A process model of team effectiveness in extreme environments

Teamwork is the cornerstone of successful human endeavors in extreme environments, including intensive care units, firefighting operations, polar expeditions, and space. However, in such high‐stake contexts, adverse work conditions and mission challenges may negatively impact both team interactions and tangible team outputs if managed inadequately by organizational actors. To shed light on the drivers of effective teamwork in extreme environments, the current study introduces the development of a process model of team effectiveness in extreme environments, using grounded theory as a methodological framework. The participants were 61 individuals who belonged to 34 teams involved in Antarctic operations. Our findings suggest that team effectiveness in extreme environments is made possible via a three‐stage process through which teams develop and amplify team resilience capacity as a resource, which then enables adaptation to mission challenges when they occur. Following adaptation, teams then engage in mending team resilience to restore necessary resources for future adaptation. Hence, the findings of this study contribute to the generation of new knowledge that richly describes how to achieve teamwork effectiveness in one of the most demanding and least forgiving environments on Earth.