Abstract:
The aim of this research was to build a valid and parsimonious scale to measure team grit.
The construct of team grit is in its nascency with very little empirical research or theoretical
explication of the construct. Given the importance of teams in society, including in work
organisational contexts, and the identification of grit at the individual level, the researcher
argues that team grit is an important driver of team effectiveness. Although several team-level
measures exist, no scale exists for measuring grit in teams. Due to the lack of research into
grit at a collective level the starting point for the study was to explicate the domain of team grit
through a review of literature. Following the development of the team grit domain, a qualitative
study was undertaken through ten team focus groups. The proposed elements of team grit
were tested, and team functioning was explored. These engagements offered a deeper
understanding of the team grit construct. An item pool was drafted from literature and the focus
groups, and tested with expert reviewers, who were scholars in the field of organisational
behaviour, grit, and scale development.
The main quantitative phase included four waves of data collection from 938 respondents
across multiple countries. The first exploratory factor analysis wave was conducted among
South African respondents obtained through social media. A second exploratory study, among
South African respondents in business, was used to purify the scale. The third wave, based
on data from the USA, again explored the factor structure and offered a confirmed factor
structure for testing nomological validity. The fourth and final UK based panel data confirmed
the factor structure, as well as the measurement invariance across the final two datasets. The
resultant eight-item and two factor scale has discriminant validity in relation to individual grit.
The scale also displays nomological validity, and evidence was found for metric, scalar and
residual invariance across geographical samples.
This study contributed to theory in identifying two closely connected factors which constitute
team grit. It also empirically links team grit to antecedents of team psychological safety and
team goal commitment. Moreover, team grit predicts team innovation and team work
engagement. The scale offers a new construct for measuring an important team quality, thus
making a strong methodological contribution. For practitioners, the scale offers an opportunity
to measure team grit with team development implications that may boost innovation and
engagement.
