Effect of Cohesion on the Curvilinear Relationship Between Team Efficacy and Performance

Abstract

Research has generally supported a linear positive relationship between team efficacy and team performance. More recent theories and research suggest, however, that teams can become overly efficacious and team efficacy may exhibit nonlinear relationships with outcomes. The current study investigates the possibility that team efficacy is associated with decreases in team performance when the level of team efficacy is excessively high or low. This study further suggests that cohesion is an important contextual factor that may affect the curvilinear relationship between team efficacy and performance such that high levels of cohesion will magnify the curvilinear relationship whereas low levels of cohesion will flatten the curvilinear pattern. Hypotheses were tested using 324 employees in 34 work teams. Results demonstrate that the curvilinear relationship between team efficacy and team performance was strongest when cohesion was high; the relationship flattened when cohesion was low. Implications and limitations are discussed.