Configurational Research in Teams

Teams are complex systems in which multiple individual members, themselves containing multiple characteristics, are embedded (Arrow, McGrath, & Berdahl, 2000). Team research has historically been dominated by a focus on what is shared across these multiple components, such as aggregations of team member characteristics or perceptions of team processes operationalized through calculating agreement statistics and means. Instead, configurational perspectives on teams and their members recognize the complexity of teams by focusing on the uneven and disproportional effects of member characteristics or processes on team outcomes (Kozlowski & Klein, 2000). Understanding such effects is essential for building upon traditional approaches using shared team constructs to create new knowledge about how teams create synergy amid seemingly limitless potential for chaos and conflict. Moreover, adopting configurational perspectives on teams is increasingly tractable with advances in configurational methodologies (e.g., social networks, faultlines, latent profile analysis, qualitative comparative analysis, and attribute alignment). As such, this panel symposium will 1) generate awareness of configurational perspectives and methods used in team research, 2) share recent advances in the field, and 3) create an opportunity for researchers who are actively working in or interested in this area to collaborate. The format will include an introduction to the topic, brief presentations from the panelists, and an informal Q&A session involving the panelists, their collaborators, and the audience.