Set Of Teams Research Articles

Implementation of a Transdisciplinary Team for the Transition Support of Medically and Socially Complex Youth

This article reports the ongoing work of a statewide transition support program which serves youth ages 11 to 22 with medically complex conditions and socially complex lives. Seven years of transition support services have led to program evolution demonstrated via a descriptive summary of the patients along with both families' and primary care providers' responses to satisfaction surveys. An illustrative case is used to highlight the types of expertise needed in specialized transition service delivery for patients with significant complexity. The team's analysis of their transdisciplinary work processes further explains the work. Nearly three hundred youth with complex needs are served yearly. Families and primary care providers express high satisfaction with the support of the services. The case example shows the broad array of transition-specific services engaged beyond the usual skill set of pediatric or adult care coordination teams. Transdisciplinary team uses skills in collaboration, support, learning, and compromise within a trusting and respectful environment. They describe the shared responsibility and continuous learning of the whole team. Youth with complex medical conditions and complex social situations are at higher risk for problems during transition. Serving this population with a transdisciplinary model is time consuming and requires advanced expertise but, with those investments, we can meet the expectations of the youth, their families and primary care providers. Successful transdisciplinary teamwork requires sustained and focused investment. Further work is needed to describe the complexity of this service delivery along with distinct transition outcomes and costs comparisons.

On the evaluation of soccer players: a comparison of a new game-theoretical approach to classic performance measures

In this article, we analyse the relation of a new measure for evaluating the importance of soccer players, recently proposed by Hiller (2015), to classic metrics of player performance. Using state-of-the-art bootstrap correlation testing and a data set of teams for the German soccer league (Bundesliga), we find evidence that even though this new game-theoretical approach has no significant correlation to a large number of performance measures, it is significantly related to some of the most important measures typically used in academic research (e.g. the player scores published by sports magazines and the number of played matches). These results indicate that the theoretically appealing new measure can be considered an interesting variable in pay–performance regressions and should be used accordingly in future research.

Probabilistic Transitivity in Sports

We seek to find the statistical model that most accurately describes empirically observed results in sports. The idea of a transitive relation concerning the team strengths is implemented by imposing a set of constraints on the outcome probabilities. We theoretically investigate the resulting optimization problem and draw comparisons to similar problems from the existing literature including the linear ordering problem and the isotonic regression problem. Our optimization problem turns out to be very complicated to solve. We propose a branch and bound algorithm for an exact solution and for larger sets of teams a heuristic method for quickly finding a good solution. Finally we apply the described methods to panel data from soccer, American football and tennis and also use our framework to compare the performance of empirically applied ranking schemes.

Academic Video in the Portuguese High Education Network: the EDUCast@fccn project

Since 2010 it was developed an innovative partnership initiated by the Portuguese Foundation for National Scientific Computing (FCCN), by SWITCH (the institution that manages the Swiss Network Technology Research and Education) and the University of Porto (U.Porto). These three European institutions have developed a work of exploration and discussion under the auspices of TERENA (Trans-European Research and Education Networking) during the various forums for collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing that this institution regularly promotes. Thus, was born in Portugal the project Educast@fccn that can be considered the simplest national service to manage educational video from recording to the distribution process. This service is based on a technology platform for production, editing and video distribution that allows full autonomy to the user in all the process. In addition to the innovative technology, this service provides to all High Education Institutions (HEI’s), in Portugal, the integration into a professional structure that supports the production of audiovisual content for e-learning and blended learning in each institution and a great possibility of scaling the production on each one of the institutions. The specific logistics of each HEI in Portugal and the specific teaching of each academic community are some of the major challenges faced by technical staff, administrative staff and educational support staff of these institutions when trying to find an appropriate solution for the provision of audiovisual content. Therefore this professional network structure also ensures a high level of service support, and consequently, a great confidence to the teachers and other audiovisual content producers in the various academic communities in Portugal. But this project also allowed, since its inception, to consolidate a national community of experts in content development for e-learning and blended learning, especially the audiovisual components. The U. Porto also positioned itself as a pivotal entity in this privileged national network of experts on audiovisual content on education through the training of 80 employees spread across 37 HEI’s in Portugal during the last 2 years. In addition the U.Porto released a set of complementary initiatives ranging from training, workshop sessions and distance learning courses about this technology and this service. This was an ambitious step of this big national project that allowed to build a set of technical teams specialized in the production of educational content and that directly support the academic communities of their own institutions. Currently this project is confirming the high expectations of those involved and is creating even bigger expectations to the future. About 37 HEI’s joined the EDUCast@fccn project with 2306 users and 5882 videos produced and integrated in 748 channels of project platform. These significant quantitative results are the visible part of a set of technological and logistic conditions to start a strong manifestation of significant qualitative results regarding the educational impact of this project in the daily activities of teachers. Aspects such as the better management of lectures that are traditionally less appealing, the attractiveness of the educational contents created through video, the improved productivity of teachers through the recording of audiovisual content, the release and allocation of teaching time for productive activities and to the interactive direct support to the student or even the increase of the students' interest in certain content that traditionally would not be so appealing, are just a few issues that constitute these qualitative aspects.

