A hierarchical model of team mental model development

Recent team research has focused on how shared knowledge structures among team members affect team performance (Cooke et al 2003; Marks et al 2002; Mathieu et al 2000; Zelno et al 2003). The underlying argument of the team mental model (TMM) literature is that team effectiveness is enhanced when team members have a shared, organized understanding of key elements of the team environment (Cannon-Bowers et al 1993). The types of TMMs that team members hold include various models of taskwork and teamwork, and these can be 'shared' in a variety of ways---they can be similar or identical, overlapping or complementary, or distributed (Cannon-Bowers and Salas 2001). Research is yet to delineate the most effective form of 'sharedness' of the numerous subtypes, nor how such a pattern of 'sharedness' may develop or can be created or enhanced through training. The aims of the current paper are to propose a framework of TMM development that includes a hierarchy of subtype 'sharedness', and to describe the effectiveness of specific training interventions designed to enhance the development of TMMs