The Influence of Intrusions on Team Interaction: An Explorative Field Study

Despite their prevalence in daily teamwork, little is known about the influence of intrusions on teams. Therefore the effect of intrusions on team interaction was investigated, focusing on relational communication. Three different theoretical perspectives regarding team interaction changes in response to a meeting intrusion are discussed. these perspectives were mapped onto fine-grained behavioral data from twelve teams (N = 4627 sense units) by means of lag sequential analysis. Teams’ use of relational communication changed in several ways in response to the intrusion. While these changes fit best with one perspective (task-focused), several results also align with other perspectives.