ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR FOR SUSTAINABLE TEAM PERFORMANCE

Abstract

As climate change in conjunction with the fourth wave of industrialization necessitates the world to move toward a sustainable future, research needs to focus on the intertwined connection between team work and sustainability. Currently, it is unknown whether teams that are successful at accomplishing sustainability-related tasks have different team composition than the teams who are not. This research explored the composition of teams performing sustainability-related tasks in regard to the individuals’ pro-environmental attitude, individuals’ self-reported pro-environmental behavior, individuals’ pro-environmental identity and team cohesion. Data was collected on real-world teams at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, which is a biennial, international competition to inspire collegiate students and faculty to design, build, and operate energy-efficient solar-powered homes. Established tools were used to measure individuals’ pro-environmental attitude (NEP scale), individuals’ self-reported pro-environmental behavior (PEB scale), individuals’ pro-environmental self-identity (PESID scale), and team cohesion (TC scale). Regression models suggest that neither pro-environmental attitude, nor pro-environmental behavior, nor pro-environmental self-identity were a significant predictor for team performance on a sustainability-related project. Team cohesion’s standard deviation was a significant predictor of team performance on a sustainability-related project; indicating that the convergence of individuals’ perceptions of the overall team working together toward achieving this particular project directly aligned with a successful outcome. Furthermore, a posteriori explorations identified a difference in team composition between sustainability-related project performance and overall team performance.