This paper presents a model of team learning and tests it in a multimethod field study. It introduces the construct of team psychological safety—a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking—and models the effects of team psychological safety and team efficacy together on learning and performance in organizational work teams. Results of a study of 51 work teams in a manufacturing company, measuring antecedent, process, and outcome variables, show that team psychological safety is associated with learning behavior, but team efficacy is not, when controlling for team psychological safety. As predicted, learning behavior mediates between team psychological safety and team performance. The results support an integrative perspective in which both team structures, such as context support and team leader coaching, and shared beliefs shape team outcomes.

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Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams

The authors reviewed more than 70 studies concerning employees' general belief that their work organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being (perceived organizational support; POS). A meta-analysis indicated that 3 major categories of beneficial treatment received by employees (i.e., fairness, supervisor support, and organizational rewards and favorable job conditions) were associated with POS. POS, in turn, was related to outcomes favorable to employees (e.g., job satisfaction, positive mood) and the organization (e.g., affective commitment, performance, and lessened withdrawal behavior). These relationships depended on processes assumed by organizational support theory: employees' belief that the organization's actions were discretionary, feeling of obligation to aid the organization, fulfillment of socioemotional needs, and performance-reward expectancies.

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Perceived organizational support: A review of the literature.

Perceived self-efficacy is concerned with people's beliefs in their capabilities to produce given attainments (Bandura, 1997). One cannot be all things, which would require mastery of every realm of human life. People differ in the areas in which they cultivate their efficacy and in the levels to which they develop it even within their given pursuits. For example, a business executive may have a high sense of organizational efficacy but low parenting efficacy. Thus, the efficacy belief system is not a global trait but a differentiated set of self-beliefs linked to distinct realms of functioning. Multidomain measures reveal the patterning and degree of generality of people's sense of personal efficacy. There is no all-purpose measure of perceived self-efficacy. The " one measure fits all " approach usually has limited explanatory and predictive value because most of the items in an all-purpose test may have little or no relevance to the domain of functioning. Moreover, in an effort to serve all purposes, items in such a measure are usually cast in general terms divorced from the situational demands and circumstances. This leaves much ambiguity about exactly what is being measured or the level of task and situational demands that must be managed. Scales of perceived self-CHAPTER 14 Note that this date is incorrect. The book was published in 2006. 308 A. BANDURA efficacy must be tailored to the particular domain of functioning that is the object of interest. Although efficacy beliefs are multifaceted, social cognitive theory identifies several conditions under which they may co-vary even across distinct domains of functioning (Bandura, 1997). When different spheres of activity are governed by similar sub-skills there is some inter-domain relation in perceived efficacy. Proficient performance is partly guided by higher-order self-regulatory skills. These include generic skills for diagnosing task demands, constructing and evaluating alternative courses of action, setting proximal goals to guide one's efforts, and creating self-incentives to sustain engagement in taxing activities and to manage stress and debilitating intrusive thoughts. Generic self-management strategies developed in one realm of activity are serviceable in other activity domains with resulting co-variation in perceived efficacy among them. Co-development is still another correlative process. Even if different activity domains are not sub-served by common sub-skills, the same perceived efficacy can occur if development of competencies is socially structured so that skills in dissimilar domains are developed together. For example, students are likely to develop similarly high perceived self-efficacy …

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Guide for constructing self-efficacy scales

What Makes Teams Work: Group Effectiveness Research from the Shop Floor to the Executive Suite

Employees develop exchange relationships both with organizations and immediate superiors, as evidenced by research on perceived organizational support (POS) and leader-member exchange (LMX), respectively. Despite conceptual similarities between these two constructs, theoretical development and research has proceeded independently. In an attempt to integrate these literatures, we developed and tested a model of the antecedents and consequences of POS and LMX, based on social exchange theory. Results indicated that POS and LMX have unique antecedents and are differentially related to outcome variables, providing support for the importance of both types of exchanges.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/257021.pdf

Perceived Organizational Support And Leader-Member Exchange: A Social Exchange Perspective

This review examines recent research on groups and teams, giving special emphasis to research investigating factors that influence the effectiveness of teams at work in organizations. Several performance-relevant factors are considered, including group composition, cohesiveness, and motivation, although certain topics (e.g. composition) have been more actively researched than others in recent years and so are addressed in greater depth. Also actively researched are certain types of teams, including flight crews, computer-supported groups, and various forms of autonomous work groups. Evidence on basic processes in and the performance effectiveness of such groups is reviewed. Also reviewed are findings from studies of organizational redesign involving the implementation of teams. Findings from these studies provide some of the strongest support for the value of teams to organizational effectiveness. The review concludes by briefly considering selected open questions and emerging directions in group research.

/pdf/teams-in-organizations-recent-research-on-performance-and-16yic29f26.pdf

Teams in organizations: recent research on performance and effectiveness.

Group performance and intergroup relations in organizations.

The authors investigate employer practices toward expatriate managers and how those practices relate to retention-relevant outcomes (e.g., organizational commitment, intent to quit, and intent to return early to a domestic assignment). The psychological contract is investigated as a mediator of this relationship. A model in which the psychological contract mediates the relationship between organizational practices and retention-relevant outcomes is empirically constructed. The authors also refine the construct of the psychological contract and report managers' experiences as expatriates

Expatriate managers and the psychological contract.

This paper examines potency, defined as the collective belief in a group that it can be effective, and its role in determining group effectiveness. The paper illustrates the construct and reviews its origins. The distinctiveness of potency from efficacy and from other collective and motivational constructs is described. The measurement of potency is also examined. The paper concludes with a presentation of a conceptual framework for understanding the determinants of potency and with a discussion of future theory, research and practice.

Potency in groups: Articulating a construct

This article examines the psychological contract and human resource practices as communications relevant to that contract. We argue that employees, at certain times only, systematically analyze their employers' HR practices for meaning vis-ri-vis their psychological contract. Judgments about the adequacy with which their psychological contracts are fulfilled result from such systematic analyses, and these judgments have important effects on employee commitment. Practical implications of our analysis are also discussed.

Richard A. Guzzo

Papers

Teams in organizations: recent research on performance and effectiveness.

Group performance and intergroup relations in organizations.

Expatriate managers and the psychological contract.

Potency in groups: Articulating a construct

Human resource practices as communications and the psychological contract