Effect Of Team Size Research Articles

THE EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM CHARACTERISTICS ON SIMULATION-ENHANCED CRITICAL THINKING: A MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT Given the applied nature of business disciplines, simulations are useful in helping students bridge theory learned in the classroom and practical skills needed to succeed in industry. Much of the learning that occurs in simulations comes from working in teams as students work together to solve problems and defend their ideas. Thus, while marketing educators are often interested in optimizing both individual and team learning outcomes, many scholars have only focused on analysis at one level or the other. This research reports findings from a multilevel SEM (MSEM) model that simultaneously investigates individual and team learning outcomes on critical thinking in a marketing simulation across multiple sections of a Principles of Marketing course. Guided by attribution theory, the results suggest that the effect of team size upon simulation-enhanced critical thinking is fully and negatively mediated by objective team performance growth over the course of the game. Moreover, generalized self-efficacy is positively associated with students’ perceptions that participation in the simulation enhance critical thinking abilities. Finally, need-for-cognition negatively moderates the effect of self-efficacy upon simulation-enhanced critical thinking. The paper concludes with a discussion of study implications, limitations, and opportunities for future research.

Can authors’ position in the ascription be a measure of dominance?

Authorship and authorship ordering in the by-line have been gaining interest in the recent past. Unlike authorship in single-author which is an open-book, authorship in multi-author papers have been murky in certain aspects especially, in ordering, among others. Authorship implies responsibility and so, should not order in by-line reflect measures of responsibility on the basis of their contribution? But it hasn’t been that way especially, the authors in middle order and last place, they are addled positions. However, the position of first author is undisputable because of one’s relative contribution or responsibility. On this note, I propose dominance index (DI) and dominance co-efficiency (DC) of a scientist or an author. These measures are on based on the number of times as first author, the total number of multi-authored papers and the total number of times of co-authors. The average number of times as first author is the dominance score and the number of times as first author divided by mean of co-authors gives dominance co-efficiency. These measures are put to test on faculty members of a Department of a University to show how the indexes would look like. The data sets are collected from their biodata and supplemented from SCOPUS database. The results obtained seems quite tenable. But the usage of these indexes is left to the discretion of evaluators. Some pertinent implications and questions such as, the significance of a paper, omission of single-authored papers, the role of corresponding author, the practice of noblesse oblige, the effect of team size, the regulation of authorship and ordering in the by-line are discussed. Further, an alternative measure of dominance is also given on the sine quo non that order of authors in the by-line is strictly according to relative measure of contribution. In this case, the dominance index is a measure of an author’s standing or prominence among his co-authors based on the ranking or position in the ascription of all the co-authored papers. It gives relative rank or position of an author or scientist among one’s co-author(s) of the times of co-authoring based on the ascription of all the paper of significance. Dominance co-efficiency is the product of paper of significance and dominance index. A negative or low DI or DC scores of a scientist or an author do not mean that the scientific or research contribution is low or insignificant. On the other hand, a high DI and DC scores of a scientist or an author do not necessarily mean that his or her scientific contribution is excellent or important.

The Importance of Team Health Climate for Health-Related Outcomes of White-Collar Workers.

Occupational health researchers and practitioners have mainly focused on the individual and organizational levels, whereas the team level has been largely neglected. In this study, we define team health climate as employees’ shared perceptions of the extent to which their team is concerned, cares, and communicates about health issues. Based on climate, signaling, and social exchange theories, we examined a multilevel model of team health climate and its relationships with five well-established health-related outcomes (i.e., subjective general health, psychosomatic complaints, mental health, work ability, and presenteeism). Results of multilevel analyses of data provided by 6,449 employees in 621 teams of a large organization showed that team health climate is positively related to subjective general health, mental health, and work ability, and negatively related to presenteeism, above and beyond the effects of team size, age, job tenure, job demands, job control, and employees’ individual perceptions of health climate. Moreover, additional analyses showed that a positive team health climate buffered the negative relationship between employee age and work ability. Implications for future research on team health climate and suggestions for occupational health interventions in teams are discussed.

Customer focus competencies and the dynamics of project teams

We investigate the role of the customer focus (CF) competencies of project teams in achieving the strategic intent of marketing in a company. In an exceptional reach study of more than 1500 teams in a construction company over the period 2006–2012, we found that the construction project teams with better CF competency assessments perform better. In addition, due to the rich longitudinal database, the research provides new results on the mechanisms and interactions among team members. We show that the entire team contributes evenly to the achievement of quality goals (conjunctive tasks), while team members with better customer competency assessments contribute significantly more to the achievement of the budget and deadline goals (disjunctive tasks). We also provide support to the view that the achievement of the budget and quality goals does not diverge during the crisis period compared to the pre-crisis period. However, the reduction of funds for investment projects during the crisis profoundly affected the deadline goal and the completion of projects. Finally, our research shows that when one or several team members perform more team roles, team performance is likely to improve, while the effects of team size on team performance are not conclusive.

