The importance of teamwork to organizational success in today’s economy has been emphasized in literature for well over a decade. Effective teamwork can only be sustained, however, if it is supported by a process of team learning. Following Edmondson, the authors regard team learning as a group process comprising several concrete learning behaviors. The aim of this article is to report on the development of a conceptual framework and its operationalization into a measurement instrument for behaviors associated with team learning. A better understanding of these distinctive behaviors and their impact on team performance may help tailor interventions aimed at improving team performance. Based on a survey among 19 operational teams in the Dutch banking sector, the authors validated a multidimensional instrument for team learning behaviors. To prevent common-method bias, they used a multirater approach with two respondent groups, namely, team members and leaders (representing the insiders of the team), on one hand, as well as supervisors (representing the external stakeholders of the team), on the other hand. The data indicated a positive relationship between several team learning behaviors and team performance, and partly confirmed their theoretical model.

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Although role stress literature has almost exclusively focused on individual role incumbents, it is conceivable that shared conditions of ambiguity, conflict, and quantitative or qualitative overload may give rise to a collective experience of role stress in teams. Testing a multilevel mediation model among 38 Dutch project teams (N = 283), we studied the interplay among individual and team role stress, team learning behaviors, and individual and team performance. Team role stress was discerned as a separate construct next to individual role stress. Team quantitative role overload, in particular, impeded team and individual performance by inhibiting team learning behaviors and, indirectly, also hindered individual performance by increasing individual quantitative overload.

The number of people who, at a certain point during their career, assume responsibilities as a project manager is increasing every year. Yet, we know little about the reasons why people want to become project managers, how they become project managers, and the ways in which they perceive their job once they have become project managers. In the current qualitative study, we conducted in-depth, semistructured interviews, using a multisource approach, from the perspectives of both project managers ( n = 31) and direct supervisors of project managers ( n = 21) from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Our results indicate that project managers tend to be drawn into the field by their enterprising interests, and mainly “roll into their profession” knowing little about possible career paths, and experience multiple positive and negative aspects of their jobs. Reflections on the outcomes are discussed, and practical implications for individuals considering a career in project management and their working organizations are given.

Organizations world-wide are pushed to restructure work around teams by a variety of global forces to enable more rapid, flexible, and adaptive responses to the unexpected (Drucker, 2003;Glassop, 2002;Kozlowski & Ilgen, 2006) and to provide more innovative and comprehensive solutions to complex organizational problems (cf. Beers, 2005). As a result of this shift in the structure of work, team effectiveness has become a salient organizational concern. Individual skills are necessary but insufficient for good team performance (Salas, Dickinson, Converse, & Tannenbaum, 3 1992). Empirical research, however, demonstrates considerable variance in team effectiveness (e.g., Hackman, 1987).Team members need to have both accurate and detailed understandings of the requirements of team functioning. In other words, they need to build up shared mental models (Cannon-Bowers, Salas, & Converse, 1990), which will help them predict, adapt, and coordinate with one another, even under stressful or novel conditions. To create shared mental models, team members need to challenge each other's ideas and assumptions constructively (Senge, 1990). The latter behavior is part of the team learning behaviors defined by Edmondson (1999).The teams we address in this study are project teams in knowledge intensive organizations (cf. Starbuck, 1992). Many knowledge-intensive work settings are characterized by overload, ambiguity, and politics. Highly specialized professionals, often drawn from different functional disciplines or departments are brought together to contribute their expertise to a unique achievement, for instance, establishing an oil refinery in a place where land is to be claimed from the sea. The project teams face a multitude of problems and possible solutions. There is no one best way of knowing which problems and solutions to select; therefore, multiple stakeholders need to interact with one another continually (Alvesson, 2004). The most important performance outcome for these teams is the quality of the product they deliver to their clients.Teamwork in these project teams consists primarily of gathering information, know-how, and feedback through interpersonal exchanges within the team and across its borders, resulting in new knowledge presented to colleagues and/or clients (cf. Starbuck, 1992;Turner, 1999). The value of the team approach lies, among others, in the cross-functionality of its members, who provide the opportunity for timely 4 integration of critical information not only from their functional background but also from various external personal networks. To translate the diversity of viewpoints into project success, team members must adopt an inquiry orientation in which they mutually explain their positions (Edmondson & Smith, 2006). Hence they gain better understanding of the whole project by viewing it through alternate eyes (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1995). The importance of interpersonal exchanges in these project teams points to the value of team learning behaviors aimed at gaining understanding ...