Paths to Team Success: A Configurational Analysis of Team Effectiveness

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how two team processes (team learning, team conflict) and two team emergent states (team trust and team psychological safety) combine to yield three team effectiveness dimensions: team performance, quality of the group experience and team viability. Eighty-two teams (353 team members and 82 team leaders) were surveyed. Using a configurational approach, different routes that lead to the same outcome were identified. Moreover, the results suggest that the conditions that lead to high levels of team effectiveness are not the mirror opposite of the conditions that lead to low levels. The findings emphasize the importance of monitoring the effectiveness of a team in its different components and reinforce the notion that cognitive trust is a core condition for team success. Additionally, it is shown that the importance of intragroup conflicts for team effectiveness is contingent on the presence of other processes and emergent states.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ In the present study, in line with other authors (e.g., J. E. Mathieu et al., 2019), we use the terms work groups and teams interchangeably.

² The truth tables are available from the authors upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This work has been funded by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., Project UIDB/05037/2020.