Effective team work is essential if innovation projects are to succeed. How to create high-performing innovation teams provides practical guidance and advice on how to create high-performing teams ...regardless of type or size of company, organization, or public institution. It offers the reader pivotal tools and insights to use in practice. Both the theory and practice for creating high-performing innovation teams are discussed and new tools and insights are provided for managers, consultants, and academics. It answers the call for rapid innovation to respond to the increasingly changing market and to shorter product life cycles. How to create high-performing innovation teams addresses specifically the factors that enable innovation work from the perspective of the organization, the innovation team, and its members. In addition to co-located innovation teams, the book also discusses the differences among global organizations and what to consider in the creation of global high-performing innovation teams.
This paper presents the Event Analysis of Systemic Teamwork (EAST) method as a means of modelling distributed cognition in systems. The method comprises three network models (i.e. task, social and ...information) and their combination. This method was applied to the interactions between the sound room and control room in a submarine, following the activities of returning the submarine to periscope depth. This paper demonstrates three main developments in EAST. First, building the network models directly, without reference to the intervening methods. Second, the application of analysis metrics to all three networks. Third, the combination of the aforementioned networks in different ways to gain a broader understanding of the distributed cognition. Analyses have shown that EAST can be used to gain both qualitative and quantitative insights into distributed cognition. Future research should focus on the analyses of network resilience and modelling alternative versions of a system.
Practitioner summary: This paper presents a practical method for analysing and evaluating distributed cognition in complex systems. The Event Analysis of Systemic Teamwork (EAST) method presents task, social and information network models both individually and combined. The network models can be analysed qualitatively by visual inspection and quantitatively using network analysis metrics.
In a sample of 62 research and development (R&D) teams, the authors examined transformational leadership as a moderator of the relationship of age, nationality, and educational background diversity ...with team outcomes. When levels of transformational leadership were high, nationality and educational diversity were positively related to team leaders' longitudinal ratings of team performance. These relationships were nonsignificant when transformational leadership was low. Age diversity was not related to team performance when transformational leadership was high, and it was negatively related to team performance when transformational leadership was low. Two mediated moderation effects help explain these findings. Transformational leadership moderated the relationship of the 3 examined diversity dimensions with the elaboration of task-relevant information, which in turn was positively associated with team performance. Moreover, transformational leadership moderated the relationship of the 3 diversity types with collective team identification, which in turn was positively related to the elaboration of task-relevant information. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results. Overall, this study suggests that transformational leadership can foster the utilization of the potential, but frequently untapped, benefits entailed by both demographic and informational/cognitive team diversity.
The authors examined conditions under which teams' educational specialization heterogeneity was positively related to team creativity. Using a sample of 75 research and development teams, the authors ...theorized and found that transformational leadership and educational specialization heterogeneity interacted to affect team creativity in such a way that when transformational leadership was high, teams with greater educational specialization heterogeneity exhibited greater team creativity. In addition, teams' creative efficacy mediated this moderated relationship among educational specialization heterogeneity, transformational leadership, and team creativity. The authors discuss the implications of these results for research and practice.
The social environment comprising communities, families, neighbourhoods, work teams, and various other forms of social group is not simply an external feature of the world that provides a context for ...individual behaviour. Instead these groups impact on the psychology of individuals through their capacity to be internalised as part of a person's social identity. If groups provide individuals with a sense of meaning, purpose, and belonging (i.e. a positive sense of social identity) they tend to have positive psychological consequences. The impact of these identity processes on health and well-being is explored in the contributions to this special issue. In this editorial, we discuss these contributions in light of five central themes that have emerged from research to date. These themes address the relationship between social identity and (a) symptom appraisal and response, (b) health-related norms and behaviour, (c) social support, (d) coping, and (e) clinical outcomes. The special issue as a whole points to the capacity for a social identity approach to enrich academic understanding in these areas and to play a key role in shaping health-related policy and practice. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Reflexivity-the extent to which teams reflect upon and modify their functioning-has been identified as a possible key factor in the effectiveness of work teams. We examined the extent to which team ...composition affected team process (i.e., reflexivity) and in turn team outcomes (i.e., satisfaction, commitment, and performance). The results of diversity research thus far have been inconclusive in terms of positive or negative effects of team composition on team process and outcomes. In the current research, group longevity and outcome interdependence were expected to moderate the relationship between diversity on the one hand and reflexivity and team outcomes on the other hand. Reflexivity was expected to mediate these interaction effects. The current field study was conducted among 54 work teams from 13 different organizations. As predicted, few main effects were found. Instead, analyses showed interaction effects of diversity and outcome interdependence on the measures of reflexivity, satisfaction, and performance. As predicted, interaction effects were also found for diversity and group longevity on the measures of reflexivity, satisfaction, and performance. Three-way interactions were found for satisfaction and commitment. Also, reflexivity was shown to mediate these relationships, indicating that the moderating effects of outcome interdependence and group longevity on the relation between diversity and team outcomes are due to the effects on process.
Navigating any workplace can be hard; Registered Veterinary Nurses (RVNs') are highly skilled, trained and ultimately just want to do the best for patients. However, in practice there may be times ...when it feels difficult to perform nursing duties because of interpersonal dynamics. This article will explore how to work effectively as a member of the veterinary team. It will address conflict, bullying and finally, it will look at what to do and what not to do in a workplace environment to help in more challenging situations.