Representational gaps, information processing, and conflict in functionally diverse teams

Abstract

Functional diversity in teams, while potentially beneficial, increases the likelihood that individual team members will perceive the team's task differently, leading to gaps between teammates' interpretations of what is needed for the team to be successful. These representational gaps are likely to create conflict as teammates try to solve what are essentially incompatible problems. Understanding how these general mechanisms work should deepen our understanding of information processing and conflict in diverse teams. We thank Susan Brodt, Michael Prietula, Don Moore, Ray Reagans, Catherine Cramton, Michelle Marks, Rich Klimoski, and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments during development of the manuscript. We also acknowledge Jonathan Cagan, Craig Vogel, and Hillary Carey as invaluable collaborators in the field research that inspired the ideas put forth in this paper.

The Organization of Multidisciplinary Care Teams: Modeling Internal and External Influences on Cancer Care Quality

“…• team "functioning" (26), which can be thought of as team process variables, such as coordination mechanisms and conflict (31); • clinical-or patient-reported outcomes, such as improved health (6,31), patient functional status (26), or other measures of patient, family, staff satisfaction (32); • the "quality of the team's work," which uses indicators such as timeliness, productivity, accuracy (21), and goal achievement, which encompasses meeting standards, compliance with clinical practice guidelines (33), and innovation in treatment (25); and • indicators of organization-level efficiency, such as care cost and cost-effectiveness (6). Of these measures, the third set-in particular, indicators of team performance and innovation-appear most promising for defining and measuring team performance in terms of qualities that describe how people work together as members of an MDC team and the effectiveness of their work together.…”

Asking Questions: A Sine Qua Non of Facilitation in Decision Support?

“…This is an important function of questions for groups experiencing a messy problem. As Cronin and Weingart (2007) argued, in groups of members having different knowledge and values, inconsistencies between group members' definitions of the group's problem hinder the integration of group members' information into a shared view. Cronin and Weingart call such inconsistencies representational gaps.…”

“…Representational gaps are problematic because information on the problem will be interpreted and evaluated differently which can lead to conflict on how to jointly manage the problem situation. It is often difficult to detect the source of inconsistencies as group members may not be aware or think about the possibility that, for instance, their assumptions differ (Cronin and Weingart 2007). Yet, questions may help to recognise what unknown or unclear (Vennix 1996).…”

Sensemaking in Virtual Teams: The Impact of Emotions and Support Tools on Team Mental Models and Team Performance

“…Cronin and Weingart (2007) conceptualized this situation as involving representational gaps, which they defined as "inconsistencies between individuals' definitions of the team's problem" (Cronin & Weingart, 2007, pg. 761).…”