The Relationship between Communication and Team ...

1 The Relationship between Communication and team Performance: Testing Moderators and Identifying Communication Profiles in Established Work Teams A thesis submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Stacey Lee Hassall BA Psych (Griffith), PostGradDipProfPsych (Bond), MOrgPsych (Griffith) Faculty of Business School of Management Queensland University of Technology Brisbane, Australia June 2009 i Abstract Communication is one team process factor that has received considerable research attention in the team literature. This literature provides equivocal evidence regarding the role of Communication in team performance and yet, does not provide any evidence for when Communication becomes important for team performance.

2 This research program sought to address this evidence gap by a) testing task complexity and team member diversity (race diversity, gender diversity and work value diversity) as moderators of the team Communication performance Relationship ; and b) testing a team Communication performance model using established teams across two different task types. The functional perspective was used as the theoretical framework for operationalizing team Communication activity. The research program utilised a quasi-experimental research design with participants from a large multi-national information technology company whose Head Office was based in Sydney, Australia.

3 Participants voluntarily completed two team building exercises (a decision making and production task), and completed two online questionnaires. In total, data were collected from 1039 individuals who constituted 203 work teams. Analysis of the data revealed a small number of significant moderation effects, not all in the expected direction. However, an interesting and unexpected finding also emerged from Study One. Large and significant correlations between Communication activity ratings were found across tasks, but not within tasks. This finding suggested that teams were displaying very similar profiles of Communication on each task, despite the tasks having different Communication requirements.

4 Given this finding, Study Two sought to a) determine the relative importance of task versus team effects in explaining variance in team Communication measures for established teams; b) determine if established teams had reliable and discernable ii team Communication profiles and if so, c) investigate whether team Communication profiles related to task performance. Multi-level modeling and repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that task type did not have an effect on team Communication ratings. However, teams accounted for 24% of the total variance in Communication measures. Through cluster analysis, five reliable and distinct team Communication profiles were identified.

5 Consistent with the findings of the multi-level analysis and repeated measures ANOVA, teams profiles were virtually identical across the decision making and production tasks. A Relationship between Communication profile and performance was identified for the production task, although not for the decision making task. This research responds to calls in the literature for a better understanding of when Communication becomes important for team performance. The moderators tested in this research were not found to have a substantive or reliable effect on the Relationship between Communication and performance.

6 However, the consistency in team Communication activity suggests that established teams can be characterized by their Communication profiles and further, that these Communication profiles may have implications for team performance. The findings of this research provide theoretical support for the functional perspective in terms of the Communication performance Relationship and further support the team development literature as an explanation for the stability in team Communication profiles. This research can also assist organizations to better understand the specific types of Communication activity and profiles of Communication that could offer teams a performance advantage.

7 Iii Table of Contents page Abstract .. i List of Abbreviations .. ix Statement of Authorship .. x Acknowledgments .. xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .. 1 Thesis Overview .. 1 Background to Study One .. 1 The functional Perspective of team Communication .. 2 Task Complexity .. 4 team Member Diversity .. 5 Background to Study Two .. 6 Research Aims and Objectives .. 8 Summary of Research Program .. 9 Methodology .. 10 Research Significance .. 11 Outline of Chapters .. 12 Summary .. 14 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .. 15 The Use of Teams in Organisations .. 15 The Relationship between Communication and team Performance .. 16 The functional Perspective of team Communication and Performance .. 18 The Role of Requisite Functions.

8 19 Findings from Studies Adopting the functional 20 Factors Moderating the Relationship between Communication and team Performance .. 23 Task Complexity as a Moderator of the Communication team Performance Relationship .. 26 Task Complexity as a Moderator of Requisite Functions and team Performance .. 28 iv team Member Diversity as a Moderator of the Communication team Performance Relationship .. 30 Interpersonal Congruence and team Effectiveness .. 32 team Efficacy and Performance .. 33 Outcome Interdependence and team Performance .. 34 Interactive Effects of Diversity on team Performance .. 34 team Member Diversity as a Moderator of Requisite Functions and team Performance .. 35 team Communication Performance Model with Task Complexity and team Member Diversity as Moderators.

9 37 Generalising Moderator Effects Across Task Types .. 38 Overall Summary .. 41 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH APPROACH .. 43 Introduction .. 43 Paradigmatic Foundations of the Research Methods .. 43 Research Design .. 45 Sampling .. 46 Nature of Relationship with Participating Organisation .. 47 Organisational Context .. 48 Summary .. 50 CHAPTER 4: METHOD .. 51 Introduction .. 51 Sample .. 51 Procedure .. 52 Testing Phase .. 53 team Tasks .. 54 Task Manipulations .. 56 Measures .. 57 team Performance Measures .. 58 Observational Measure of Communication Activity .. 58 Online Questionnaire Measures .. 60 Demographic Diversity .. 60 Work Value Diversity .. 61 team Potential .. 61 v Ethical Clearance.

10 63 Preparation of Data for Analysis .. 63 Data Cleaning .. 63 Data Preparation .. 64 Analytic Techniques .. 64 Summary .. 66 CHAPTER 5: STUDY ONE .. 67 Manipulation Check .. 67 Descriptive Statistics .. 67 Correlations .. 69 Control Variables .. 69 Requisite Functions .. 70 Task Complexity .. 70 team Member Diversity .. 71 Moderation Effects - NASA Task .. 71 Task Complexity & Solution Development (NASA Task) .. 75 Race Diversity & Problem Definition (NASA Task) .. 76 Gender Diversity & Criteria Development (NASA Task) .. 77 Work Value Diversity & Solution Development (NASA Task) .. 77 Work Value Diversity and Problem Definition (NASA Task) .. 78 Moderation Effects Origami Task .. 79 Gender Diversity & Solution Development (ORIGAMI Task).