Journal publishing challenges: A case of STM scientific journals in Croatia

This paper presents findings from the research of 87 scientific journals in the fields of science, technology and medicine (STM) in Croatia. Findings indicate a set of problems editors and editorial teams in the fields of STM encounter during their work such, as insufficient financial support to the journal, low quality of article manuscripts, badly formatted article manuscripts, lack of help to the editor, etc. Findings also indicate use of information and communication technology (ICT) for communication with authors, but ICT is still not used sufficiently to make the shift from print to electronic publishing possible. Most journals in research face financial problems, and they are understaffed, while editors are overburdened with other duties. The recommendation is to professionalize the management of the journals to allow editors and their associates to dedicate their time solely to this job in order to facilitate the transformation of scientific journals from paper to electronic versions and to participate actively in the scientific communication paradigm shift.

Journal publishing challenges: A case of STM scientific journals in Croatia

This paper presents findings from the research of 87 scientific journals in the fields of science, technology and medicine (STM) in Croatia. Findings indicate a set of problems editors and editorial teams in the fields of STM encounter during their work such, as insufficient financial support to the journal, low quality of article manuscripts, badly formatted article manuscripts, lack of help to the editor, etc. Findings also indicate use of information and communication technology (ICT) for communication with authors, but ICT is still not used sufficiently to make the shift from print to electronic publishing possible. Most journals in research face financial problems, and they are understaffed, while editors are overburdened with other duties. The recommendation is to professionalize the management of the journals to allow editors and their associates to dedicate their time solely to this job in order to facilitate the transformation of scientific journals from paper to electronic versions and to participate actively in the scientific communication paradigm shift.

Communicative Rationality, Strategy, and Intersubjectivity: Results From a Quasi-Experimental Investigation

This article presents some results from an investigation of the concept of strategy through the lens of the Habermasian concept of communicative rationality. It draws upon the theory of communicative action to posit “intersubjectivity” (the degree to which interlocutors assess themselves as engaged in ideal-type communication) as the means through which communicative and strategic orientations are reconciled in interaction. The research involved a quasi-experimental study in which two sets of teams playing a negotiation-intensive board game differed in terms of the orienting information they received. Players oriented toward the strategic aspect of the game initially reported lower intersubjectivity with nonteammates than did players oriented toward the communicative features of the game. By the end of the game, this difference was no longer observed. These results are consistent with the fundamental Habermasian precept of the primacy of communication over strategy, so that a communicative orientation persists even in the face of a clearly strategic context of interaction.

A 5.875-approximation for the Traveling Tournament Problem

In this paper we propose an approximation for the Traveling Tournament Problem which is the problem of designing a schedule for a sports league consisting of a set of teams T such that the total traveling costs of the teams are minimized. It is not allowed for any team to have more than k home-games or k away-games in a row. We propose an algorithm which approximates the optimal solution by a factor of 2+2k/n+k/(n−1)+3/n+3/(2⋅k) which is not more than 5.875 for any choice of k≥4 and n≥6. This is the first constant factor approximation for k>3. We furthermore show that this algorithm is also applicable to real-world problems as it produces solutions of high quality in a very short amount of time. It was able to find solutions for a number of well known benchmark instances which are even better than the previously known ones.

