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We tested the effects of team strategic orientation on team member perceptions, work strategy and information
search. In Experiment 1, 80 teams worked on a hidden profile decision-making task. A defensive
team strategic orientation increased members’ perceptions of the problem’s scope, leading to a more process-
focused work strategy and broader information search compared to an offensive team strategic orientation.
When teams needed critical information from the environment, defensive teams outperformed
offensive teams; offensive teams performed better when critical information resided within the team. In
Experiment 2, these findings were replicated with 92 teams performing a different decision task. When
making a second decision, half of the teams were led to change their strategic orientation; teams shifting
from offense to defense altered their information search behavior more readily than did teams shifting in
the opposite direction, suggesting an asymmetric adaptation effect.