Reference: Schuth, M., Brosi, P., Folger, N., Chen, G., & Ployhart, R. E. (2023). When new talent scores: The impact of human capital and the team socialization context on newcomer performance in professional sports teams. Journal of Applied Psychology, 108(6), 1046– 1059. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001060 When does the team environment help or hurt how well a new team member performs? Psychologists studied how the team environment affects new team members’ performance in professional sports teams. They used data from the top five European professional football leagues over several years and examined over 23,000 players to see how newcomer skills and team characteristics affect newcomer performance. They looked at past team performance, the number of newcomers, and two socialization contexts, one where players spent more time on teams and one where players spent less time on teams. Results? Newcomer skills are always positively related to performance, no matter the socialization context. Team performance was positively related to newcomer performance when there was more time for socialization. However, when there was less time for socialization, both past team performance and the number of newcomers negatively impacted performance. When newcomers joined higher-performing teams, their skills were less positively related to their performance. Conclusions? Coaches and managers! Hiring newcomers with high skills and knowledge usually leads to better performance! But in competitive markets, success depends on the team's attributes and especially having more time for social time and close interactions!

Written by Kristin M. Harris, Ph.D.