The development of collective efficacy in teams: A multilevel and longitudinal perspective.

The authors developed and tested a longitudinal multilevel model of collective efficacy formation. In 50 self-managing student teams, they investigated the effects of individual-level and team-level factors on observed behaviors and the subsequent development of collective efficacy for mastering a complex team task. Self-efficacy for teamwork, task-relevant knowledge, and collective efficacy predicted individual teamwork behaviors (rated by peers). Aggregated measures of teamwork behavior were related to subsequent collective efficacy, which was significantly related to final team performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A multilevel study of leadership, empowerment, and performance in teams.

A multilevel model of leadership, empowerment, and performance was tested using a sample of 62 teams, 445 individual members, 62 team leaders, and 31 external managers from 31 stores of a Fortune 500 company. Leader-member exchange and leadership climate related differently to individual and team empowerment and interacted to influence individual empowerment. Also, several relationships were supported in more but not in less interdependent teams. Specifically, leader-member exchange related to individual performance partially through individual empowerment; leadership climate related to team performance partially through team empowerment; team empowerment moderated the relationship between individual empowerment and performance; and individual performance was positively related to team performance. Contributions to team leadership theory, research, and practices are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental efficacy and physical efficacy at the team level: Inputs and outcomes among newly formed action teams.

The authors demarcated mental efficacy and physical efficacy at the team level, and they explored these 2 factors as outcomes of 4 potential inputs and as predictors of 3 outcomes among 110 newly formed action teams in a military setting. Both types of team efficacy benefited from greater team size and an initial experience of enactive mastery, but they were not influenced by teams' female representation or knowledge pool. In terms of predictive contributions, both mental and physical efficacy facilitated internal social cohesion, yet only mental efficacy promoted problem solving and observed teamwork effectiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explaining radical group behavior: Developing emotion and efficacy routes to normative and nonnormative collective action.

A recent model of collective action distinguishes 2 distinct pathways: an emotional pathway whereby anger in response to injustice motivates action and an efficacy pathway where the belief that issues can be solved collectively increases the likelihood that group members take action (van Zomeren, Spears, Fischer, & Leach, 2004). Research supporting this model has, however, focused entirely on relatively normative actions such as participating in demonstrations. We argue that the relations between emotions, efficacy, and action differ for more extreme, nonnormative actions and propose (a) that nonnormative actions are often driven by a sense of low efficacy and (b) that contempt, which, unlike anger, entails psychological distancing and a lack of reconciliatory intentions, predicts nonnormative action. These ideas were tested in 3 survey studies examining student protests against tuition fees in Germany (N = 332), Indian Muslims' action support in relation to ingroup disadvantage (N = 156), and British Muslims' responses to British foreign policy (N = 466). Results were generally supportive of predictions and indicated that (a) anger was strongly related to normative action but overall unrelated or less strongly related to nonnormative action, (b) contempt was either unrelated or negatively related to normative action but significantly positively predicted nonnormative action, and (c) efficacy was positively related to normative action and negatively related to nonnormative action. The implications of these findings for understanding and dealing with extreme intergroup phenomena such as terrorism are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role ambiguity, role efficacy, and role performance: Multidimensional and mediational relationships within interdependent sport teams.

Male secondary school rugby players (N=271) participated in a study examining role ambiguity, role efficacy, and role performance. A multidimensional measure was used to assess 4 manifestations of role ambiguity in offensive and defensive contexts. Multiple role ambiguity dimensions explained variance in efficacy and performance. Consistent with theorizing by A. Bandura (1997) and R. L. Kahn, D. M. Wolfe, R. P. Quinn, J. D. Snoek, and R. A. Rosenthal (1964), negative relationships observed between role ambiguity and role performance were mediated by competence (role efficacy) beliefs. Findings support the multidimensional operationalization of role ambiguity and role efficacy as a generative mechanism through which role ambiguity can affect role performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective mechanisms linking dysfunctional behavior to performance in work teams: A moderated mediation study.

