The Effects of Task Characteristics on the Organisation of the Team

Abstract

In the multiman-machine system, the organisation of the team appears to depend to a great extent on the characteristics of the tasks to be performed. After a discussion of the factors contributing to team performance, and the demands imposed by tasks, the results of a series of experiments are described in which certain task characteristics (complexity and organisation) of simulated command-and-control tasks are varied to investigate the performance of two-man teams working in either a vertical (serial) or a horizontal (parallel) team organisation. Evidence from this experimental work suggests that both types of team organisation may have their advantages and disadvantages in relation to different task characteristics.