When faced with adverse circumstances, there may be a tendency for individuals, agencies, and governments to search for a target to assign blame. Our focus will be on the novel coronavirus outbreak, where racial groups, political parties, countries, and minorities have been blamed for spreading, producing or creating the virus. Blame—here defined as attributing causality, responsibility, intent, or foresight to someone/something for a fault or wrong—has already begun to damage modern society and medical practice in the context of the COVID-19 (...) outbreak. Evidence from past and current pandemics suggest that this tendency to seek blame affects international relations, promotes unwarranted devaluation of health professionals, and prompts a spike of racism and discrimination. By drawing on social and cognitive psychology theories, we provide a framework that helps to understand the effect of blame in pandemics, when people blame, whom they blame, and how blame detrimentally affects the COVID-19 response. Ultimately, we provide a path to inform health messaging to reduce blaming tendencies, based on social psychological principles for health communication. (shrink)

Cognitive Science, Volume 46, Issue 10, October 2022.

Being able to effectively respond in the event a crisis is relevant to an organization's survival. Whether or not an organization is prepared for a potential crisis depends upon senior officials, and other personnel operating within the company. Corporations with established crisis management teams are able to communicate and effectively respond in the event of a crisis. The purpose of this paper is to suggest effective crisis management depends upon several team-related factors that may influence an organization's response and (...) its ethical responsibility. First, the term crisis is defined, followed by an overview of the differences between crisis communication and crisis management. Second, a review of relevant literature regarding teams and effectiveness is examined. Third, several propositions regarding team effectiveness and crisis management are provided. Finally, ethical concerns in regards to the crisis team and the corporation are reviewed. (shrink)

Being able to effectively respond in the event a crisis is relevant to an organization''s survival. Whether or not an organization is prepared for a potential crisis depends upon senior officials, and other personnel operating within the company. Corporations with established crisis management teams are able to communicate and effectively respond in the event of a crisis. The purpose of this paper is to suggest effective crisis management depends upon several team-related factors that may influence an organization''s response and (...) its ethical responsibility. First, the term crisis is defined, followed by an overview of the differences between crisis communication and crisis management. Second, a review of relevant literature regarding teams and effectiveness is examined. Third, several propositions regarding team effectiveness and crisis management are provided. Finally, ethical concerns in regards to the crisis team and the corporation are reviewed. (shrink)

Shared leadership is lauded to be a performance-enhancing approach with applications in many management domains. It is conceptualized as a dynamic team process as it evolves over time. However, it is surprising to find that there are no studies that have examined its temporally relevant boundary conditions for the effectiveness of the team. Contributing to an advanced understanding of the mechanism of shared leadership in engineering design teams, this research aims to investigate whether shared leadership is positively (...) related to team effectiveness and when shared leadership is more likely to be effective. Using a field sample of 119 individuals in 26 engineering design teams from China and the technique of social network analysis, we found that, consistent with cognate studies, shared leadership is positively related to team effectiveness when measured in terms of team task performance and team viability. Moreover, by integrating the project life cycle as a moderator, this study is among the first to investigate the temporal factors, for the effectiveness of shared leadership. The result shows that the stage of the project life cycle moderates the positive shared leadership-team effectiveness relationship, such that this association is stronger at the early phase than at the later phase of the project. Overall, these findings offer insightful thoughts to scholars in the field of shared leadership and bring practical suggestions for project managers in business who seek to implement best practice in organizations toward high team effectiveness. (shrink)

We assess the perceived impact of leaders’ humility on team effectiveness, and how this relationship is mediated by balanced processing of information. Ninety-six leaders participate in the study. The findings suggest that humility in leaders is indirectly related to leaders’ perceived impact on team effectiveness. The study also corroborates literature pointing out the benefits of using other-reports to measure humility, and suggests adding humility to the authentic leadership research agenda.

