Team reflexivity, or the extent to which teams reflect upon and modify their functioning, has attracted much recent research attention. In the current paper, we identify several predictors as well as consequences of reflexivity by reviewing the last decade of literature on team reflexivity. It is observed that team characteristics such as trust and psychological safety among group members, a shared vision, and diversity as well as leadership style of the team’s supervisor influence the level of reflexivity. In addition, team reflexivity is related to a team’s output in terms of innovation, effectiveness, and creativity. Explanations for these effects are discussed and a model including all current findings is presented.
Time serves as a medium for collaboration in teams, allowing members to exchange personal and task-related information. We propose that stronger team reward contingencies stimulate collaboration. As time passes, increasing collaboration weakens the effects of surface-level (demographic) diversity on team outcomes but strengthens those of deep-level (psychological) diversity. Also, perceived diversity transmits the impact of actual diversity on team social integration, which in turn affects task performance. Results from four waves of data on 144 student project teams support these propositions and the strong relevance of time to research on work team diversity.
Despite the benefits associated with virtual teams, many people on these teams are unsatisfied with their experience. The goal of this study was to determine how to better facilitate satisfaction through shared leadership, individual trust, and autonomy. Specifically, in this study we sought a better understanding of the effects of shared leadership, team members' trust, and autonomy on satisfaction. We conducted a study with 163 individuals in 44 virtual teams. The results indicate that shared leadership facilitates satisfaction in virtual teams both directly and indirectly through the promotion of trust. Shared leadership moderated the relationships of individual trust and individual autonomy with satisfaction. Team-level satisfaction was a strong predictor of virtual team performance. We discuss these findings and the implications for theory and design.