Adaptation to Stress in Team Decision-Making and Coordination

Teams with records of superior performance have one common critical characteristic: they are extremely adaptive to varying task demands. These teams were observed to switch between several different coordination strategies and organizational structures, with different lines of authority, communication patterns, and task responsibilities, as they move between normal operations and high-tempo or emergency situations. Two questions are central to the issue: What are the effects of external stressors on team performance, and what are the mechanisms by which teams of decision-makers cope with stress? Our main hypothesis is that team coordination strategies evolve from explicit coordination under low workload conditions to implicit coordination as workload increases. To illustrate these ideas, this paper presents findings from an experimental study on the effects of stress on the performance of command teams. The computer-based experimental task simulates operations in a naval environment in which a hierarchical team of four decision-makers must coordinate complex and ambiguous information to make identifications on air targets. Three task-related stressors–time-pressure, uncertainty, and ambiguity-, and one information-structural variable were manipulated in a within-subject, full-factorial design. Results show some complex patterns of the way the different stressors combine to generate stress and affect the team decision and coordination strategies. Implicit coordination patterns, anticipatory behavior, and redirection of the team communication strategy are evident under conditions of increased time-pressure. Discrepancy between the subordinates' and the team leader's mental model of the costs of errors generates non-trivial patterns of error-making in the teams. The team leader's periodic update had a stabilizing effect on the team communication strategy. Different implementations of team training interventions to enhance mutual anticipation, prevent inadequate adaptation to stress, and foster implicit coordination in command teams are proposed.