Team Cognition Conflict

I will be attending the 2014 AHRD International Conference in the Americas. This AHRD conference will take place in Houston, TX, from 2/19/2014 to 2/22/2014. 

I will be introducing a new construct to the literature on team conflict. The current literature identifies team conflict as being multidimensional, consisting of task, relationship, and process conflict (Behfar, Mannix, Peterson, & Trochim, 2011; Greer, Jehn, & Mannix, 2008; Jehn & Chatman, 2000; & Song, Dyer, & Thieme, 2006). Task conflict looks primarily at work related issues, relationship conflict looks at personal or social issues not relating to work, and process conflict relates to procedural issues.  

In one of my areas of interest/study, team cognition, there have been many advances in the literature identifying the different cognitive processes that take place in teams and small groups. From these advances I fell that the addition of a new construct, team cognition conflict, should be incorporated into the team conflict literature. The cognition conflict construct is a separate construct from those that have been previously identified in the literature, placing the team conflict constructs as having four main sub-dimensions: task, relationship, process, and cognition conflict. By further differentiating team conflict into better defined dimensions researchers will be able to clearly identify team conflict, providing better predictive measures for team performance and decision making abilities. This addition to the team conflict literature also responds to Song, Dyer, and Thieme's (2006) call for further research identifying different types of team conflict. 

The model presented below introduces the outline of the team conflict theoretical framework that will be presented in the AHRD conference in a roundtable format. 

(Turner, J. R., 2013, Figure 1)

References:

Behfar, K. J., Mannix, E. A., Peterson, R. S., & Trochim, W. M. (2011). Conflict in small groups: The meaning and consequences of process conflict. Small Group Research, 42, 127-176. doi:10.1177/1046496410389194

Greer, L. L., Jehn, K. A., & Mannix, E. A. (2008). Conflict transformation: A longitudinal investigation of the relationships between different types of intragroup conflict and the moderating role of conflict resolution. Small Group Research, 39, 278-302. doi:10.1177/1046496408317793

Jehn, K. A., & Chatman, J. A. (2000). The influence of proportional and perceptual conflict composition on team performance. The International Journal of Conflict Management, 11, 56-73. doi:10.1108/eb022835

Song, M., Dyer, B, & Thieme, J. R. (2006). Conflict management and innovation performance: an integrative contingency perspective. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 34, 341-356. doi:10.1177/00092070306286705

Turner, J. R. (2014). Team cognition conflict: A conceptual review identifying cognition conflict as a new team conflict construct. Paper to be presented at the 2014 AHRD International Conference in the Americas, April 2014. [forthcoming presentation]

Team Shared Cognition Constructs - New Publication

Final approval for publishing my recent article, titled: "Team Shared Cognitive Constructs: A Meta-Analysis Exploring the Effects of Shared Cognitive Constructs on Team Performance" has just been received.

This has been a long process, from conference proceedings introducing meta-analysis techniques, to enduring the peer review process for, ultimately, final approval to publish. 

This article will be published by the flagship publication of the International Society of Performance Improvement (ISPI),  Performance Improvement Quarterly (PIQ). The reference/bibliographical information is provided below (no volume, issue, or page numbers provided at this time):

Turner, J. R., Chen, Q., & Danks, S. (2014). Team shared cognitive constructs: A meta-analysis exploring the effects of shared cognitive constructs on team performance. Performance Improvement Quarterly. Manuscript submitted for publication.

These new emerging shared cognition constructs are beginning to be identified as being critical to the success of team and small group performance and problem solving efforts. More study is needed in these areas which was identified in the article.

In a previous post I presented the conference proceedings introducing the meta-analysis techniques used.

Information Sharing Cognition Constructs - Meta-Analysis

This post also introduced the presentation slides that were used during the conference:

Team Shared Cognitive Constructs

The original presentation was designed for two purposes: 1) to introduce the emerging constructs of team shared cognition, and 2) to present the steps required to conduct a comparative meta-analysis study. In summary, the team shared cognition constructs that were prepared are provided in the table below, titled 'Shared Cognitive Constructs'.

In conclusion, the results from the meta-analysis are provided in the slide below, titled 'Conclusion'.

Limitations: 

As identified in the manuscript the sample size for this meta-analysis was small.  Having a small sample size prevented the possibility of making any type of inference(s) from the results. However, the main purpose of this study was to 1) identify the different constructs that were currently being studied in various disciplines, and 2) to run a comparison of these constructs to shed some light on which constructs resulted in better performance outcomes. With these shared cognition constructs being emerging constructs, meaning that they are new developing constructs, there is not a lot of research available to begin with. Thus, a secondary purpose of this research study was to call to researchers to contribute further to the research of these emerging constructs - beginning with those that were identified in this meta-analysis as being potentially better predictors of performance: information sharing, cognitive consensus, and shared metal memory.