Abstract
Contemporary teams often face complex problem-solving tasks. We theorized that two individual differences previously neglected in team research (cognitive motivation and maximizing) would be helpful for teams facing such situations. We tested this assertion on 81 teams participating in an escape-room simulation in which teams were locked into a pre-arranged room and had to solve various complex problems to escape the room as quickly as possible. The findings show that the average of the team members’ cognitive motivation had a positive direct relation to team performance, while maximizing had a positive indirect relation to team performance via cooperation.
Highlights
Organizations today face technological changes, globalization, and competition, all of which have led to tasks that are too complex for an individual to solve alone (Burke et al, 2006)
We address the literature on cognitive motivation and maximization, respectively, to develop hypotheses on how these individual differences relate to cooperation and performance in complex problem-solving tasks
Cognitive motivation and cooperation were significantly positively correlated with team performance
Summary
Organizations today face technological changes, globalization, and competition, all of which have led to tasks that are too complex for an individual to solve alone (Burke et al, 2006). We suggest two individual differences that are rather novel to team research – cognitive motivation and maximizing – as promising candidates to help teams solve complex problems. Maximizing, the tendency to look for the best choice (Schwartz et al, 2002), can push team members to persevere even when conditions become challenging and frustrating, as is likely to be the case in complex circumstances. These individual differences may affect how team members cooperate, Cognitive Motivation and Maximizing the latter being an important process variable with regard to team performance (e.g., Stewart and Barrick, 2000). We were interested in investigating whether cooperation would mediate the relationships between cognitive motivation and maximizing and team performance
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