Definitions of Team Constructs

Click on the constructs listed below to be directed to its individual page.

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Emergent States

Affective Emergent States:

Emergent states focusing on member's feelings, attitudes, and emotions (Rapp et.al, 2021, p. 71).

• Psychological Safety: "A shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking." (Edmondson, 1999, p. 354)
• Team Efficacy: "Individual team member's belief and confidence that the team can mobilize its resources for successful task performance." (Chan, 1998, p. 238)
• Team Identification: “The emotional significance that members of a given group attach to their membership in that group." (Van Der Vegt & Bunderson, 2005, p. 533)
• Team Cohesion: “The bonding together of members of a unit in such a way as to sustain their will and commitment to each other, their unit, and the mission.” (Johns, Bickel, Blades, Creel, Gatling, Hinkle, Kindrad, & Stocks, 1984, p. 4)
  • Social Cohesion: “Nature and quality of the emotional bonds of friendship, liking, caring, and closeness among group members, which reflects a general preference for spending time with those with whom one shares an emotional bond.” (MacCoun, 1993, p. 157)
  • Task Cohesion: "an individual's attraction to the group because of shared commitment to the group task" (van Vianen & De Dreu, 2001, p. 100)
• Trust: “The willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other party will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control the other party.” (Meyer et al., 1995, p. 712)

Cognitive Emergent States: 

• Situational Awareness: "The perception of the elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning and a projection of their status in the near future." (Endsley, 1988) AND “Knowing what is going on around you’ or ‘having the big pictures." (Jones 2015, p. 98)
• Shared Mental Models: “Mental representations that team members hold about themselves and the task, and how the team works toward the task in their environment.” (Cannon-Bowers et al.,1993; Klimoski & Mohammed, 1994, p. 508)
  • Typically broken down into task mental models and team mental models
• Transactive Memory System (TMS): “The shared division of cognitive labor with respect to the encoding, storage, retrieval, and communication of information from different domains that often develops in close relationships.” (Hollingshead 2001, p. 1080)
• Team Climate: "The shared meaning members attach to the events, policies, practices, and procedures they experience and the behaviors they see being rewarded, supported, and expected [within the team]” (Ehrhart et al., 2014, p. 69)
• Team Empowerment: “Shared perceptions among team members with respect to their team’s collective level of empowerment” (Chen et al., 2007, p. 332)

Team Processes

Transition Phase Processes: 

"Periods of time when teams focus primarily on evaluation and/or planning activities to guide their accomplishment of a team goal or objective." (Marks et al., 2001, p. 364)

• Mission Analysis: "Interpretation and evolution of the team’s mission, including identification of its main task as well as the operative environmental conditions and team resources viable for mission execution.” (Marks et al., 2001, p. 363)
• Goal Specification: "Identification and prioritization of goals and subgoals for mission accomplishment.” (Marks et al., 2001, p. 364)

Action Phase Processes:

• Goal Progress Monitoring: "Tracking task and progress toward mission accomplishment, interpreting system information in terms of what needs to be accomplished for goal attainment, and transmitting progress to team members.” (Marks et al., 2001, p. 363)
• Systems Monitoring: "Tracking team resources and environmental conditions as they relate to mission accomplishment which involves (1) Internal systems monitoring (tracking team resources such as personnel, equipment, and other information that is generated or contained within the team), and (2) Environmental monitoring (tracking the environmental conditions relevant to the team).” (Marks et al., 2001, p. 363)

• Team Monitoring/Backup Behavior: "Assisting team members to perform their tasks. Assistance may occur by (1) Providing a teammate verbal feedback or coaching, (2) Helping a teammate behaviorally in carrying out action, or (3) Assuming and completing a task for a teammate.” (Marks et al., 2001, p. 363)
• Coordination: "Orchestrating the sequence and timing of interdependent actions.” (Marks et al., 2001, p. 363)

Interpersonal Phases Processes:

"Processes that govern interpersonal activities, rather than the emergent states that often emanate from such experiences" (*occur throughout both transition and action phases). (Marks et al., 2001, p. 368)

• Conflict Management: "Preemptive conflict management involves establishing conditions to prevent, control, or guide team conflict before it occurs. Reactive conflict management involves working through task and interpersonal disagreements among team members.” (Marks et al., 2001, p. 363)
• Motivation & Confidence Building: "Generating & preserving a sense of collective confidence, motivation and task-based cohesion with regard to mission accomplishment.” (Marks et al., 2001, p. 363)
• Affect Management: "Regulating member emotions during mission accomplishment, including (but not limited to) social cohesion, frustration, and excitement.” (Marks et al., 2001, p. 363)
• Team Conflict: "A process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party." (Wall & Callister, 1995, p. 517)
  • Process Conflict: "Disagreements among group members about the logistics of task accomplishment, such as the delegation of tasks and responsibilities." (de Wit et al., 2012, p. 360)
  • Relationship Conflict: "Conflict related to interpersonal issues, political norms and values, and personal taste." (De Dreu & Van Vianen, 2001, p. 309)
  • Task Conflict: “Disagreements among group members about the content and outcomes of the task being performed” (de Whit et al., 2012, p. 360)