The increasing complex environment in which military service teams operate during missions necessitates knowledge specialization of individual team members in order to execute the mission objectives. This specialization and differentiation of team members (heterogeneity of the team) brings a new challenge into the decision making process of the team: besides knowledge of the mission field and situation, knowledge about the specialization of the team members (Transactive Memory System, TMS) and what kind of team composition to use during different missions is vital. Recent research indicates the effect of TMS on team effectiveness, decision making and situation awareness. Empirical evidence of dangers of ‘illusory' TM on team performance in ambiguous situations (Tschan et al., 2009) shows the importance of TMS in service teams working in unknown, complex conditions.
In this research, military cockpit crews that vary on team composition, operating the same helicopter, are compared on TMS Specialization, TMS Credibility and TMS Coordination. The heterogeneity will be varied on four aspects: team task specialization; cultural background; ranks; experience. Then, the overall effect of TMS on objective and subjective performance will be measured.
Both literature and empirical results of this research show the importance of TMS in heterogeneous teams. The results of this research can help to enhance the training of our service men and women, to improve their skills necessary to operate in an unknown, highly complex environment and ensure their safe return.