Team effectiveness

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US Navy sailors effectively hauling in a mooring line (2010) Defense.gov News Photo 100930-N-2855B-251 - U.S. Navy sailors aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge DDG 96 haul in a mooring line while mooring the ship in Faslane Scotland on.jpg
US Navy sailors effectively hauling in a mooring line (2010)

Team effectiveness (also referred to as group effectiveness) is the capacity a team has to accomplish the goals or objectives administered by an authorized personnel or the organization. [1] A team is a collection of individuals who are interdependent in their tasks, share responsibility for outcomes, and view themselves as a unit embedded in an institutional or organizational system which operates within the established boundaries of that system. [2] Teams and groups have established a synonymous relationship within the confines of processes and research relating to their effectiveness [3] (i.e. group cohesiveness, teamwork) while still maintaining their independence as two separate units, as groups and their members are independent of each other's role, skill, knowledge or purpose versus teams and their members, who are interdependent upon each other's role, skill, knowledge and purpose.

Contents

There are many team effectiveness models including Rubin, Plovnick, and Fry's GRPI model, [4] the Katzenbach and Smith model, [5] the T7 model, [6] the LaFasto and Larson model, [7] the Hackman model, [8] the Lencioni model [9] and the Google model. [10]

Overview

The evaluation of how effective a team is, is achieved with the aid of a variety of components derived from research and theories that help in creating a description of the multifaceted nature of team effectiveness. According to Hackman (1987), [11] team effectiveness can be defined in terms of three criteria:

  1. Output – The final outputs produced by the team must meet or exceed the standards set by key constituents within the organization
  2. Social Processes – The internal social processes operating as the team interacts should enhance, or at least maintain, the group's ability to work together in the future
  3. Learning – The experience of working in the team environment should act to satisfy rather than aggravate the personal needs of team members [12]
US Navy Outrigger Paddling team rowing with cohesion, efficacy and without group conflict (2007) US Navy 070425-N-4198C-002 Personnel Specialist 1st Class Omar Saliba and Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Ryan De La Cruz lead the men's Navy rowing team.jpg
US Navy Outrigger Paddling team rowing with cohesion, efficacy and without group conflict (2007)

In order for these criteria to be assessed appropriately, an evaluation of team effectiveness should be conducted, which involves both a measure of the teams' final task performance as well as criteria with which to assess intragroup process. The three major intragroup process constructs examined are intra-group conflict, team cohesion, and team-efficacy. Intra-group conflict is an integral part of the process a team undergoes and the effectiveness of the unit that was formed. Previous research has differentiated two components of intra-group conflict:

Team cohesion is viewed as a general indicator of synergistic group interaction—or process. [13] Furthermore, cohesion has been linked to greater coordination during team-tasks as well as improved satisfaction, productivity, and group interactions. [14] Team efficacy refers to team members' perceptions of task-specific team competence. This construct is thought to create a sense of confidence within the team that enables the group to persevere when faced with hardship. [15] According to Hackman (2002), [16] there are also 5 conditions that research has shown to optimize the effectiveness of the team:

  1. Real Team – Stability in the group membership over time
  2. Compelling Direction – A clear purpose that relies on end goals
  3. Enabling Structure – The groups dynamic must be producing good, not bad
  4. Social Support – The group must have a system to collaborate properly
  5. Coaching – Opportunities for a coach to give help [17]

The Aristotle project, a multi-year initiative by Google Inc. aimed at defining the characteristics of an ideal team in the workplace, has found somewhat similar conditions for group effectiveness. They found that by far, most important factor is psychological safety. The other key factors in productivity are dependability, structure and clarity, personal meaning, and each team member feeling like they have an impact. [18]

Work teams

Work teams (also referred to as production and service teams) are continuing work units responsible for producing goods or providing services for the organization. [19] Their membership is typically stable, usually full-time, and well-defined. [20] These teams are traditionally directed by a supervisor who mandates what work is done, who does it, and in what manner is it executed. Work teams are effectively used in manufacturing sectors such as mining and apparel and service based sectors such as accounting which utilize audit teams. [21]

