The Effects of Team-Member Attributes on Team Performance: a Model of Individual Contribution to Team Performance.

Abstract

Although team composition is one of the most frequently studied topics in team research, much remains unknown regarding what attributes to look for when selecting team-members and how these attributes affect team performance. The purpose of this study was to present and to test a theoretical model that depicts how individual attributes affect team-member performance and how team-member performance ultimately affects team performance. The proposed model is based on the integration of research on team and individual performance. From a practical standpoint, understanding the relationships among the variables in the proposed model may be important for the selection of employees in team-based organizations. In general, the results did not support the proposed model. However, further examination of the data showed that task knowledge and skills is a separate construct from teamwork knowledge and skills, task motivation is a separate construct from teamwork motivation, and task experience is a separate construct from teamwork experience. One implication of these findings is that assessing knowledge, skills, motivation, and experience for several appropriate job performance dimensions may be useful for selecting employees who may perform well on their job specific tasks and work well with others in a team environment. Furthermore, the data suggest that the use of peer ratings in a team setting may be problematic due to the close personal relationships among team-members. These results seem to be consistent with various studies that found that ratings in a team setting may be affected by contextual factors (e.g., Grey & Kipnis, 1976; Liden & Mitchell, 1983; Mitchell & Liden, 1982). In addition, the problems encountered with peer ratings seem to have been magnified by the political context of the organization examined in the present study. Implications of these results are discussed.