Building Team Adaptive Capacity: The Roles of Sensegiving and Team Composition

    Authors

    K. R. Randall; C. J. Resick;L. A. DeChurch

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Appl. Psychol.

    Keywords

    information sharing; mental models; sensegiving; team adaptation; team; composition; GENERAL COGNITIVE-ABILITY; DECISION-MAKING GROUPS; MENTAL MODELS; INDIVIDUALISM-COLLECTIVISM; INTERRATER RELIABILITY; TASK-PERFORMANCE; STRATEGIC CHANGE; JOB-PERFORMANCE; HIDDEN PROFILES; GROUP JUDGMENT; Psychology, Applied; Management

    Abstract

    The current study draws on motivated information processing in groups theory to propose that leadership functions and composition characteristics provide teams with the epistemic and social motivation needed for collective information processing and strategy adaptation. Three-person teams performed a city management decision-making simulation (N = 74 teams; 222 individuals). Teams first managed a simulated city that was newly formed and required growth strategies and were then abruptly switched to a second simulated city that was established and required revitalization strategies. Consistent with hypotheses, external sensegiving and team composition enabled distinct aspects of collective information processing. Sensegiving prompted the emergence of team strategy mental models (i.e., cognitive information processing); psychological collectivism facilitated information sharing (i.e., behavioral information processing); and cognitive ability provided the capacity for both the cognitive and behavioral aspects of collective information processing. In turn, team mental models and information sharing enabled reactive strategy adaptation.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    Volume

    96

    Issue/Number

    3

    Publication Date

    1-1-2011

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    525

    Last Page

    540

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000290776700006

    ISSN

    0021-9010

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