Multiteam system

Gaming testbeds

"Computer-based simulations have been used to study MTSs in laboratory settings. Two that have been used frequently are ACES and DELTASim.

ACES

Multi-team Air Campaign Effectiveness Simulation (ACES): ACES is a simulation developed in response to the numerous low-fidelity simulations used in psychological research that have limited external validity. It utilizes a PC-based flight simulation program called Total Air War (TAW), by Digital Image Design, Corp., in which players pilot a F-22 aircraft in the context of a fictional international conflict. In addition to the use of an adapted version of TAW, ACES captures records audio and video of participants, and participants communicate between- and within-groups through the use of microphone-equipped headsets. Up to 16 teams can play ACES at a time, and can be assigned different flight packages, weapons, and responsibilities. Team objectives can also be individual or related, depending on the manipulation. In addition, because ACES is a virtual simulation, teams can be remote.

DELTASim

"DELTASim is a testbed developed by the DELTA research laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This PC-based simulation models a humanitarian aid multiteam system composed of two to three person component teams working on different functional tasks (e.g. special operations, mobile infantry) in different regions. The MTS goal of DELTASim is to enable a convoy of humanitarian aid trucks to move safely through a hostile area. The DELTASim has been reconfigured to run experiments using different communication modalities, leadership arrangements, degrees of trust, and communication networks within and across teams."

Leadership of multiteam systems

Because of the complexity inherent within MTSs (including the possibility of competing component team goals), these systems present a unique challenge to leadership. Initial experimental results have demonstrated the importance to the success of such systems that component teams be synchronized such that both proximal team goals and higher-level collective outcomes are obtained. For example, laboratory research has demonstrated that effective interaction processes occurring between teams are more essential to MTS performance than are those interaction processes that occur within teams. In other words, component teams within an MTS each could be individually successful while the system as a whole fails to meet its objectives.

In recent team research, functional leadership theory has been presented as especially appropriate for conceptualizing the role of the team leader. This theory addresses the leader’s broad relationship to the team in that the core duty of the leader is "to do, or get done, whatever is not being adequately handled for group needs". The view of team leaders through the functional leadership lens has been extended to the MTS context in recent years. In particular, the MTS leader typically is responsible for interpreting and defining MTS task requirements. Additionally, MTS leadership, consistent with the functional leadership viewpoint, is conceptualized as including discretion and choice in the solutions applied to a given problem. For example, when requirements shift, as is the case in dynamically changing environments, and entrained team/MTS responses are no longer appropriate, MTS leaders must define/redefine directions (e.g. vision, task requirements) for the MTS. Marks and colleagues argued further that effective MTS leadership must balance the management of component team actions while maintaining cross-team interdependencies in response to environmental demands. In other words, MTS leaders must ensure that component team efforts throughout the system are aligned appropriately. Initial laboratory results indicate that MTS leaders can, in fact, be trained to enact functional MTS leader behaviors. In particular, DeChurch and Marks found that training manipulations, focused on leader strategizing and coordinating, enhanced functional MTS leadership behavior and interteam coordination and, in turn, enhanced MTS-level performance.