Team Skill Acquisition: Team and Individual Performance Effects of Feedback

Abstract

Although team development research has, to some extent, addressed the various components of team functioning, later studies have failed to sufficiently clarify what influences teams as they acquire the various skills that constitute complex team performance. Similarly, research regarding team structure, as of yet, has failed to fully determine how teams under various structures should be trained in order to optimize their ability to perform complex (i.e., both team and individual) tasks. Thus, there is a need to investigate differential developmental trends in teams of varying structure. Additionally, research is required to identify interventions which might optimize the developmental process. Although the effects of feedback are becoming increasingly well investigated, there has been relatively little investigation regarding the impact of feedback given on multiple task performance. The current study investigates the impact of feedback given, over time, regarding team vs. individual tasks in teams of two structures: non-hierarchical vs. product. Results supported the hypothesized differential effects of feedback type during skill acquisition under varying levels of structure.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alluisi

E.A.

(1967). Methodology in the use of synthetic tasks to assess complex performance. Human Factors, 9, 375–384.

Alluisi

E.A.

(1969). Sustained performance. In Bilodeau

E.A.

Bilodeau

I.M.

(Eds.), Principles of skill acquisition. New York: Academic Press.

Bowers

C.A.

Morgan

B.B.

Jr. Salas

(1989). A networked performance assessment battery for submarine team training research. (Unpublished Technical Report). Orlando, FL: Naval Training Systems Center.

Bowers

C.A.

Urban

J.M.

Morgan

B.B.

Jr. (1992). The study of crew coordination and performance in hierarchical team decision making. (Report No. TR-92-01). Orlando, FL: University of Central Florida, Team Performance Laboratory.

Kleinman

D.L.

Serfaty

(1989). Team performance assessment in distributed decision making. Paper presented at the Simulation and Training Research Symposium on Interactive Networked Simulation for Training, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL.

Kohn

Kleinman

D.L.

Serfaty

(1987). Distributed resource allocation in a team. Proceedings of the JDL Symposium on Command and Control Research. Washington, DC.

Morgan

B.B.

Alluisi

E.A.

(1972). Synthetic work: Methodology for the assessment of human performance. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 35, 835–845.

Morgan

B.B.

Jr. Glickman

A.S.

Woodard

E.A.

Blaiwes

A.S.

Salas

(1986). Measurement of team behaviors in a Navy environment, (NTSC Tech. Rep. No. TR-86-014). Orlando, FL: Naval Training Systems Center.

Nadler

D. A.

(1979). The effects of feedback on task group behavior: A review of the experimental research. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 23, 309–338.

10.

Salas

Dickinson

T.L.

Converse

S.A.

Tannenbaum

S.I.

(1992). Toward an understanding of team performance and training. In Swezey

R.W.

Salas

(Eds.) Teams: Their training and performance. (pp. 329). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

11.

Tosi

H.L.

Rizzo

J.R.

Carroll

S.J.

(1990). Managing organizational behavior. 2nd ed. New York: Harper Collins.

12.

Tuckman

B.W.

(1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63, 384–399.

13.

Urban

J.M.

Bowers

C.A.

Monday

S.D.

Morgan

B.B.

Jr. (1993). Effects of workload on communication processes in decision making teams: An empirical study with implications for training. In Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Seattle, Washington.