What makes a good team player? Personality and team effectiveness

PERSONALITY AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS261AdjustmentWe predict that adjustment will have a positiveeffect on all behaviors that are performed ina team environment. Although team tasks maydiffer in the degree of cooperation required (seeShaw, 1981), an essential feature that defines ateam is interdependent behavior (Salas, Dickinson,Converse, & Tannenbaum, 1992). Teammembers who are ill-tempered, distressed, andemotionally unstable are disruptive of any typeof coordinated or interdependent behavior (cf.Barrick et al., 1998; Barrick & Mount, 2001).Moreover, George (1990) found that the positive/negativeaffectivity of team members wasrelated to the extent to which teams engaged inprosocial behaviors, and Barsade (2002) foundthat team members’ positive affect led to greatercooperation, conflict management, and team performance.Therefore, in Table 2, we follow thelead of Barrick et al. (1998) and others, andpredict that adjustment is critical to any task orteamwork activity that requires coordinated activity.Self-EsteemOne factor that distinguishes self-esteemfrom adjustment is that adjustment reflects generalemotional instability or negative affect, andself-esteem involves the self as a reference point(Brown & Marshall, 2001). Thus, those high onself-esteem are confident and self-assured,whereas those low on self-esteem appear hopelessand critical. Research indicates that selfesteemaffects interpersonal relationships (Murrayet al., 1998) and is generally related to jobsatisfaction (Judge et al., 1998), and thus wepredict that self-esteem will be positively relatedto interpersonal relations. Further, Erezand Judge (2001) found that self-esteem wasrelated to goal setting and motivation, andthus we predict that self-esteem will be positivelyrelated to team management activities.Given that those high in self-esteem tend tomaintain effort in the face of failure (Dodgson& Wood, 1998), we predict that self-esteemwill be positively related to adaptability. Webelieve that self-esteem will have less director more intermediate effects on shared situationalawareness, performance monitoring andfeedback, coordination, communication, anddecision making.DominanceWe predict that high dominance will have anegative effect on shared situational awareness,interpersonal relations, communication, and decisionmaking. Dominant team members, whoview interaction along a superior/inferior dimension,are likely to have a different perspectiveon team tasks and relationships than otherteam members (shared situational awareness).Dominant team members also tend to engenderless positive interpersonal relations (Driskell,Olmstead, & Salas, 1993), exhibit more ineffectivecommunication behaviors (Yukl & Falbe,1990), and are less likely to attend to the taskinputs of other team members in decision making(Driskell & Salas, 1992). We predict thathigh dominance will have intermediate effectson adaptability, performance monitoring andfeedback, team management, and coordination.Team members who are dominant and controllingmay be less flexible but perhaps more proneto backup other team members’ behavior as ameans of control (adaptability), they may bemore prone to monitor others’ behavior as aprecursor to control (performance feedback andmonitoring), and the dominant team member’sneed to direct and influence others may supportsome instrumental management functions (teammanagement).AffiliationGiven that those low on affiliation tend tohelp or assist others less (Wageman, 1995) andin general may choose to interact less (Davis,1969), we predict those who are more sociableand affiliative are more likely to assist and supportother team members (adaptability), shareexperiences with other team members (sharedsituational awareness), seek and receive feedbackfrom others (performance monitoring andfeedback), engage in socioemotional activities(interpersonal relations), and talk more and exchangeinformation with other team members(communication). We believe that high affiliation,because it may interfere with instrumentaltask activities (see Driskell, Hogan, & Salas,1987), may have negative effects on team management,coordination, and decision making. Infact, Barry and Stewart (1997) have noted thatextraverts “have a propensity to seek pleasur-