Team resilience: A scoping review of conceptual and empirical work

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this scoping review was to examine the literature on team resilience to gain insight into current thinking regarding its definition and conceptualisation, and to identify how researchers have operationalised and measured this concept. We conducted a systematic scoping review using the 5-phase approach proposed by Arksey and O’Malley. A total of seven databases were searched, followed by a citation search of eligible papers via Google Scholar. Of the 275 articles identified via the search process, 27 papers were deemed eligible for review. Several key findings regarding the literature on team resilience were observed: (i) definitions varied in terms of content (e.g. input or process), breadth (e.g. unidimensional versus multidimensional), and quality (e.g. essential and necessary attributes of key components); (ii) there was a predominance of single-level conceptualisations of team resilience; and (iii) there has been a reliance on cross-sectional research designs in empirical studies, which is incongruent with the dynamic nature of this concept. Key recommendations from this scoping review focus on definitional, theoretical, and methodological issues.

KEYWORDS:

• Coordination
• emergence
• emergent construct
• multilevel theory
• teamwork

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Monique Crane http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4943-7962

Kagan J. Ducker https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4251-649X

Nikos Ntoumanis http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7122-3795

Peter Peeling http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3895-0015

Sharon K. Parker https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0978-1873

Eleanor Quested http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8955-8809

Cecilie Thøgersen-Ntoumani http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0255-1263

Daniel F. Gucciardi http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5448-3990

Additional information

Funding

The Commonwealth of Australia supported this research through the Australian Army and a Defence Science Partnerships agreement of the Defence Science and Technology Group, as part of the Human Performance Research Network. Daniel Gucciardi was supported by a Curtin Research Fellowship; Sharon Parker was supported by an ARC Laureate Fellowship (FL160100033); Australian Research Council; Curtin University of Technology.