Member Familiarity Research Articles

Team member familiarity and team effectiveness in the operating room: The mediating effect of mutual trust and shared mental models

BackgroundTeamwork in the operating room is of paramount importance to provide high-quality patient care. It has been shown that increased team member familiarity predicts improved teamwork. A complicating factor is the often-changing composition of the operating room teams. Team member familiarity is associated with shared mental models and mutual trust, which are in turn important factors for team effectiveness. However, it remains unclear how this interplay takes place and can be influenced (eg, through team training). Our aim was to investigate the relationship between team member familiarity and perceived team effectiveness in operating room teams. We hypothesized that shared mental models and mutual trust mediate this relationship. MethodsWe performed a prospective, correlational study in 2 hospitals in the Netherlands. A questionnaire was used to assess team member familiarity, mutual trust, shared mental models (perceived and content-related), and perceived team effectiveness. Data were analyzed using a random intercept multilevel model. ResultsTeam member familiarity significantly predicted perceived team effectiveness, both through a direct effect, as well as mediated by perceived shared mental models. Mutual trust also significantly predicted team effectiveness. Variance is determined mostly at an individual level, but also partly (12%) at the operating room level. ConclusionGreater team member familiarity predicts greater team effectiveness, and this relationship is mediated by shared mental models. Training should be aimed at these aspects of team functioning to optimize team performance in the operating room.

Understanding the impact of national culture differences on customers’ online social shopping behaviours

The growth of social media (SM) has contributed to the retail industry. Academics and professionals are specifically intrigued by how the fusion of SM might address the issue of establishing a relationship between consumers and sellers. By integrating insights drawn from the Informational Social Influence Theory (ISIT) and the Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM), our study developed a model to comprehend factors affecting customers' online social shopping behaviours across various cultural environments. Our study utilised SEM/PLS to analyse data collected from 2305 respondents in four different countries. Findings revealed that the ISIT can be used to understand customers’ online social shopping behaviours. Our study indicated that normative social influence (NSI), informational social influence (ISI), utilitarian value (UTV), perceived member familiarity (PMF), and perceived information quality (PIQ) are key drivers of customers social behaviours in the developed societies, while hedonic value (HDV), perceived member closeness (PMC), perceived member similarity (PMS), and perceived member expertise (PME) are key drivers of customers social behaviour in the developing societies. The results demonstrated that a “one-size fits-all” paradigm is inadequate to capture the heterogeneity of customers social behaviour through various cultures. The theoretical and managerial implications were demonstrated.

Does Member Familiarity Help or Hinder Innovation? The Roles of Expertise and Dialogic Coordination

Does Member Familiarity Help or Hinder Innovation? The Roles of Expertise and Dialogic Coordination

More than just a number: Different conceptualizations of multiple team membership and their relationships with emotional exhaustion and turnover.

Many employees are members of multiple teams, and research suggests that this may profoundly affect their stress experiences and work outcomes. We argue that progress in this research area has been hampered by a lack of clarity about what multiple team membership (MTM) is and how to conceptualize it. Prevailing conceptualizations of MTM have focused on the total number of teams an individual is a member of (MTM number). We identify how frequently employees shift their attention between different team contexts (MTM switching) and the extent to which they prioritize one membership over all others (MTM coreness) as alternative conceptualizations that better capture MTM's consequences for individuals. Our analysis of 1,345 knowledge workers involved in 4,329 project teams shows that MTM number, MTM switching, and MTM coreness differ meaningfully in their antecedents and consequences. MTM switching and coreness (but not MTM number), respectively, relate positively and negatively to multiteamers' emotional exhaustion and subsequent turnover. The positive consequences of MTM coreness only occur, however, when multiteamers have prior work experience with the members of their teams (i.e., team member familiarity). These findings help to clarify the potential benefits and detriments of MTM and advance the growing literature in this area. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

I know my teammates: the role of Group Member Familiarity in Computer-Supported and face-to-face collaborative learning.

