Degree
Master of Science
Program
Psychology
Supervisor
Allen, Natalie J.
Abstract
Companies rely on teams to combine their different skills and solve multidisciplinary problems (Engestrom, 2008; Schrage, 1995). One crucial characteristic of teams is their interdependent nature (Sundstrom, de Meuse, & Futrell, 1990). However, interdependence as a construct is not well understood and its role in dynamic team processes is not clear. Recent theoretical advances have proposed a new model of interdependence – one that places two forms of interdependence at the beginning of a path that leads through task and social constructs to team effectiveness (Courtright, Thurgood, Stewart, & Pierotti, 2015). This new model was tested in two data sets of engineering student project teams. Evidence supported only one of four proposed pathways in one data set, and none of the pathways in the second data set. These findings suggest that either this model does not represent team dynamics well, or the samples on which the model was initially meta-analytically tested do not generalize to the present samples. Future research should continue to test this model in other samples, using other measures of interdependence, mediators, and outcome variables.
Recommended Citation
Ouslis, Natasha E., "Testing a New Model of Team Interdependence" (2018). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 5616.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5616