DELTA is short for "Developing Effective Leaders, Teams, and Alliances" ---the purpose of our lab is to advance knowledge on leadership, team effectiveness, and alliance or multi-team system effectiveness in organizations. We use computer-based game simulations to model teams and alliances, and study the effects of leadership on cognition, collaboration, coordination, and performance.

We are currently finishing the third phase of data collection using a SIMCity team-based simulation where we examined leader sense-giving and team adaptability to crisis. Our next simulation is in development, and is being designed to model a system of teams working towards complex team and network goals. We are interested in examining the impact of leadership both within and between teams on cross-team collaboration and overall system effectiveness. This research is being sponsored by the Army Research Institute for the Social and Behavioral Sciences (ARI). DELTA researchers are also engaged in a major review of leadership methodology, a survey study of work and family conflict, and several meta-analytic reviews of factors important to team functioning.

Faculty Director

Leslie A. DeChurch, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Industrial & Organizational Psychology
Office: (Orlando) Psychology Building - Room 350
Phone: 407-823-3912
Email: ldechurc@mail.ucf.edu

Laboratory Location: Psychology Building - Room 203-O
Lab Phone: (407)-823-3917

Collaborating Faculty

C. Shawn Burke, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
UCF Institute for Simulation & Training

Christian Resick, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Management
Drexel University

Graduate Students Toshio Murase Miliani Jimenez Rebecca Lyons Samuel Wooten

Undergraduate Students Joey Fanfarelli Kristen Horton Amy Legge Saarah Kison

Recent Conference Presentations

All of the individuals co-authoring these presentations with Drs. DeChurch & Resick are graduate and undergraduate students working in our lab!

DeChurch, L. A., & Resick, C. J. (2007, August). Leader sense-giving and team adaptability to crisis. In S. W. J. Kozlowski (Chair), Leadership: Learning, Development, and Adaptation. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Academy of Management, Philadelphia, PA.

DeChurch, L.A. & Fu, L.C. (2007, April). Leadership research methodology: The state of the science. Poster session conducted at the meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, New York, NY.

DeChurch, L.A. & Mesmer-Magnus, J.R. (2007, April). The impact of measurement practices on team cognition-team outcome relationships: A meta-analysis. In C.S. Burke (Chair), Shared Cognition: Delving into Metrics. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, New York, NY.

Resick, C.J., DeChurch, L.A., Murase, T., Jimenez, M., Headley, G., & Perdikohiannis, S. (2007, April). Strategic mental model consensus and adaptation in decision-making teams. In C.S. Burke (Chair), Shared Cognition: Delving into Metrics. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, New York, NY.

Berger, C., Atamanik-Dunphy, C., DeChurch, L.A., Resick, C.J., Whitman, D., et al. (2007, April). The impact of cross-training on team adaptability. In J. R. Mesmer-Magnus & C. Viswesvaran (Chairs), Promoting individual and team adaptability through training. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, New York, NY.

Randall, K.K., Murase, T., Resick, C.J., & DeChurch, L.A. (2007, April). Personality and teamwork: Cognitive motivation as a multi-level linking mechanism. Poster session conducted at the meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, New York, NY.

Toshio Murase (PhD student), Christian Resick (Faculty), Leslie DeChurch (Faculty), & Miliani Jimenez (PhD student) in NY at the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Annual Meeting, April 2007.