BUS603: Managing People

One of the limitations of the current study is the use of a student sample that, on average, was relatively young (18.5 years old). As well, the participants were predominantly male. It is therefore somewhat difficult to generalize the current findings to more heterogeneous work environments. Furthermore, our results may only apply to time- and project-limited teams. Teams that are tasked with multiple performance cycles may experience a different form of change in potency over time, during the completion of their projects. Future research will be needed to assess the form and function of potency in alternative types of teamwork, which may also facilitate insight into Marks et al.'s recommendation to investigate multiphasic perspectives on team processes.

A second limitation concerns the ability to apply these results to the dynamic nature that is exemplified by other emergent states. Specifically, the dynamics of potency may vary from the growth inherent with other emergent states (e.g., cohesion). Although potency may emerge after a relatively short duration, and then decline over time, cohesion (i.e., a motivational force that drives teams to stay together) may take longer to emerge as teams take time to decide whether they want to stay together. Thus, future research should be conducted using similar research methods and analytical procedures (i.e., latent growth modeling, paired with Lang et al.'s consensus emergence model) to investigate the dynamics of other emergent states.

A third limitation is that the measures marking the beginning of the potency growth trajectories were collected 2 months into teams' lifecycle. This timeframe was selected because members had limited time to interact over the first 2 months, but would have still been representative of teams' "honeymoon" levels of potency, as they had yet to receive any substantial feedback on their team effectiveness. The results of this study, however, demonstrate that potency had already begun to emerge by the beginning of the trajectory. Future research should measure and examine potency even earlier on in a team's inception.