Due to the long-duration and long distance nature of future exploration missions, coupled with significant communication delays from ground-based personnel, NASA astronauts will be living and working within confined, isolated environments for significant periods of time. This extreme environment poses concerns for the flight crews' ability to maintain cohesiveness and teamwork. If teamwork behaviors (i.e., communication, coordination, and collaboration) and cohesion are impacted, the mission success and crew safety can be threatened. Teamwork training is critical to ensuring that team cohesion and performance are maintained. Yet, delivering this training is challenging, as spaceflight crews are geographically dispersed across the globe and often train on different schedules. Designing and implementing an eLearning teamwork skills training, which can be delivered asynchronously, is a valuable and necessary initiative. However, questions remain regarding the most effective strategies, sequence and scope for team training. This design-based research constructed and validated a computer-based instructional unit for teamwork skills training, using the educational research and development model. The unit was validated through a formative evaluation process consisting of preliminary and main field-testing. The testing utilized an expert review methodology in which teamwork training subject matter experts at NASA, instructional designers and trainers at NASA, and experts on the astronauts at NASA evaluated the prototype. Upon analyzing the results and feedback, revisions were made to the prototype. The overall results of the data collection stages of the process indicate that a relevant, beneficial and potentially effective teamwork skills training unit was created. The educational research and development process resulted in the development of a teamwork skills training program that is ready for operational testing and dissemination. Additionally, a detailed example of adherence to instructional design principles and processes is provided.

This dissertation provides a cultural-cognitive perspective on the relationship between cooperation and competition within organizations. Instead of explicitly defining the relationship between cooperation and competition, I examine lay beliefs about the relationship and the impact of these beliefs on perceptions and behavior. This dissertation consists of two studies. In the first study, I examine the role of peoples’ categorization of competitive behaviors as cooperative or non-cooperative in teams. I assess the influence of dialectical reasoning, a culturally-shaped reasoning style, on the categorization of competitive behaviors and the reaction to competitive behaviors within teams. I test my predictions with a laboratory experiment with participants in the US and China. The analyses from this study reveal cultural differences in perceptual and behavioral reactions to competitive behaviors, with differences partially attributed to reasoning style and categorization. In the second study, I examine the role of people’s categorization of competitive behaviors as cooperative or non-cooperative in working relationships. I assess the influence of culture and categorization on people’s ego-centric network of working relationships. I test my predictions with a survey of working professionals in the US and China. The analyses from this study demonstrate that people who categorize certain competitive behaviors as cooperative are more likely to be more cooperative with people they are more competitive with instead of having exclusively cooperative or competitive relationships. The analyses also reveal national cultural differences in people’s networks of working relationships that are partially attributable to categorization of competitive behaviors. By empirically connecting culture and reasoning style to cooperative and competitive behavior in teams and working relationships, this research enhances our understanding of fundamental aspects of organizations, suggesting a new approach to examining the influence of societal factors in behavior within organizations. / text

Diversity and Teamwork are currently some of the trendiest human resources strategies of boosting team performance and ultimately, organizational performance. This study analyzes the impact of gender, racial, age and employment status diversity on teamwork, and is one of the first studies on diversity and teamwork in the mature phase of Japanese transplants. The theoretical framework includes elements of the symbolic interactionist theory, Kanter.s theory on tokenism, revised contact hypothesis and perspectives on cultural diversity (Ely and Thomas, 2001). The data were collected from interviews with 87 workers from 16 production teams working on the assembly line at a top Japanese auto transplant in US, as well as from observation, analysis of corporate literature and the annual opinion survey. Furthermore, intermediary variables like team climate or team spirit have been found to mediate the relationships between diversity and team performance. Gender mixed teams reported a more enjoyable and pleasant experience in teams, whereas the male teams exposed more rivalry and competition and the female teams had more interpersonal conflicts. Similarly, the racially diverse teams have more fun and more interesting things to discuss at work, which alleviates the boredom caused by the routine of the assembly-line. Age-balanced teams also have optimal functioning in terms of productivity, quality, safety and problem-solving. Differences in employment status were found to bring inequality and different standards of performance for permanent and temporary workers, which can threaten the fundamental principles of teamwork.

