This research explores the relationship of self-monitoring with team leader behavior and work environment preference. Those who are high on self-monitoring demonstrate flexibility in their actions with others and are socially perceptive. They perform well in a variety of leadership positions and are viewed as leaders by group members. High self-monitoring types choose "socially" based careers, including teacher and psychologist, in which they adapt their interaction styles to effectively meet the demands of clients. The demands placed on a team leader appear to require similar characteristics to those that high self-monitoring individuals possess. As a team matures through different stages of development, the role of the leader ranges from director to facilitator to consultant. In order to effectively meet team needs, a leader must be socially sensitive to interpersonal cues and have the ability to assume various roles. In addition, given the fact that the position of team leader is a highly social type of career that requires behaviors similar to careers chosen by high self-monitoring individuals, it is likely that high self-monitors would prefer working in a team work environment over a traditional one. A survey methodology was used to assess the characteristics of 100 team members. No relationship was found between self-monitoring and flexible team leader behavior. However, when a job relevant version of a traditional self-monitoring scale was used, some of the data suggested that flexible people prefer a team work environment over a traditional one. Also, individuals who demonstrated ineffective team leader behaviors tended to show a preference towards traditional work environments.

The concept of social loafing is important with regard to organizational effectiveness particularly as organizations are relying on teams as a means to drive productivity. The composition of those teams is likely to reflect the current movement of racial and ethnic minorities in the work place. The primary purpose of this research was to determine the role cultural diversity plays in enhancing performance and thereby eliminating social loafing. The research study is significant because 1) it is among the first to use culturally diverse work groups while examining the social loafing phenomenon, and 2) the groups were intact project teams, rather than ad-hoc groups commonly found in social loafing experiments. It was anticipated that the members of culturally homogeneous groups would engage in social loafing when their individual efforts were "buried." However, subjects in both culturally diverse and culturally homogeneous groups resisted social loafing behaviors. Additional statistical analysis revealed that as group orientation increased, performance levels increased as well. Group orientation, then, appears to be a more powerful determinant of performance than group composition. It is expected that the time these groups had together and the performance feedback opportunities provided them, prior to the experiment, contributed significantly to these results. Future research suggestions were made that could help establish a causal relationship.

Interprofessional education is recommended as a necessary step to prepare a collaborative, practice-ready workforce to engage in effective teamwork and team-based care. Professional identity and the perceptions of stereotypes that professionals hold of other professions have been identified as key factors in either enhancing or inhibiting effective teamwork. Information about interprofessional collaboration and education, competencies, and related variables is limited, particularly within the profession of dental hygiene. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of interprofessional competencies to professional identity and stereotypes among U.S. dental hygiene students and practicing dental hygienists. The study used a correlational design with a cross-sectional survey utilizing the Student Stereotype Rating Questionnaire, Interprofessional Education Collaborative. Revised Survey, and Macleod Clark Professional Identity Survey-9 instruments. A total of 423 participants were recruited: 222 dental hygienists and 201 dental hygiene students. The survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlational analysis, independent and paired t tests, and multiple regression. Dental hygiene students had a significantly higher interprofessional competency aggregated mean score than registered dental hygienists (t = -4.837). Dental hygiene students’ interprofessional education experience correlated positively with the Interprofessional Competency Revised Scale score (r = 0.290, n = 201, p < .01). There was a modest relationship between interprofessional practice experience and the Interprofessional Competency score (r =. 255, n = 222, p < .01). The stereotypes dental hygienists and dental hygiene students have of themselves (auto-stereotypes) were rated the highest (M = 40.46, SD = 4.45) compared to stereotypes they have about dentists (hetero-stereotypes) (M = 37.57, SD = 6.03). The results of the multiple regression analysis, F (4, 418) = 16.805 p < .001, R2 = 0.14, showed that the variables of professional identity, interprofessional education activity experience, auto-stereotypes, and being a dental hygiene student were predictors of interprofessional competency. This study contributes to a unique understanding of the relationship between interprofessional competencies to stereotypes and professional identity among practicing dental hygienists and dental hygiene students. With these findings, educators and policymakers can identify issues and address modifications to curricula, professional development, and organizational changes.

