When stress becomes shared: exploring the emergence of team stress

Team stress: Grasping physiological stress dynamics in small teams through state space grids.

“…Throughout the task, specific stressors were deliberately introduced at predetermined intervals to induce information overload, uncertain events, and pressure from time constraints. The research of Sassenus et al (2022) demonstrated that this kind of task design effectively elicits a broad spectrum of subjective stress appraisals in participants. A flight instructor was present to periodically inform teams of the remaining time at four distinct points during the exercise.…”

“…In this study, the median could be used as an individual baseline as our data set had acquired data from the participant during both moments of low-demand (e.g., flying around), corresponding to low-arousal moments, and high-demand situations (e.g., landing), corresponding to high-arousal moments. This resulted in a large variety of stress appraisal types (Sassenus et al, 2022). Therefore, we select the median value as an approximation of normal arousal between low and high (Wickramasuriya et al, 2019).…”

“…Although these may be critical points in time, they are not necessarily critical points of change . In particular, stress will change due to a complex and subjective interplay between the environment and members’ objectives and perceptions of themselves, their situation, and the world around them (Lazarus, 2006; Sassenus et al, 2022). As such, it is virtually impossible to assess how team stress will change before or after that moment has passed (Dietz et al, 2012).…”

“…Namely, team stress is more than just the sum of individual stress levels as the stress experienced by a team also comprises the stress that forms among its members (Sierra et al, 2012). Research has shown that members’ stress appraisals and responses can diverge and converge over time (Bruder et al, 2014; Gump & Kulik, 1997; Sassenus et al, 2022). When team members interact, they receive new information that will shape their stress levels reciprocally and temporally (González-Morales et al, 2012; Peiro, 2008).…”

“…For instance, a police cadet may reassess a potential threat after observing the assessment of their experienced partner. Notwithstanding, team members’ stress perceptions and responses may differ based on personal factors such as their role, expertise, and work context (Espedido et al, 2020; Sassenus et al, 2022). For instance, Sung et al (2022) found that orthopedic nurses experience more mental and physical stress depending on their role during surgery.…”