Effort provision in entrepreneurial teams: effects of team size, free-riding and peer pressure

This paper analyzes whether effort provision in entrepreneurial teams depends on the size of the team, assuming that size determines the strength of free-riding and peer pressure effects in entrepreneurial teams. We provide a theoretical model and empirical analyses to explain the joint effect of free-riding and peer pressure on effort in start-up teams. We begin with an economic model by Kandel and Lazear in J Polit Econ 100(4):801–817, (1992) and enrich it using insights from entrepreneurship research. Based on our model, we first hypothesize that with increasing team size in entrepreneurial teams, the efforts of the individual team founders should follow an inverted U-shaped pattern. Second, we argue that the peer pressure effect is stronger if team members have stronger social ties, and thus we expect the effort-maximizing team size to be larger in teams with stronger social ties. Using a data set from 214 German start-up teams, we find that our hypotheses are supported by the data.

Team size in spinal cord injury inpatient rehabilitation and patient participation in therapy sessions: The SCIRehab Project

Context/objectiveRehabilitation teams generally are described as consisting of a single representative of 6–8 disciplines, but research suggests that the number of individuals involved may be much larger. This study aimed to determine the size of teams in spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation, and the effect of team size on patients' active participation in their treatment sessions.DesignProspective observational study.SettingSix SCI rehabilitation centers.ParticipantsA total of 1376 patients with traumatic SCI admitted for first rehabilitation.InterventionsNot applicable.Outcome measuresNumber of treatment sessions, by discipline and overall clinician rating of active participation of the patient; Treatment Concentration Index (TCI) calculated as Σpk2 (where p refers to the proportion of treatment sessions delivered by team member k).ResultsThe average patient was treated by 39.3 different clinicians. The numbers were especially high for physical therapy (mean: 8.8), occupational therapy (7.2), and nursing (16.1). TCI was 0.08 overall; it varied by discipline. TCI was negatively correlated with length of stay, except for psychology. Participation ratings were minimally affected by the number of sessions the patient and the therapist had worked together.ConclusionsIn SCI rehabilitation, teams are at least as large as suggested by previous research. However, this may not mean lack of familiarity of patient and therapist with one another, or alternatively, the possibly weak therapeutic alliance does not affect the patients' active participation in their sessions. Further research is needed to determine whether there are negative effects on rehabilitation outcomes.

Indexing Spatial Ability Across Team Size: The Influence of the Weakest Link, Strongest Link, and Aggregate Ability on Performance with Multiple Unmanned Systems

This study compared the effects of indexing individual differences in spatial ability and team size on performance with unmanned systems. The methods of indexing team spatial ability included measure of (a) the effects of the aggregate (mean), (b) the member that is the strongest link (has the maximum ability), and (c) the member that is the weakest link (has the minimum ability). These methods were considered in relation to the effects of team size. Results indicated that the method of indexing can moderate the strength of the relationship between spatial ability and performance. Interestingly, the impact of team size on a decision making task was moderated by spatial ability of the strongest link. Furthermore, the strongest link was also a greater predictor of reconnaissance than team size. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Effects of Team Size and Work Team Perception on Workplace Commitment: Evidence From 23 Production Teams

This study investigated the influence of production team size (small vs. large) and employees’ perceptions of their production work teams (negative, neutral, and positive) on their level of workplace commitment.Twenty-three production work teams composed of 205 employees (105 males, 100 females), drawn from two team-based private manufacturing organizations, participated in the study. They responded to the workgroup functioning scale and Buchanan’s organizational commitment scale. Team size had no significant correlation with how employees perceived their production work team and their levels of workplace commitment. The results of the 2 × 3 analysis of variance indicated that production team size had no significant influence on workplace commitment. However, employees who had positive perceptions of their production work teams were significantly more committed to the workplace than were those who held either neutral or negative perceptions.

The Influence of Team Size and Communication Modality on Team Effectiveness with Unmanned Systems

This study examines the effects of team size (2 versus 3 operators) and communication modality (audio versus text) on team performance. Performance and workload measures from 112 undergraduate students from the University of Central Florida were used in this analysis. Results indicated that performance was optimal for teams of three operators using audio systems for distributed communication. Results with the NASA TLX showed patterns where workload was lower in the audio condition. Results with the Multiple Resources Questionnaire (MRQ) showed a reversed trend with a higher score in the audio condition, which was attributed to increases in items associated with audio processing.

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR Conference Symposia Abstracts.

