Week 2: Burke/Wiese; understanding team learning dynamics

Question 1

What is a team?

Answer 1

eTeam = collection of individuals who are independently working to achieve a shard goal

Question 2

How are teams different from groups?

Answer 2

1. Task orientation (high vs low coordination)
   (2) Purpose (formed for a reason vs can exist randomly)
   (3) Interdependence (high vs low)
   (4) Formal structure (high vs low)
   (5) Familiarity (high or low)

Question 3

What are the 5 team design components?

Answer 3

1. Goal clarity
2. Task structure
3. Diversity / composition
4. Functioning (task vs relation orientation)
5. Performance norms

Question 4

What are the 2 categories of team learning?

Answer 4

1. Team learning = shift in team’s collective knowledge state
2. Team learning curves = changes in performance due to team learning over time

Question 5

How can team learning be inferred from team mental models (2)?

Answer 5

1. similarity at a single point in time
2. Mental model convergence tracking over time

Question 6

What is team learning as an outcome?

Answer 6

reflect a change in collective knowledge over time via team learning and learning curves

Question 7

What are intrateam learning behaviors?

Answer 7

internal processes teams engage in that build shared meaning from existing information. It is about obtaining new information from their fellow team members (questions, experimenting, errors and outcomes and so forth)

Question 8

What are interteam learning behaviors?

Answer 8

When teams seek and integrate information from individuals outside the immediate teams.
Helpful –> fresh eyes promote innovation
It is about retrieval and not sharing

Question 9

What are fundamental learning behaviors?

Answer 9

basic learning processes that promote learning in teams. They exclusively represent how knowledge is transported over time (storage and retrieval)

Question 10

What are the 4 stages of Tuckman’s model of team forming?

Answer 10

1. Forming (know each other)
2. Storming (common understanding of task)
3. Norming = norms for task accomplishment
4. Performing

Question 11

What are the 5 stages of Susan Wheelan’s integrative model of group development and along which 2 axes is this displayed?

Answer 11

1. Dependency & inclusion
2. Counterdependency/fight
3. Trust & Structure
4. Work & Productivity
5. Adjourning

Axis 1: (y) –> low/high productivity
Axis 2: (x) –> focus on leader/relations vs focus on results

Question 12

What are the 4 benefits of moving towards later stages according to Wheelan’s integrative model of group development?

Answer 12

1. More satisfied customers in service industries
2. More surviving patients in intensive care
3. less exhaustion and more satisfaction in manufacturing
4. students perform better in tests in schools

Question 13

What do teams learn in which phase? (4)

Answer 13

1. Dependency/inclusion (formation) –> communications, socialization and sharing/listening
2. Counter dependency & fight (task compilation) –> negotiating tasks goals needs performance and dynamics; co-construction and constructive conflict
3. Trust/structure (role compilation) –> creation of routine and structure of work process
4. Work/Productivity (team compilation) –> development of role network, regulation of adaptation to change, error, feedback and reflection

Question 14

What is a team’s shared mental model

Answer 14

What does the team know: organized understanding and mental representation of knowledge about key elements of the team’s task

Question 15

What is a teams transactive memory system?

Answer 15

A team level shared system for storing and retrieving information that is distributed across group members (who in the team knows what)

Question 16

What are the steps and phases in which a team learns? (4)

Answer 16

1. learning trigger
2. Transition phase (retrieval, sharing/receiving, interteam intra team)
3. Action phase (constructive conflict)
4. Concluding (storage behaviors)

Question 17

The lengt of a learning episodes depends on which factors? (4)

Answer 17

(1) longer episode when info is complex
(2) conflicting information or starkly divergent
3. external factors
4. change in membership

Question 18

What can be said about complexity of information and patterns of learning over time? (2)

Answer 18

1. complex info takes longer to integrate
2. complex info may cause more disagreements along the way

Question 19

What causes disruption in team learning? (6)

Answer 19

1. Complex info
2. Conflicting info
3. Content susceptible to change
4. Time pressures
5. External factors
6. Change in membership

Question 20

Wheelan stages model, task-focus and leader (picture)

Answer 20