Evolving team cognition: The impact of team situation models on team effectiveness

Abstract

In a study of 32 real-life on-scene-command teams, we investigated how the early development of team situation models (TSMs, i.e., a shared understanding in teams of which actions to take) influences final team effectiveness. We used both an inter-team longitudinal approach that examines TSM development at the sample level and an intra-team longitudinal approach that examines TSM development at the level of individual teams. We found that overall TSM change at the early stage of team functioning is positively related to team effectiveness at the end measured by quality of actions and goal achievement. Teams with increasing TSM similarity patterns tend to deliver higher team effectiveness than teams with stable TSM patterns but not than teams with decreasing TSM patterns. We discussed the theoretical and methodological contribution of the article to team cognition research and the practical implications to real-life command-and-control teams.