Taking the emergent in team emergent states seriously: A review and preview

Team emergent states are properties that develop during team interactions and describe team members' attitudes and feelings (e.g., cohesion). However, these states' emergent nature has largely been neglected, as most studies do not examine the temporality of team phenomena. We review longitudinal studies on team emergent states and demonstrate that a majority of papers reveal their temporal dynamics but offer no universal patterns as to how such states emerge. The review reveals common variables related to temporal dynamics and highlights the importance of studying the development of team emergent states to enhance our knowledge of their causal directions, antecedents, and outcomes. We suggest that future research should clarify the concept of team emergent states, connect theories to research on temporal dynamics, adopt more qualitative approaches to answer “how” and “why” questions, and improve research designs to study meaningful forms of change. Lastly, we present practical implications for the HR field.