Self-managed work teams

Self-managed work teams (also referred to as autonomous work groups) allow their members to make a greater contribution at work and constitute a significant competitive advantage for the organization. [22] These work teams determine how they will accomplish the objectives they are mandated to achieve and decide what route they will take to complete the current assignment. [23] Self-managed work teams are granted the responsibility of planning, scheduling, organizing, directing, controlling and evaluating their own work process. They also select their own members and evaluate the members' performance. Self-managed work teams have been favored for their effectiveness over traditionally managed teams due their ability to enhance productivity, costs, customer service, quality, and safety. [24] [25] Self-managed work teams do not always have positive results, however. These teams can be expensive to start, have the potential for the greatest conflict, and are often difficult to monitor the progress of. [26] The move to self-managed work teams at Levi Strauss & Co. in the 1990s pitted highly skilled and efficient workers against their slower counterparts, who the faster workers did not feel were sufficiently contributing to the team. [27]

Parallel teams

Parallel team solving a problem (2013) Hemlock Overlook - Peanut Butter Pit - 04.jpg
Parallel team solving a problem (2013)

Parallel teams (also referred to as advice and involvement teams) pull together people from different work units or jobs to perform functions that the regular organization is not equipped to perform well. These teams are given limited authority and can only make recommendations to individuals higher in the organizational hierarchy. [28] Parallel teams are used for solving problems and activities that are in need of revision or improvement. [29] Examples of parallel teams are quality circles, task forces, quality improvement teams, employee involvement groups. The effectiveness of parallel teams is proven by the continuation of their usage and expansion throughout organizations due to their ability to improve quality and increase employee involvement. [30] [31]

Project teams

Project teams (also referred to as development teams) produce new products and services for an organization or institution on a one-time or limited basis, of which the copyrights of that new product or service will belong to the establishment that it was made for once it is completed. The task of these teams may vary from just improving a current project, concept or plan to creating an entirely new projects with very few limitations. Projects teams rely on their members being knowledgeable and well versed in many disciplines and functions, as this allows them to complete the task effectively. [32] Once a project is completed, the team either disbands and are individually moved to other special functions or moves on to other projects and tasks that they as a unit can accomplish or develop. A common example of project teams are cross-functional teams. [33] A project team's effectiveness is associated with the speed with which they are able to create and develop new products and services which reduces time spent on individual projects. [34]

Management teams

Management teams (also referred to as action and negotiation teams) are responsible for the coordination and direction of a division within an institution or organization during various assigned projects and functional, operational and/or strategic tasks and initiatives. [35] Management teams are responsible for the total performance of the division they oversee with regards to day-to-day operations, delegation of tasks and the supervision of employees. [36] The authority of these teams are based on the members position on the company's or institution's organizational chart. These management teams are constructed of managers from different divisions (e.g. Vice President of Marketing, Assistant Director of Operations). [37] [38] An example of management teams are executive management teams, which consists of members at the top of the organization's hierarchy, such as chief executive officer, board of directors, board of trustees, etc., who establish the strategic initiatives that a company will undertake over a long term period (~ 3–5 years). [39] Management teams have been effective by using their expertise to aid companies in adjusting to the current landscape of a global economy, which helps them compete with their rivals in their respective markets, produce unique initiatives that sets them apart from their rivals and empower the employees who are responsible for the success of the organization or institution. [40] [41]

See also

Related Research Articles

Industrial and organizational psychology "focuses the lens of psychological science on a key aspect of human life, namely, their work lives. In general, the goals of I-O psychology are to better understand and optimize the effectiveness, health, and well-being of both individuals and organizations." It is an applied discipline within psychology and is an international profession. I-O psychology is also known as occupational psychology in the United Kingdom, organisational psychology in Australia and New Zealand, and work and organizational (WO) psychology throughout Europe and Brazil. Industrial, work, and organizational (IWO) psychology is the broader, more global term for the science and profession.

