Eva-Maria Schulte

VaMoS Measuring the “Within-Person Fit” of Affective Values, Cognitive Motives, and Skills

Knowing our values, motives, and skills enables us to achieve a better match of person and job characteristics, which leads to satisfaction and well-being. However, discrepancies between one’s indi...Knowing our values, motives, and skills enables us to achieve a better match of person and job characteristics, which leads to satisfaction and well-being. However, discrepancies between one’s individual values, motives, and skills occur frequently and entail strain and lower satisfaction. We developed an instrument to address this problem systematically, VaMoS (Affective Values, Cognitive Motives and Skills) (1) provides an efficient way to assess important characteristics with only one questionnaire and (2) detects conflicts between them, which can be solved using career counseling to enhance satisfaction and improve work–life balance. A first online study (n = 341) was used to reduce the initially developed items based on statistical properties. A second sample (n = 574) confirmed the statistical model and gave initial evidence of the validity of the theoretical model: A discrepancy between affective values, cognitive motives, and skills was positively related among others with strain and negatively related to work–life balance and satisfaction.

Promoting Shared Leadership A Multilevel Analysis Investigating the Role of Prototypical Team Leader Behavior, Psychological Empowerment, and Fair Rewards

Shared leadership is considered a promising concept that meets the increased complexity of working life. Researchers and practitioners therefore need to know which factors might advance the development of shared leadership. Contributing to the yet limited amount of empirical research on shared leadership antecedents, this study investigates the impact of variables from different types of antecedents suggested in literature (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic facilitators and vertical leadership). It relies on data from 328 team members nested in 67 work teams and their respective team leaders. Multilevel analyses confirmed that each team member’s perceptions of psychological empowerment as an intrinsic factor, and perceptions of being fairly rewarded as extrinsic factor, were associated with shared leadership. At the team level, the team leader’s behavior had differential effects on shared leadership within the team: Team members seem to adopt leadership behavior demonstrated by their team leader only as long as they perceive this team leader to be prototypical of the team. Results provide conclusions for practitioners and indicate starting points for future empirical research.

Teams und ihre Entwicklung

Teams sind aus Sicht vieler Fuhrungskrafte zentral fur den organisationalen Erfolg. In diesem Kapitel wird zunachst definiert, was ein Team im Arbeitskontext ausmacht und wie Teams anhand der Dimensionen Spezialisierung, Hierarchie, Bestandigkeit und Integration in die Arbeitsorganisation klassifiziert werden konnen. Ein Input-Prozess-Output-Modell integriert bisherige Forschung zur Teamarbeit und zeigt, relevante Voraussetzungen und Prozesse auf, die den Erfolg eines Teams beeinflussen. Anschliesend werden die Entwicklungsphasen eines Teams sowie mogliche Masnahmen zur Steigerung der Effektivitat von Teams vorgestellt. Aufbauend auf einer geeigneten Diagnosephase mittels prozess- oder strukturanalytischer Verfahren konnen Teamentwicklungsmasnahmen nicht nur helfen Probleme in Teams zu bearbeiten, sondern auch bereits gute Teams noch besser zu machen.

The medium isn’t the message: Introducing a measure of adaptive virtual communication

Abstract Media use can be considered as an integral part of virtual communication and thus of present-day human interaction. Nevertheless, research on media use and effects still largely relies on laboratory experiments, treating it as a stable input condition, rather than as a function of human appropriation. In this study, we propose a conceptualization of virtual communication as a dynamic construct dependent on media appropriation, particularly of compensatory adaptation processes. Using longitudinal data gathered from 165 individuals, nested in 34 project teams, we explore compensatory adaptation as a function of communication intensity and physical media richness and develop a continuous score of virtual communication accounting for these compensatory processes. Multilevel analyses demonstrate a significant influence of this communication measure on team performance, increasing over time. These results are discussed with regards to their implications for theories of media use and effects and their relevance for real-life communication processes.

Krisen in Teams: Teamresilienz als Präventions- und Bewältigungsstrategie

Obwohl Teamarbeit fur den Erfolg der meisten Organisationen zentral ist, gibt es bisher nur wenig Forschung zu Teamkrisen und Faktoren, welche die erfolgreiche Bewaltigung dieser Krisen fordern. Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Uberblick uber mogliche Ursachen von Teamkrisen sowie deren Auswirkung insbesondere auf die Gesundheit der Mitarbeiter. Bisherige Forschung belegt, dass neben Konzepten des Krisenmanagements vor allem die Teamresilienz ein wesentlicher Erfolgsfaktor bei der Bewaltigung von Teamkrisen ist. Daher stellt dieser Beitrag relevante Verhaltensweisen resilienter Teams vor und fasst mogliche Masnahmen zur Forderung der Teamresilienz auf individueller, Team- und organisationaler Ebene zusammen. Mogliche Ansatzpunkte fur die Bewaltigung von Teamkrisen in der Praxis werden vorgestellt sowie weiterer Forschungsbedarf aufgezeigt.