Collective orientation and team performance

Abstract

A lack of team coordination or collective behavior has been a prominent factor in many real-world accidents. Although collective orientation is purported to be a critical ability, it is a team skill that is very seldom fostered in individual training. This paper describes a program of research designed to address three primary questions regarding collective orientation. First, can we measure it? Second, does collective orientation make a difference in how well teams perform? Third, in what ways does behavior differ in collectively-oriented versus non collectively-oriented teams? Results indicate that collective orientation can be reliably measured. The development and test of a Collective Orientation scale provide good evidence of reliability and convergent and divergent validity. Second, results indicate that the collective orientation construct is meaningful - that is, it predicts team effectiveness on a range of interdependent tasks, including decision making, negotiation, and executing tasks. Finally, current research is being conducted to identify what specific behaviors are related to high and low collective orientation during task interaction. The results of this analysis should pinpoint specific behaviors for training intervention.