Date of Award

December 2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Committee Member

Marissa L Shuffler

Committee Member

Shawn Burke

Committee Member

Fred Switzer

Committee Member

Patrick J Rosopa

Abstract

Teams have become an integral part of today’s workforce, allowing organizations to accomplish more than any one individual could do alone. Given their relevance to organizations, a plethora of research has been conducted to enhance team effectiveness and inform staffing procedures. However, most of these studies ignore the temporal dynamics inherent to team functioning, assuming that teams are comprised of the same members over time and that all members share the same level of interdependence. In reality, teams, such as those found in healthcare, are much more fluid, with members continually joining and leaving, thus highlighting the need for research regarding the composition of dynamic teams. To bridge this gap, the present study examines the role of team familiarity, or shared team task experiences, in surgical teams, which follow crew-based staffing procedures. Results indicate that team efficiency is positively related to team minimum task experience, while controlling for the urgency of the case and the patient’s American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status. However, there was not a significant relationship between team familiarity and team efficiency for either the interdependent or noninterdependent dyads, as there were no main effects or interactions found between familiarity and team efficiency. Although team familiarity was not related to efficiency, the results of this study still advance our understanding of team composition from both a theoretical and practical perspective. By leveraging a compilational approach, this study advances our understanding of dynamic team composition and illustrates the negative implications that one novice team member may have on subsequent team outcomes, which could inform future staffing protocols.

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