Considering the importance of group member familiarity in collaborative learning in classroom learning environments, this study examined the impact of group member familiarity on CSCL (computer-supported collaborative learning) in a networked setting. Also, the differences between CSCL in the online environments and FtF (face-to-face) collaborative learning were also compared. An analysis using structural equation modeling revealed that group member familiarity increased teamwork satisfaction, which in turn increased student engagement and perceived knowledge construction. A multi-group analysis revealed that while FtF collaborative learning exhibits higher levels of group member familiarity, teamwork satisfaction, student engagement, and perceived knowledge construction, the mediating effect of teamwork satisfaction was more pronounced in online settings. The study findings provided insights for teachers to improve collaborative learning experiences and adapt different teaching strategies.

Classroom-Situated Willingness to Communicate: Student Teachers of EFL in Spain.

This exploratory mixed-methods research involves an intra-/intergroup replication design to analyse the classroom-situated willingness to communicate (WTC) in English foreign language (EFL) student teachers of early childhood education according to grouping, group member familiarity, and EFL proficiency. The novelty lies in the adaptation from face-to-face to virtual teaching while student teachers attended a didactics course at the University of Cádiz (Spain). Results show that there are no significant differences in WTC concerning teaching modality except for grouping. Conclusions imply that classroom-situated WTC is not affected by teaching modality when instruction aims at language acquisition by fostering oral communicative interaction.

Does Member Familiarity Help or Hinder Innovation? The Roles of Expertise and Dialogic Coordination

Modern organizations increasingly rely on flexible work arrangements such as innovation task forces to quickly assemble members with diverse expertise needed to create innovative solutions for particular problems. The literature has produced mixed findings on the relationship between member familiarity and innovation, which we suggest may be explained by two forms of coordination: expertise and dialogic. We hypothesize and find that dialogic coordination produces more innovative outcomes for unfamiliar task forces, whereas expertise coordination produces more innovative outcomes for familiar task forces. Further, dialogic coordination in unfamiliar task forces is associated with greater innovative outcomes than expertise coordination in familiar task forces. Our results also highlight the importance of temporal dynamics of dialogic coordination in task force work. Hypotheses were tested through a longitudinal analysis of survey data with external ratings of the innovation outcome from 179 individuals in 32 innovation task forces from a variety of large U.S.-based companies. The findings contribute to an understanding of coordination in contemporary turbulent work environments.

Transactive Memory Systems, Temporary Teams, and Conflict: Innovativeness During a Hackathon

The transactive memory system has been studied extensively, yet we still know little about how it influences the effectiveness of temporary teams. Additionally, little is known about the boundary conditions of the well-established benefits of transactive memory systems on team performance. Our primary goal in this study is to build and test a theory that investigates the influence of a transactive memory system on the performance of temporary teams while accounting for conditional effects of both task and relationship conflict. On the surface, a transactive memory systems perspective may seem incompatible with temporary teams. Transactive memory systems typically require time or team member familiarity to develop. However, team members on temporary teams often are selected because of their expertise, not team member familiarity, and often must quickly and effectively operate under time and outcome pressures. We present a theory that suggests transactive memory systems should have a meaningful influence on temporary teams, and its effect is accentuated in the presence of task conflict and attenuated in the presence of relationship conflict. We test our theory using a sample of 202 teams participating in the Global Game Jam, the world's largest hackathon devoted to designing and developing games within a 48-h period. In addition to implications for literatures on transactive memory systems and temporary teams, our study adds to a growing literature providing practical advice and insight regarding hackathons, a pervasive source of innovation and idea generation.

Standing together or falling apart? How mega-threats shape cooperative behaviour in diverse teams

Events such as the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin which gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2012, the violent killing of Michael Brown in 2014 which sparked week-long nation-wide protests, or the emergence of allegations of sexual harassment against Harvey Weinstein in 2017 have continued to heavily draw public attention to the threat of discrimination against particular demographic subgroups. In this paper, we explore the effect of such diversity related societal events (“mega-threats”) on relationships between members of different demographic subgroups within diverse teams. In particular, we suggest that the occurrence of mega-threats can potentially strongly decrease cooperation between threatened and non-threatened demographic subgroups, but also the potential to instead increase cooperation when team members can more easily develop a strong superordinate team identity due to high levels of team member familiarity or low levels of status discrepancy. Moreover, we argue that mega-threats are more likely to have positive effects on cooperation when team leaders belong to the threatened subgroup and are thus in a better position to take on a bridging function between different subgroups. We test our predictions using a novel large-scale dataset of interactions between White and Black players in the National Basketball Association in the 2014-2015 season during which the United States experienced widespread protests against race-based police violence. Our results provide predominantly supportive evidence for our main suggestions.

