Scaling the quality of teammates' mental models: equifinality and normative comparisons

Abstract

We tested the impact of teammates' team and task mental model sharedness on team processes and performance using 70 undergraduate teams that completed a series of missions on a PC-based flight simulator. Moreover, we considered how the quality of mental models might moderate such relationships. Team processes were found to partially mediate the relationship between task mental model sharedness and team performance. Although team mental model sharedness failed to exhibit a significant linear relationship with team processes or performance, it did evidence a multiplicative relationship as moderated by the quality of those models. Team processes and performance were better among teams sharing higher-quality team mental models than among teams evidencing less sharedness or who had lower-quality models. Again, team processes partially mediated these relationships. Results are discussed in terms of the equifinality of mental model quality and applications to various team environments. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.