| Research has suggested that members of coordinated and effective teams hold shared mental models. Mental models are a person's cognitive representation of their environment, including objects, activities, and events, along with relationships among these elements. People refer to the information stored in their mental models to explain and predict events that occur in an environment. Shared mental models refer to the similarity of individual team members' mental models. While a few empirical studies have found that SMM are related to more effective processes and performance, many aspects of SMM in team functioning have yet to be addressed. This study examined: (a) team composition factors that may facilitate the emergence of mental model similarity in teams, focusing specifically on cognitive ability and personality, and (b) the consequences of shared task-focused mental models, shared team-focused mental models, and the interaction of both task- and team-focused mental models on team coordination, team-efficacy, and performance. Across 62 3-person action teams, team-level cognitive ability, agreeableness, and openness to experience were positively related to task-focused mental model similarity. Relationships were also significant after controlling for task experience, team familiarity, and gender composition. Then, task-focused mental model similarity was positively related to perceived team coordination, indicating that when members had similar mental models regarding how to accomplish the team's task, they perceived the team to be more coordinated in their interactions. In turn, perceived coordination was related to team-efficacy, which suggests that as members observe themselves functioning effectively they are likely to develop beliefs that they can be successful and thus, have higher team-efficacy beliefs. Team-efficacy was then positively related to team performance indicating that confidence in the team's ability to accomplish a task was related to successful team performance. Surprisingly, team-focused mental model similarity was negatively related to team-efficacy. Moreover, task-focused and team-focused mental models did not have interactive effects on team processes or performance. Findings suggest that cognitive ability and personality are important composition factors. Further, team-efficacy may be an important indirect outcome of task-focused mental model similarity that ultimately links team coordination to team performance. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. |