Time and technology permeate the fabric of teamwork across a variety of settings to affect outcomes which have a wide range of consequences. However, there is a limited understanding about the interplay between these factors for teams, especially as applied to artificial intelligence (AI) technology. With the increasing integration of AI into human teams, we need to understand how environmental factors such as time scarcity interact with AI technology to affect team behaviors. To address this gap in the literature, (...) we investigated the interaction between the availability of intelligent technology and time scarcity in teams. Drawing from the theoretical perspective of computers are social actors and extant research on the use of heuristics and human–AI interaction, this study uses behavioral data from 56 teams who participated in a between-subjects 2 (intelligent assistant available × control/no intelligent assistant) × 2 (time scarcity × control/no time scarcity) lab experiment. Results show that teams working under time scarcity used the intelligent assistant more often and underperformed on a creative task compared to teams without the temporal constraints. Further, teams who had an intelligent assistant available to them had fewer interactions between members compared to teams who did not have the technology. Implications for research and applications are discussed. (shrink)

The emotional intelligence of a construction project manager plays an essential role in project management, and recent developments in teamwork have increased the need to explore better ways to utilize teams and achieve effectiveness in the construction sector. However, research that holds the team-level perspective in emotional intelligence studies is lacking, and the mechanism of the construction project manager’s emotional intelligence on team effectiveness remains unexplored. This knowledge gap is addressed by developing a model that illuminates (...) how construction project manger’s emotional intelligence can affect team effectiveness via the mediation of team cohesion and the moderation of project team duration. A questionnaire survey was utilized to gather information from construction project teams across 156 leader-member dyads in the Chinese construction industry. The results reveal that construction project manager’s emotional intelligence is positively related to team effectiveness and the team cohesion mediates this cause and effect. Further, project team duration moderates the relationship between team cohesion and effectiveness. This study offers new insight into how project manager can better lead team members toward desired team outcomes from a team perspective and makes an explorative effort in investigating the “time” role in construction project management. (shrink)

The anticipated social capabilities of robots may allow them to serve in authority roles as part of human-machine teams. To date, it is unclear if, and to what extent, human team members will comply with requests from their robotic teammates, and how such compliance compares to requests from human teammates. This research examined how the human-likeness and physical embodiment of a robot affect compliance to a robot's request to perseverate utilizing a novel task paradigm. Across a set of two (...) studies, participants performed a visual search task while receiving ambiguous performance feedback. Compliance was evaluated when the participant requested to stop the task and the coach urged the participant to keep practicing multiple times. In the first study, the coach was either physically co-located with the participant or located remotely via a live-video. Coach type varied in human-likeness and included either a real human, a Nao robot, or a modified Roomba robot. The second study expanded on the first by including a Baxter robot as a coach and replicated the findings in a different sample population with a strict chain of command culture. Results from both studies showed that participants comply with the requests of a robot for up to 11 min. Compliance is less than to a human and embodiment and human-likeness on had weak effects on compliance. (shrink)

The present study expands on the growing literature concerning organizational politics by assessing the impact of team-level OP on employee performance outcomes as well as investigating the degree to which these effects are mediated by team conflict. The results, based on multilevel structural equation modeling with a sample of 349 employees from 78 firms in China, lent support for a cross-level mediating role for team conflict between political climate and employee performance. Further, moderator analyses demonstrated that political (...) climate acted as a condition for task conflict to trigger relationship conflict. Thus, the results of this study contribute to both the political climate literature and the conflict literature by clarifying the processes by which climate can influence employee performance. (shrink)

Although research on the benefits of problem construction within the creative process is expanding, research on team problem construction is limited. This study investigates the cognitive process of problem construction and identification at the team level through an experimental design. Furthermore, this study explores team social processes in relation to problem construction instructions. Using student teams solving a real-world problem, the results of this study revealed that teams that engaged in problem construction and identification generated more original (...) ideas. Moreover, higher satisfaction and lower conflict was observed among groups that engaged in problem construction. These findings highlight the utility of problem construction for teams engaging in creative problem-solving. (shrink)

