Thesis (M.A.)--Lancaster Bible College, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81).

Thesis (M.A.)--Lancaster Bible College, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-69).

Thesis (M.A.)--Lancaster Bible College, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-69).

This dissertation theorizes about why a team’s network structure might affect team performance immediately and over time when membership changes. I propose that the low substitutability of a central team member immediately disrupts the structure of interactions between remaining members and leaves the team without an important resource that is relied upon to facilitate team process. This performance loss is expected to decay as time elapses because the saliency of the event creates the focus and urgency required for the team to implement widespread systemic change. Dense interaction and task redundancy among core members in a centralized structure is expected to help offset this performance loss both immediately and over time. I examine the effect of network structure on initial team performance (performance immediately following member exit and entry) and performance over time (the rate of performance change following exit and entry) in professional hockey teams experiencing membership change due to player injury. Results show that the departure of a central player has a significant and negative effect on a team’s immediate performance, but the centrality of the absent member has a curvilinear effect on team performance over time. Teams that lost a central player experienced a drop in performance immediately after that player’s exit; but subsequently demonstrated an improvement in performance over time. Teams that lost a peripheral player experienced a more positive performance trajectory over time when compared with their performance before the exit, while the performance of teams that lost a mid-central player remains constant over time. While team centralization had no influence on initial team performance, over time it dramatically altered team outcomes such that, regardless of the departing player’s network position, teams with a centralized structure improved over time, whereas decentralized teams performed more poorly over time.

This dissertation theorizes about why a team’s network structure might affect team performance immediately and over time when membership changes. I propose that the low substitutability of a central team member immediately disrupts the structure of interactions between remaining members and leaves the team without an important resource that is relied upon to facilitate team process. This performance loss is expected to decay as time elapses because the saliency of the event creates the focus and urgency required for the team to implement widespread systemic change. Dense interaction and task redundancy among core members in a centralized structure is expected to help offset this performance loss both immediately and over time. I examine the effect of network structure on initial team performance (performance immediately following member exit and entry) and performance over time (the rate of performance change following exit and entry) in professional hockey teams experiencing membership change due to player injury. Results show that the departure of a central player has a significant and negative effect on a team’s immediate performance, but the centrality of the absent member has a curvilinear effect on team performance over time. Teams that lost a central player experienced a drop in performance immediately after that player’s exit; but subsequently demonstrated an improvement in performance over time. Teams that lost a peripheral player experienced a more positive performance trajectory over time when compared with their performance before the exit, while the performance of teams that lost a mid-central player remains constant over time. While team centralization had no influence on initial team performance, over time it dramatically altered team outcomes such that, regardless of the departing player’s network position, teams with a centralized structure improved over time, whereas decentralized teams performed more poorly over time.

Teams research has traditionally treated teams as static entities while paying limited attention to the dynamics introduced by changes in team membership. Furthermore, the few studies that have examined the effects of team membership change have focused on the effects of membership change at a single point in time without considering the potential effects on team performance trajectories over time. In an effort to extend this research and understand how teams respond over time to changes in team membership, this dissertation integrates Team Adaptation Theory with Collective Turnover Theory and proposes a model in which three characteristics of membership change events (quantity of team members changed, status of team members changed, and shared experience of unchanged, continuing team members) influence immediate team performance and serve as signals for post-change team adaptation. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 253 primary care medical teams in a large U.S. healthcare system. Results showed that membership change events were immediately disruptive to primary care Continuity outcomes, but not to Access or Coordination outcomes. Counter to hypotheses, these immediate disruptions were larger when changes involved members who occupied lower-status roles within teams. Furthermore, team performance trajectories were lower when unchanged, continuing team members had larger amounts of shared work experience. This study contributes to theory and teams research by identifying shared experience as a moderator of the membership change-team performance relationship and by linking the effects of membership change characteristics to both initial post-change performance and longer-term performance trajectories.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1994. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-153).