Interactive technologies through the lens of team effectiveness: an interdisciplinary systematic literature review

Although interactive technologies increasingly shape teamwork, their relationship with team effectiveness (inputs, processes, emergent states, and outputs) remains unclear. To provide an overview of this relationship, we systematically reviewed empirical articles from Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). To bring the two disciplines closer, we analysed 37 papers that validated the effects of interactive technologies, focusing on the type and characteristics of these technologies, the psychological mechanisms that they intended to support, and the methodological information of the conducted studies. We found that interactive technologies had mainly positive effects on various team effectiveness components (e.g., action team processes and task-related outputs), especially when they allowed team members to be physically close to each other or to have the option to interact synchronously. Nevertheless, the picture remains incomplete (e.g., limited evidence about affect-related properties and outputs), with several methodological limitations (e.g., mainly experimental studies with student teams). We discuss ways to shape the existing technological potential for effective team functioning, especially for affective and implicit psychological mechanisms. We highlight the need for interdisciplinary research and present an exemplary approach as an inspiration for WOP and HCI to work together and move beyond the boundaries of each single discipline.