Team Cognition, Collective Efficacy, and Performance in Strategic Decision-Making Teams

With the growing use of teamwork for strategic decision making in organizations, an understanding of the teamwork dynamics in the strategic decision-making process is critical for both researchers and practitioners. By conceptualizing team cognition in terms of a transactive memory system (TMS) and collective mind, in this study we explored the relationships among TMS, collective mind, and collective efficacy and the impact of these variables on team performance. Longitudinal data collected from 98 undergraduates were analyzed. Neither the TMS–team performance relationship nor the collective mind–team performance relationship was significant. Collective efficacy was found to play a mediating role in such relationships. We concluded that team cognition with collective efficacy is beneficial for understanding teamwork dynamics in strategic decision making.