Means vs. Ends: Implications of Process and Outcome Focus for Team Adaptation and Performance

To reap the value in diverse teams, leaders may try to manipulate structuralinterdependence – through task design – to foster synergistic collaboration. However, ambiguityabout the nature and appropriate intersections of members’ unique and valuable cognitiveperspectives can make it difficult to fully anticipate collaborative activity in task design. Here,teams need emergent interdependence – members must develop the desire and expectation towork interdependently for the benefit of the work. We therefore present a model of how leaderscan promote emergent interdependence for diverse team success, identifying key antecedents anddiscussing psychological safety as a condition which can enhance their efforts.