What makes a good team player? Personality and team effectiveness

PERSONALITY AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS259Team ManagementTeam management behaviors include directingand coordinating the task activities of otherteam members, assigning tasks, and motivatingother team members. These are primarily taskbehaviors oriented toward instrumental goals.One critical management task, planning, is oftenoverlooked in teams (Hackman & Morris,1978), although research has clearly demonstratedthe value of planning (Janicik & Bartel,2003; Weingart, 1992) and pretask briefings(Marks et al., 2000) to team performance.Interpersonal RelationsTeam members optimize interpersonal relationsby resolving conflicts, encouraging cooperativebehavior, and building team morale.These are primarily socioemotional behaviorsoriented toward smooth interpersonal relations.McIntyre and Salas (1995) noted that positive orsupporting team behaviors are not always apparentin team interactions—tasks demandsmay require terse, formal communications attimes—but that a positive team environmentsupports these task activities. Moreover, researchhas shown that cohesive groups tend toagree more readily (Lott & Lott, 1961), reportgreater satisfaction with the group (Curtis &Miller, 1986), and in general outperform lesscohesive groups (Mullen & Copper, 1994).CoordinationIn one of the earliest studies of group performance,Shaw (1932) attributed the effectivenessof groups to the capability of group members toexchange and coordinate information. Janicikand Bartel (2003) noted that effective coordination,knowing who is going to do what, when,and with whom, is critical to team performance.Behaviors that support effective coordinationinclude matching team member resources totask requirements, regulating the pace of teamactivities, and coordinating the response andsequencing of team member activities (Fleishman& Zaccaro, 1992).CommunicationCommunication is the primary vehiclethrough which task groups accomplish theirgoals (Marks et al., 2000). Team members mustexchange ideas and information in a clear andtimely manner. Research suggests that effectiveteam performance is related to the quantity andquality of communications—effective teamscommunicate more and better than less effectiveteams (Foushee, 1982; Kanki, Lozito, &Foushee, 1989; Marks et al., 2000). Effectivecommunication behaviors include exchanginginformation in a timely manner, acknowledgmentof information, double-checking that theintent of messages was received (closed-loopcommunication), clarifying ambiguity, and theappropriate use of verbal and nonverbal cues(Kanki & Smith, 2001; Stout, Salas, & Fowlkes,1997).Decision MakingTeam decision making involves problemidentification and assessment, information exchange,generation and evaluation of solutions,implementation, and evaluation of consequences(Forsyth, 1990; Hirokawa, 1980). Barriersto effective team decision making mayinclude failure to adequately assess problems(Moreland & Levine, 1992), failure to considerothers’ input (Driskell & Salas, 1992), failure todisclose uniquely held information (Stasser &Titus, 1995), and undue influence from a singleteam member (Foushee & Helmreich, 1988).PredictionsThe preceding classification of core teamworkdimensions allows us to take the next stepin linking team member personality and teamrequirements. In the following, we predict theeffects of the specific personality facets definedin Figure 1 on specific core teamwork dimensions.These predictions are summarized in Table2. Note that when we are able to make astrong positive or negative prediction based oneither existing research or on a logical extensionof existing research, these predictions aremarked as “” or “–” respectively. In othercases, we feel that the relationship between aparticular team member facet and a specificteamwork dimension is weaker or unsupported,and thus we note these predictions as intermediateand indicated as “”.