Refining the work of Cannon-Bowers et al. (1995), Cannon-Bowers and Salas (1997) delineated three types of team knowledge, skills, and attitude competencies. First, "individual competencies" are defined as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required on the part of individual team members to perform position requirements. These competencies enable team members to perform tasks that are specifically assigned to them. For example, an individual in a marketing team assigned to purchase newspaper-advertising needs to possess specific knowledge and skills to successfully perform this task. Second, "team competencies held at the individual level" are defined as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are generic with respect to a team and its tasks. Essentially, these competencies are transportable to different teams and different team settings. For example, knowledge about teamwork skills and behaviors; skill in communication, team decision making, and interpersonal relations; positive attitudes toward teamwork, and a collective orientation enable team members to function effectively across a wide variety of teams. Finally, "team competencies held at the team level" are defined as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are specific to a particular team and task. Unlike team competencies at the individual level, these competencies are not transportable. They only have meaning within the team. For example, knowledge of teammate roles and responsibilities and specific teammate characteristics are only useful within a specific team context.

Given that the primary goal of ALL is to assess teamwork in the adult international population, teamwork measures will assess "team competencies held at the individual level." By definition, these competencies are of great interest to policymakers and educators because they enable individuals to function effectively in a wide variety of teams and a wide variety of team settings.

2.3 Core team skills, knowledge, and attitudes

A comprehensive review of teamwork models and research was conducted (e.g., Carnevale, Gainer and Meltzer, 1990; Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, 1990) to identify core team knowledge, skills, and attitude competencies held at the individual level. From that broad review, we selected the most comprehensive and current team competency models (Cannon-Bowers et al., 1995; O'Neil et al., 1997; Stevens and Campion, 1994a) and used these models to identify core team competencies to measure in ALL. Competencies were selected based upon the following criteria: (1) the competencies were held at the individual level; (2) at least two of the three models delineated the competency (in some form); and (3) empirical research supported a positive relationship between the competency and performance.

Core Team Skills. Team skill competencies are discussed first because they represent the manifest, individual-level behaviors that the ALL measure is designed to assess. Four competencies were identified as "core" team skills competencies: communication, interpersonal relations (which includes cooperation and dealing with conflict), group decision making/planning, and adaptability/flexibility. Team leadership, an often-cited skill competency (see for example, Cannon-Bowers et al., 1995), was not included because our current focus is on the ability to work in a team, not to lead one. Each core team skill is defined below, along with behavioral examples that typify the skill's expression. Although this core is assumed to reflect teamwork in most cultures, it should be noted that the behavioral exemplars presented here were derived from research conducted on teams in the U.S. (Cannon-Bowers et al., 1995; O'Neil et al., 1997; Stevens and Campion, 1994a). As such, they may or may not be consistent with the expression of the same core skills in other cultures. Thus, the cross-cultural generalizability of behaviors that manifest core team skills in the U.S. remains an empirical question that the ALL will address. However, should cultures to which these behaviors do not generalize be included in the ALL, other behaviors are expected to express the same core team skill competencies systematically.