Abstract
This study examines teams as complex adaptive systems (tCAS) and uses latent growth curve modeling to test team cohesion as an initial condition conducive to team performance over time and the mediational effect of team coordination on this relationship. After analyzing 158 teams enrolled in a business game simulation over five consecutive weeks, we found that change in team coordination was best described by a continuous linear change model, while change in team performance was best described by a continuous nonlinear change model; and the mediation latent growth curve model revealed a negative indirect effect of team cohesion on the level of change in team performance over time, through the level of change in team coordination. This study contributes to the science of teams by combining the notions of initial conditions with co-evolving team dynamics, hence creating a more refined temporal approach to understanding team functioning.
Highlights
Team cohesion is an emergent affective state that is at the heart of teamwork dynamics (Kozlowski and Chao, 2012; Maynard et al, 2015)
We examine which are the forms of change that team coordination and team performance take over time, and how such change relates to team cohesion as an initial condition, from the beginning to the end of a business management simulation competition
We focus on the beginning of phenomena addressing team cohesion as an initial condition; and on the dynamics of phenomena addressing the evolution of team performance via team coordination over time
Summary
Team cohesion is an emergent affective state that is at the heart of teamwork dynamics (Kozlowski and Chao, 2012; Maynard et al, 2015). Since the early 50s (e.g., Festinger, 1950) teamwork literature has dedicated great attention to the relationship between team cohesion and team performance in organizational settings with cross-sectional, metaanalytical, and longitudinal studies suggesting a positive relationship between the two constructs (e.g., Zaccaro et al, 1995; Beal et al, 2003; Mathieu et al, 2015). We know that the relationship between team cohesion and team performance (a) takes an inverted U-shaped distribution (Wise, 2014); (b) is stronger when performance is operationalized as behavior rather than an outcome; and (c) that efficiency measures are better for capturing this relationship (Beal et al, 2003).
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