Environmental habituation and sexual composition affect juveniles' shoaling activity in a cichlid fish (Pelvicachromis taeniatus).

Group living is widespread in animals, and many fishes form shoals. Examining within-group interactions in fishes may contribute to the general understanding of dynamic social structures in animals. The sex ratio of a group has been shown to influence grouping decisions of fishes and can be expected to affect behaviour at group level. Behavioural experiments usually involve relatively short acclimatisation times, although the establishment of environmental habituation in fishes is understudied. This study tests whether the sex ratio and long-term habituation to experimental conditions influence general shoal performance (activity parameters, density) and responses of shoals to an acoustic-mechanical disturbance cue in juveniles of the cichlid fish Pelvicachromis taeniatus via individual tracking. The disturbance consisted of a defined hit against the experimental tank, which caused sudden noise and water movement. We found that a higher proportion of females increases shoal activity (swimming speed and distance covered), suggesting that female P. taeniatus are more active than males. Furthermore, shoal activity declined when shoals habituated to the experimental settings and with the time that the shoals were grouped together, which may reflect intensified group member familiarity. Moreover, behavioural changes after disturbance were weaker when individuals were kept with their group longer and more familiar to the experimental conditions. For prey species, lower activity might be beneficial under natural conditions due to lower conspicuousness of the group. We did not find any significant effects of the investigated factors on shoal density (mean interindividual distance) and speed synchronisation. The results indicate that sexual composition, familiarity between shoal members and habituation to the experimental environment affect shoal performance in a cichlid fish.

Financial performance of fluid teams with undifferentiated member roles: the impact of vertical and horizontal team familiarity

This paper aims to examine how team familiarity, as a social resource accumulated through vertical and horizontal exchanges, in teams with undifferentiated member roles may satisfy the functional needs of a fluid team by facilitating operational effectiveness and contributing to its financial performance.,To analyze how vertical and horizontal team familiarity impacts team financial job performance, this paper collected three years of archival data from a moving services firm yielding a final sample of 306 moving jobs. This paper used a cross-sectional design and structural equation modeling to test the impact of vertical and horizontal familiarity on team financial job performance.,This paper found empirical evidence that vertical team familiarity affects horizontal team familiarity among teams with undifferentiated member roles. In addition, the analysis shows that horizontal team familiarity positively impacts financial team job performance. Finally, the results indicate that team leaders are capable of indirectly impacting financial job performance through their discretion to influence horizontal familiarity.,This study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the role of team familiarity in the organizational practices of organizing and assembling fluid teams with undifferentiated member roles. In particular, organizations relying on these types of fluid teams need to appoint the right leaders that, familiar to team members, allocate the right mix of member familiarity to increase team coordination and team performance.

An observational study of older patient specialling in acute hospital settings.

During hospitalisation, older people can quickly become disoriented and agitated. In these instances, 'specialling', involving close monitoring and observation of the person to prevent accidents, injuries and clinical deterioration is often required. Despite the widespread practice of older patient specialling, there is no evidence of the best model, or any clear guidelines around the essential requirements for this practice. This study aimed to examine specialling practices for hospitalised older patients in acute aged care wards. Quantitative and qualitative data were obtained in an observational study of specialling practices for hospitalised older patients. Two validated observational tools were used to collect data on nursing care provided during specialling and patient responses to specialling over a three-month period. A total of 58 observations were undertaken of specialling practices for 12 hospital patients aged 65years and over in four acute aged care wards. Delirium was the most common reason for older patient specialling. Most specialling was undertaking by Assistants in Nursing. Specialling interactions and responses were mainly positive. Positive specialling practices occurred when the staff special was familiar with the older patient and the ward in which specialling occurred. Specialling practices differed in relation to, the type of care required, the presence of the patients' personal possessions in their immediate surroundings, the presence of medical devices, patient acuity and general ward busyness. These findings suggest that specialling practices differ according to patient need and that the staff member's familiarity with the ward and their patients are important factors in positive older patient specialling. The specialling role needs much clearer definition, including the type of educational preparation and workload support that is appropriate to ensure safe and quality care.

