Diversity and Shared Team Mental Models in the Military

Abstract : Diversity provides a number of advantages to military teams including an increased information and experience pool for task completion as well as broader perspectives for problem solving. There can be a number of problems with diversity, however, including how team member background differences affect shared team mental models of team tasks (common knowledge, expectations, and sensemaking). This report examines a number of factors in such shared models, such as team development stages, training, task experience, and task cohesion, and presents a model of how diversity affects these factors' influence upon shared team mental models, team processes, and team performance. Recommendations follow for how the military might enhance shared team mental models in order to improve the performance of diverse teams.

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