Tracking individual trajectories of perceived shared mental models: A 12-week longitudinal study
Santos, Catarina M. Li, Jia de Jong, Simon B.
Santos, Catarina M.
Li, Jia
de Jong, Simon B.
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2023
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Abstract
Drawing on the shared mental model literature and interdependence theory, this study aims to analyse whether individuals perceive similar or distinct trajectories of shared mental models over time and test whether those trajectories relate to different individual antecedents and outcomes. This study questions the common (implicit) assumption that individuals perceive and develop shared mental models uniformly.Successful teamwork is crucial to solve many of today’s key problems. Yet, to effectively perform the tasks assigned to the team, team members have to build and be aware of a shared mental model (i.e., a shared understanding about who does what, when, and with whom) successfully and in a timely manner. Within the shared mental model literature, the idea that each individual team member can perceive the shared mental model that consists of several dimensions has taken root in recent years. The state-of-the-science is that there are five dimensions of perceived shared mental models, namely equipment, execution, composition, interaction, and temporal. However, most research has focused on one or a few of these dimensions and has focused on aggregated (team level) conceptualizations of shared mental models. Therefore, research has overlooked the possibility that individuals might have different perceptions of the various shared mental model dimensions. Furthermore, individual-level longitudinal studies on shared mental models have never been attempted. Therefore, it is currently unknown whether and how individual perceptions of shared mental models change over time, and whether the development of perceived shared mental models is similar or dissimilar for the five dimensions.We collected data across six-time points from more than 300 participants who assessed their perceived shared mental models in their first 12 weeks of working in a new project team. Initial latent class analyses showed there are distinct trajectories for each of the shared mental model dimensions. This showed, for instance, that individuals can have different starting points as well as ending points and that those can differ per shared mental model dimensions. Moreover, the temporal process between these starting and ending points also had different shapes, as, for instance, some lines stayed uniformly high or low, whilst others grew or declined and then stabilized, whilst yet other lines first raised and then fell down again. We will analyse the antecedents and outcomes of the trajectories and share the updated results during the EAWOP 2023 Congress.Although individual beliefs and perceptions are the foundation of shared mental models, in this study we focus only on the individual trajectories of perceived mental models, and not on the trajectories within teams. Overall, this study advances the shared mental model literature, as our analysis of the individual trajectories of perceived shared mental models show that the common assumption that individuals develop shared mental models uniformly needs to be revisited. Thus, our work provides a starting point to develop new theoretical and empirical knowledge on how the different dimensions of shared mental models start and develop by taking a more fine-grained look at the individual level of analysis.Overall, this study is relevant to the Congress Theme “The future is now: The changing world of work” and to the UN SDG “Decent work and economic growth”, as this study contributes to the development of a sustainable workforce from a bottom-up micro perspective by providing managers, 1066team members, and team leaders – as well as consultants and other decision-makers – with knowledge and competences that aim to increase cooperation and collaboration, which ultimately contributes to individual and team effectiveness.
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Teams, Shared Mental Models, Longitudinal study