Understanding Of Team Performance Research Articles

Video Review of Simulated Pediatric Cardiac Arrest to Identify Errors/Latent Safety Threats: A Mixed Methods Study.

Outcomes from pediatric in-hospital cardiac arrest depend on the treatment provided as well as resuscitation team performance. Our study aimed to identify errors occurring in this clinical context and develop an analytical framework to classify them. This analytical framework provided a better understanding of team performance, leading to improved patient outcomes. We analyzed 25 video recordings of pediatric cardiac arrest simulations from the pediatric intensive care unit at the Alberta Children's Hospital. We conducted a qualitative-dominant crossover mixed method analysis to produce a broad understanding of the etiology of errors. Using qualitative framework analysis, we identified and qualitatively described errors and transformed the data coded into quantitative data to determine the frequency of errors. We identified 546 errors/error-related actions and behaviors and 25 near misses. The errors were coded into 21 codes that were organized into 5 main themes. Clinical task-related errors accounted for most errors (41.9%), followed by planning, and executing task-related errors (22.3%), distraction-related errors (18.7%), communication-related errors (10.1%), and knowledge/training-related errors (7%). This novel analytical framework can robustly identify, classify, and describe the root causes of errors within this complex clinical context. Future validation of this classification of errors and error-related actions and behaviors on larger samples of resuscitations from various contexts will allow for a better understanding of how errors can be mitigated to improve patient outcomes.

Fuzzy Logic Patterns Communication and Team Performance

Analyzing the complex maze of content and flow in communication between team members could help unlock researchers’ understanding of team performance. This research analyzes the communication patterns of two teams, based on their team performance, in order to test and expand a developing team mapping technique to assess content and flow between team members. A two-pronged methodology was executed: (1) communication data processing by (a) classifying utterances into content topics and flow, (b) indexing the speech acts, and (c) validation, and (2) analyzing the communication patterns using augmented fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs). The strengths of the relationships among key communication concepts were estimated and compared between the two, low and high, performance teams’ FCMs. The results indicated that FCMs could apply to larger teams and in an alternate domain. The FCM communication patterns recognized that the “providing information” concept was significantly different between the high and low team performances. This research demonstrates that, using fuzzy logic, different patterns can assist in understanding team performance while providing insights into complex team communication dynamics.

Emerging team practices in global product development

PurposeThis case study feature aims to focus on team performance in a global product development environment and endeavors to enable managers and leaders of global teams to benefit from the insight.Design/methodology/approachThe paper outlines a case study conducted in an organizational setting spanning a period of five years. The researchers studied a department consisting of product development team members in an emerging region and report findings in the context of existing concepts.FindingsBased on the case study, it is observed that global product development teams are similar to other teams and are governed by structure, task, leadership and team processes. The distance and culture aspect of global teams tend to have additional challenges. Some of these challenges can be mitigated by enabling a robust team design, the right team composition, common processes, alignment with structure, focused training and development, consistent performance and evaluation mechanisms, as well as implementing knowledge management systems and having senior management support.Research limitations/implicationsUsage of global teams for product development is rapidly increasing and the understanding of team performance is critical for their success. This case study is based on an actual product development team engaged over a period of five years. The insights gathered provide a practical perspective of global team functioning that can be used for further exploration and research.Practical implicationsThe case study findings can be used by practicing managers, leaders of global teams and organizations to help them understand various factors and implications that may reduce global team challenges in a product development scenario. Some of the best practices suggested in the study may help those creating a global team.Originality/valueThe case study illustrates some of the practical aspects of a global product development function. The approach into examining the functioning of a working team over a period of time helps provide a valuable and coherent view of a complex phenomenon. The factors uncovered during the study help provide a basis for further research.

Critical Success Factors for Managing Technology-Intensive Teams in the Global Enterprise

:The challenges of managing culturally diverse and globally dispersed project teams are examined in a field study of technology-intensive product developments. The article aims to improve the understanding of team performance in multinational project environments with implications for leadership assessment and organizational development. The results suggest that multinational team performance involves a complex set of variables related to the organizational ambience, business process, managerial tools, and most importantly, to the people in the organization. Team leaders must effectively manage relations across the entire work process, including support functions, suppliers, sponsors, and partners. Emphasis on common values and goals helps in bridging cultural and organizational differences, and in unifying the multinational team. Personal interest, pride and satisfaction with the work, professional work challenge, accomplishments, recognition, and the skill sets of the team members were identified as the strongest drivers toward unifying culturally diverse project teams and their work processes, and building a true partnership among all the contributing organizations.

Turning the Team Around: The Importance of Team Reflexivity Following Poor Performance

A small but growing body of literature adds to our understanding of performance spirals in teams. Initial performance is often highly predictive of later performance, which has the unfortunate implication that teams that initially perform poorly may experience great difficulties in improving their performance. We propose that teams that initially perform poorly can break the chain of poor performance when they engage in a process of team reflexivity (i.e., reflect upon their functioning), and that poorly performing teams benefit more from reflexivity than better performing teams. In a longitudinal study (N = 73 teams), we found support for this idea. As predicted, results further indicated that this interaction between initial team performance and team reflexivity was mediated by team learning. We outline how these findings are important for our understanding of team performance spirals as well as for the further development of team reflexivity theory.

Team Leadership Effectiveness in Technology-Based Project Environments

Managerial leadership and the organizational environment must be conducive to the professional needs of the project team. I reached this conclusion after conducting a field study of 80 technology-intensive project teams in 27 companies. This paper aims to improve the project management field's understanding of team performance as it is influenced by the organizational environment and managerial leadership. The results of this research suggest that many of the factors that drive project team performance, such as commitment and the ability to deal with conflict and risk, originate in the work environment. While effective management of the technical aspects of the project is critical to success, team leaders must also pay close attention to managing relations across the entire work process, including support functions, suppliers, sponsors, and partners. In this paper, I discuss the implications of — and criteria for — effective team leadership.

Understanding Team Performance: A Multimethod Study

Multiple measures of team process were compared and evaluated using fifty- two 2-person teams flying a simulated F-16 aircraft mission. Measures of team process were given by team members, on-site observers, and off-site observers. The frequencies of various types of team member communication during the task were also recorded. Results indicated that internal consistency varied widely across measures, but adequate internal consistency was gener- ally achieved. Multitrait-multimethod analyses showed evidence of conver- gent and discriminant validity for measures of giving suggestions and cooperation, but not for accepting suggestions, coordination, and team spirit. Descriptive information (communication frequency) was relatively independent of evaluative information (process ratings). Both descriptive and evalua- tive information were predictive of team outcomes and sensitive to team composition. Implications of the results for the measurement of team process and the understanding of team performance are discussed.