How team averages in authentic living and perspective-taking personalities relate to team information elaboration and team performance.

Abstract

Is it wise to be authentic, that is, to express your inner thoughts and feelings, in a team context? Although authenticity can be argued to benefit teamwork as authentic team members contribute their unique perspectives, it can also hinder teamwork if those unique perspectives are not heard and integrated. Using theory on groups as information processors, we propose that when team members both contribute their own unique perspectives (team mean authentic living), and try to understand each other's contributions (team mean perspective taking), a process of information elaboration occurs at the team level, which in turn leads to team performance. Study 1 tested these assumptions in 67 teams of students (N = 247), whereas Study 2 used 37 teams of employees (N = 194). Results support the hypothesized interaction between team mean authentic living and team mean perspective taking on team information elaboration such that the effects were positive when perspective taking was high but negative when it was low. In terms of team performance, although team information elaboration consistently predicted team performance in both studies, Study 1 could not confirm the hypothesized indirect effects, whereas Study 2 confirmed only the hypothesized positive indirect effect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).