Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Integrated Article

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Psychology

Supervisor

Benson, Alex J.

Abstract

Work teams frequently face adversities that may affect group processes and ultimately lead to a loss of performance. Despite a large literature on the characteristics of high-performance work teams, we know little about the processes by which teams resist, persist through, adapt to, recover from, or otherwise be resilient to challenges that they encounter. In part, this is due to the lack of a psychometrically sound and well-validated measure for team resilience; how work teams collectively respond to and ‘bounce back’ from adversities. The present dissertation project addresses this need in the literature through the development and validation of the Team Resilience Inventory (TRI), a 7-factor measure of team resilience. First, a theoretical overview of resilience in general, and team resilience in particular, is presented along with a review of the existing literature covering the current state of theory behind teamresilience; how work teams collectively respond to and ‘bounce back’ from adversities. The present dissertation project addresses this need in the literature through the development and validation of the Team Resilience Inventory (TRI), a 7-factor measure of team resilience. First, a theoretical overview of resilience in general, and team resilience in particular, is presented along with a review of the existing literature covering the current state of theory behind team resilience. From this review, I present a model of team resilience consisting of team resilience capacity (i.e., the affective, behavioural, and cognitive resources a team possesses and the ability of a team to Persist or Adapt if required to be resilient) and emergent team resilience (the demonstration of team resilience through a team’s ability to Resist the negative effects of an adversity or Recover from it overtime). This review is followed by three empirical studies developing the TRI, establishing its psychometric structure, and examining an initial nomological network of team resilience. In Study 1 (N = 435, k = 103) the Affective, Behavioural, and Cognitive resources of team resilience factors were developed and assessed. The factors were found to have acceptable psychometric properties and initial exploratory analyses suggested that these resource factors were related to various team-level constructs in theoretically consistent ways. Study 2 (N = 1281, k = 222) expanded on this by introducing the team resilience

process factors (Adaptation & Persistence), assessing how team resilience relates iii to psychological resilience, and assessing the TRI’s relation to team satisfaction and team potency. The results again supported the factor structure of the TRI and that team resilience, though related to psychological resilience, is a distinct construct. Further, factors of the TRI accounted for significant variance in team satisfaction and team potency supporting the criterion validity of the construct. Lastly, in Study 3 (N = 145, k = 45) I assessed the ability of the TRI to predict emergent resilient team performance over time in a lab setting. The results supported the ability of the TRI to predict resilient team performance and offer an initial look at how accurately team members are able to evaluate their team’s resilience. Future research directions in team resilience are then discussed.

Summary for Lay Audience

That the work environment continues to become both more complex and more teamwork-based is a well-supported phenomenon. Teams today need to be more resilient to challenges than ever before. Despite the vast literature on what makes for high-performance teams, our knowledge of how teams are resilient to adversity and what we can do to develop their resilience is limited. In part this is due to difficulty in understanding what exactly team resilience is and how it is best measured. This dissertation project aimed to address this conceptual confusion by outlining a model of team resilience and an associated measure (the Team Resilience Inventory). Drawing from the existing literature, I outline the current state of theory on both resilience at large and team resilience in particular. A conceptual model is presented that team resilience consists of two sub-domains: team resilience capacity (i.e., the team’s capacity to be resilient if required) and emergent team resilience (the team’s demonstrated resilience as represented by the ability to Resist or Recover from an adversity). Across three studies, the current project supports thereliability and validity of the Team Resilience Inventory and provides insight into the nomological network of team resilience. In particular, team resilience was found to have the expected pattern of relationships with multiple team outcomes such as team satisfaction, team potency, and team performance. Further, I provide support that team resilience is a related but separate concept from a simple aggregation of team members’ psychological resilience. Importantly, the Team Resilience Inventory was found to predict variation in a team’s ability to both resist the negative effects of an adversity and more quickly recover any performance lost. Overall, this research provides a reliable and valid measure of team resilience, an initial look at how team resilience relates to other team constructs, as well as suggests avenues for future research directions.

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