Role and Discipline Relationships in a Transdisciplinary Biomedical Team: Structuration, Values Override and Context Scaffolding

TL;DR

This study investigates how disciplinary roles and values influence team dynamics in transdisciplinary biomedical research, revealing that individual perceptions and discipline-specific traits shape team functioning and change.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the interplay of roles, disciplines, and values in biomedical teams, highlighting the importance of context and self-perception in team structuration.

Findings

Discipline and role idiosyncrasies influence team dynamics.

Values and self-perceptions impact team contributions.

Contextual factors shape team change receptivity.

Abstract

Though accepted that "team science" is needed to tackle and conquer the health problems that are plaguing our society significant empirical evidence of team mechanisms and functional dynamics is still lacking in abundance. Through grounded methods the relationship between scientific disciplines and team roles was observed in a United States National Institutes of Health-funded (NIH) research consortium. Interviews and the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) were employed.. Findings show strong role and discipline idiosyncrasies that when viewed separately provide different insights into team functioning and change receptivity. When considered simultaneously, value-latent characteristics emerged showing self-perceived contributions to the team. This micro/meso analysis suggests that individual participation in team level interactions can inform the structuration of roles and disciplines in an attempt to tackle macro level problems.