Need for Structure as Asset and Liability in Dynamic Team Decision-Making

Based on the motivated information processing in groups model, we predicted that low personal need for structure (PNS) among team members helps team dynamic decision-making performance on highly ambiguous tasks, but hurts performance on tasks low in ambiguity. In a laboratory experiment involving 22 groups of army cadets performing a command-and-control task, we measured PNS and manipulated informational ambiguity. We found that team PNS was negatively related to team performance when tasks were high in ambiguity and positively related to performance when tasks were less ambiguous. This effect was mediated by information processing and behavioral coordination.