Actual participation: the effects of information sharing and familiarity team on budget decision quality

This experiment examines the effect of information sharing and team member familiarity on decision quality. Forty students participated in the experiment playing the role of budget managers and teams. The task of the experiment is to translate symbol codes and propose the amount of code to be translated in an online meeting as a measure of actual information sharing and participation. Participants were randomly assigned to each condition (high/low sharing of information and familiarity). The results showed that information sharing and decision quality were better under conditions of information sharing and high familiarity than information sharing and low familiarity. The results are consistent with increased familiarity of team members under information sharing among team members which increases polarisation in budget decision making. The results also suggest that differences in the quality of team decisions may be better explained by psychological factors and cognitive behaviour than by agency contracts.

Communication and Group Cognitive Complexity

This study explores the effects of group size, group composition, and group argument frequency on group cognitive complexity (GCC). We evaluated a sample of 509 students organized into 106 groups who participated in a group cognitive mapping activity. As hypothesized, we found that group argumentation has an inverted U-shaped association with GCC. Group member familiarity did not moderate this relationship. We also found that task-related arguments mediate the relationships between group size and gender diversity on one hand, and GCC, on the other. Moreover, we found that optimal group-level cognitive benefits were observed in group discussions in which the ratio between task-related and nontask-related group arguments was 3 to 1. The discussion focuses on the practical and theoretical implications of these findings.

When team member familiarity affects transactive memory and skills: a simulation-based training among police teams

The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of team member familiarity on both technical and non-technical skills of police officers and to examine the mediating role of transactive memory components (specialization, coordination and credibility). Student police officers (N = 150) carried out professional simulation sessions in groups of three, with either familiar (n = 22 teams) or unfamiliar (n = 28 teams) team members, followed by a skills evaluation exercise. Professional instructors evaluated skills through direct observation of team member behaviours. The results revealed that training in familiar teams improved police officers’ technical and non-technical skills and transactive memory system. The effect of team familiarity on skills was mediated by transactive memory and specifically by the tacit coordination component. The findings are discussed in relation to the literature on the effects of team member familiarity on team performance, and implications for team training and staffing (turnover of personnel) in actions teams.Practitioner Summary: This study examined the effect of team member familiarity on both the technical and non-technical skills of police officers. Training in familiar teams improved skills and transactive memory. The positive effect of team member familiarity on skills was mediated by the coordination facet of transactive memory.

Joint Problem-solving: Overcoming Membership Instability in Cross-boundary Teams

Understanding how teams perform fast-paced, cross-boundary work is critical for organizations operating in dynamic environments. In these contexts, teams often form quickly, change often and cross organization, profession or sector boundaries, thus bearing little resemblance to the stable, bounded teams studied in most organizational research. In two studies, we explore how cross- boundary teams can work together effectively when team member instability limits opportunities to establish consistent structures, enhance team member familiarity and bridge knowledge differences. First, we conduct an inductive comparative case study of fourteen teams composed of medical care providers and community-based organization staff who came together to establish novel referral systems for chronic disease management services. We find that a team orientation focused on joint problem-solving helped teams make progress, despite membership instability. By contrast, a team orientation focused on establishing trusting relation...

The Effects of Member Familiarity, Task Results Visibility and Perceived Co-worker Loafing on Technology-Supported Team Performance: Social Loafing Effect Perspective

In traditional face-to-face teamwork, ＂social loafing＂ is a significant factor that decreases teamwork performance. We therefore wondered if the same phenomenon takes place in technology-supported teams. An experiment was conducted with 95 online brainstorming teams composed of 286 students from five classes at three universities. The results revealed under what situations social loafing effects exist and how the impacts of team member familiarity, perceived co-worker loafing, and task results visibility work on technologysupported team performance. Discussions and suggestions are provided to enhance academic research on and management of technology-supported teamwork.

Antecedents and consequences of collective empathy in software development project teams

The term empathy has attracted many researchers from a variety of disciplines; however, a team's collective empathy, which is composed of cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions, has rarely been addressed in the literature. In this study, we empirically investigated the relationship between the collective empathy of a team and the effectiveness of its project process. Additionally, we tested the role of team intimacy-related factors, such as interpersonal trust, within-team communication, and team member familiarity, in collective empathy, as well as the moderating role of group norms on the collective empathy-process effectiveness link. By studying 122 software development projects, we found that cognitive-based trust, formal within-team communication, and team member familiarity influence the collective empathy of project teams. We also found that collective empathy affects team learning and product speed-to-market and results in lower project development costs. Furthermore, we determined that the existence of group norms moderates the relationships among collective empathy, speed-to-market, and lower development costs. The managerial and theoretical implications of the study have also been provided.

