The Impact of Personality, Informal Roles, and Team Informal

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The Impact of Personality, Informal Roles, and Team Informal THE IMPACT OF PERSONALITY, INFORMAL ROLES, AND TEAM INFORMAL ROLE CONFIGURATION ON TEAM EFFECTIVENESS A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by David E. Caughlin In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science August 2010 Purdue University Indianapolis, Indiana ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dennis Devine, John Hazer, and Leslie Ashburn-Nardo for serving on my committee and providing ongoing support during every phase of this project, the office staff of the department for scheduling experiment rooms and lending keys when needed, and Sarah Pinto for her assistance running participant sessions. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................v ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................1 1.1. Conceptual Framework .............................................................................................2 1.2. Previous Theory and Research ..................................................................................4 1.3. Present Study ..........................................................................................................20 CHAPTER 2. METHOD ...................................................................................................26 2.1. Participants ..............................................................................................................26 2.2. Design .....................................................................................................................26 2.3. Task .........................................................................................................................27 2.4. Measures .................................................................................................................28 2.5. Procedure ................................................................................................................34 2.6. Statistical Analyses .................................................................................................36 CHAPTER 3. RESULTS ...................................................................................................42 3.1. Preliminary Analyses ..............................................................................................42 3.2. Hypothesis Tests .....................................................................................................45 3.3. Follow-Up Analyses ...............................................................................................48 CHAPTER 4. DISCUSSION .............................................................................................51 4.1. Contributions...........................................................................................................53 4.2. Limitations and Future Research ............................................................................59 4.3. Conclusion ..............................................................................................................62 LIST OF REFERENCES ...................................................................................................64 TABLES ............................................................................................................................71 FIGURES ...........................................................................................................................82 APPENDICES Appendix A ....................................................................................................................87 Appendix B ..................................................................................................................145 Appendix C ..................................................................................................................163 Appendix D ..................................................................................................................179 Appendix E ..................................................................................................................180 iv LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1 ...............................................................................................................................71 Table 2 ...............................................................................................................................72 Table 3 ...............................................................................................................................73 Table 4 ...............................................................................................................................74 Table 5 ...............................................................................................................................75 Table 6 ...............................................................................................................................76 Table 7 ...............................................................................................................................77 Table 8 ...............................................................................................................................78 Table 9 ...............................................................................................................................79 Table 10 .............................................................................................................................80 Table 11 .............................................................................................................................81 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 1 ..............................................................................................................................82 Figure 2 ..............................................................................................................................83 Figure 3 ..............................................................................................................................84 Figure 4 ..............................................................................................................................85 Figure 5 ..............................................................................................................................86 vi ABSTRACT Caughlin, David E. M.S., Purdue University, August 2010. The Impact of Personality, Informal Roles, and Team Informal Role Configuration on Team Effectiveness. Major Professor: Dennis J. Devine. As organizations use more and more work teams, selecting and assembling effective teams is becoming increasingly important. Past research and theory has demonstrated that informal roles serve as a critical linking mechanism between individual-level characteristics such as personality and team-level effectiveness. The present study builds upon this area of research and theory by testing the individual-level link between personality and informal roles and the team-level link between team informal role configuration and team effectiveness. These links were tested using a sample of 152 undergraduate students participating in 38 teams of four. The teams engaged in an information-sharing business simulation where the goal was to generate the highest possible profits across two simulated business years. At the individual level, the Big Five personality dimension Agreeableness positively and significantly correlated with the adoption of the Communicator role, while the relationship between Conscientiousness and the Contractor role approached significance. With regard to the team level, a positive relationship was found between the number of Completer roles performed within a team and the level of team effectiveness for the first simulated vii business year, and the relationship between the total number of informal roles performed within a team and team effectiveness in the first simulated year was found to be marginally significant. Using a criterion profile analysis approach, two criterion patterns were identified in which optimal informal role configuration patterns yielded high levels of team effectiveness. Overall, results from this study lend some support to the demonstrated links between personality and informal roles and informal role configuration and team effectiveness, which have important implications for organizational selection and employee development. 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION The term team refers to an interdependent collection of individuals working together toward a shared and valued goal, objective, or mission (Hackman, 1987). Estimates suggest that nearly half of all organizations in the United States employ at least one or more work teams (Devine, Clayton, Philips, Dunford, & Melner, 1999). Typically, these teams are used to accomplish tasks, meet goals, and achieve objectives (Ilgen, Major Hollenbeck, & Sego, 1993). Teams are made up of individuals, and as these individuals work together, they engage in behaviors that may or may not contribute to their team‘s effectiveness. As such, there is value in investigating and identifying behaviors that contribute to team effectiveness. Stewart,
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