There is evidence that cooperation in the workplace can have positive outcomes for organizations. To take advantage of these outcomes, it would be useful to gain information about the causes of cooperation. This study attempts to isolate some factors, leader motivation and style in particular, that may predict cooperation within work groups.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / As organizations use more and more work teams, selecting and assembling effective teams is becoming increasingly important. Past research and theory has demonstrated that informal roles serve as a critical linking mechanism between individual-level characteristics such as personality and team-level effectiveness. The present study builds upon this area of research and theory by testing the individual-level link between personality and informal roles and the team-level link between team informal role configuration and team effectiveness. These links were tested using a sample of 152 undergraduate students participating in 38 teams of four. The teams engaged in an information-sharing business simulation where the goal was to generate the highest possible profits across two simulated business years. At the individual level, the Big Five personality dimension Agreeableness positively and significantly correlated with the adoption of the Communicator role, while the relationship between Conscientiousness and the Contractor role approached significance. With regard to the team level, a positive relationship was found between the number of Completer roles performed within a team and the level of team effectiveness for the first simulated business year, and the relationship between the total number of informal roles performed within a team and team effectiveness in the first simulated year was found to be marginally significant. Using a criterion profile analysis approach, two criterion patterns were identified in which optimal informal role configuration patterns yielded high levels of team effectiveness. Overall, results from this study lend some support to the demonstrated links between personality and informal roles and informal role configuration and team effectiveness, which have important implications for organizational selection and employee development.

Since at least the 1950s, researchers interested in studying the dynamics of small groups have struggled with how best to measure interaction processes. Although team process measurement issues are not particularly unique in terms of content, measuring multilevel phenomena presents an interesting problem because structural aspects are integral components of emergence. The elemental content of multilevel phenomena is wholly unique and distinguishable from the elemental content of composite units, and emerges as individual behaviors compile to higher levels of analyses. Analogous to chemical structures, behavioral phenomena manifest at higher levels in different structural patterns as members connect to one another through dynamic interactions. Subsequently, multilevel phenomena are more appropriately characterized in terms of pattern in addition to the traditionally measured intensity. The vast majority of teams research conceptualizes and operationalizes multilevel phenomena based on compositional (i.e., additive) models. This approach impedes the further advancement of the science of team effectiveness by capturing content and intensity, but not structure. This dissertation argues that compilational models better capture content, intensity, and structure, and therefore represent a preferred alternative for conceptualizing and operationalizing team processes. This dissertation details measurement issues associated with compositional models in teams research, and provides concepts helpful for reconceptualizing team processes as compilational forms.

No description available.

This dissertation consisted of a case study of the facilitation process utilized by individuals functioning as facilitators for Quality Improvement Teams and/or Quality Councils in the Internal Revenue Service. Eight individuals from a pool of fifty identified as "successful" facilitators by team leaders, team members, quality coordinators or other facilitators, were selected as study subjects. Results from administration of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Herrmann Brain Instruments were used as part of the selection criteria for the study participants. The study sought to determine the competencies used by the facilitators and how the identified competencies contributed to the individual's performance in their role. The results of the study demonstrated that facilitators engaged in 28 different activities. The types of activities and the frequency that facilitators engaged in them varied greatly. A model is presented showing the interrelationship of the study conclusions that includes a set of activities that facilitators engage in to help move quality improvement teams towards their goal. Specific recommendations are made concerning implications for selection and training of QIT facilitators, and for future research. / Ed. D.

This research explores the meaning and relationship of the constructs of effectiveness, performance, and motivation among teams in a high performance manufacturing setting. Effectiveness is defined as actual outcomes; performance is characterized as those types of behaviors required of teams to achieve those outcomes. Motivation at the team level of analysis is conceived as collective efficacy -- the members' confidence in their team's ability to perform. Two types of antecedents to collective efficacy are explored -- prior success and compositional characteristics of the teams. / Ph. D.

The present study evaluates the psychometric properties of the TEAM Assessment Tool. The assessment was developed to evaluate work team effectiveness as a basis for providing developmental feedback for work teams. The proposed TEAM Assessment Tool includes 12 dimensions of work team effectiveness with 90 items total. The dimension names are (a) Communication, (b) Decision-Making, (c) Performance, (d) Customer Focus, (e) Team Meetings, (f) Continuous Improvement, (g) Handling Conflict, (h) Leadership, (i) Empowerment, (j) Trust, (k) Cohesiveness/Team Relationships, and (l) Recognition and Rewards. Data were collected from employees of a large aerospace organization headquartered in the United States who are participating in work teams (N= 554). Factor analysis guided development of six new scales of team effectiveness as follows: (1) Teamwork, (2) Decision-Making, (3) Leadership Support, (4) Trust and Respect, (5) Recognition and Rewards, and (6) Customer Focus. Reliability of scales was demonstrated using Cronbach's coefficient alpha. Construct validity was demonstrated through subject matter expert (SME) input, exploratory factor analysis, and scale reliability analysis. Criterion validity was demonstrated by significant correlations at the p<.01 level comparing two measures of team member opinion of team performance and level of performance as indicated by the six subscale scores and overall scale scores of the final TEAM Assessment Tool.