We Are Not in Sync, But We Think We Are: Actual versus Perceived Temporal Team Mental Models

Abstract

Despite the increasing number of failures blamed on team members’ lack of synchronization, little is known about the consequences of members thinking they are in sync but are not in actuality. Weexpanded the nascent research on temporal team mental models (TMM) by examining the relationship between perceived and actual temporal TMM similarity on team performance. Mismatches between perceiving and actually being on the same temporal page were detrimental to performance in that teams took longer to complete tasks. Findings support that both perceiving to be in sync and actually being in sync are essential for team success.