Facilitating Knowledge Building in Teams: Can a New Team Training Strategy Help?

    Authors

    J. R. Rentsch; L. A. Delise; E. Salas;M. P. Letsky

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Small Group Res.

    Keywords

    team; information sharing/nonsharing; team cognition; decision making; DECISION-MAKING; MENTAL MODELS; INFORMATION; PERFORMANCE; TEXT; METAANALYSIS; COGNITION; DIAGRAMS; SUPPORT; IMPACT; Psychology, Applied; Management; Psychology, Social

    Abstract

    Problem-solving teams composed of members possessing unique knowledge tend to be ineffective because of impediments that limit information sharing, including the sampling advantage of common information and differential schema structures among team members. Teams using a team training strategy aimed at ameliorating these impediments were expected to experience knowledge building and high performance. Data were collected from 40 teams of three co-located members, which were randomly assigned to a training or control condition. All teams completed a realistic military-based hidden profile problem-solving task. Teams in the training condition were trained to build knowledge using an information board (which served as a knowledge object) accompanied with schema-enriched communication. Teams in the control condition operated as typical co-located problem-solving teams and did not use an information board or receive the training. All hypotheses were supported. Teams experiencing the training strategy had higher knowledge transfer, interoperable knowledge, cognitive congruence, and performance than control teams. The training strategy appears to be effective in aiding teams to ameliorate communication impediments. Apparently, teams externalized their knowledge by communicating aspects of their schemas for task knowledge and visually representing and collaboratively structuring that knowledge.

    Journal Title

    Small Group Research

    Volume

    41

    Issue/Number

    5

    Publication Date

    1-1-2010

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    505

    Last Page

    523

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000281798300001

    ISSN

    1046-4964

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