The present study examines the association between dysfunctional team behavior and team performance. Data included measures of teams' dysfunctional behavior and negative affective tone as well as supervisors' ratings of teams' (nonverbal) negative emotional expressivity and performance. Utilizing a field sample of 61 work teams, the authors tested the proposed relationships with robust data analytic techniques. Results were consistent with the hypothesized conceptual scheme, in that negative team affective tone mediated the relationship between dysfunctional team behavior and performance when teams' nonverbal negative expressivity was high but not when nonverbal expressivity was low. On the basis of the findings, the authors conclude that the connection between dysfunctional behavior and performance in team situations is more complex than was previously believed--thereby yielding a pattern of moderated mediation. In sum, the findings demonstrated that team members' collective emotions and emotional processing represent key mechanisms in determining how dysfunctional team behavior is associated with team performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dimensions of teacher self-efficacy and relations with strain factors, perceived collective teacher efficacy, and teacher burnout.

In this study, the authors developed and factor analyzed the Norwegian Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale. They also examined relations among teacher self-efficacy, perceived collective teacher efficacy, external control (teachers' general beliefs about limitations to what can be achieved through education), strain factors, and teacher burnout. Participants were 244 elementary and middle school teachers. The analysis supported the conceptualization of teacher self-efficacy as a multidimensional construct. They found strong support for 6 separate but correlated dimensions of teacher self-efficacy, which were included in the following subscales: Instruction, Adapting Education to Individual Students' Needs, Motivating Students, Keeping Discipline, Cooperating With Colleagues and Parents, and Coping With Changes and Challenges. They also found support for a strong 2nd-order self-efficacy factor underlying the 6 dimensions. Teacher self-efficacy was conceptually distinguished from perceived collective teacher efficacy and external control. Teacher self-efficacy was strongly related to collective teacher efficacy and teacher burnout. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Collective efficacy, group potency, and group performance: Meta-analyses of their relationships, and test of a mediation model.

The authors examined relationships among collective efficacy, group potency, and group performance. Meta-analytic results (based on 6,128 groups, 31,019 individuals, 118 correlations adjusted for dependence, and 96 studies) reveal that collective efficacy was significantly related to group performance (.35). In the proposed nested 2-level model, collective efficacy assessment (aggregation and group discussion) was tested as the 1st-level moderator. It showed significantly different average correlations with group performance (.32 vs. .45), but the group discussion assessment was homogeneous, whereas the aggregation assessment was heterogeneous. Consequently, there was no 2nd-level moderation for the group discussion, and heterogeneity in the aggregation group was accounted for by the 2nd-level moderator, task interdependence (high, moderate, and low levels were significant; the higher the level, the stronger the relationship). The 2nd and 3rd meta-analyses indicated that group potency was related to group performance (.29) and to collective efficacy (.65). When tested in a structural equation modeling analysis based on meta-analytic findings, collective efficacy fully mediated the relationship between group potency and group performance. The authors suggest future research and convert their findings to a probability of success index to help facilitate practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The protective effects of neighborhood collective efficacy on British children growing up in deprivation: A developmental analysis.

This article reports on the influence of neighborhood-level deprivation and collective efficacy on children’s antisocial behavior between the ages of 5 and 10 years. Latent growth curve modeling was applied to characterize the developmental course of antisocial behavior among children in the E-Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, an epidemiological cohort of 2,232 children. Children in deprived versus affluent neighborhoods had higher levels of antisocial behavior at school entry (24.1 vs. 20.5, p     

Relations entre cohésion et efficacité collective au sein d'équipes professionnelles masculines et féminines de basket-ball.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between cohesion and collective efficacy in professional basketball teams. A total of 66 male and 54 female French-speaking professional players from 20 teams completed Heuzé and Fontayne's (2002) Questionnaire sur l'Ambiance du Groupe and a collective efficacy measure designed to assess the athletes' perceptions of their team efficacy in offense, defense, and total. Index of agreement, intraclass correlation, and eta-squared statistic supported the existence of group perceptions for the constructs. At group level, several positive correlations were found between the dimensions of cohesion and collective efficacy. However, sequential multiple regression analyses indicated that only Group integration-task was a significant predictor of collective efficacy and explained 38% to 65% of the variance of the collective efficacy scales. The implications of the results are discussed and future studies using multilevel statistical methodologies are recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explaining affective linkages in teams: Individual differences in susceptibility to contagion and individualism-collectivism.