This study explores the interaction effects of game outcomes and status instability and the moderating role of implicit team identification on spectators’ status-seeking behavior. The current study seeks to contribute to the existing consumer behavior and spectatorship literature by examining the counterintuitive outcomes of winner–loser effects through the application of the biosocial theory of status. In an online experiment, NFL fans’ retrospective spectating experiences were captured and manipulated. This experiment used a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design. The (...) findings indicated that decisive victories and close losses positively influenced spectators’ future attendance as well as their intention to purchase luxury suites and merchandise featuring images of the team mascot. Conversely, decisive losses and close victories had a negative influence. Additionally, the more spectators implicitly identified with a particular team, the more they exhibited status-seeking behavior; even close victories positively influenced the outcomes. By applying a nascent theoretical approach in the field of consumer behavior, our results provide fresh insight into explaining spectators’ status-seeking behavior. Also, the findings identify specific conditions in which spectators’ status-seeking behavior is enhanced, thus suggesting ways for managers to strategically allocate their resources. (shrink)

Prior research has demonstrated a strong relationship between team performance and team members’ team efficacy beliefs and perceptions of social integration. Performing well increases the feelings of collective ability that comprise team efficacy and the feelings of psychological connectedness that make up social integration, while performing poorly erodes them. In this article, we draw from the social cognitive base of ethical leadership theory to argue that ethical leadership moderates the relationship between team performance and (...) class='Hi'>team efficacy beliefs, and between team performance and social integration, such that these important team attitudes are buffered against the negative effects of poor performance when leaders act ethically. Alternatively, when leaders act less ethically, team efficacy and social integration break down following poor performance. We test our hypotheses in a field study of U.S. military teams actively engaged in competition. The data support our arguments. We find that ethical leadership weakens the relationships among team performance and team efficacy and social integration, respectively, such that ethical leaders preserve team efficacy and social integration when their teams do not perform well. (shrink)

Patent strategy is increasingly recognized as a vital contributor in promoting core competitiveness of an enterprise. A top management team has been indicated as one of the key factors driving changes in patent strategy. Based on upper echelons theory, this study examines how TMT characteristics, including, team diversity, emotional intelligence, and safety climate, influence enterprise patent strategic change and, hence, the business outcome. The data from 930 top managers in 228 enterprises showed that the changes in patent strategies (...) are significantly influenced by the characteristics of top managers. These aforementioned internal TMT factors have diverse effects on the speed and scope of the enterprise patent strategic change, which in turn affects firm performance in a positive and negative way, respectively. (shrink)

This research investigates how top management team national diversity (TMTND) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) institutional uncertainty affect strategic CSR focus in foreign-owned subsidiaries. The paper develops a theoretical framework based on institutional theory and upper echelon perspectives to test a sample of MNE subsidiaries. Survey data were collected from subsidiaries in Thailand and Taiwan. Non-symmetric analysis suggests that while TMTND plays an important role in establishing a CSR focus, it is not conducive in itself to high-performance outcomes. Performance (...) is measured by market share, sales growth, and profitability for each subsidiary. The results also show that there are notable differences between the subsidiaries located in Thailand and Taiwan as to what extent CSR strategic focus and top management team national diversity are relevant for high-performance outcomes. The study demonstrates that the links between CSR, TMTND, and subsidiary performance are much more complex than previously assumed. (shrink)

There are hardly any instruments to measure teamwork behaviors from an individual approach. This applies both in interprofessional teams or not, and in teams involved in health, social care, and other areas. The Individual Behavior Analysis scale measures efficacious behavior in work teams. It is one of the few instruments proposed in the literature to measure personal skills necessary for teamwork. Only a previous exploratory analysis of the scale was informed in another study. This article analyzes its internal structure using (...) different confirmatory factor analyses and its internal consistency, with a sample of 815 employees working for Spanish social organizations in the geriatric field, both private and public. The results of the definitive version adapted to Spanish, referred to as Individual Behavior Analysis −25, indicate a good fit of the model to the data and good reliability. Factor analysis confirmed the existence of two factors: Communication skills and Acceptance, with good internal consistency coefficients. This scale is a useful instrument for assessing, based on the reviewed literature, two of the most important individual skills an efficacious team should have. (shrink)

