Performance Of Individual Team Members Research Articles

The Differentiated Creative Search (DCS): Leveraging differentiated knowledge-acquisition and creative realism to address complex optimization problems

This article introduces differentiated creative search (DCS), a groundbreaking optimization algorithm that revolutionizes traditional decision-making systems in complex environments. In contrast to conventional differential evolution methods, DCS integrates a unique knowledge-acquisition process with a creative realism paradigm, thereby transforming optimization strategies. The primary aim of DCS is to enhance decision-making efficacy by employing a newly proposed dual-strategy approach that balances divergent and convergent thinking within a team-based framework. High-performing members apply divergent thinking via the DCS/Xrand/Linnik(α,σ) strategy, which incorporates existing knowledge and Linnik flights. Conversely, the remaining team harnesses convergent thinking through the DCS/Xbest/Current-to-2rand strategy, which combines insights from both the team leader and fellow members. This division of labor, coupled with a strategy tailored to the performance levels of team members, allows for a dynamic and effective decision-making process. The methodology of DCS involves iterative cycles of divergent and convergent thinking, supported by a differentiated knowledge-acquisition process and retrospective assessments. The algorithm's novelty lies in its differentiated knowledge-acquisition, adjusted based on individual team member performance, fostering an environment of continuous learning and adaptation. The paper's contributions are demonstrated through rigorous testing of DCS on various benchmark functions, including CEC2017, classical, and sensor selection problems, as well as real-world applications such as car side impact design, gear train design, and FM sound wave parameter estimation. The results showcase the promising performance of DCS compared to that of existing algorithms, attributable to its innovative approach to problem solving and decision making in complex scenarios. The results and impact section highlights that DCS considerably outperforms traditional optimization algorithms, offering a robust and versatile tool for complex decision-making systems. Its impact is particularly notable in scenarios requiring a balance between innovative solutions and practical decision-making, making DCS a valuable asset in strategic planning and execution across various industries.

Effects of Cultural Diversity and Emotional Regulation Strategies on Team Member Performance

Research on the effects of cultural diversity on individual team member performance has typically assumed a linear relationship, but has yielded mixed findings. In the study, we address these inconsistencies by hypothesizing an optimal (mid-range) level of diversity that maximizes performance. Given the potential for negative emotions to arise within a diverse team, we also hypothesize that team members who employ emotional self-regulation strategies will demonstrate stronger performance. We adopt an individual-level perspective, assessing diversity as the cultural dissimilarity between each individual and their teammates. Using a sample of 103 postgraduate students (23 teams with 3–6 participants in each), we found evidence of a curvilinear relationship between cultural dissimilarity and individual team member performance. Contrary to our expectations, we found that individual performance is greatest at very low and very high levels of dissimilarity. In terms of emotional regulation strategies, we found that cognitive reappraisal was associated with higher performance, but there was no evidence for the effects of expressive suppression. Together, the present findings challenge the assumption that the diversity-performance relationship is linear. Our findings also indicate individual performance in culturally diverse teams is influenced by individuals’ use of cognitive reappraisal to regulate negative emotions.

A multilevel model of emotional skills, communication performance, and task performance in teams

SummaryThere is increasing research regarding the influence of emotions on teamwork. In this study, we use a multilevel approach to examine how team members' use of emotion‐related skills affects team task performance and communication performance within the team. We measured individual self‐reported emotional skills prior to team formation and then collected peer‐rated individual communication performance and independently rated team task performance eight weeks later. Although there was no influence at the individual level between emotional skills and performance, team‐level emotional skills positively predicted team task performance scores. At the cross level, team‐level emotional skills predicted individual‐level communication performance. These findings emphasize the importance of distinct team emotional skills in shaping both team performance and individual team member performance. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Path to “Stardom” in Globally Distributed Hybrid Teams: An Examination of a Knowledge-Centered Perspective using Social Network Analysis

Although distributed teams have been researched extensively in information systems and decision science disciplines, a review of the literature suggests that the dominant focus has been on understanding the factors affecting performance at the team level. There has however been an increasing recognition that specific individuals within such teams are often critical to the team's performance. Consequently, existing knowledge about such teams may be enhanced by examining the factors that affect the performance of individual team members. This study attempts to address this need by identifying individuals who emerge as “stars” in globally distributed teams involved in knowledge work such as information systems development (ISD). Specifically, the study takes a knowledge-centered view in explaining which factors lead to “stardom” in such teams. Further, it adopts a social network approach consistent with the core principles of structural/relational analysis in developing and empirically validating the research model. Data from U.S.–Scandinavia self-managed “hybrid” teams engaged in systems development were used to deductively test the proposed model. The overall study has several implications for group decision making: (i) the study focuses on stars within distributed teams, who play an important role in shaping group decision making, and emerge as a result of a negotiated/consensual decision making within egalitarian teams; (ii) an examination of emergent stars from the team members’ point of view reflects the collective acceptance and support dimension decision-making contexts identified in prior literature; (iii) finally, the study suggests that the social network analysis technique using relational data can be a tool for a democratic decision-making technique within groups.

Team Leaders and Team Members in Interorganizational Networks

Through the examination of 11 intact interuniversity research project teams, this study examines the relationship between team leaders, team members, their communication networks (represented as structural holes), and performance. The study shows that in the conduct of their work, the team leaders bridged more structural holes than team members. Although team leaders demonstrated a higher level of out-of-alliance performance, they did not demonstrate higher levels of individual performance on their teams (compared with team members). Furthermore, we examined the relationship between structural holes and both individual team member performance and overall team performance. Contrary to our expectations, bridging structural holes were not significantly related to individual team member performance but were negatively and significantly related to overall team performance, the effect of which came mainly from team members’ effective size.

