Only the similarity of team-TMMs had a positive effect on all three criteria of
effectiveness. The task-TMMs (in the middle of team lifecycle) only had a positive
impact on performance. This means that the shared knowledge about skills,
contributions of members, and relational dynamics, is critical to effectiveness from the
beginning of team interaction. These results are in contrast to some studies that
showed that the similarity of task-TMMs had a stronger effect on performance than
team-TMMs (e.g. Lim and Klein, 2006; Mathieu et al., 2010). This may be due to the
way teams are formed. As in the Global Management Challengew
members choose
their teammates based on their relational preferences or on their competences to work.
Thus, at the start of the team task, members already have a mental model regarding
the way they should interact and work together. While task-TMM is specific for each
context, team-TMM is not. For this reason, if teams already have a similar team-TMM,
this shared understanding is more likely to lead to higher levels of effectiveness. The
task-TMM is specific for the context and develops as team members interact within the
simulation. Therefore, task-TMM is likely to take more time to develop and reach an
optimal level than team-TMM.