Team knowledge research: emerging trends and critical needs

Area of Science:

• Human Factors
• Cognitive Science
• Organizational Psychology

Background:

• Team knowledge, defined as emergent knowledge structures from member interactions, requires further study.
• Recent research emphasizes the necessity of understanding team knowledge dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the empirical literature on team knowledge.
• To identify methodological trends and gaps in team knowledge research.
• To provide guidance for future research directions.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature review focusing on empirical studies measuring team knowledge.
• Extraction of study characteristics including author background, design, setting, participants, tasks, constructs, and measurement methods.

Main Results:

• Methodological approaches in team knowledge research are often linked to the primary author's academic background.
• Significant knowledge gaps exist regarding team knowledge construct relationships, mediating mechanisms for performance, and non-performance-related criteria.
• An organizing framework identified previously unexamined categories of team knowledge.

Conclusions:

• Opportunities exist to expand the study of team knowledge through more comprehensive theoretical frameworks.
• This review offers a 10-year summary and a framework to guide human factors researchers in team studies.