Knowledge integration process in construction projects: a social network analysis approach to compare competitive and collaborative working

Research on knowledge integration across organizational boundaries is still very limited because of the assumption that knowledge is a critical asset, which should be secured within organizational boundaries. A variety of knowledge management frameworks have presented the same common characteristics, including information sharing as the basis for knowledge management, a supportive culture, trust and proximity. Social network analysis is used to examine the knowledge integration process in collaborative and competitive working systems on four case study projects based on public sector organizations. This involved shadowing participants and conducting interviews. Participants were selected from a set of functional teams according to their role. Five participants were interviewed from each project in order to check the validity and reliability of the data. The knowledge integration patterns are presented by quantitative methods using the social network analysis approach.

NIH, Science, and Baseball: Time for Reform?

Last fall I was reflecting on the state of science and the funding rate at the National Institutes of Health. Baseball was winding down for most teams, while again the World Series featured two teams from the east coast, while teams in the middle of America were again amazingly absent. There are all kinds of reasons why these teams are not as competitive, but in the end it comes down to money and components like market share. Yet unlike other professional sports in America, where salary caps have been used to level the playing field and to make small market teams more competitive, no such cap exists in baseball. While major league baseball has tried revenue-leveling plans (a luxury tax), in the end the wealthier teams get the better (higher-priced) players and the less-wealthy teams get to develop the players who end up going to the wealthier teams. The end result is diminished revenue for one set of teams as fans just stop showing up to the ballpark. Quite the opposite occurs for the wealthier teams as the fans come in droves to watch their stars come out at night. So what in the world does this have to do with science? Well, many see baseball as a pure game. There are dimensions for the diamond, but every field is unique beyond the actual diamond. There is no time limit for the game, something unique in nearly all professional sports. There is a one-on-one component as there is the constant battle between the hitter and the pitcher. Yet despite this very individual aspect of the game, baseball is a team sport in which team work is essential for success. To me, academic science is a pure pursuit, but like baseball it contains a number of polar opposites, somewhat like what Hegel described in his version of the dialectic theory. Science is a pursuit that requires a tremendous amount of personal drive and utilization of one’s intellect. Meanwhile, despite this individual effort, we work in a ‘‘team’’ environment, sharing our thoughts and work with others through publications and interactions at scientific congresses as well as other outlets that provide for exchange of ideas. We collaborate on projects with colleagues, maximizing the potential for success by bringing many different talents to bear on the project. Similar to baseball being a game where singles and doubles win games, science is a pursuit where all of our collective progress on a particular topic is additive and that is what often shifts our understanding of the underlying biology of a particular problem. Just like a home run is exciting and gets the fans cheering for more, big significant discoveries in science are also exciting. But in the end, like in baseball, it is the summation of incremental successes that move a field forward. As an industry colleague has routinely noted, academic scientists often work on their own time scale, yet we all work within the time frame of our grants. So many of the attributes of baseball are seen in science, but again, so are many of the disparities. So how does NIH fit into this paradigm? Simply put, certain institutions and laboratories continue to get rich, while others seek the equivalent of science life support. Institutions on the right and left coasts have more faculty, more ‘‘stars’’, and ultimately more infrastructure to support an enhanced research enterprise. As in baseball, this deepens the divide between the haves and the have-nots. Those of us at institutions in the middle of America who succeed, can transition to the coasts, like a rising star in baseball. Hence, the ultimate impact is a reduction in the small market institutions’ capacity to compete as they lose E. J. Murphy (&) Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Therapeutics, University of North Dakota, 501 N. Columbia Rd., Room 3700, Grand Forks, ND 58202-9037, USA e-mail: emurphy@medicine.nodak.edu

The combined manpower-vehicle routing problem for multi-staged services

This paper introduces a combined problem of vehicle routing and scheduling of manpower teams to perform multi-stage tasks at customer locations. Each customer demands several tasks in a given order. These tasks are performed by a set of teams and each team can perform a single task. The teams should be moved by a set of vehicles. The objective is to find an efficient schedule for the teams and to minimize the cost of vehicle routing. The problem differs from the traditional vehicle routing problem in that the tasks are not done by vehicles but done by teams, so teams must be assigned to customers and teams to vehicles. However, teams and vehicles are not bound to each other, so they can be scheduled separately but should be synchronized. Moreover, the multi-stage nature of the tasks in a given order makes the problem more complex. In this paper, a mixed integer programming model is developed for the problem, and a particle swarm optimization based heuristic algorithm is proposed. Some benchmark problems and the computational results of the proposed algorithm are also presented.

