Team Mental Models and Team Performance: A Field Study of the Effects of Team Mental Model Similarity and Accuracy

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Team Mental Models and Team Performance A Field
Study of the Effects of Team Mental Model
Similarity and Accuracy

• Lt Col Beng-Chong Lim, PhD
• Ministry of Defense Singapore
• Katherine Klein, PhD
• Wharton School of Management

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SCOPE

• Background
• Hypotheses
• Methods
• Results
• Conclusion

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BACKGROUND

• Teams are basic building blocks of organizations
• Interests in team effectiveness have increased
• Interesting phenomenon
• While communication is important for team
  effectiveness, effective teams often do not
  engage in overt and lengthy communication and
  strategizing especially under time pressure
  high level of ambiguity
• EXAMPLE football team at work
• The existence of a team mind? (Klimoski et al
  1994)

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BACKGROUND

• Team mental models (TMMs) definition
• Team members shared, organized understanding and
  mental representation of knowledge about key
  elements of the teams relevant environment
  (Mohammed Dumville, 2001, p.90)
• Multiple team mental models e.g.,
• Taskwork model describe team tasks, equipment
  and procedures
• Teamwork model describe team interaction
  processes and members characteristics

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BACKGROUND

• When team members share similar mental models
• can anticipate each others responses and
  coordinate effectively when time is short and
  overt communication and debate constrained
  (Mathieu et al, 2000)
• Research shows that TMMs do have positive effects
  on team performance (Marks et al, 2000 Marks et
  al, 2002 Mathieu et al 2000 Rentsch Klimoski,
  2001 Stout et al, 1999 Webber et al, 2000)
• Questions remain unanswered

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QUESTIONS

• Apart from taskwork model, is teamwork model also
  important?
• Apart from similarity, is accuracy also
  important? In addition, is there an interaction
  between these two characteristics
• Do TMMs matter to real world action teams?

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OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

• In context of real world action teams
• Examined effects of taskwork and teamwork models
  on team performance
• Examined similarity and accuracy of TMM on team
  performance

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HYPOTHESES

• For both taskwork and teamwork models
• H1A B Team mental model similarity is
  positively related to team performance
• H2A B Team mental model accuracy is positively
  related to team performance

TMM
Similarity
Team performance
Accuracy
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HYPOTHESES

• For both taskwork and teamwork models
• H3A B The relationship between team mental
  model similarity and team performance is
  moderated by team mental model accuracy

Accuracy
Team performance
Similarity
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METHOD
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Sample

• 71 combat teams nested within 3 infantry units in
  the Singapore Armed Forces
• Size 4 to 8 members.
• Randomly assigned
• N 548 participants (477 soldiers and 71 team
  leaders).
• Singaporean male enlisted for national service
• 18 to 23 years old (M 19.1 years, SD 1.03)

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Measures

• Taskwork Mental Models
• 14 statements describing team procedures,
  equipment, and tasks were presented to
  respondents for them to judge their relatedness
• 91 pair wise comparisons (14x13/2 pairs) using
  a 7-point response scales (1 unrelated and 7
  highly related)
• Examples (1)Team members conduct routine
  maintenance of their equipment and weapons in the
  field. (2) Team members are cross-trained to
  carry out other members tasks

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Measures

• Teamwork Mental Models
• 14 statements describing team interaction
  processes and the characteristics of team members
  were presented to respondents for them to judge
  their relatedness
• 91 pairwise comparisons using a 7-point response
  scales (1 unrelated and 7 highly related)
• Examples (1) team members trust each other (2)
  team members are aware of other team members
  abilities

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Measures

• Team performance
• A one-day assessment center designed to determine
  the operational effectiveness of each team.
• Performed six military tasks (e.g., overcoming an
  enemy outpost)
• Trained assessors rated on team efficiency and
  quality of team actions using a 7-point response
  scale
• Created a composite score for team performance

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Procedure

• Time 1(10 weeks into training)
• Collected survey measures of team members and
  SMEs taskwork and teamwork mental models
• Time 2 (3 weeks later)
• Teams participated in a one-day assessment center
• 24 assessment center assessors provided
  performance ratings

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RESULTS
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Analytic Strategy

• Structural assessment technique Pathfinder
  (Schvaneveldt, 1990) to generate each team
  members taskwork and teamwork mental models
• Computed four TMM indices for each team
• Taskwork TMM similarity
• Taskwork TMM accuracy
• Teamwork TMM similarity
• Teamwork TMM accuracy

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Example of a mental model
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Computation of Similarity and Accuracy
Member 1 mental model
Expert Mental Model
ACCURACY
SIMILARITY
Member 2 mental model
Member 3 mental model
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Analytic Strategy

• Conducted a series of correlation and
  hierarchical regression analyses
• Controlled for combat units in all regression
  analyses
• Team size not significant. Hence dropped from the
  subsequent regression analyses

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Correlational Results
Note N71 teams. plt .05 p lt.01
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Tests of Hypotheses 1A, 2A 3A
 
Note N 71 teams. p lt .05 p lt 0.01 (one
tailed).
Note N 71 teams. p lt .05 p lt 0.01 (one
tailed).
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Tests of Hypotheses 1B, 2B 3B
Note N 71 teams. p lt .05 p lt 0.01 (one
tailed) p .06.
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Conclusion

• In general, both similarity and accuracy are
  related to team performance for both taskwork and
  teamwork models
• We did not find significant interactions
• Overall, TMMs do matter for team performance of
  these combat teams

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Thank you!