In addition to the team’s shared goals, team members also often hold goals unrelated to the team. Research about such goals, which we call “extra-team goals”, has been limited. In the current research, we examine how awareness of a team member’s ETGs affects team outcomes. A laboratory experiment examines the effects of disclosure of different types of ETGs by one team member on team performance, team viability, and team satisfaction while (...) engaging in a brainstorming task. Our findings suggest that there are significant positive effects of ETG disclosure on team performance, team viability, and team satisfaction, and that these effects are mediated by perceptions of the target’s commitment to the team’s goal. (shrink)

Background: Small-sided games are an adjusted form of official games that are often used in training scenarios to introduce a specific tactical issue to team sports players. Besides the acute effects of SSGs on players' performance, it is expectable that the consistent use of these drill-based games induces adaptations in the technical execution and tactical behaviors of youth team sports players.Objective: This systematic review with meta-analysis was conducted to assess the effects of SSG programs on the technical execution (...) and tactical behaviors of young and youth team sports players.Data Sources: The data sources utilized were PubMed, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science.Study Eligibility Criteria: Young and youth team sports players (i.e., 17 and <17 SSG training sessions, respectively.Conclusions: This systematic review and meta-analysis revealed a significant beneficial effect of using SSG training programs for enhancing technical execution in young and youth players. The benefits were similar despite the various numbers of training sessions applied. Further studies should add tactical behaviors as one of the outcomes for controlling the effects of SSG training programs. (shrink)

BackgroundThe use of dedicated training programs for improving decision-making (DM) in team sports players has grown in the last several years. Approaches such as imagery training, video-based training, or game-based drills are some of the interventions used in youth players in order to improve DM. However, no systematic reviews or meta-analyses have been conducted to summarize the main evidence regarding the effects of these programs on the players and identify the magnitude of the effects compared to control groups.ObjectiveThis systematic (...) review (with meta-analysis) was conducted to assess the effects of training programs on the DM of youth team sports players.Data SourcesThe data sources utilized were PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science.Study eligibility criteriaThe criteria included the following: (i) youth (≤ 18 years old) team sports players with no restriction on sex or competitive level; (ii) players subjected to training programs to develop DM; (iii) control groups; (iv) pre–post outcomes related to tactical behavior, technical execution, reaction, and decision time; and (v) controlled trials.ResultsThe database search initially identified 2497 titles. From these, six articles were eligible for the systematic review and meta-analysis. The results showed a significant beneficial effect of DM interventions on tactical behavior (ES = 1.12;p= 0.035;I2= 80.0%; Egger’s testp= 0.066), whereas no significant effect of DM interventions on technical execution was found (ES = 0.74;p= 0.180;I2= 69.1%; Egger’s testp= 0.873).ConclusionThe DM interventions were significantly effective in improving tactical behavior in youth team sports players independently from the number of sessions to which players were exposed. In addition, DM interventions were significantly effective in improving technical execution. However, the results should be carefully interpreted due to the heterogeneity of the articles’ overall methodological quality. Future DM interventions should consider using combined approaches that allow players to develop both tactical behavior and technical execution. (shrink)

Based on the social interdependence theory, we proposed that the distributive justice climate affects virtual team performance via high-quality relationships, and then we investigated the boundary effect of team proactive personality. The data used in this study were collected in China, including 327 virtual team members that belonged to 75 teams. The following results are obtained: Distributive justice climate and high-quality relationships have significant positive effects on virtual team performance. High-quality relationships mediate the relationship between the (...) distributive justice climate and virtual team performance. Team proactive personality strengthens the direct effect of the distributive justice climate on high-quality relationships. Team proactive personality strengthens the indirect effect of the distributive justice climate on virtual team performance through high-quality relationships. These empirical results have important theoretical significance for team climate construction, personnel selection, and team performance promotion. (shrink)

