Emergent Team Roles in Organizational Meetings: Identifying Communication Patterns via Cluster Analysis

Previous team role taxonomies have largely relied on self-report data, have focused on functional roles and have described individual predispositions or personality traits. Instead, this study takes a communicative approach and proposes that team roles are produced, shaped and sustained in communicative behaviors. To identify team roles communicatively, 59 regular organizational meetings were videotaped and analyzed. Cluster analysis revealed five emergent roles: the solution seeker, the problem analyst, the procedural facilitator, the complainer, and the indifferent. In terms of meeting outcomes, solution seekers were beneficial to idea longevity, whereas complainers were harmful for meeting satisfaction and idea longevity. Future research directions and managerial implications are highlighted.     

From old soccer to new football? Expert accounts of transformations on the world game in Australia post-Crawford Report

This article investigated and evaluated the changes which have occurred in Australian football since the publication of the Crawford Report in 2003. Prior to this report, it was widely perceived that football was the ‘sleeping giant’ of Australian professional sport despite its popularity at youth participant level. The Crawford Report made a range of recommendations and a new era was heralded when Football Federation Australia was established which set upon the task of adopting a number of Crawford’s recommendations. To investigate the impact of the Crawford Report on the current status of Australian football, a qualitative methodology was adopted. Purposive sampling was adopted to give voice to senior football figures who were involved in the sport in both the pre- and post-Crawford Report periods and a total of 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted. A number of significant themes emerged from the research. All participants agreed that Australian football’s appeal has been broadened. However, the interviews also reported that the perception of football as a minor code and always relegated to the ethnic margins was a ‘myth’. Also, the participants raised the issue of whether the Crawford Report was implemented to its fullest degree. They were passionate about the idea that if all recommendations were implemented, the sport might currently be in a much stronger position.     

Round or rectangular tables for collaborative problem solving? A multimodal learning analytics study

The current knowledge of the effects of the physical environment on learners’ behaviour in collaborative problem-solving tasks is underexplored. This paper aims to critically examine the potential of multimodal learning analytics, using new data sets, in studying how the shapes of shared tables affect the learners’ behaviour when collaborating in terms of patterns of participation and indicators related to physical social interactions. The research presented in this paper investigates this question considering the potential interplay with contextual aspects (level of education) and learning design decisions (group size). Three dependent variables (distance between students, range of movement and level of participation) are tested using quantitative and qualitative analyses of data collected using a motion capture system and video recordings. Results show that the use of round tables (vs rectangular tables) leads to higher levels of on-task participation in the case of elementary school students. For university students, different table shapes seem to have a limited impact on their levels of participation in collaborative problem solving. The analysis shows significant differences regarding the relationship between group size and the distance between students, but there is no substantial evidence that group size affects the level of participation. The findings support previous research highlighting the importance of studying the role of the physical environment as an element of learning design and the potential of multimodal learning analytics in approaching these studies.     

Art eases the process of attachment and separation

According to many developmental theorists, when young children enter a new situation, issues of separation and attachment rise quickly to the surface. Therefore these issues are critical for early childhood providers and teachers to address. Extensive research has shown that a child's inability to manage the process of attachment and separation has a direct correlation to various behaviors including aggressiveness, dependency, difficult parent-child relationships, and inferior socialization skills. See Gardner, 1980; Turner, 1991; Hock & Schirtziner, 1992; Lyons-Ruth, 1991, Booth, Rose-Krasner, & Rubin, 1991.     

Putting the “I” back in team

In the summer of 2013, staff in the Access Services unit of an academic library began a cross-training and collaboration project in an effort to provide continued library service to the campus community. The cross-training was established in an attempt to address a shortage of staff as a result of budget cuts. The cross-training resulted in the transitioning of the Access Services units and the creation of a collaborative team. The development of cross-training and its benefits are addressed in addition to lessons learned.     

The relational antecedents of project-entrepreneurship: Network centrality, team composition and project performance

The relational antecedents of project-based enterprises have not yet received systematic investigation. These ventures are typically created by individual freelancers who are usually embedded in networks of collaborative relationships that convey the information and resources required to carry out new projects. Using a relational perspective of entrepreneurial discovery and team composition, we analyze the performance determinants of project-entrepreneurs, namely the individuals who are responsible for launching and carrying out those projects. We argue that project-entrepreneurs’ performance is related to their degree of centrality within the social network, and their familiarity with the selected project-team as captured by the distribution of ties among team members. We test our hypotheses within the Hollywood Film Industry over the period 1992–2003. The findings point to the existence of diminishing returns to centrality and performance benefits from assembling teams that combine old-timers and newcomers. The theoretical contributions and implications of the study are discussed.     

Professional and Personal Competency Development in Near-peer Tutors of Gross Anatomy: A Longitudinal Mixed-methods Study

There are many benefits to peer and near-peer tutoring. The current literature suggests that near-peer teaching within the domain of gross anatomy may lead to the development of numerous competencies for burgeoning medical professionals. The aim of this study was a quantitative and qualitative approach to explore which professional and personal competencies anatomy tutors developed as a result of their teaching activities in a gross anatomy course at a medical school in Germany. For a period of 18 months, 24 peer tutors were followed and queried multiple times via questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. It was found that most of the skills tutors developed or strengthened over one semester matched most of the core competencies described in various official competency frameworks used for physician education. In particular, tutors thought that tutoring gross anatomy had improved their knowledge of professional behavior as well as their communication skills. They also felt that they had learned to take on more responsibility and to use available resources more effectively. Overall, tutoring gross anatomy was perceived as very challenging, but also very rewarding, mainly because it provided the opportunity to develop and strengthen important skills such as self-confidence, self-awareness, positive thinking, self-insight, and stress management. Ultimately, these are all factors that contribute to resilience, an important attribute for physicians.