Team Cognition at a Crossroad: Toward Conceptual Integration and Network Configurations

Abstract

A surprising and ironic lack of shared cognition currently exists about team cognition, including how to define the construct, organize the research, and integrate across multiple disjointed constructs. In response to team cognition at a critical crossroad, we provide a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary review, highlighting similarities and differences between constructs and integrating across constructs. Specifically, we synthesize ten disjointed team cognition constructs into three overarching dimensions. By establishing a common vocabulary to describe team cognition, the three-dimensional framework enhances our ability to evaluate accumulated research, recognize points of intersection, and identify key research gaps. Whereas the three-dimensional framework unites the team cognition literature conceptually, we see networks as a powerful tool to unite the team cognition literature methodologically. Networks nicely merge the structure and content of team cognition, multiple knowledge domains, the interrelationship between cognitive processes and cognitive representations, and the measurement capability to answer new and sophisticated research questions. By providing conceptual integration within a network configuration, we offer theoretical and measurement redirection to hasten the next frontier of team cognition research.