Scoping a flexible deployment framework using adversarial scenario analysis

To aid with Australian Army deployment planning we propose a flexible deployment concept developed using adversarial scenario analysis. This novel technique begins with a simple scenario and a core strategy. Iteratively, the scenario is modified to defeat the existing strategy and the strategy is altered to cope. This process results in the deployed force being structured as a set of cohesive functional teams that provide emotional support to their members, suffer stress at different rates and are able to be rotated independently of each other. An accumulator model of deployment stress is assumed and continuous time-in-theatre is minimised subject to realistic constraints. The concept is focused on stable long term commitments to small wars, insurgencies and peacekeeping operations within four time-zones of the deployment source and with forward bases near usable airfields. To plan specific deployments, the same process could be expanded upon with appropriate detail.

Analysis of User Involvement and Participation on the Quality of IS Planning Projects

The process of information systems planning is critically dependent on the users of the system. The involvement and participation of these users and its impact on the effectiveness of IS planning has not been studied in the literature. In this article we address the effect of user involvement and participation on the quality of IS planning projects. This was done through an exploratory quasi-experiment study conducted in an academic setting. We studied the effects of user involvement using two sets of teams doing IS planning exercises, one in which the user was involved as part of the project team and the other where the user was outside the project team, but was involved in interviews and reviews of project artifacts. We also measured the extent of user participation through a survey of participants engaged in the IS planning projects. Results indicate that user involvement has significant positive effect on user participation, as well as on the quality of IS planning projects. However the effect of user participation on the quality of projects is mixed and needs further research.

Combinatorial properties of strength groups in round robin tournaments

Abstract A single round robin tournament (RRT) consists of a set T of n teams ( n even) and a set P of n − 1 periods. The teams have to be scheduled such that each team plays exactly once against each other team and such that each team plays exactly once per period. In order to establish fairness among teams we consider a partition of teams into strength groups. Then, the goal is to avoid a team playing against extremely weak or extremely strong teams in consecutive periods. We propose two concepts ensuring different degrees of fairness. One question arising here is whether a single RRT exists for a given number of teams n and a given partition of the set of teams into strength groups or not. In this paper we examine this question. Furthermore, we analyse the computational complexity of cost minimization problems in the presence of strength group requirements.

The manpower allocation problem with time windows and job-teaming constraints: A branch-and-price approach

In this paper, we consider the manpower allocation problem with time windows, job-teaming constraints and a limited number of teams ( m-MAPTWTC). Given a set of teams and a set of tasks, the problem is to assign to each team a sequential order of tasks to maximize the total number of assigned tasks. Both teams and tasks may be restricted by time windows outside which operation is not possible. Some tasks require cooperation between teams, and all teams cooperating must initiate execution simultaneously. We present an integer programming model for the problem, which is decomposed using Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition. The problem is solved by column generation in a branch-and-price framework. Simultaneous execution of tasks is enforced by the branching scheme. To test the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, 12 realistic test instances are introduced. The algorithm is able to find the optimal solution in 11 of the test instances. The main contribution of this article is the addition of synchronization between teams in an exact optimization context.

Optimizing the Functionality of Teams with Dispersed Individuals an Exploration into the Conditions for Effective Knowledge Management Applications in Virtual Teams

As the technological environment is constantly changing and becoming more global, organizations must continue to find ways to compete advantageously. Teams are increasingly being used as a mechanism for accomplishing organizational work yet researchers are still exploring what leads to the ability to learn as an organization or to exhibit effective knowledge management. A parallel trend is the dispersion of organizations globally and the set of virtual teams and even virtual organizations operating in different places and times. One body of research that may help in understanding how to improve the functioning of virtual teams focuses on Transactive Memory Systems (TMSs). Prior studies have indicated that TMS emergence leads to improved team performance. Therefore, the present research explores and analyzes the roles that influential factors play in TMS emergence and maintenance in virtual teams. Specifically, a number of factors will be investigated with a goal of identifying how best to utilize findings to assemble virtual teams.