To expand on the understanding of how affective states are linked within teams, the authors describe a longitudinal study examining the linkages between team members' affective states over time. In a naturalistic team performance setting, they found evidence that the average affective state of the other team members was related to an individual team member's affect over time, even after controlling for team performance. In addition, they found that these affective linkages were moderated by individual differences in susceptibility to emotional contagion and collectivistic tendencies such that the strength of the linkage was stronger for those high in susceptibility and those with collectivistic tendencies. Implications for research and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivating and demotivating forces in teams: Cross-level influences of empowering leadership and relationship conflict.

Using cross-cultural laboratory and field studies with samples of leaders, employees, and students from the United States and the People's Republic of China, we examined how team-level stimuli, including empowering leadership and relationship conflict, combine to influence individual members' motivational states of psychological empowerment and affective commitment. As predicted, we found that these motivational states are individually and jointly influenced by teams' level of empowering leadership and relationship conflict and that these motivational states mediate the relationships between team stimuli and team members' innovative and teamwork behaviors and turnover intentions. In addition, results held despite controlling for team members' nationality and collectivism. We discuss contributions of our study to the team motivation, conflict, and stress literatures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence for universality in phenomenological emotion response system coherence.

The authors reanalyzed data from Scherer and Wallbott's (Scherer, 1997b; Scherer & Wallbott, 1994) International Study of Emotion Antecedents and Reactions to examine how phenomenological reports of emotional experience, expression, and physiological sensations were related to each other within cultures and to determine if these relationships were moderated by cultural differences, which were operationally defined using Hofstede's (2001) typology. Multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses produced several findings of note. First, the vast majority of the variance in ratings was within countries (i.e., at the individual level); a much smaller proportion of the total variance was between countries. Second, there were negative relationships between country-level means and long- versus short-term orientation for numerous measures. Greater long-term orientation was associated with lowered emotional expressivity and fewer physiological sensations. Third, at the individual (within-culture) level, across the 7 emotions, there were consistent and reliable positive relationships among the response systems, indicating coherence among them. Fourth, such relationships were not moderated by cultural differences, as measured by the Hofstede dimensions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping strategies and collective efficacy as mediators between stress appraisal and quality of life among rescue workers.

Fire-fighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians routinely confront potentially traumatic events in the course of their jobs. The mediation role of coping strategies and collective efficacy in the relationship between stress appraisal and quality of life was examined (compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout) in a correlational study. Participants were 463 Italian rescue workers (fire fighters and different categories of emergency health care professionals). Participants filled out measures of stress appraisal, collective efficacy, coping strategies, and quality of life. The results showed that emotion and support coping, self-blame coping, and self-distraction mediated the relationship between stress appraisal and compassion fatigue. Moreover, collective efficacy, self-blame coping, and religious coping mediated the relationship between stress appraisal and burnout. Finally, collective efficacy, self-blame coping, and problem-focused coping mediated the relationship between stress appraisal and compassion satisfaction. Cognitive restructuring and denial did not mediate the relation between stress appraisal and any of the quality of life dimensions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do you see what we see? The complex effects of perceptual distance between leaders and teams.

Previous distance-related theories and concepts (e.g., social distance) have failed to address the sometimes wide disparity in perceptions between leaders and the teams they lead. Drawing from the extensive literature on teams, leadership, and cognitive models of social information processing, the authors develop the concept of leader-team perceptual distance, defined as differences between a leader and a team in perceptions of the same social stimulus. The authors investigate the effects of perceptual distance on team performance, operationalizing the construct with 3 distinct foci: goal accomplishment, constructive conflict, and decision-making autonomy. Analyzing leader, member, and customer survey responses for a large sample of teams, the authors demonstrate that perceptual distance between a leader and a team regarding goal accomplishment and constructive conflict have a nonlinear relationship with team performance. Greater perceptual differences are associated with decreases in team performance. Moreover, this effect is strongest when a team's perceptions are more positive than the leader's are (as opposed to the reverse). This pattern illustrates the pervasive effects that perceptions can have on team performance, highlighting the importance of developing awareness of perceptions in order to increase effectiveness. Implications for theory and practice are delineated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of different levels of leadership in predicting self- and collective efficacy: Evidence for discontinuity.

