ORIGINAL ARTICLES

A Measure of Team Resilience

Developing the Resilience at Work Team Scale

McEwen, Kathryn B Psych (Hons); Boyd, Carolyn M. PhD

Author Information

Working with Resilience, Adelaide, Australia (Ms McEwen and Ms Boyd) with special thanks to colleagues Ms Rochelle Colon and Ms Emily Lawrie.

Address correspondence to: Kathryn McEwen, B Psych (Hons), P.O. Box 440, North Adelaide, SA 5006, Australia ([email protected]).

This research was self-funded by the authors and they assert no conflicts of interest between them and any other organization.

Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 60(3):p 258-272, March 2018. | DOI: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001223

Abstract

Objective:

This study develops, and initial evaluates, a new measure of team-based resilience for use in research and practice.

Methods:

We conducted preliminary analyses, based on a cross-sectional sample of 344 employees nested within 31 teams.

Results:

Seven dimensions were identified through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The measure had high reliability and significant discrimination to indicate the presence of a unique team-based aspect of resilience that contributed to higher work engagement and higher self-rated team performance, over and above the effects of individual resilience. Multilevel analyses showed that team, but not individual, resilience predicted self-rated team performance.

Conclusion:

Practice implications include a need to focus on collective as well as individual behaviors in resilience-building. The measure provides a diagnostic instrument for teams and a scale to evaluate organizational interventions and research the relationship of resilience to other constructs.