Team mental models in sports: An overview

Strategic decisions are usually made by a team rather than an individual (Levine, Resnick, and Higgins, 1993) since society relies on teamwork (Andersen and Serena, 2002; Spencer, 2007). Therefore scholars from various domains have emphasized the importance of studying TMMs to capture the underlying mechanisms required for promoting effective teamwork and team decision making (Cannon-Bowers, Salas, and Converse, 1993). Recently, the importance of studying TMMs in the sport domain has also been acknowledged (Eccles and Tenenbaum, 2004). The purpose of this chapter is to offer a comprehensive review of the current understanding of TMMs in sports. Initially, we present definitions of shared mental models and team mental models. Subsequently, we present an overview of the current literature on TMMs. Finally, we discuss measurement issues, and outline future research avenues pertaining to TMM.