Research Article
The Mediating Role of TMS in the Relationship between Team Characteristic and Team Efficacy
Hanyang University
Published: January 2017 · Vol. 46, No. 1 · pp. 213-233
DOI: https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2017.46.1.213
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of TMS in the relationship between team characteristics and team efficacy. Wegner(1987) defined that “TMS is the way that groups process and structure information and as the shared division of cognitive labor regarding group members' encoding, storing, and retrieving of information.” Thus, TMS is a team cognitive process (Kozlowski and Ilgen, 2006), capturing team members' combining of individuals' distributed knowledge and utilizing each other's expertise. It consist of three aspects: specialization, credibility, and coordination (Moreland, 1999). In work settings, TMS affected by team environments, yet team characteristics such as task interdependence, team members' learning goal orientation and team cohesion have not received attention. Therefore, we predict that task interdepdence, team learning goal orientation and team cohesion will be positively associated with TMS. Also, we expect TMS as antecedents of team efficacy. Furthermore, we propose that TMS will mediate the relationships between team characteristics and team efficacy. The analysis was carried out from November, 2013 until December, 2013. To test these hypothesis, we collected survey-based data from 237 members and 49 teams. The independent variables used in paper are task interdependence, learning goal orientation and team cohesion, the mediation variable is TMS, and the dependent variable is team efficacy. The results of the empirical analysis are as follows; First, task interdependence was positively related to team's TMS. Furthermore, team members' learning goal orientation and team cohesion were positively related to team's TMS. These findings suggest that team characteristics affect TMS. Second, TMS was linked to team efficacy. Third, TMS mediated the team characteristics - team efficacy links. These findings of the present study provide important theoretical and practical implications for team research. The limitation of this study can be summed up as follows; The first concerns the validity of our measures. Our hypotheses were tested using self-reported data, which may raise concerns regarding common method bias. Future researchers may use objective measures such as performance as dependent variable. Second, because of the use of cross-sectional data, conclusions on causal order cannot be drawn. Our study implies that team characteristics precedes TMS. However, it is possible that the relationship between team characteristics and TMS is reciprocal or that it is the reverse of what we have theorized. Future researchers may test causal effects by using longitudinal research designs. The use of longitudinal research designs can also help to examine the development of TMS over time.
