Reading the Pulse of Teamwork
PhD research by Elwira Halgas shows how physiological coordination can help monitor and understand team adaptation and performance in complex and high pressure environments.
PhD researcher from the Human Performance Management group (HPM) at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences defended her dissertation on April 8. Her work explores how the physiological coordination of team members can serve as a window into how teams adapt and perform in fast changing and high pressure environments.
Why Adaptation Matters
Entrepreneurs, care professionals, operational managers, and emergency teams all face situations where rapid shifts in tasks or conditions demand immediate collective adjustment. Halgas shows that these moments of uncertainty, such as unexpected disruptions in health care teams or sudden challenges in digital collaboration, can be better understood by studying how a team aligns its behavioural and physiological responses.
Unseen Dynamics
The Human Performance Management group investigates how teams operate as dynamic systems. Halgas examined patterns in heart rate and skin conductance to uncover how teams synchronize while solving problems. Her work highlights how subtle shifts in coordination can signal changing levels of stress, attention, and cognitive workload. These insights support organizations looking for unobtrusive ways to evaluate how teams are coping with rising complexity.
Real World Relevance
Organizations increasingly rely on teams that must function smoothly despite pressure, hybrid work, or unpredictable workflows. Halgas demonstrates that physiological coordination offers a promising approach to monitoring these challenges without disrupting the work itself. The research shows how different measures of coordination each reflect specific aspects of team processes and why combining physiological and behavioural data can offer a more complete understanding of how teams adapt.
Complex Interactions
The studies in the dissertation reveal that coordination patterns shift over time as teams face new demands. These shifts are not uniform but differ depending on the type of physiological signal and computational method used. This means that continuous monitoring tools for teams must be sensitive to these nuances to avoid drawing incomplete conclusions about performance and adaptation.
Future Possibilities
Halgas explains that unobtrusive monitoring technologies hold potential for guiding team development, leadership decisions, and training design. At the same time, her work underscores the importance of further validation and ethical considerations before relying on such systems in real world environments. Her findings indicate that richer assessments may emerge when physiological coordination is combined with behavioural indicators.
Elwira Halgas defended her thesis on April 8 2026.
Title of the thesis: .
Supervisors: Josette Gevers, Joyce Westerink, Sonja Rispens.