Individual and Group Performances as Functions of the Team-Training Load

The effects of team training load on both individual-and group-skill performances and training were measured in the laboratory with 10 five-member teams. Each team consisted of a specific five-member combination drawn from a total of 20 undergraduate volunteer male subjects. During the first 48 h of work, subjects were trained to perform the five individual- and one group-performance tasks presented with the Multiple-Task Performance Battery employed in the synthetic-work approach to performance assessment (see Alluisi, 1964; Chiles, Alluisi, and Adams, 1968; Morgan and Alluisi, 1972). Subsequently, trained subjects were combined in different numbers with untrained subjects to provide teamtraining loads (percentages of untrained team members) ranging from 0 to 100% in 20% steps. The five subjects in each of these teams worked together for 48 h over six consecutive days. Both individual and team performance effectiveness was reduced in direct proportion to the percentage of untrained personnel substituted into a trained team. However, neither the individual performances of the trained personnel nor the skill acquisition rates of the untrained personnel were adversely affected by increasing the team-training load.