Problem-solving teams composed of members possessing unique knowledge tend to be ineffective because of impediments that limit information sharing, including the sampling advantage of common information and differential schema structures among team members. Teams using a team training strategy aimed at ameliorating these impediments were expected to experience knowledge building and high performance. Data were collected from 40 teams of three co-located members, which were randomly assigned to a training or control condition. All teams completed a realistic military-based hidden profile problem-solving task. Teams in the training condition were trained to build knowledge using an information board (which served as a knowledge object) accompanied with schema-enriched communication. Teams in the control condition operated as typical co-located problem-solving teams and did not use an information board or receive the training. All hypotheses were supported. Teams experiencing the training strategy had higher knowledge transfer, interoperable knowledge, cognitive congruence, and performance than control teams. The training strategy appears to be effective in aiding teams to ameliorate communication impediments. Apparently, teams externalized their knowledge by communicating aspects of their schemas for task knowledge and visually representing and collaboratively structuring that knowledge.

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Effects of diversity in team members' rational and intuitive cognitive styles on team outcomes were investigated in a moderated-mediation model, exploring conflict management as a moderator and cohesion as a mediator. The negative effects of diversity on cohesion were moderated by conflict management, such that diversity harmed cohesion when conflict management was low but had no effect when conflict management was high. Cohesion mediated the relationship between the interaction of cognitive diversity and conflict management on team viability but not task performance. Implications for practice include promoting cognitive diversity and conflict management training in diverse teams. Suggestions for future research include expanding the sample and utilizing causal research designs.

Team knowledge building requires teams to discuss all available pertinent task information. However, teams tend to extract information ineffectively due to impediments including the sampling advantage of common information and differential schema structures among team members. In addition, distributed teams have difficulty building knowledge due to constraints associated with low-bandwidth computer-mediated communication. Therefore, we tested a team training strategy aimed at facilitating team knowledge building in distributed teams. Data were collected from 40 teams of three distributed members. Teams were assigned to a training or control condition, and they completed a realistic problem-solving task. Training condition teams were trained to build knowledge by creating a knowledge object integrated with schema-enriched communication behaviors in text chat. Control condition teams communicated using chat only and received no training. Results indicated trained teams, relative to untrained teams, shared more unique information, transferred more knowledge, developed higher cognitive congruence, and produced higher quality solutions.Problem-solving teams achieve high performance when team members use their unique perspectives and information to build team knowledge. Building team knowledge requires team members to share uniquely held information, transfer knowledge to teammates, operate relevant knowledge available in the team, and collaboratively integrate and structure knowledge possessed by the team. Ultimately, team members must go beyond simply mentioning information and must collaboratively integrate content, discuss relevance, and convey meaning to build team knowledge.Teams, however, face two major impediments to building team knowledge. One impediment is team members' bias toward discussing information team members hold in common to the detriment of discussing team members' uniquely held information (Campbell & Stasser, 2006;Stasser & Titus, 1985). This impediment restricts access to the team's available information pool and limits the team's capacity for building team knowledge. The second impediment is team members' differential task schemas. Team members with different perspectives and expertise related to the problem possess different deep-level cognitive structures for task knowledge that guide thought and communication about the team's task. Differential schemas complicate communications about the meaning of unique information (e.g., Hinds, Patterson, & Pfeffer, 2001). Due to these two impediments, member of problem-solving teams share little of their unique knowledge and have difficulty communicating it in a way that builds team knowledge.Rentsch, Delise, Salas, and Letsky (2010) developed a team training strategy to address both impediments and found that teams in their team training strategy condition evidenced higher team knowledge building and performance than teams in a control condition. Although the team training strategy was effective, examined its effects in face-toface teams only and sugg...