The Development and Construct Validation of Unobtrusive Dynamic Measures of Team Processes and Emergent States BAA TOPIC II-A-1
Abstract
The inability to easily employ dynamic, valid, leading indicators of team effectiveness is an Achilles heel limiting the development and testing of longitudinal models of team performance. We propose a program of research to help address this challenge. It involves the development of a theoretical framework, measurement protocol, and methodology to better understand and predict team behavioral processes and emergent states as leading indicators of team effectiveness. Recent theory and practice have emphasized how team processes and states (i.e., team dynamics) change over time, highlighting the importance of viewing team effectiveness in evolving temporal frameworks. However, traditional research methodologies are limited to assessing team processes and states infrequently, and typically rely on costly, subjective or intrusive data collection methods to do so (e.g., self-report ratings and surveys or time consuming observational coding of behaviors by researchers). The proposed program of research is designed to overcome these limitations, and to develop dynamic measures of team processes and states based on communication patterns and other information that can be gathered unobtrusively and analyzed using longitudinal methods. Our approach is grounded in the body of scientific research on team processes and emergent states. It begins with foundational work and advances in complexity each year. In Year 1 we establish the guiding framework and develop generic team process and emergent state dictionaries. We will then use computer-aided text analysis (CATA) techniques to apply the dictionaries to existing data sets of team communications, yielding indices of key team dynamics. We will cross-validate these indices against traditional measures in an attempt to establish a baseline Ò75% solutionÓ that would be applicable across most teams and situations. During Year 2, we extend the generic solution to focus on specific types of teams. We will develop targeted supplemental dictionaries that can be combined with the generic ones for use in specific settings. Using unobtrusively gathered data we will then index team dynamics over time, in a network framework. In so doing, the research will advance from teamwork in general to teamwork in context, and from tracking team interactions as an undifferentiated whole, to a more detailed analysis of interactions among members. In Year 3 we will collect team communication data in concert with sociometric information (e.g., membersÕ physical proximity, communication turn taking) and will synthesize those data streams into a more comprehensive assessment of team processes and states. We will develop and validate a methodology for integrating communication analyses with sociometric information, illustrate dynamic multiplex network analysis techniques and applications, and identify key temporal trends in the evolution of team processes and state Ð outcome relationships. In sum, the proposed line of research is designed to provide a workable methodology for unobtrusively capturing, indexing, and modeling dynamic team processes and states that can serve as leading indicators of team effectiveness, and to address a key obstacle to the advancement of team effectiveness theory, research, and practice.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 23, 2017
- Source ID
- W911NF1510014
Entities
People
- Scott I Tannenbaum
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Group for Organizational Effectiveness
- United States Army