Team Adaptiveness in Dynamic Contexts Contextualizing the Roles of Interaction Patterns and In-Process Planning

• Published in: Group & organization management Vol. 41; no. 4; pp. 491 - 525
• Main Authors: Lei, Zhike, Waller, Mary J., Hagen, Jan, Kaplan, Seth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.08.2016; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Behavior; Crews; Group performance; Process planning; Side effects; Teams; dynamic situations; patterned team interactions; in-process planning; simulation; team adaptiveness
• ISSN: 1059-6011; 1552-3993
• DOI: 10.1177/1059601115615246

Previous research asserts that teams working in routine situations pass through performance episodes characterized by action and transition phases, while other evidence suggests that certain team behaviors significantly influence team effectiveness during nonroutine situations. We integrate these two areas of research—one focusing on the temporal nature of team episodic performance and the other on interaction patterns and planning in teams—to more fully understand how teams working in dynamic settings successfully transition across routine and nonroutine situations. Using behavioral data collected from airline flight crews working in a flight simulator, we find that different interaction pattern characteristics are related to team performance in routine and nonroutine situations, and that teams engage in more contingency, in-process planning behavior during routine versus nonroutine situations. Moreover, we find that the relationship between this in-process planning and subsequent team adaptiveness is curvilinear (inverted U-shaped). That is, team contingency or in-process planning activity may initially increase team adaptiveness, but too much planning has adverse effects on subsequent performance.