Although previous research has shown that cross-training team members improves team performance, a number of questions remain concerning the nature of cross-training. The current study provides an extension of previous cross-training research by investigating two theoretical issues: the nature of cross-training and the joint impact of cross-training and workload on team functioning. The study examined 40 three-person teams performing a simulated radar task. Results indicated that positional rotation was an effective crosstraining method for highly interdependent tasks, that cross-trained teams developed a greater degree of interpositional knowledge than did teams that were not cross-trained, and that cross-training was important only under highworkload performance conditions. The current study suggests that the type of cross-training necessary to improve team performance may be related to the nature of the task and that cross-training may be effective in allowing teams to coordinate implicitly -that is, without the need to communicate overtly. Taken together with previous work, the results of this study indicate strong support for the efficacy of cross-training as a means to help teams perform well. Potential applications of this research include training for military, medical, and aviation teams.Requests for reprints should be sent to Janis A.
This research constitutes an initial empirical examination of how the introduction of a third party impacts interviewee rapport in an investigative interview setting. Whereas some have argued that employing two interviewers may be beneficial in an investigative interview setting, others have speculated that adding a “third person in the communications loop” (U.S. Department of the Army, 2006) during an investigative interview may negatively impact the establishment of rapport. This research draws on group dynamics research and adopts a content-analytic approach using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker, Booth, & Francis, 2007) to examine interviewee rapport in real-world investigative interviews. The comparison of dyadic interviews in which one interviewer was present and triadic interviews in which two interviewers were present revealed no significant reduction in interviewee rapport. These findings suggest that the anecdotal concern that “three is a crowd” and that the addition of a third party may result in decreased rapport may be unfounded. Further research on the group dynamics of the investigative interview is discussed.
At times, experienced teammates seem to read each others' minds. They are aware of what their teammates are doing and when their teammates need assistance. A technical term for this is implicit coordination and it refers to teammates coordinating without overt communication (Meinman & Serfaty, 1989). Although this team characteristic is exhibited frequently in many team environments (e.g., sports teams), it has received little research attention. With its emphasis on the fast-paced world of the combat information center (CIC), the Tactical Decision Making Under Stress (TADMUS) program investigated how teams anticipate each other's needs and coordinate their actions without overt communication. This included considering training strategies that would foster the shared understanding teams need to coordinate implicitly (i.e., "to read each other's minds"; (Cannon-Bowers, Salas, & Converse, 1993). The purpose of this chapter is to discuss one such strategy: cross-training. We first define cross-training, we then review two empirical tests of cross-training interventions, and we discuss the lessons we learned from these tests.
Theoretical DriversCIC teams and other teams in fast-paced environments perform highly complex tasks, and teammates depend on each other to perform effectively.Not only must team members be concerned with their individual tasks, they also must be concerned with how the team performs as a whole. This team-level performance includes communicating needed information among teammates, integrating information both from electronic displays and from other team members, backing teammates up in times of high The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent the official position of the organization with which they are aEliated. We thank Cathy Volpe and Kim Travillian for their efforts in conducting the cross-training research as well as their insight regarding the ideas presented in this chapter. We also thank Paul Radtke for his helpful comments on the manuscript.
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