Personal Values and Performance in Teams: An Individual and Team-Level Analysis

Two studies involving 107 undergraduate and 54 MBA teams were conducted to examine the effects of personal values on the performance of individual team members and on the performance of the team as a whole. Values with clear relevance to teams and to work were selected for the studies. To capture the relative importance of these values, they were measured within the context of a broader set of personal values. At the individual level, the importance students ascribed a sense of accomplishment had a significant, but unexpected negative, relationship with individual peer-evaluated performance. Students’ prior performance outside their teams had a stronger positive relationship with in-team performance than did their personal values. At the team level, the average importance team members assigned the value of equality had a positive relationship with team performance.The average level of students’ prior performance was also related to team performance, but the average importance given to the value equality was a stronger predictor of this fundamental team outcome. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.

The Romance of Learning from Disagreement. The Effect of Cohesiveness and Disagreement on Knowledge Sharing Behavior and Individual Performance Within Teams

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to explore the effects of disagreement and cohesiveness on knowledge sharing in teams, and on the performance of individual team members.Design/methodology/approachData were obtained from a survey among 1,354 employees working in 126 teams in 17 organizations.FindingsThe results show that cohesiveness has a positive effect on the exchange of advice between team members and on openness for sharing opinions, whereas disagreement has a negative effect on openness for sharing opinions. Furthermore, the exchange of advice in a team has a positive effect on the performance of individual team members and acts as a mediator between cohesiveness and individual performance.ImplicationsManagers who want to stimulate knowledge sharing processes and performance within work teams may be advised to take measures to prevent disagreement between team members and to enhance team cohesiveness.Originality/valueAlthough some gurus in organizational learning claim that disagreement has a positive effect on group processes such as knowledge sharing and team learning, this study does not support this claim.

No Credit Where Credit Is Due: Attributional Rationalization of Women's Success in Male-Female Teams.

In 3 experimental studies, the authors explored how ambiguity about the source of a successful joint performance outcome promotes attributional rationalization, negatively affecting evaluations of women. Participants read descriptions of a mixed-sex dyad's work and were asked to evaluate its male and female members. Results indicated that unless the ambiguity about individual contribution to the dyad's successful joint outcome was constrained by providing feedback about individual team member performance (Study 1) or by the way in which the task was said to have been structured (Study 2) or unless the negative expectations about women's performance were challenged by clear evidence of prior work competence (Study 3), female members were devalued as compared with their male counterparts-they were rated as being less competent, less influential, and less likely to have played a leadership role in work on the task. Implications of these results, both theoretical and practical, are discussed.

Managers at Work: Manage Polarities Before They Manage You

As product lifecycles shorten, functional groups must build seamless relationships to prevent schedule slips and rework. The pharmaceutical industry is a good example of this trend. Hoping to produce five or six new chemical entities per year--and aiming for blockbusters--pharmaceutical executives and professionals face the daunting dilemma of managing how scarce resources, people and time are allocated across projects. This article, based on field research in a biotechnology company, argues that good project managers are able to manage six polarities, which are intrinsic to their work. They must 1) take account of the big picture of the project versus pay attention to the details; 2) help team members advance a project versus help team members shut down a project; 3) play a supporting role to enable the project leader to lead versus provide project leadership; 4) be responsible for the outcome of a particular project versus be responsible for the outcome of the company's of projects; 5) Get resources for the team from the functional groups versus protect the functional groups from excessive demands on their time, attention and resources; and 6) focus on the project versus focus on the context for the project. I conclude with three suggestions for how project managers can acquire these skills. The Polarities Framework Barry Johnson has argued that most organizational dilemmas confront us with polarities that we must manage rather than resolve once and for all (1). For example, the skilled manager of a team is aware that she must constantly tack back and forth between focusing on the team's performance as a whole and on each individual team member's performance. Were she to focus on one to the exclusion of the other, we would surmise that she was not as effective as she could be. Similarly, a physician is required to give his or her patients undivided attention. Yet physicians are constantly allocating their attention and resources across their portfolio of patients, deciding which needs more or less attention at any given moment. How do they manage this seemingly contradictory task? How do they balance focusing on the individual patient while focusing on their of patients? Typically, experts become more proficient when they develop a rich set of of based on their experience of managing this dilemma effectively. As Gary Klein has emphasized, these rules of thumb are not so much formal decision rules as they are guidelines to help the expert recognize a particular pattern or configuration of constraints, opportunities and resources (2). For example, a patient facing an immediate life or death situation will get the physician's immediate attention, while other patients may receive painkillers to minimize their suffering as they wait for the physician's diagnosis. The effective physician knows how to use a set of tactics, administering painkillers versus doing emergency surgery, to optimize the well-being of his portfolio of patients. Following Barry Johnson, I call the process of exercising this skill, management. The concept of polarity management is often explicated in the form of a 2 x 2 table, where each dimension of the polarity is categorized into its hi or lo state. The box Hi-Hi (Table 1) represents the most expert exercise of the skill under consideration. Table 1.--Four Dimensions of Polarity Pay Attention to Individual Patients Pay Lo Hi Attention to Hi May neglect the Balances Portfolio short-term management of Patients needs of with individual patients he/she attention cannot attend to (Expert) (e.g., pain management) Lo Poor physician Does not manage practice the caseload (Novice) of patients well The Six Polarities I suggest that project managers in pharmaceutical firms (and any firm in which development projects are the lifeblood) are expected to manage the six polarities discussed below. …