Speech or silence

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to extend a traditional communication theory, spiral of silence, to explore the effects of user anonymity and member familiarity on opinion expression behaviour in a virtual environment.Design/methodology/approach– A laboratory experiment method was used to manipulate user anonymity, member familiarity, and opinion congruity to measure the willingness to express opinions concerning controversial topics.Findings– A total of 147 participants were recruited in the experiment. The results revealed that anonymous users in virtual communities and users in groups comprising familiar members are more willing to express inconsistent opinions than non-anonymous users and users in groups containing unfamiliar members, respectively. In addition, anonymous and non-anonymous users as well as users in groups comprising familiar members and those in groups containing unfamiliar members are equally willing to express consistent opinions.Originality/value– This is the first study to verify the effect of user anonymity and member familiarity on the willingness to express opinions in online social communities. The findings have crucial implications regarding how governments and businesses can stimulate creativity and feedback through virtual communities.

온라인 커뮤니티 특성, 커뮤니티 멤버 특성, 개인 특성이 잠복관찰 활동에 미치는 영향:왜 사람들은 쓰지 않고 읽기만 하는가?

정보기술의 발전과 소셜 네트워크의 확산으로 온라인 커뮤니티의 중요성은 점점 커지고 있다. 온라인 커뮤니티가 성공하기 위해서는 커뮤니티 구성원들이 정보를 공유하고 컨텐츠를 지속적으로 창출하여야 한다. 하지만, 온라인 커뮤니티에 참여하는 대부분의 사람들이 글이나 컨텐츠를 공유하려는 적극적인 참여보다는 단순히 타인의 글이나 컨텐츠를 감상하는 수동적인 참여를 하고 있다. 즉, 사용자가 글/컨텐츠를 감상하는 의도와 글/컨텐츠를 창출하는 의도사이에는 큰 격차가 존재함을 알 수 있다. 본 연구는 왜 온라인 커뮤니티에서 사람들은 글이나 컨텐츠 공유를 통한 참여 활동보단, 타인의 글이나 컨텐츠를 보기만 하는 잠복관찰 활동을 많이 하는지에 대한 물음에 답하고자 한다. 이를 위해, 온라인 커뮤니티 자체의 특성과 커뮤니티 멤버와의 관계적 특성, 개인의 특성에 초점을 맞추어, 사용자의 잠복관찰 활동에 영향을 줄 수 있는 다양한 요인들을 도출하고 실증 분석하였다. 구체적으로, 멤버와의 관계적 특성 변수 중 멤버들간의 친밀감, 커뮤니티와의 동일시 등은 커뮤니티에 대한 소속감을 증가시키고 잠복관찰 의도를 감소시키는 데 중요한 역할을 함이 밝혀졌다. 반면, 커뮤니티의 유용성과 사용용이성, 멤버들의 전문성의 경우, 오히려 잠복관찰 의도를 증가 시키는 영향을 주는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 흥미롭게도, 자기존중감이 낮을수록 잠복관찰보다는 온라인 상의 활발한 참여를 하는 것을 발견하였다. 본 연구의 결과를 토대로 잠복관찰자를 활발한 참여자로 변모시키기 위한 커뮤니티 전략을 제시할 수 있을 것으로 생각된다. Online communities are getting more popular with the development of information technology. It is essential that community members participate actively and share their contents or opinions continuously for the success and growth of online communities. However, it is revealed that most of members just take the role of passive observer. They are lurking community information and contents without any contribution. In this sense, this study focuses on explore lurking behavior of online community members. This study investigates the effect of the characteristics of online community, community members, and personal traits on user's lurking intention. Member familiarity and community identity have a strong positive effect on de-lurking intention, while the perception of usefulness and ease of use for communities and member expertise have a negative effect on de-lurking intention. Interestingly, users with a low level of self-esteem have higher level of motivation of participation than those with a high level of self-esteem. Finally, this study proposes several strategies to enhance information and contents sharing in online communities.