both Agreeableness and Conscientiousness predicted supervisor ratings of work team performance, objective measures of work team accuracy, and work completed. At both the individual and group levels, the trait of Agreeableness predicted Interpersonal Skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)