The Composition and Formation of Effective Teams. Computer Science meets Psychology

TL;DR

This paper reviews interdisciplinary research on team composition and formation, highlighting key contributions from computer science and psychology to improve team effectiveness in various applications.

Contribution

It provides an integrative perspective by comparing strengths and weaknesses of both fields and identifying opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Findings

Highlights key contributions from both disciplines

Identifies strengths and weaknesses in current research

Suggests avenues for interdisciplinary innovation

Abstract

Nowadays the composition and formation of effective teams is highly important for both companies to assure their competitiveness and for a wide range of emerging applications exploiting multiagent collaboration (e.g. crowdsourcing, human-agent collaborations). The aim of this article is to provide an integrative perspective on team composition, team formation and their relationship with team performance. Thus, we review the contributions in both the computer science literature and the organisational psychology literature dealing with these topics. Our purpose is twofold. First, we aim at identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the contributions made by these two diverse bodies of research. Second, we pursue to identify cross-fertilisation opportunities that help both disciplines benefit from one another. Given the volume of existing literature, our review is not intended to be exhaustive. Instead, we have preferred to focus on the most significant contributions in both fields together with recent contributions that break new ground to spur innovative research.