College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

Spring 6-12-2017

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Suzanne T. Bell, PhD

Second Advisor

Goran Kuljanin, PhD

Abstract

Team effectiveness has been studied greatly in organizational research, and many factors have been identified that contribute to team success. However, given that numerous work teams today are long-term, ongoing entities, performance alone may not be the most appropriate measure. Many teams need to be highly adaptive to meet environmental demands (Tannenbaum, Mathieu, Salas, & Cohen, 2012). These teams go through several performance episodes, often managing several tasks simultaneously (Marks, Mathieu, & Zaccaro, 2001). Team viability as a construct may be useful in determining how well a team will perform on subsequent tasks. Viability assesses the team’s potential for future success based on its current health and sustainability (Bell & Marentette, 2011). This thesis describes the development and initial validation of a measure of team viability that can be used for ongoing teams. There has been much construct confusion in the literature on team viability. The importance of team viability is discussed as well as how it is distinct from similar constructs such as satisfaction. An initial content validation of the measure was conducted using subject matter experts who provided feedback on scale items. Results indicated that several initial items used in the item pool are clearly representative of viability. The experts also recommended that the ideas of sustainability, development, and willingness to work with team members again are important aspects of viability that should be captured in both the definition and items used. Future research can further refine the items and definition based on the SME feedback and collect convergent and divergent validity evidence.

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