Defining the Nature of Team Skills in Navy Team Training and Performance

摘要

This report examines Navy team training activities in order to identify specific team coordination skill indicators. Data collected from training staff interviews and team training rating forms were content analyzed. These analyses showed that team skills focused primarily on various aspects of proficiency in information transfer. The most popular content categories turned out to be the ability to get information to the appropriate team members and the ability to get it there in a timely manner. These categories were refined and extended to incorporate a range of specific individual and team skills which are potential contributors to performance of the relevant team tasks. For example, achieving timely information transfer requires individual skills in collecting the information efficiently and team skills in expediting its transmission once it has been collected. A model describing team skill contributions to total team performance is presented which delineates between team and individual tasks. Recommendations are provided for addressing three basic team skills research issues which are directly relevant to team skills training. These issues include the intercorrelation of team skills and individual abilities, the transference of team skills, and the relationship between team skills and performance. Finally, it is suggested that these research issues be addressed in teams where information transfer team tasks are highly visible. Moreover, timeliness of information transfer should receive special attention in this research because of its likely impact on total team performance and its potential for being affected by a range of individual and team skills.