Tenured and tenure-track faculty members at institutions of higher education, especially those at Research I institutions, are being asked to do more than ever before. With rapidly changing technology, significant decreases in public funding, the shift toward privately funded research, and the ever increasing expectations of students for an education that adequately prepares them for professional careers, engineering faculty are particularly challenged by the escalating demands on their time. In 1996, the primary accreditation organization for engineering programs (ABET) adopted new criteria that required, among other things, engineering programs to teach students to function on multidisciplinary teams and to communicate effectively. In response, most engineering programs utilize project teams as a strategy for teaching these skills. The purpose of this qualitative study of tenured and tenure track engineering faculty at a Research I institution in the southwestern United States was to explore the variety of ways in which the engineering faculty responded to the demands placed upon them as a result of the increased emphasis on project teams in undergraduate engineering education. Social role theory and organizational climate theory guided the study. Some faculty viewed project teams as an opportunity for students to learn important professional skills and to benefit from collaborative learning but many questioned the importance and feasibility of teaching teamwork skills and had concerns about taking time away from other essential fundamental material such as mathematics, basic sciences and engineering sciences. Although the administration of the College of Engineering articulated strong support for the use of project teams in undergraduate education, the prevailing climate did little to promote significant efforts related to effective utilization of project teams. Too often, faculty were unwilling to commit sufficient time or effort to make project teamwork a truly valuable learning opportunity because those efforts were not perceived to be valuable and were rarely rewarded. Few formal professional development opportunities were available and few incentives were in place to encourage other informal efforts to develop the necessary skills. Those who committed significant effort to project teams were challenged by concerns about team composition, student accountability and assigning individual grades for group teamwork.

This study investigated the effect of participation in team building activities on the self-conceptions of middle school physical education students. Participants consisted of 68 physical education students in Grades 6 -8. The classes were randomly assigned to one of two groups, either treatment or control. The treatment group participated in one Team Building Through Physical Challenge (TBPC) activity every other week, for 8 weeks, while the control group continued with their regular physical education curriculum without participation in the TBPC activities. Harter's (1 985b) Self-perception Profile for Children was administered to all participants prior to and following the intervention. Data were analyzed using a 2 (treatmentlcontrol) x 2 (pretest/posttest) x 2 (malelfemale) repeated measures analysis of all six self-conceptions (athletic competence, social acceptance, behavioural conduct, scholastic competence, physical appearance, and global self-worth). Results at posttest revealed males in the treatment group had significantly higher self-conceptions for athletic competence. Participant mean scores in the treatment group also increased across time for social acceptance, scholastic competence, athletic competence and global self-worth. The second purpose of this study was to capture the experiences of the participants. A variety of qualitative data collection techniques (focus group interviews, videotaping, and digital photographs) were used to achieve this purpose. Five relatively distinct themes emerged from the analyses. These themes included: (a) Optimal Challenge and Optimal Interest, (b) Risk and Trust - A Symbiotic Relationship, (c) Teamwork - . . .It's About The Process, (d) Communication - Having a Voice, and (e) Negotiating -The Decision-Making Process. The findings of the qualitative analysis helped illuminate the quantitative results. Recommendations for future research and practice are also presented.

Bakgrund:Inom hälso-och sjukvården är de flesta patientsäkerhetsriskernaorsakadeav denmänskliga faktorn och bristande kommunikation. CrisisResourceManagement (CRM) är en relativt vedertagen metod inom sjukvården och en metod som landstingen satsat på under de senaste åren. Inom flygindustrin förespråkas denna metod och ökadforskning har också gjorts på metoden inom akutsjukvården. Målet är att uppnå ökad patientsäkerhet. Syfte:Att beskrivaanestesisjuksköterskors erfarenheter av CrisisResourseManagement inom Västerbottens LänsLandsting med fokus på kommunikation.Metod:En kvalitativ semistrukturerad intervjustudiemed niostycken anestesisjuksköterskor från Västerbottens läns landsting. De intervjuadesunder 15-25 minuter utifrånen semistrukturerad intervjumall utvecklad av författarna. Urval skedde utifrån tillgänglighetsprincipen på akut-och operationscentrum. Innehållsanalys användes för att skapa subkategorier, kategorier och tema.Resultat:Anestesisjuksköterskorna hade svårt att definiera begreppet CRM men hade en uppfattning av att metoden handlade om kommunikation. Vidare visade analysen att CRM används impliciti akutsituationer och verkar varapersonbundet. Den vanligaste formen av kunskapsinhämtning avCRM var i form av praktiska övningar inom landstinget.Anestesisjuksköterskorna beskrev önskvärt ledarskap och förespråkade struktur i teamarbetetoch kommunikationen. CRM framställdes som en välkommen metod som kan bidra med ökad trygghet och patientsäkerhet. Studien resulterade i kategorin att arbeta i fungerande team, med subkategorierna kunskap, ledarskap och struktur. Dessakategorier och subkategorier genomsyrade och bildadetemat trygghet.Slutsats:Författarnarekommenderar utbildning och kontinuerligövning för att möjliggöraimplementering av CRM i verksamhetenmed möjlighet attöka patientsäkerheten. Eftersom sjukvården idag ärbegränsad av ekonomioch personalbristlyfter författarna förslag till enklare och billigare utbildningsmetoder såsomnätbaserad teoriutbildning senare följt av övningstillfällen.