The aim of this study was to examine the interactive effects of situational variables on teams’ technical performance in the UEFA Champion League. Match data of 19 technical actions and events were collected and classified into three groups during eight seasons. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to identify the differences in the technical performances among teams. Results showed that the significant differences in the technical performance between the group stage and the knockout stage were only found in dribble and (...) yellow card. However, differences in the variables related to goal scoring and offense were more significant than in the variables related to defense under the comparisons across competition situations, and the differences in the variables related to defense were mainly detected in the yellow card. The number of variables that showed significant differences among match location and match outcome in the group stage were less than in the knockout stage. Therefore, the identified key performance indicators by considering the interactive effects of situational variables may provide detailed and practical insights for coaches to develop useful training interventions and match strategies for upcoming match playing in specific competition situations. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of ethical climate on the relationship between the paternalistic leadership and team identification at the team level. In contrast to the prior studies which tended to focus on ethical climate as a whole dimension, this paper further classified the domain of construct into the categories of egoism, benevolence, and principle using a sample from 143 teams in Mainland China and Taiwan. Hierarchical regression results showed that the average paternalistic (...) leadership had a significant impact on the team identification at the team level. Moreover, the results indicated that the ethical climate of benevolence fully mediated while the ethical climate of egoism partially mediated the relationship between authoritarian leadership and team identification. Also, the ethical climates of benevolence and principle had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between benevolent leadership and team identification as well as moral leadership and team identification, respectively, but the ethical climate of egoism did not play a significant role. The major findings, theoretical contributions, practical implications, and the limitations were discussed. (shrink)

Although the world of sports has witnessed numerous corruption scandals, the effects of perceived corruption in sports have not been sufficiently investigated in the literature. The aim of this paper is to examine how sports team identification weakens people’s perceptions of corruption in sports, and how it dampens corruption’s negative effects on spectator behavior. The study also examines how prevalent social norms regarding corruption in a country strengthen or weaken these effects. A survey of 1,005 sports spectators from four (...) Sub-Saharan African countries reveals how the interplay between team identification and perceived corruption can encourage or discourage sports attendance under different conditions. Corruption is investigated through the theoretical lenses of the pluralistic nature of morality. Findings indicate that particularistic values linked to moral obligations toward the team collide with the universalistic values that demand fairness in sports. In addition, social norms of corruption moderate the clash between universalistic and particularistic values. (shrink)

This paper examined the persistence of individuals’ power in teams and the individual- and team-level factors influencing power maintenance and loss in the long-term. Specifically, and in line with the functional theory of power, we showed that individuals’ state of power in the past exerted a significant behavioral impact on their later state of power, hence, confirming the “power persistence” hypothesis. Furthermore, and in accordance with the conflict theory of power, we found that individuals’ competence positively influenced power above (...) and beyond its persistence. We also showed that individuals’ uncooperative behavior and team performance had a negative and significant effect on individuals’ power above and beyond its persistence. Finally, we discussed the importance of individuals’ power dynamics for effectively managing power struggles in teams. (shrink)

Using matched four-stage data from 477 team members and their 132 team leaders in Chinese companies, we examined a cross-level model in which group- and individual-focused transformational leadership and their influence on team and member performance from the perspective of multilevel model of motivation in teams. The results indicated that group-focused TFL exerts positive effects through sequential mediation of team efficacy and team process whereas individual-focused TFL has a positive effect on team members' performance (...) through sequential mediation of followers' self-efficacy and individual regulation process. In addition, we also find significant cross-level mediation effects demonstrating that group-focused TFL was positively related to self-efficacy through the mediator of team efficacy, team efficacy was positively related to the individual regulation process through the mediator of the team process, team process was positively related to individual performance through the mediator of the individual regulation process. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed. (shrink)

