About

Much of our lives occur in teams, which are bounded groups with at least three humans with differentiated roles,¹ interacting and interdependent with a shared goal (Guzzo & Dickson, 1996; Hackman, 2012). 

The Organizational Teams and Technology Research Society (OTTRS)  advances research and collaboration on multiple aspects of the study of teams relevant to technology and information, increasing relevant work both within UMD and in the Technology and Teaming community outside of UMD. This multidisciplinary networked group of researchers draws on unique areas of expertise to bridge literatures and research paradigms. We will achieve these goals via:

• developing a regional, scholarly network of interested researchers and students, 
• running a speaker/seminar series of internal and external speakers,
• encouraging collaborations and learning across disciplines, and
• increasing the resources available for teams, information, and technology research and teaching.

Both radical and incremental improvements to current knowledge and practice are appreciated, as is any work on the basic to applied continuum.

While we have a human focus, we are inspired by computational potential and technological advances. We explicitly welcome multiple and interdisciplinary approaches. Some topics we will examine include: 

• teams and artificial intelligence (AI), such as examining, developing, and/or testing AI as a teammate and/or as a tool within team contexts; 
• technology to support different types of teams, such as collaborative software supporting remote, cross-cultural, and/or multidisciplinary team innovation, interaction, productive conflict, information sharing and knowledge building, communication, and success–this area would also cover relevant team Human-Computer Interaction work;
• collaborative learning, such as supporting teams of students at the iSchool and beyond;
• ethics of teams, information, and technology, which may involve different considerations from the ethics of information technology for individuals; and
• technological advances in teamwork research regarding teams as information processors such as capturing and analyzing team verbal and nonverbal communication, team cognition, processes, leadership, adaptation, networks, and information usage.

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¹ Whether a team could be two humans and an AI agent is a topic for future discussion. There are debates about whether a team involves a minimum of 2 or 3 entities.

References

Guzzo, R. A., & Dickson, M. W. (1996). Teams in organizations: Recent research on performance and effectiveness. Annual Review of Psychology, 47, 307–338.

Hackman, J. R. (2012). From causes to conditions in group research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 3, 428–444