Fantastic teams and where to find them: understanding team processes in isolated, confined and extreme teams through the IMOI framework

The new space race has begun with plans to put people on the Moon by 2024 and on Mars by 2030's. Still, there are myriads of technical difficulties to overcome before humankind is able to sustainably reach these destinations, and there are also psychological factors that need to be considered. Since no-one goes to space alone, teamwork is of utmost importance. Understanding different aspects of teamwork and team processes gives organizations a chance to improve their teams' efficacy in order to explore low Earth orbit and beyond in more safely and coherent manner. In this paper, to explore the state-of-the-art research in the field of team processes in space and analogue environments, 36 relevant papers were reviewed. From these studies, a model has been created, following the Input-Moderator-Output-Input (IMOI) framework. According to the model, there are contextual features like time, isolation and confinement, team attributes like autonomy, organizational culture and crew composition, and individual attributes like personality, which act as inputs for team processes and emerging states. Interpersonal relationships, emotional states, using of coping strategies, social climate, communication with family and friends, prior training, identification with the mission, psychological support and behavioral changes were the extracted team processes and emerging states which affect the team outputs such as team efficacy, team performance and cohesion, psychological well-being and mission success. The goal of the proposed model is to understand the nomological network of teamwork effectiveness in isolated, confined, and extreme environments. The core of the model is the understanding that the system of team processes and their affecting factors are dynamic and fluid, i.e. the provided outputs may act as inputs in some processes as well, hence team processes are always changing and being responsive to the very environment. The model gives a clear understanding of what to take into account in forming extreme environment teams such as Antarctic expeditions and space missions. The model could also help relevant research teams to understand the possible processes with an insight on how to adapt these processes to create the most efficient, coherent, and successful teams, ultimately for the most delicate humankind missions.