LEARNING STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE IN INNOVATION TEAMS.

This study builds on recent advances in team learning research to propose and test a multi-dimensional model of team learning consisting of three learning strategies: experiential, vicarious, and contextual learning. Qualitative data from a small number of innovation teams in one pharmaceutical firm are used to develop measures. Survey data from an additional set of innovation teams in six other pharmaceutical firms are used, first, to test the measurement model using structural equation modeling, and second, to test the relationships between learning strategies and team performance using random effects regression models. The paper argues that a multi-dimensional view of team learning can help us better understand how teams learn and what makes teams and organizations effective. Implications for different types of innovation teams are discussed.

Managing organizational context for engineering team effectiveness

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a study investigating the role of organizational context on the effectiveness of engineering work teams.Design/methodology/approachPrevious research was used to operationalize organizational context and work team effectiveness, and a survey was developed to assess both in this research. This study was conducted within two engineering units of a high‐technology company. In total, 16 teams of engineering knowledge workers participated in the study. Correlation and path analysis were used to investigate both direct and mediated relationships between nine organizational context variables and team effectiveness.FindingsDirect relationships between eight organizational context variables and team member satisfaction and between two organizational context variables and team performance were found. Effects of five variables on team member satisfaction were either fully or partially mediated by team processes (TP).Research limitations/implicationsThis study empirically validated existing models of team effectiveness and identified multiple dimensions of organizational context that are important to the development of effective teams as measured by team member satisfaction and team performance. The study took place within a single organization. Additional research is necessary to generalize the findings.Originality/valueA broader cross‐section of organizational context variables were included in this study than in previous studies. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by empirically studying organizational‐team relationships using intact work teams. This research addressed an increasingly important set of teams – teams of knowledge workers. Finally, this research was designed to specifically test for the existence of a mediating variable (TP).

The Structure of Founding Teams: Homophily, Strong Ties, and Isolation among U.S. Entrepreneurs

The mechanisms governing the composition of formal social groups (e.g., task groups, organizational founding teams) remain poorly understood, owing to (1) a lack of representative sampling from groups found in the general population, (2) a “success” bias among researchers that leads them to consider only those groups that actually emerge and survive, and (3) a restrictive focus on some theorized mechanisms of group composition (e.g., homophily) to the exclusion of others. These shortcomings are addressed by analyzing a unique, representative data set of organizational founding teams sampled from the U.S. population. Rather than simply considering the properties of those founding teams that are empirically observed, a novel quantitative methodology generates the distribution of all possible teams, based on combinations of individual and relational characteristics. This methodology permits the exploration of five mechanisms of group composition—those based on homophily, functionality, status expectations, network constraint, and ecological constraint. Findings suggest that homophily and network constraints based on strong ties have the most pronounced effect on group composition. Social isolation (i.e., exclusion from a group) is more likely to occur as a result of ecological constraints on the availability of similar alters in a locality than as a result of status-varying membership choices.

The Structure of Founding Teams: Homophily, Strong Ties, and Isolation among U.S. Entrepreneurs

The mechanisms governing the composition of formal social groups (e.g., task groups, organizational founding teams) remain poorly understood, owing to (1) a lack of representative sampling from groups found in the general population, (2) a success bias among researchers that leads them to consider only those groups that actually emerge and survive, and (3) a restrictive focus on some theorized mechanisms of group composition (e.g., homophily) to the exclusion of others. These shortcomings are addressed by analyzing a unique, representative data set of organizational founding teams sampled from the U.S. population. Rather than simply considering the properties of those founding teams that are empirically observed, a novel quantitative methodology generates the distribution of all possible teams, based on combinations of individual and relational characteristics. This methodology permits the exploration of five mechanisms of group composition-those based on homophily, functionality, status expectations, network constraint, and ecological constraint. Findings suggest that homophily and network constraints based on strong ties have the most pronounced effect on group composition. Social isolation (i.e., exclusion from a group) is more likely to occur as a result of ecological constraints on the availability of similar alters in a locality than as a result of status varying membership choices.