Michelle A. Marks

The Impact of Cross-Training on Team Effectiveness

The authors examined the role of cross-training in developing shared team-interaction mental models, coordination, and performance in a 2-experiment study using computer simulation methodology (for Experiment 1, N = 45 teams; for Experiment 2, N = 49 teams). Similar findings emerged across the 2 experiments. First, cross-training enhanced the development of shared team-interaction models. Second, coordination mediated the relationship between shared mental models and team performance. However, there was some inconsistency in the findings concerning the depth of cross-training necessary for improving shared mental models. Results are discussed in terms of the impact of different levels of cross-training on team effectiveness.

Teamwork in multiteam systems.

The authors examined how networks of teams integrate their efforts to succeed collectively. They proposed that integration processes used to align efforts among multiple teams are important predictors of multiteam performance. The authors used a multiteam system (MTS) simulation to assess how both cross-team and within-team processes relate to MTS performance over multiple performance episodes that differed in terms of required interdependence levels. They found that cross-team processes predicted MTS performance beyond that accounted for by within-team processes. Further, cross-team processes were more important for MTS effectiveness when there were high cross-team interdependence demands as compared with situations in which teams could work more independently. Results are discussed in terms of extending theory and applications from teams to multiteam systems.

Exploring the relationship of leadership skills and knowledge to leader performance

Abstract The criterion-related validity of constructed response measures of complex problem-solving skills, social judgment skills, and leader knowledge is examined with respect to two criteria of leader effectiveness: leader achievement and quality of solutions to ill-defined leadership problems. Core aspects of the leader capabilities model are tested using these measures in a series of hierarchical regression analyses. Results indicate that constructed response measures of key leader capabilities account for variance in leader effectiveness and provide initial validation evidence for a central part of the theoretical model. The problem-solving, social judgment and knowledge measures account for significant variance in leadership criteria beyond that accounted for by cognitive abilities, motivations, and personality. Initial evidence also suggests that complex problem-solving skills, social judgment and leader knowledge partially mediate the relationship of cognitive abilities, motivation and personality to leader effectiveness. Implications and generalizability of the results are discussed in light of a related civilian leadership study conducted within the U.S. Department of Defense.

Leadership skills: Conclusions and future directions

Abstract Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs, and Fleishman have argued that leadership can be understood in terms of knowledge, problem-solving skills, solution construction skills, and social judgment needed to solve organizational problems. In this article, we review the results obtained in a series of investigations intended to examine this proposition. We begin by reviewing the central implications of this skills-based model of leader performance. The strengths and limitations of the available evidence bearing on this model are discussed along with some potential directions for future research. Research directions are considered with respect to model development and refinement, linkages to other models of leadership, and potential practical applications. It is argued that this kind of skills-based model may provide a viable new perspective for understanding leader performance—one particularly appropriate for the dynamic, knowledge-based industries of the twenty-first century.

Leadership in Multiteam Systems

This study examined 2 leader functions likely to be instrumental in synchronizing large systems of teams (i.e., multiteam systems [MTSs]). Leader strategizing and coordinating were manipulated through training, and effects on functional leadership, interteam coordination, and MTS performance were examined. Three hundred eighty-four undergraduate students participated in a laboratory simulation modeling a 3-team MTS performing an F-22 battle simulation task (N = 64 MTSs). Results indicate that both leader training manipulations improved functional leadership and interteam coordination and that functional leader behavior was positively related to MTS-level performance. Functional leadership mediated the effects of both types of training on interteam coordination, and interteam coordination fully mediated the effect of MTS leadership on MTS performance.

Assessment of leader problem-solving capabilities

Abstract We describe the development of and initial psychometric evidence for a set of five constructed response measures designed to assess complex problem-solving skills and knowledge expected to influence leadership. Structured (cued) and unstructured (uncued) problem solving scenarios intended to assess process skills associated with creative problem solving are presented first. Solution construction tasks developed to assess attention to constraints and characteristics in the broader problem context are presented next. Finally, social judgment tasks intended to assess understanding of people and social systems and a task sort to assess knowledge of leadership roles are presented. Preliminary evidence for the reliability and construct validity of these constructed response measures supports their efficacy in assessing skills that underlie effective organizational leadership.

Sexual harassment on campus: effects of professor gender on perception of sexually harassing behaviors

Undergraduate students viewed four videotaped vignettes that depicted potentially sexually harassing interactions between professors and students. Subjects were asked to evaluate the professors behavior. The vignettes were composed so that two dimensions were manipulated: the sex of the initiator of the behavior and the type of behavior. Results of the study provided partial support of the following hypotheses: (1) the behaviors of female professors initiating potentially sexually harassing behaviors toward male students would be perceived as more appropriate than would the same behaviors initiated by male professors toward female students in identical situations; (2) female subjects would interpret the behaviors as more harassing than male subjects; and finally (3) subtle forms of harassment would be interpreted as more inappropriate by female students than by male students.

A test of the impact of collective efficacy in routine and novel performance environments

Collective efficacy was predicted to influence coordination processes and team performance in both routine and novel environments. Two hundred thirty‐seven undergraduates from a large mid‐Atlantic university formed 79 three‐member tank platoon teams and participated in a low fidelity tank wargame simulation exercise. Findings indicated that in routine situations, teams with higher levels of collective efficacy evidenced stronger coordination processes, whereas in novel situations teams with lower levels of collective efficacy displayed better coordination processes. Collective efficacy boosted team performance in both routine and novel environments. Implications of these findings are discussed with regard to the role of team confidence in challenging performance situations.

Creativity and problem solving: Cognition, adaptability, and wisdom

Many programs for gifted and talented students try to provide a foundation for later creative achievement. Creative achievement, however, depends on the individuals ability to solve novel, ill‐defined problems. In this article, we examine cognitive capacities that contribute to creative problem solving. It is argued that problem solving requires expertise and information processing skills. We also note that other characteristics may be needed to maintain creative problem‐ solving efforts, such as adaptability and wisdom. The implications of these observations for the development of creative talent also are considered.