Team learning
Lecture 1
Team learning definition
- Lot different definitions: a babel-like confusion.
- Some see team learning as a process, others as an outcome.
- Adopting new technology, responds to changing situations, work together to achieve goals.
- Definition from Edmonson, 1999; Team learning from a process perspective
o Apply, acquire and combine knowledge.
o Change in knowledge, routines, and interaction.
o Ongoing process of action and reflection.
Team learning behaviors (Van den Bossche, Gijselaers, Segers, Woltjes & Kirschner, 2011).
a) Asking questions
b) Challenging assumptions
c) Evaluating alternatives
d) Seeking feedback
e) Experimenting
f) Reflecting on goals
g) Detecting, discussing and correcting errors
h) Reflective communication
Theoretical integration of team learning (Kozlowski & Bell, 2008;2012).
- Team learning processes
- Team emergent states
- Team knowledge outcomes
- Foundation theoretical foci
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,Team learning is multilevel - different levels of analysis
Individual level; individuals can also participate in learning.
Team level à team learning process à team learning outcomes; learning as a collective, people can
also learn.
Organizational level (holistically/system); learning at organizational level
- All have influence on each other.
- Team level is important, because team is the link between individual and organization
Team learning is dynamic
Iterative and progressive, learning is a process not an outcome.
It’s not a static construct
It’s a process, involves over time.
Team learning is emergent
Knowledge in teams develops, evolves, changes over time.
Over time, through individual interactions, we can also make one construct.
- Individuals à interactions à constructs that we can measure.
- Team mental models (composition: identical knowledge)
o If team members exchange content, we might end up with shared knowledge.
o Knowledge becomes more homogeneous over time
o Shared idea of the task
o Through interactions, your ideas become the same.
- Transactive memory (compilation: different knowledge)
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, o Through interactions, individuals receive specialized skills set
§ Surgeons in health care.
o Functional
o Distinctive/divergent
o One person is better in one part, so specializes in that field.
Mental model: shared organized understanding and mental representation of knowledge about key
elements of the team task and environment
- Shared
- Compositional
- Emergent (from individual to collective).
Appearance of compositional knowledge à team mental model
- When individuals interact they exchange content and become more homogenous on the
knowledge over time (e.g., they get same knowledge representation of task domain
Domains of knowledge (different team mental models) (Cannon-Bowers et al., 1993):
- Equipment model: knowledge of equipment or tools)
- Task model (Understanding of team tasks, goals and performance requirements: including
shared ideas about work goals and performance requirements).
- Member model (Awareness and common understanding of team member skills and
characteristic)
- Interaction model (Shared knowledge/beliefs about effective team processes)
Transitive memory system: shared system for encoding, storing and retrieving information that is
distributed across groups
- Divergent
- Compilation
- Emergent
Emergence of compilational knowledge à TMS
- Team member interactions yield heterogeneity over time (i.e., emergence of specialized
knowledge and expertise of members)
Domains of knowledge (Cannon-Bowers et al., 1993):
- Stock of knowledge possessed by team members = Internal knowledge (within team)
- Awareness of how knows what = external knowledge (within organization)
Team learning: a scattered view
- Different disciplines: educational science, social psychology etc.
- Different approaches: outcome, dynamic, process, linear model etc.
- Different methods: multilevel, networks, observation etc.
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, Importance of team learning & understanding team performance
Meachanism through which teams (Bell et al., 2012):
- Develop their performance capabilities
- Adapt to changes in their environment
- Renew and sustain their performance of time.
Team & types of teams in organizations
à Team = two or more individuals who (a) exist to perform organizationally relevant tasks, (b)
share one more common goals, (c) interact socially, (d) exhibit task interdependencies (i.e., workflow,
goals, outcomes), (e) maintain and manage boundaries, and (f) are embedded in an organizational
context that sets boundaries, constrains the team, and influences exchanges with other units in the
broader entity (Kozlowski & Bell, 2003, p. 334).
à 3 underlying constructs important in classifying team types:
1. Skill differentiation: specialized knowledge of team members
2. Authority differentiation: (de)centrality decision making
3. Temporal stability: team tenure (temporal or long-term).
Many team taxonomies
• Sundstrom, De Meuse, and Futrell (1990): advice involvement groups, production/service
teams, action/negotiation teams, and project/development teams
• Cohen and Bailey (1997): project teams, traditional work teams, parallel teams, and
management teams
• De Dreu and Weingart’s (2003): project, production, decision-making, and mixed teams
• Devine, Clayton, Philips, Dunford, and Melner’s (1999): ad hoc project, ongoing project, ad
hoc production, and ongoing production teams
• But also… Cross-functional teams, X-Teams, extreme action teams, crews, multiteam
systems, self-managing team, TMT
Edmonson, Dillion, & Roloff (2007): three perspectives on team learning.
- Outcome improvement: focuses on costs and efficiency.
o Process leading to higher efficiency: cost goes done à efficiency goes up.
o Assumption: more experience à performance/improvement à practice makes
perfect.
o It’s easier to study productivity in operations management.
o Several factors that influence the learning curve:
§ Communication
§ Knowledge sharing/type of knowledge being shared
• Codified knowledge: knowledge that can be put into document à
more homogenous learning curves.
• Tacit knowledge: knowledge/behavior based on experiences
§ Turnover/team composition stability (how long people work together)
• Better to work together for a longer time.
§ Management
• Open environment is beneficial for learning curve
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