Team member involvement in team leader training and performance

Critical elements for multigenerational teams: a systematic review

Purpose

Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on multigenerational teams, to evaluate the maturity of the research area, identify key themes, and highlight areas for future research. Generational differences in the workforce are becoming a critical factor, as four generations (Veterans/Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y/Millennials) currently co-exist, and a fifth generation (Generation Z) stands poised to enter the workforce. To manage these differences effectively, organizations must first understand the various generations and, ultimately, their interaction and engagement with each other. Whereas some literature on the differences between the generations and how they pertain to the organizational work environment exists, currently, it is unclear what is known about how these differences impact the performance of multigenerational teams.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a systematic literature review on teams and generational differences. A total of 7 platforms were included, resulting in 121 articles in the final paper set.

Findings

The review confirmed a low presence of literature related to generational differences and teams, implying the knowledge area is currently immature; however, despite this, there is an upward trajectory in publications and citations over the past few years, and existing publications and citations span a number of countries, suggesting a likelihood of significant growth in the research area in the near future. Further, key themes were identified in the current literature relating to commitment, leadership, team dynamics, conflict and wages and work environment.

Research limitations/implications

Only seven platforms were included in this review, although the seven platforms chosen are believed to provide comprehensive coverage of the field. The search strings used were “generation” and “team,” which was the word combination found to produce the largest number of results in preliminary trials; however, it is possible that using additional word combinations might have yielded some additional papers. Finally, the review was limited to English-language articles (or their translations); although, ultimately, only two articles were eliminated because of lack of an English language version.

Practical implications

The findings can be used by organizations to identify factors of interest in managing multigenerational teams, as well as what is currently known about influencing those factors to achieve more positive team outcomes.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this appears to be the first systematic literature review on generational differences in teams. Given the importance of this topic, this review is critical to provide a baseline on what is currently known in the field and existing research and practice gaps.

Conflict, individual satisfaction with team, and training motivation

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the mediating effect of an individual’s satisfaction with the team between conflict and training motivation. This study provides understanding regarding how the type of conflict within a team can influence an individual’s team experience which can, in turn, influence that individual’s training motivation and impact future teams.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 498 upper-level business students engaged in a team project. Structural equation modeling examined the serial mediation relationship between perceived diversity, conflict (affective and cognitive), individual satisfaction with the team and training motivation (learning and transfer).

Findings

Individual satisfaction with the team partially mediates the relationship between affective conflict and both training motivation dimensions, and fully mediates the relationship between cognitive conflict and both training motivation dimensions.

Practical implications

To encourage future participation in teams, managers should explore ways to increase an individual’s satisfaction, such as increasing the cognitive conflict by incorporating diversity within teams and reducing the affective conflict within teams. Likewise, by increasing an individual’s satisfaction with the team, managers can increase both the motivation to learn and transfer new knowledge.

Originality/value

This paper illuminates the role that an individual’s satisfaction with the team has between conflict and training motivation. Moreover, this paper demonstrates that more research on an individual’s satisfaction with the team is needed.

Interdisciplinarity as Teamwork

This essay discusses interdisciplinary research in the context of science policy and the practice of science. Comparisons between interdisciplinary research and other forms of cross-disciplinary research are made, and a brief discussion of the development of the concept of interdisciplinarity is provided. The overarching thesis of this essay is that interdisciplinary research is team research, that is, research conducted by a team. This notion is developed via recent policy discussions of team science and the need to understand interdisciplinary research in action. The author shows how it may be possible to consider the implementation of principles from teamwork and team training to improve interdisciplinary research and the practice of team science.