Need for Help and Personal Traits Affect Team Member Support

To study what leads team members to help each other, researchers tested 71 four-person teams of undergraduates as they played a military command game. One person on each team was given a much higher workload than the others. In some teams, that person had plenty of resources (far more tanks) relative to their team members, and in others they had the same resources. All members were given personality tests, and the studies recorded which members went to assist the high-task members and how often that happened.

There weren't many surprises. Teams performed much better if other members were willing to aid the high-task member. Also, this support was more likely if the high-task individual did not have more resources. In general, emotionally stable people with good work ethics were more likely to provide support. High-task members who were extroverted were generally better at accepting help than shyer people. How agreeable a person was had no effect on whether they lent a hand (a surprise to the researchers). Introverts were less likely to receive help when it was really needed than when it wasn't really needed; the reasons for this were outside the scope of the study.

Source: Porter, C., et al. (03), "Backing Up Behaviors in Teams: The Role of Personality and Legitimacy of Need," Journal of Applied Psychology 88(3):391.