The Effect of a Concept Mapping Intervention on Shared Cognition and Adaptive Team Performance Over Time

Catarina M Santos,M Travis Maynard,Ana M Passos,Pedro Marques-Quinteiro,Sjir Uitdewilligen

doi:10.1177/1059601120981623

Abstract

Research has demonstrated the value of team adaptation for organizational teams. However, empirical work on interventions that teams can take to increase adaptive team performance is scarce. In response, this study proposes a concept mapping intervention as a way to increase teams’ ability to adapt following a task change. Particularly, this study examines the effect of a concept mapping intervention on team transition adaptation (the drop in performance after a change) and reacquisition adaptation (the slope of performance after the change) via its effect on task mental models and transactive memory systems. We conducted a longitudinal experimental study of 44 three-person teams working on an emergency management simulation. Findings suggest that the concept mapping intervention promotes reacquisition adaptation, task mental models, and transactive memory systems. Results also suggest that task mental models mediate the effect of the concept mapping intervention on reacquisition adaptation. A post hoc analysis suggests that the concept mapping intervention is only effective if it leads to high task mental model accuracy. Our study presents concept mapping as a practical intervention to promote shared cognition and reacquisition adaptation.

Highlights

The work environments where teams operate are increasingly volatile and turbulent
We argue that the concept mapping intervention can accelerate the development of adaptive capabilities as it facilitates the development of the knowledge structures that are needed for team adaptation, namely the team members’ development of a shared understanding about their task, roles, and each other’s expertise
The concept mapping intervention was positively correlated with task mental model similarity at the third and the fourth scenarios

Summary

Introduction

Teams need to adapt to the changing demands imposed on them by their environments while ensuring they improve their performance after a change occurs (Burke, Stagl, Salas, Pierce, & Kendal, 2006; Kennedy & Maynard, 2017). Embedded in this definition is the fact that team adaptation occurs over time, and research focused on adaptation needs to adopt a temporal lens. In this study, drawing on current research on adaptive team performance and adopting a temporal lens, we consider two distinct team adaptation phases after the occurrence of a change event: the transition phase and the reacquisition phase (Devaraj & Jiang, 2019; Hale, Ployhart, & Shepherd, 2016; Lang & Bliese, 2009; Uitdewilligen, Rico, & Waller, 2018). The reacquisition (or recovery) phase entails the gradual increase in performance after the change as the team recovers by developing novel routines and interaction patterns (Lang & Bliese, 2009)

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