Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/35033

Title

Developing methods for analysing team mental model data

Author(s)

Langan-Fox, Janice;  Ng, Meei;  Canty, James M.

Abstract

In this chapter, new statistical methods for analysing and representing team mental models (TMMs) are developed and explained. Current methodologies used to assess TMMs either focus on the 'sharedness' of mental models amongst dyads rather than the team as a whole, or consider within-team agreement in terms of a comparison to often inappropriate referent sets. Instead, they should carefully and systematically investigate actual patterns of observed data provided by team members. The newly developed method presented here measures agreement amongst team members by exploring the distribution of team members' responses to individual paired comparison items with reference to a predetermined external cut-off threshold based on an interpretation of the response scale provided. Detailed analyses are presented of pair-wise comparison data from a single team drawn from an existing data set obtained from a previously conducted 3-year field-based study. This new approach can determine, for each paired comparison rating item, whether a team is in agreement or disagreement, or whether the team has polarised views. This method allows for a measure of TMM congruence, which is an overall measurement of team agreement on a common mental model. After identifying the common TMM (i.e., overlap of individual team members' mental models), this technique can provide data to be used to graphically represent the congruent TMM.

Publication type

Conference paper

Source

Advances in organisational psychology : selected papers from the 6th Australian Industrial and Organisational Psychology Conference, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, 30 June-03 July 2005, p. 269-279

Publication year

2007

Keyword(s)

Industrial psychology;  Organisational behaviour;  Organisational psychology;  Organisational sociology;  Team mental models;  TMMs

Publisher

Australian Academic Press

ISBN

9781875378791

Peer reviewed