A major transformation in research and training is expected, using new, more advanced versions of computer-based systems. Technology now affords new capabilities: complex and distributed expert decisionmaking and team performance can now be elicited and rehearsed through affordable and easily distributed systems. These new systems will transform research and training on two fronts. It will allow research needed to bridge the gap between internal (i.e. laboratory control) and external (e.g. operational relevance) validity. In addition, it enables a coalition of forces, from training instructors and their students, to research scientists and quantitative performance modelers. While simulation-based research and training is rapidly advancing, with increased funding and sponsorship, as yet there is no comprehensive documentation of tools and techniques. This book addresses the problem, bringing together experts from a variety of perspectives. Their contributions document emerging trends and issues with regard to development, utilization, and validation of these emerging ’scaled world’ systems. The readership includes researchers and practitioners who develop and/or utilize simulation-based environments, educators interested in instructional technology and researchers who require criterion-based performance evaluation.

Scaled Worlds identifies and discusses the emerging challenges and opportunities arising from advanced-technology simulation-based microworld analogues of operational environments. Providing invaluable new insights into the issues, challenges, and approaches for study related to measurement, validation strategy, cognitive modeling, decision making, team training, and system performance, its inclusive and comprehensive perspective pulls together a wealth of literature arising from diverse disciplines.

The goal of the chapters in this SIOP Organizational Frontiers Series volume is to challenge researchers to break away from the rote application of traditional methodologies and to capitalize upon the wealth of data collection and analytic strategies available to them. In that spirit, many of the chapters in this book deal with methodologies that encourage organizational scientists to re-conceptualize phenomena of interest (e.g., experience sampling, catastrophe modeling), employ novel data collection strategies (e.g., data mining, Petri nets), and/or apply sophisticated analytic techniques (e.g., latent class analysis). The editors believe that these chapters provide compelling solutions for the complex problems faced by organizational researchers.

Over the past 40 years, there has been a growing trend toward the utilization of teams for accomplishing work in organizations. Project teams, self-managed work teams and top management teams, among others have become a regular element in the corporation or military. This volume is intended to provide an overview of the current state of the art research on team effectiveness.

This book examines an emerging organizational form called the multi-team system (MTS). This type of aggregation is being increasingly adopted by organizations and agencies that need to respond to complex strategic problems. There has been increasing interest in MTSs over the last decade to the point where there is now a need to (a) describe these organizational forms more fully, (b) build conceptual frames that can guide research, and (c) begin developing tools to improve the study of MTSs. The purpose of this book is to respond to these needs. The book contains a series of chapters that expand prior conceptual frames of MTSs, defining in more detail the compositional and linkage attributes that characterize such units. The book also explores how such systems emerge and develop, as well as the methods for studying MTSs. The intent of the book is to establish and nurture a strong conceptual and methodological foundation that can guide research and practice with MTSs. Because the notion of MTSs cuts across multiple domains, this book will interest scholars in industrial/organizational psychology, organizational science, management and organizational theory, human factors, sociology, organization communications, and public administration.

This volume provides an overview of the methodological issues and challenges inherent in the study of small groups from the perspective of seasoned researchers in communication, psychology and other fields in the behavioral and social sciences. It summarizes the current state of group methods in a format that is readable, insightful, and useful for both new and experienced group researchers. This collection of essays will inspire new and established researchers alike to look beyond their current methodological approaches, covering both traditional and new methods for studying groups and exploring the full range of groups in face-to-face and online settings. The volume will be an important addition to graduate study on group research and will be a valuable reference for established group researchers, consultants and other practitioners. The essays in this volume when considered as a whole will be a contemporary interdisciplinary integration on group research methods.

Recent advances in technology have dramatically altered the manner in which organizations function, transforming the way people think about and perform their work. The implications of these trends continue to evolve as emerging innovations adapt to and are adapted by organizations, workers, and other components of the socio-technical systems in which they are embedded. A rigorous consideration of these implications is needed to understand, manage, and drive the reciprocal interplay between technology and the workplace. This edited volume brings together top scholars within and outside of the field of industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology to explore the psychological and organizational effects of contemporary workplace technologies. A special section is included at the end of the book by four experts in the field entitled Reflections and Future Directions.