Team Mental Models

Abstract

This chapter focuses on a specific team process, namely team mental models (TMM), which has been the subject of extensive theoretical and empirical work in sport, exercise, and performance psychology in particular, and applied psychology at large. It explains the terminology and provides an operational definition of TMM. The chapter discusses the reflective indicators of TMM and comment on its formative function on team coordination. It proposes a descriptive conceptual taxonomy to inform research and also provides general recommendations on how to measure mental representations at the team‐level of analysis. The chapter reviews the theoretical roots and presents empirical evidence supporting the theorem of TMM. In the nomo‐logical network section, it also discusses the reciprocal linkage of TMM with other team processes and team outcomes. The chapter presents applied recommendations focusing on how to improve team dynamics through social means and concludes with a summary and outlook of future research perspectives.