Team work under time constraints

The existing literature has documented the advantages of teams as decision-making units across a wide array of environments. In this study, we explore the potential limits of such benefits. Specifically, we demonstrate that certain conditions, such as time constraints, can compromise team effectiveness, causing them to perform equally or even less effectively than individuals. Our findings indicate that under low time pressure, teams excel in coordination, achieving significantly higher efficiency compared to individuals. This result stems from teams’ higher efforts and lower miscoordination. However, under high time pressure, teams lose their coordination advantages and struggle to reach an agreement, performing on par with individuals. We investigate the underlying mechanisms driving the detrimental effect of time pressure on performance by analyzing communication content and estimating the experience-weighted attraction learning model. Taking the evidence together, we conclude that teams’ superior performance in coordination settings without time constraints can be attributed to open chat discussions, which create a shared understanding of the game.