Team formation under normal versus crisis situations: leaders' assessments of task requirements and selection of team members

Abstract

The blend of skills, attributes, and relationships among team members influences their mutual performance. This project addressed the team composition requirements for tasks that vary in uncertainty, risk, and time pressure. Military leaders were asked to identify necessary team member attributes for strategy, negotiating, and crisis response teams, and to compose potential teams from among their colleagues for each scenario. Their responses were combined with measures of relationships among potential teammates. Results indicated that team selection criteria change when organizational environmental factors change, and team leaders make selection decisions considering friendship, professional ties with and reliability of candidate team members. Motivation, professional capabilities, and leadership skills are the most preferred selection variables when the organizational situation is perceived as a crisis.