This study identified potential discontinuities in the antecedents of efficacy beliefs across levels of analysis, with a particular focus on the role of leadership climate at different organizational levels. Random coefficient modeling analyses conducted on data collected from 2,585 soldiers in 86 combat units confirmed that soldiers' experience, role clarity, and psychological strain predicted self-efficacy to a greater extent than did leadership climate. Also, leadership climate at a higher organizational level related to self-efficacy through role clarity, whereas leadership climate at a lower organizational level related to self-efficacy through psychological strain. Group-level analyses identified leadership climate at a higher organizational level as the strongest predictor of collective efficacy. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A multilevel exploration of the influence of teacher efficacy and burnout on response to student problem behavior and school-based service use.

There is an increasing concern about teacher factors, such as burnout or low efficacy, which have been hypothesized to influence student outcomes like achievement or discipline problems. The current study examined how burnout and efficacy relate to student disciplinary actions (e.g., referrals to the principal and suspensions) and referrals for school-based support services (e.g., student support and special education), while adjusting for school-, teacher-, and student-level variables. Data were collected during the fall and spring of a single school year from 491 teachers regarding 9,795 students at 31 elementary schools. Contrary to expectations, having low teacher efficacy in the fall was associated with a reduction in student referrals to the student support team. Also unexpectedly, teachers with high burnout in the fall were less likely to have students who received an out-of-school suspension by the spring. These findings enhance our understanding of the teacher factors that influence student outcomes and may inform the development of screenings and teacher-targeted interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When the association between appearance and outcome contaminates social judgment: A bidirectional model linking group homogeneity and collective treatment.

Group formation is an inevitable consequence of social life, and the tendency to perceive people as a collective unit persists once they have been categorized as a group. Drawing on the concept of homogeneity, the authors propose a model suggesting that groups may endure in part because people who are perceived as homogeneous attract collective treatment (e.g., monetary rewards and punishment), and such treatment further reinforces the perception that the group’s members are homogeneous. In support of this model, more homogeneous groups attracted collective treatment and collectively treated groups seemed to be more homogeneous thereafter. The authors suggest that these effects arise in part because people intuitively believe that group homogeneity is associated with collective treatment, and they present evidence suggesting that this applies to at least one policy-relevant real-world setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trait configurations in self-managed teams: A conceptual examination of the use of seeding for maximizing and minimizing trait variance in teams.

In this article, the authors argue that there is no one best way to make placement decisions on self-managed teams. Drawing from theories of supplementary and complementary fit, they develop a conceptual model that suggests that (a) maximization principles should be applied to extroversion variance (i.e., complementary fit), (b) minimization principles should be applied to conscientiousness variance (i.e., supplementary fit), and (c) extroversion variance and conscientiousness variance interact to influence team performance. They also argue that previous research has underestimated the effect of extroversion and conscientiousness variance on performance because of suboptimal design. The authors, therefore, present an alternative method for making team placement decisions (i.e., seeding) that can be used to maximize or minimize variance in teams. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Collective efficacy: A neglected construct in the study of schools and student achievement.

A theoretical analysis is advanced that discusses social cognitive theory at the group level to explain the formation and impact of collective efficacy. The study used student- and school-level data from a sample of urban elementary schools. Consistent with social cognitive theory, mastery experience was found to be a significant predictor of differences between schools in teachers' collective efficacy perceptions. In addition, after controlling for student demographic characteristics and prior achievement, collective efficacy was positively and significantly related to differences among schools in student achievement. Finally, the amount of consensus among faculty members regarding collective efficacy perceptions was not a significant predictor of student achievement, nor was it significantly related to school socioeconomic status or minority concentration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)