Teamwork skills have been recognised as one of the key skills required for engineering graduates by industries world-wide, including in China. However, very little work on teamwork teaching has been done in the Chinese context, especially in an academic setting. This context is important as the approach to teamwork is very different in China, but effective teamwork is essential for successful engineering projects. This work researches effective ways to teach technical teamwork skills to large cohorts of engineering students in China. Research is performed in a joint Sino-British bachelor degree programme in China, and the participants are all Chinese engineering students. This work researched the applicability of successful cooperative learning practices from the West to China, by implementing them into a Personal Development Plan module that takes team working as one of its key teaching objectives. It employed quantitative statistical methods to compare different group forming methods, analyse the correlation between team performance and academic performance, and test the validity and reliability of peer rating. The effectiveness of the practice was evaluated based on the qualitative open-ended results, and the cultural appropriateness of the practice was discussed. An MBTI test was done to the students, and it was found higher frequencies of Feeling over Thinking, and Judging over Perceiving. This study also investigated the perspectives of the Chinese engineering students on team working and the way they prefer to learn. For the first time it attempted to put some tests in the group project of a technical module. This work has given a new understanding on how Chinese engineering students react in a cooperative learning practice and their perspectives on teamwork learning. It was found the inherited practices and cultural norms have a big influence on team behaviour, and there is a gap between the declarative knowledge and the skill-based outcomes. In conclusion the cooperative learning practice is generally effective leading to an improved cultural appropriated approach to teamwork teaching being proposed.

Effective teamwork has been shown to optimize patient safety. However, teamwork research in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is sparse. Before successful interventions can be implemented, the appropriate content of such interventions should be determined. We tested the applicability of a teamwork processes framework in emergency care (Fernandez et al., 2008) to the EMS context. We recruited participants from an EMS agency in Houston, TX, using purposive sampling. Full-time employees with a valid EMT/paramedic license were eligible. Using semi-structured format, we queried respondents on task/team functions and enablers/obstacles of teamwork in EMS. Phone interviews were recorded and transcribed. Structural coding was based on our theoretical model. Through a deliberative process, we combined codes into candidate themes. Analytic memos during coding and analysis identified potential themes, which were reviewed/refined, and compared against our framework. We reached saturation once 32 respondents completed interviews. Among participants, 30 (94%) were male; the median experience was 15 years. Our analysis identified the team processes in the Marks’ Teamwork Process Model in four domains: Action, Planning, Reflection and Interpersonal Processes. Additionally, the concepts cited as being central to team effectiveness in EMS were: leadership, crew familiarity, team cohesion, interpersonal trust, shared mental models, and procedural knowledge. The revised model was useful for describing teamwork processes that providers employ to drive performance in EMS. Additionally, we identified emergent concepts that influence teamwork processes in EMS. Our findings inform our understanding of teamwork processes in EMS, and may be useful in guiding future team-based interventions tailored to EMS. / 2019-11-08T00:00:00Z

Present organizational continual training process seems to be one of the key factors leads to the competitive advantages. The topic of the dissertation is ICT enabled online learning with a view to virtual teamwork. The aim is to draw out a theoretical base for changes in present teaching process at first. Second main aim is a description, comparison and finding the interface in online learning experience in pilot projects of online study programs focusing especially to the innovative approaches and comparison of present experience there. The other aim of the written work is formulation of concrete recommendation for preparation, organization and realization of virtual teamwork and formulation of recommendation for an utilization of ICT enabled social interactive online learning in telework.

During childbirth, multiple providers deliver care at the bedside that requires optimal teamwork and communication to prevent patient harm. The complexity of caring for obstetrical patient demands a well-coordinated team to relay information and respond to conditions that can change quickly during childbirth. A patient safety strategy to prevent perinatal harm is Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) training. TeamSTEPPS is an evidence-based program based on crew resource management (CRM) principles developed in the aviation and military industries. This process improvement project used the Plan-Do-Study-Act framework and Kotter's change theory to implement TeamSTEPPS training after an increase in patient safety events from 2014 to 2016. A convenience sample of 200 physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, scrub techs, and patient care techs from perinatal units completed the training in a community hospital setting. The Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire administered pre- and posttraining show a statistical improvement in teamwork, communication, and situational awareness among nursing staff that correlated with a decrease in safety events. Project limitations include lack of a control group for comparison and lack of physician involvement with training. The positive social impact of TeamSTEPPS training is the decrease in maternal and newborn adverse events surrounding childbirth due to perinatal teams using CRM principles. Over the long term, TeamSTEPPs training may become the standard team training method to improve birth outcomes and support the establishment of a patient safety culture, which may be replicated in perinatal centers around the world.