The impact of collective psychological capital on complex problem solving performance: a team and individual member perspective

To clarify the effect of team state on complex problem solving performance, drawing from the complex problem solving interaction theory, a two-factor mixed experimental design was adopted to explore the impact of collective psychological capital (team state), problem situation complexity on team and individual problem-solving performance through two experiments. Data were gathered through a sample of 390 members of 130 teams, with 66 teams in the experimental group and 64 teams in the control group. The results showed that the main effects of collective psychological capital and problem situation complexity on both team and individual member problem-solving performance were significant, and the interaction effects were also significant. Further simple effects analysis revealed that teams with higher collective psychological capital had less negative effects of problem situation complexity on problem-solving performance. This finding indicates that collective psychological capital has a positive effect on the teams and individual members of complex problem-solving performance, and that the negative effects of problem situation complexity are buffered in teams with higher collective psychological capital. This finding is also indicates that the team itself, as a microenvironment, has a multifaceted impact on the psychology and behavior of the team and individual members. At the same time, the formation of an effective team allows investment in terms of collective psychological capital, which is one way to increase and maintain competitiveness and a cost-saving optimization option.