An Empirical Examination of the Relationships Between Adult Attention Deficit, Reliance on Team Mates and Team Member Performance
Document Type
Article
Department or Administrative Unit
Finance and Supply Chain Management
Publication Date
2009
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of adult attention deficit on team members, the relationships between team members, the task performance dynamics within teams and team member performance.
A total of 304 management students working in self managing project teams completed measures of adult attention deficit, difficulty with necessary tasks, general independence, extraordinary reliance on team mates and acceptance of reliance on team mates. A measure of a team member's performance was completed by the other team members upon completion of the team project. Product moment correlations were used to examine associations between the measures, and partial correlations were used to test for mediation effects. The Williams T2 test was used to test for significant differences in correlations between adult attention deficit and related variables.
Adult attention deficit interferes with the ability to perform necessary tasks and constrains the achievement of a general sense of independence. The disorder also promotes extraordinary reliance on team mates and constrains team member performance. Although the disorder promotes extraordinary reliance on team mates, it promotes acceptance of such reliance to a much lesser extent.
Future research needs to sample a variety of workplace teams. Testing the hypotheses on new samples will also help to confirm the validity and reliability of the measures developed for this study.
Organizations that are increasingly reliant on the performance of employee teams need to be more aware of the influence of adult attention deficit on team members, their relationships with other team members and their performance. Providing individual training and team interventions that target the cognitive, emotional and behavioral capacity for completing necessary tasks is especially important for team members afflicted with the disorder.
This is the first study to examine the relationship between adult attention deficit, reliance on other team members and team member performance. This research is of value to researchers, organizational development specialists, managers and team members who are trying to improve the performance of team members with adult attention deficit.
Recommended Citation
Coetzer, G.H. & Trimble, R. (2009). An empirical examination of the relationships between adult attention deficit, reliance on team mates and team member performance. Team Performance Management: An International Journal 15(1/2), 78-91. DOI: 10.1108/13527590910937739
Journal
Team Performance Management: An International Journal
Rights
Copyright © 2009 Emerald Group
Comments
This article was originally published in Team Performance Management. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.
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