Table 6 Limitations of current research on teams & implementation science and recommendations for future research

Conceptualizing Teams

 Omission of teams and team constructs from implementation theories, models, and frameworks

Integrate teams and team constructs into implementation theories, models, and frameworks (see 20)

 Limited use of theory and research from the science of teams

Use well-established theories of team effectiveness and existing research on teams to develop hypotheses about how specific team constructs will affect implementation processes and outcomes

Describing Teams

 Poor definitions of teams. “Team” often used to describe groups of people working in the same setting without describing their interactions

Be clear about whether the group being studied is a team. If it’s a team, what makes it a team?

Describe structural characteristics of the team (e.g., size, membership, stability), the purpose of team, and how the team works together (i.e., interdependencies)

 Poor reporting of team-level sampling, recruitment, and response rates

Describe sampling processes within and across teams. How were individuals within teams sampled? How were teams sampled?

Report team-level response rates for studies with multiple teams

Assessing Teams & Team Constructs

 Variations in how teamwork was defined and measured; little consistency across studies

Increase specificity and rigor in how teamwork is conceptualized and assessed

Use reliable and valid measures

 Limited descriptions of the context within which teams operate

Assess and describe the organizational and system context of teams

Analyzing Team Data

 Limited consideration of within-team agreement and justification for aggregation

Evaluate within-team agreement before aggregating to the team level

 Frequent use of individual-level data to make inferences about teams (i.e., atomistic fallacy)

Analyze at the team level to draw team-level inferences

 Limited consideration of clustering of teams within organizations

When possible, account for clustering of teams within organizations in statistical models

Interpreting Team Data

 Limited integration of findings with existing theories and research

Situate findings within the broader literature on teams

Use findings to refine implementation theories, models, and frameworks