Bell et al. (2018) presented their model for team composition and the ABC’s of teamwork relationships. Composed of four fundamental concepts: team member attributes, operationalizations at the team level (e.g., diversity, team mean), the context, and temporal considerations (time).

Surface-level Attributes

“These are readily detectable categories (e.g., age, sex, race) and easily accessible information (e.g., reputation, role) that shape how team members behave, think, and feel toward other team members.” (Bell et al., 2018, p. 351)

Deep-level Attributes

“As team members interact over time, their interactions are shaped by underlying psychological characteristics (e.g., personality traits, abilities, values, attitudes), referred to as deep-level attributes.” (p. 351)

Operationalizations

Operationalizations should be selected that best match the team member’s attributes, as a team-level and not an individual-level phenomenon, that shape the team’s ABC’s (affective states, behavioral processes, and cognitive states).

Compositional

“Compositional processes are based on the assumption of isomorphism; team members’ contributions are proportionate, and all team members’ attributes (e.g., scores on conscientiousness) are weighted equally” (p. 352).

Compilational

“Compilational processes occur when team members’ attributes interact with those of other team members to create a qualitatively different team-level phenomenon” (p. 352).

Context shapes team member relationships

1) Context shapes the salience of an attribute, which is particularly important for anticipating the influence of surface-level team composition variables on teamwork (van Knippenberg, De Dreu, & Homan, 2004). (p. 352)

2) Context can modify the relevance, value, and centrality of different aspects of team composition for teamwork (trait activation theory; Tett & Burnett, 2003). (p. 352)

3) Context can cue the desirability of behaviors, and generate a common perception and motivation (i.e., contribute to situational strenght; Mischel, 1977). (p. 354)

Internal and External Context

1) Internal context includes situational influences within the bounds of a team, such as the typical mode of communication, nature of the team’s tasks, and the structural dependence between team members (see Hollenbeck, Beersman, & Schouten, 2012). (p. 354)

2) External context includes influences, stimuli, or actors, which are mostly outside the control of the team (Maloney, Bresman, Zellmer-Bruhn, & Beaver, 2016). (p. 354)

Time

Team composition relates to the ABC’s of teamwork in a dynamic process that unfolds over time. (p. 354)

ABC’s of Teamwork Relationships

A – Affective and Motivational States
B – Behavioral Processes
C – Cognitive States

Cognitive States

“Cognitive states represent the structure of knowledge organization, collective perception, and information acquisition; examples include team learning and shared mental models.” (p. 349)

References:

Bell, S. T. (2007). Deep-level composition variables as predictors of team performance: A meta-analysis. _Journal of Applied Psychology_, _92_(3), 595-615. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.3.595

Secondary References: