Meeting the challenge of workplace change: Team cooperation outperforms team competition

We examined the influence of reward structures on team adaptation. We collected data from Chinese university students, whom we assigned to 62 teams of 3 members. They took part in a team-based card game in a laboratory setting to test if a cooperative structure promotes team adaptation by facilitating shared mental model updating, and if a competitive structure harms team adaptation by preventing shared mental model updating. This proposition was supported by the results of the between-group factorial design experiment: The efficiency of the shared mental model was lost when predicting team performance in an uncertain environment. Teams with a cooperative structure outperformed teams with a competitive structure in the task changes, and this effect was mediated by shared mental model updating. Thus, team managers should adopt a cooperative-based structure in an uncertain environment to achieve team adaptation, as well as training team members to understand the changed situation.