The effectiveness of team reflexivity interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Cumulating evidence from 24 independent randomized controlled trials or experiments (N = 4,339), we meta-analytically examined questions regarding the effectiveness of team reflexivity on collective performance outcomes and behaviors, and the conditions under which such effects are strongest. We addressed these questions by testing the overall effect of team reflexivity on performance outcomes (i.e., indices or metrics that quantify goal attainment) and behaviors (i.e., those actions or states that precede or influence goal attainment), and assessing the robustness of this pooled effect across study (e.g., team size), outcome (e.g., measurement approach), and intervention characteristics (e.g., virtuality) via a series of moderator analyses. We found a positive and significant medium overall effect of team reflexivity interventions on performance outcomes (g = .549) and performance behaviors (g = .548). Moderator analyses indicated that the team reflexivity-performance outcome effect is contingent upon the measurement approach (in favor of self-reports over objective indices or researcher-assessed outcomes). With regard to performance behaviors, the effect of team reflexivity was strongest for cognitions and behaviors relative to affective dimensions, and when interventions were delivered to teams present physically relative to virtual teams. Collectively, our findings extend existing meta-analytic evidence regarding team reflexivity interventions in terms of resolution (i.e., inability to isolate unique effects), scope (i.e., primary studies missed via the systematic search), and methodological quality of primary evidence (i.e., incorporation of quasi-experimental designs).