Scaling the quality of teammates' mental models: equifinality and normative comparisons

    Authors

    J. E. Mathieu; T. S. Heffner; G. F. Goodwin; J. A. Cannon-Bowers;E. Salas

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Organ. Behav.

    Keywords

    PERFORMANCE; KNOWLEDGE; ENVIRONMENTS; FRAMEWORK; BEHAVIOR; TESTS; WORK; Business; Psychology, Applied; Management

    Abstract

    We tested the impact of teammates' team and task mental model sharedness on team processes and performance using 70 undergraduate teams that completed a series of missions on a PC-based flight simulator. Moreover, we considered how the quality of mental models might moderate such relationships. Team processes were found to partially mediate the relationship between task mental model sharedness and team performance. Although team mental model sharedness failed to exhibit a significant linear relationship with team processes or performance, it did evidence a multiplicative relationship as moderated by the quality of those models. Team processes and performance were better among teams sharing higher-quality team mental models than among teams evidencing less sharedness or who had lower-quality models. Again, team processes partially mediated these relationships. Results are discussed in terms of the equifinality of mental model quality and applications to various team environments. Copyright (C) 2005 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Organizational Behavior

    Volume

    26

    Issue/Number

    1

    Publication Date

    1-1-2005

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    37

    Last Page

    56

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000226952300003

    ISSN

    0894-3796

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