Assessing team shared knowledge: A field test and implications for team training

One aspect of team performance that has received recent research attention is the notion that teammates who share a common understanding (i.e., shared mental model) of the team task have an advantage over those teams with disparate knowledge. As part of this line of work, team researchers have begun to investigate methods to assess shared knowledge and methods to train shared knowledge. This paper examines one shared knowledge assessment tool (a “shared expectations” measure) and its potential to be linked with a shared knowledge training method (“team self-correction”). The goal is to assess teammates’ shared knowledge and then give the team the opportunity to correct any discrepancies during a team discussion. The shared expectations measure describes a variety of task situations to which teammates respond according to what actions they expect their team to take. Specific discrepancies can be pinpointed, and an overall assessment of agreement can be calculated. While this type of measure might be useful to combine with a team selfcorrection

training intervention, limited use of this measurement approach has occurred. To advance this approach, a field test of the measure was conducted using teams competing in a tennis doubles tournament (N = 12, 2-person teams). The results indicated a positive correlation between the degree of shared knowledge and team performance. Implications for combining this measure with a team selfcorrection training intervention are discussed.