Team Personality Composition and Team Effectiveness:The Mediating Effects of Team Process

Abstract

As organizations increasing usage of teams, the success of team management is vital to the survival and development of organizations. Therefore, the research on team effectiveness has gained more and more attention lately. Based on previous literature, our current study examined the mediating role of team process through which team members' personality composition contributes to team effectiveness. Input-Process-Output (I-P-O) model was used as a key theoretical framework. With a transverse approach, this study supported the I-P-O model. Our 1341 participants were all from a large Southeastern University of China. They formed 342 short-term self-managing teams. Greenland Survival was used as the team task. The data were self-reported. Both hierarchical regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) were applied to test the hypotheses. The relationship between team personality composition and team effectiveness was mediated by team process in this transverse study, namely cooperation, cohesion and potency. This study contributes to the literature of team research in two ways. First, a large sample made it possible to analyze the mediating effect of team process between team personality composition and team effectiveness at the team level, which may enlighten team-level research in the future. Second, the I-P-O model was supported by SEM in our study, the first time with a Chinese sample. In a word, our findings showed that team personality composition significantly explains team processes and team outputs, which calls for more attention to personality factors in future team research and team management practice.