"Dynamic, Temporal and Complementary Developments on Team Mental Models"

Abstract

Team mental models (TMMs) may be defined as stable mental representations at the team level which include key knowledge for the team regarding the team itself (i.e. team members roles), the task to be carried out (i.e. typical actions), as well as temporal issues related to the team/task (i.e. task sequencing). Over the past two decades the scientific literature has consistently shown that TMMs have a clear positive impact on both team processes and outcomes. Additional research is needed, however, to better understand the subtle mechanisms by which TMMs yield their effects on team processes and performance. In this symposium we offer both theoretically driven and empirically based studies that refine our understanding of the processes by which TMMs fuel effective teams. Works presented by three scholars explore in detail three key questions related to TMMs. These are: What is the combined effect of TMMs and other relevant team cognitive structures (cross-understanding) on team performance? How do TMMs as static team knowledge structures interact with other more dynamic team knowledge structures (team situational models TMMs) to explain differences in team performance? And finally, what are the benefits of expanding the content domain of TMMs to include time-related aspects? The ways in which the various propositions, methods and results presented in this symposium help to advance our theoretical, methodological and applied understanding of how TMMs enhance our knowledge of team processes and performance will be discussed.