Being innovative means being willing ‘to go the extra mile’ beyond routine tasks in teams. It also means that team members are willing to consider different perspectives in heterogeneous teams and to share information. Important antecedents of team innovation are successful information sharing and helping behaviour among team members. Although the importance of information sharing for innovation is seemingly self-evident, we still know very little about the group processes that support team innovation (West, 2002). Information sharing is a group process that is an indispensable part of team integration. Team roles and team tasks need to be discussed to successfully achieve team goals. In heterogeneous teams with members from different occupational backgrounds integrating processes such as information sharing are even more important. To date, research on information sharing has focused mainly on the type of information that is shared or unshared (Brodbeck, Kerschreiter, Mojzisch, Frey, & Schulz-Hardt, 2002; Stasser, Stewart, & Wittenbaum, 1995) and on antecedents of information sharing, such as trust (Butler, 1999), task and reward interdependence (Moser & Wodzicki, 2007), or how person perception might affect information exchange (de Bruin & Van Lange, 2000). The link between output measures of group performance, such as innovativeness, and information sharing has always been implied and has been explored theoretically to some extent (Diehl & Ziegler, 2000), but empirical studies that go beyond organisational case studies (Basadur & Gelade, 2006) are still scarce. If we define innovation as the introduction of new ideas and new ways of doing things at work as suggested by West (2002), then sharing information about these new ideas and developing ideas further in the team through information sharing is a prerequisite for team innovation. However, the role of information is likely to be very different for routine team tasks and for team innovation. Especially in heterogeneous teams with members from different occupational backgrounds, task interdependence is likely to be lower for new and innovative processes than for established procedures and routine tasks. This means that information sharing is ‘nice to have’ and would be expected to affect team innovation, but is at the same time not indispensable for completing routine team tasks. This distinction is important, because under low task interdependence different social processes come into play in groups (Moser & Wodzicki, 2007). Information sharing under low task interdependence can be defined as a form of prosocial behaviour at work. It means that team members are willing to put in an extra effort and ‘go the extra mile’ to discuss their perspectives on the team task with colleagues from a different disciplinary background. In the studies presented here we argue that the importance of information sharing and helping behaviour for team innovation should therefore increase if occupational diversity is high and team size is large. The hypothesis was tested in two independent samples of health care teams (N1=72 breast cancer care teams, N2=113 community mental health teams), using team innovation rated by independent experts as outcome variable. Multiple regression analysis showed that helping behaviour had a significant independent effect on innovation for both team types, while information sharing only had a significant association with innovation for breast cancer teams. The interaction effects of team size and occupational diversity were tested with moderated regression analysis for both helping behaviour and information sharing. Both team processes showed strong main effects, which were even stronger if occupational diversity was high. There was also a main effect of team size on innovation, which is increased especially if helping behaviour in the team is strong. The interaction effect with team size could thus be confirmed for both teams, while the interaction with team size was only found for the mental health care teams. The partially different results for the two different team types could be explained by the differences in task and team structures. While mental health teams have stable membership and meet less regularly than breast cancer teams, breast cancer teams are cross-functional teams with multiple team memberships. In conclusion, it can be said that especially helping behaviour seems to be crucial for team innovation. If teams are large, and helping behaviour among team members is strong, the capacity for innovation seems to be greatly increased. Implications for understanding the psychological processes underlying team innovation and for managing knowledge sharing in teams are discussed.

Crisis resolution/home treatment teams, gate-keeping and the role of the consultant psychiatrist

Aims and MethodThe working relationship between consultant psychiatrists and crisis resolution/home treatment (CRHT) teams varies quite widely. Data from the national survey have been used to investigate the effects of consultant psychiatrist intput upon functions of the CRHT team. Logistic regression was employed to consider the effects of team size, team maturity and consultant input upon gate-keeping and fidelity to model (how many of six criteria teams' activities included).ResultsThere were statistically significant effects of size and maturity upon fidelity, and of maturity and consultant input upon gate-keeping.Clinical ImplicationsThe relationship between the consultant psychiatrist and other elements of the acute care pathway is an important determinant of how it functions. Depending upon how they relate to them, consultants can assist or hinder a team's capacity to fulfill their intended purposes.

The Effects of Team Size in a Marketing Simulation

This study was conducted to determine if team size is related to team performance and individual student self-reports of satisfaction, task difficulty, perceived level of participation, personal commitment to the exercise, and personal performance rating in a computer based marketing simulation. The setting was two sections of an introductory undergraduate marketing course. Results indicate that team size is positively related to team performance, satisfaction, and personal performance ratings. The findings suggest using equal size teams when course grades are affected by team performance.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this study provided by the Program for Teaching Effectiveness (PETE), University of Richmond.

Planning midwifery services to deliver continuity of care

This paper describes a simulation model of maternity services which was developed to support the planning of midwifery services to meet demands for continuity of care. A Government report of maternity services in 1992 emphasised the need to replace the fragmented care offered to pregnant women by a more personalised type of approach. One way of doing this is by the implementation of team midwifery in which care is provided, antenatally, during labour, and then postnatally by either the same midwife or, more usually a small team of midwives.The model described in this paper attempts to assess the effects of team size upon the continuity of care provided to pregnant women under different implementations. Continuity is measured in terms of the percentage of occasions a team midwife will be available to meet the health care demands of pregnant women. The model may be used not only for the evaluation of services already in use, but also for the planning of alternative and better services.

Competition between and within teams: The Lifeboat Principle

We consider the effect of team size, the observability of effort, and the competitiveness of the team's environment in determining team-members' allocations of effort between team-oriented and selfish efforts.