As the first stage of the team interaction process, the input factors of the input stage have the following four aspects generally: individual factors, team factors, environmental factors, and target factors. Individual factors included team members' skills, attitudes, and personality traits. Then scholars added team members' knowledge to it, while Rosen et al. refined knowledge into task knowledge, team knowledge, and mental model. McGrath and Gladstein all put team cohesion and the number of team members into the team factors. Jewell especially took team roles, team behavioral norms, and team maturity into consideration, and regarded them as input factors. Environmental factors include not only internal factors (e.g. the nature of tasks, reward mechanisms), but also external factors (e.g. external environmental pressures, external resources). The target factor depends largely on leadership. Good leaders will set appropriate goals according to the actual situation. Research shows that the team's goals are highly correlated with team performance. The clarity and challenge of the target can lead to high team performance within a certain range.
As the main stage of team interaction, the process stage has always been the focus of scholars' attention and discussion. Some scholars divide it into task dimension and interpersonal dimension. Some scholars divide it into trust, conflict, communication, support, learning and cohesion. Some also divide it into arguments, conflicts, trust and humor. In general, the components of the team interaction process can be summarized as the following four aspects: team communication, team conflict, team trust, and team learning.
Team communication is the basis of team operation. Team communication is the basic way to achieve "docking" and "interconnection" on the psychological level among team members. The quality of communication is positively related to the efficiency of team interaction. Liu et al. also pointed out that when the quality of team communication is improved, the interaction among team members will be enhanced, which will improve team effectiveness. High-efficiency and high-quality information exchange requires team members communicate around the topic closely, engage in exploratory dialogue, and have more teamwork than personal plots.
Team conflict refers to the disagreement or tension that occurs because of the existence or perception of the difference. Lehmann-Willenbrock and Chiu pointed out that conflicts and disagreements are indispensable components of teamwork. According to the nature of conflicts, Jehn divided conflicts into relationship conflicts and task conflicts. Liu and Zhao found that the relationship conflict will greatly reduce team harmony and productivity, on the contrary, the task conflict has a positive impact on the team's operation. However, when they occur together, the wrong attribution of conflicts may turn the task conflicts into relationship conflicts, thus also adversely affecting team interaction. Fortunately studies have shown that team trust can effectively reduce this transformation.
Team trust refers to the mutual trust among team members, and it is the subjective feelings of team members who work towards the common goals. Wang and Yang pointed out that the stronger mutual trust among team members, the higher the frequency and quality of communication. Thus the strategic goals of the team are easier to achieve. Team trust has a constructive impact on team interaction and team management. In order to form a good team trust atmosphere, team leadership, member quality, communication and cooperation must be developed and coordinated.
Team learning is actually a kind of knowledge sharing behavior, and knowledge sharing is a self-interested behavior. It is the responsibility of the team to share knowledge. The existence of team learning has its own undeniable advantages. Xing and Yao showed that team learning is faster, broader and deeper than individual learning. Positivity in team interaction is good for team learning and performance. However, there is no denying that there is a certain "knowledge protection barrier" in team learning. In order to maintain their own advantages, there will be reservations when people learn from each other. Team trust and team goal consistency can effectively solve this problem.
The outcomes of the output stage are mainly reflected in the team level and individual level. The team level mainly includes the improvement of team quality, the enhancement of cohesiveness, the rapid resolution of problems, the reduction of errors, and the improvement of satisfaction. The individual level includes the growth of members, the satisfaction of needs and the improvement of their abilities. These outcomes are summarized as performance outcomes, and these performance outcomes are mainly reflected in the team innovation performance.
Zhang and Zhang showed that team trust, teamwork, team cohesion, and task interaction were significantly related to team innovation performance, among which team cohesion was the most relevant one. Wang and Zhou also believed that the process of innovation cannot be separated from the communication and communication among members. The process of team interaction is beneficial to the generation, discussion and implementation of new ideas. The paper also believes that the establishment of behavioral norms is conducive to team innovation. Members participate in team interaction and they are unconsciously influenced by the norms. These all ultimately enable them to show more team innovation behaviors.
The feedback of the team interaction process has gradually attracted the attention of scholars. Scholars construct the team interaction process into a closed loop, emphasizing that high-quality team performance has a great effect on the team initial resource subsequently. Rosen et al. also focused on the feedback of good performance outcomes on input factors, which made team interaction more flexible and adaptable.