The effects of acute stressors on transactive memory and shared mental models in temporary project teams: An information processing approach

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a model of stress in team-based work structures. Based on information processing theory, stress was proposed to negatively impact team processes leading to decrements in team performance. Results indicated that stress was negatively related to the development of both transactive memory and shared mental models. Transactive memory and shared mental models were then shown to mediate the relationship between stress and team performance. A number of personal and situational characteristics were also proposed to affect the relationship between stress and team processes. Results indicated that cognitive ability and extraversion had little impact on team processes and failed to ameliorate the effects of stress on transactive memory and shared mental models. Results regarding the two situational characteristics, feedback and prior shared information, were mixed. The level of prior shared information was positively related to the level of retrieval coordination within the team, as well as shared mental model similarity and accuracy. Prior shared information also moderated the negative effects of stress on the level of retrieval coordination within teams. Providing negative feedback to the team as a whole rather than to an individual team member did not directly affect team processes, but it helped to moderate the negative effects of stress on the level of information allocation within teams. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.