Development and validation of the team influence relations scale (TIReS): Beyond the measurement of individual influence in teams

The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate the Team Influence Relations Scale (TIReS), a new instrument to measure the relation of influence in a team that overcomes a predominating individual approach to influence in teams. The TIReS stems from the concepts of team subjectivity and deinfluentization that perceive influence as a collective phenomenon in a triangular influence model.

In the first study the authors subjected the data, gathered from 280 employees from Polish private sector companies, to the principal axis factoring analysis, yielding 12 best-fitting items loading on two factors (i.e. meaning reduction and space offering). In the second study the authors employed confirmatory factor analyses to test data from 784 workers from private sector organizations in Poland.

The results yielded a six-factor structure for the TIReS (root mean square error of approximation=0.077, comparative fit index=0.93, NNFI=0.91, standardized root mean square residual=0.073) with two sub-dimensions for each influence source in a team (i.e. the individual, the leader, the team as a whole). The results provide evidence for the internal consistency reliability of the TIReS (Cronbach’s α ranging from 0.87 to 0.93 for TIReS factors) and its satisfactory criterion-related validity.

The TIReS addresses a gap in currently available questionnaires to measure the relation of influence in teams considering three sources of influence in a team. The importance of team influence relations measurement is discussed.