Cognition in work teams has been predominantly understood and explained in terms of shared cognition with a focus on the similarity of static knowledge structures across individual team members. Inspired by the current zeitgeist in cognitive science, as well as by empirical data and pragmatic concerns, we offer an alternative theory of team cognition. Interactive Team Cognition (ITC) theory posits that (1) team cognition is an activity, not a property or a product; (2) team cognition (...) should be measured and studied at the team level; and (3) team cognition is inextricably tied to context. There are implications of ITC for theory building, modeling, measurement, and applications that make teams more effective performers. (shrink)

Building from an interactionist view of ethics, this study sought to integrate individual and contextual factors for understanding ethical perceptions in teams. Given the proximal nature of team members, this study specifically explored how individuals comparatively evaluate their own ethical behaviors and team members’ ethical behaviors to arrive at a perception of ethical person–group fit within a team. Grounding our theoretical arguments in relational schemas theory, we demonstrate that interpersonal ethical perceptions can have distal impacts on perceptions (...) of team functioning. The results support the hypotheses that a perceived ethical incongruence between the self and other team members negatively influenced perceptions of relationship conflict and ultimately information sharing. By exploring individual and team level aspects of ethics concurrently, we contribute to a deeper understanding of contextual forces in ethics through an interactionist approach. (shrink)

Teams have been a ubiquitous structure for conducting work and business for most of human history. However, today’s organizations are markedly different than those of previous generations. The explosion of innovative ideas and novel technologies mandate changes in job descriptions, roles, responsibilities, and how employees interact and collaborate. These advances have heralded a new era for teams and teamwork in which previous teams research and practice may not be fully appropriate for meeting current requirements and demands. In this article, we (...) describe how teams have been historically defined, unpacking five important characteristics of teams, including membership, interdependence, shared goals, dynamics, and an organizationally bounded context, and relating how these characteristics have been addressed in the past and how they are changing in the present. We then articulate the implications these changes have on how we study teams moving forward by offering specific research questions. (shrink)

Recently, scholars have argued that disclosure of personal information is an effective mechanism for building high-quality relationships. However, personal information can focus attention on differences in demographically diverse teams. In an experiment using 37 undergraduate teams, we examine how sharing personal information by ethnically similar and ethnically distinct newcomers to a team affects team perceptions, performance, and behavior. Our findings indicate that the disclosure of personal information by ethnically distinct newcomers improves team performance. However, the positive impact (...) on team performance comes at a cost to the newcomers, who are perceived as less competent by others and experience heightened social discomfort in team interactions. Ironically, what benefits the ethnically diverse team may undermine its ethnically distinct members. This study highlights how the management of diversity may sometimes require making trade-offs between individual interests and those of the team. (shrink)

This paper attempts to draw on management theory and practice and, more specifically, on know-how from the study of teamwork, to seek insights into enhancing the effectiveness of hospital ethics committees and clinical ethics committees (CECs), with the aim of contributing to heath-care organizations’ effective and efficient decision-making and operation. Based on an analysis of the obstacles that stand in the way of ethics committees’ (ECs’) efficient functioning, five specific conditions for EC success are brought forth. A couple of (...) practical tools for their attainment are proposed. The article suggests that the construction of those committees, as well as the working procedures that may render them effective, should be flexible and made adaptable to the specific assignment or case, which is dealt with by that committee, at the time; and that the optimal set of procedures to adopt, throughout the working sessions of ECs, are those which will gear the committee with the means to contribute to the eventual materializing and finalization of a quality and practical set of decisions; for the benefit of patients, their families, health-care organizations and the community, alike. (shrink)

Ethical debate exists on the effect of gender diversity of the top management teams on organizations. This study aims to contribute to this debate by analyzing the effects of gender diversity of TMTs on the relationship between knowledge combination capability and organizations’ innovative performance. We use a sample of 205 small- and medium-sized enterprises belonging to the sector of Spanish technology-based firms. Our results indicate that gender diversity positively moderates the relationship between knowledge combination capability and innovation performance. Implications for (...) theory and practice are discussed—among them, ways to contribute to more equal gender distribution and to the benefits of gender diversity in top management positions. (shrink)