Virtual management, is the supervision, leadership, and maintenance of virtual teams—dispersed work groups that rarely meet face to face. As the number of virtual teams has grown, facilitated by the Internet, globalization, outsourcing, and remote work, the need to manage them has also grown. The following article provides information concerning some of the important management factors involved with virtual teams, and the life cycle of managing a virtual team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leadership</span> Quality of one individual or group influencing or guiding others based on authority

Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "lead", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Team</span> Group linked in a common purpose

A team is a group of individuals working together to achieve their goal.

Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group, or between social groups. The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision-making behaviour, tracking the spread of diseases in society, creating effective therapy techniques, and following the emergence and popularity of new ideas and technologies. These applications of the field are studied in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, epidemiology, education, social work, leadership studies, business and managerial studies, as well as communication studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Team building</span> Term for activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams

Team building is a collective term for various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams, often involving collaborative tasks. It is distinct from team training, which is designed by a combine of business managers, learning and development/OD and an HR Business Partner to improve the efficiency, rather than interpersonal relations.

Work design is an area of research and practice within industrial and organizational psychology, and is concerned with the "content and organization of one's work tasks, activities, relationships, and responsibilities" (p. 662). Research has demonstrated that work design has important implications for individual employees, teams, organisations, and society.

Middle management is the intermediate management level of a hierarchical organization that is subordinate to the executive management and responsible for ‘team leading’ line managers and/or ‘specialist’ line managers. Middle management is indirectly responsible for junior staff performance and productivity.

Senior management, executive management, or upper management is an occupation at the highest level of management of an organization, performed by individuals who have the day-to-day tasks of managing the organization, sometimes a company or a corporation.

An organizational structure defines how activities such as task allocation, coordination, and supervision are directed toward the achievement of organizational aims.

A virtual team usually refers to a group of individuals who work together from different geographic locations and rely on communication technology such as email, instant messaging, and video or voice conferencing services in order to collaborate. The term can also refer to groups or teams that work together asynchronously or across organizational levels. Powell, Piccoli and Ives (2004) define virtual teams as "groups of geographically, organizationally and/or time dispersed workers brought together by information and telecommunication technologies to accomplish one or more organizational tasks." As documented by Gibson (2020), virtual teams grew in importance and number during 2000-2020, particularly in light of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic which forced many workers to collaborate remotely with each other as they worked from home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teamwork</span> Collaborative effort of a team to achieve a common goal

Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in an effective and efficient way. Teamwork is seen within the framework of a team, which is a group of interdependent individuals who work together towards a common goal.

Conflict management is the process of limiting the negative aspects of conflict while increasing the positive aspects of conflict. The aim of conflict management is to enhance learning and group outcomes, including effectiveness or performance in an organizational setting. Properly managed conflict can improve group outcomes.

Organizational conflict, or workplace conflict, is a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests between people working together. Conflict takes many forms in organizations. There is the inevitable clash between formal authority and power and those individuals and groups affected. There are disputes over how revenues should be divided, how the work should be done, and how long and hard people should work. There are jurisdictional disagreements among individuals, departments, and between unions and management. There are subtler forms of conflict involving rivalries, jealousies, personality clashes, role definitions, and struggles for power and favor. There is also conflict within individuals – between competing needs and demands – to which individuals respond in different ways.

Multiteam systems (MTSs) are "two or more teams that interface directly and interdependently in response to environmental contingencies toward the accomplishment of collective goals. MTS boundaries are defined by virtue of the fact that all teams within the system, while pursuing different proximal goals, share at least one common distal goal; and in doing so, exhibit input, process and outcome interdependence with at least one other team in the system". Multiteam systems describe collections of teams that work toward a common goal. MTSs are often conceptualized as larger than a single team, but smaller than the organization within which they are embedded. In fact, MTSs often traverse organizations such that teams embedded within the same MTS may hail from multiple organizations. These systems of teams can be conceptualized as a special type of social network. In particular, MTSs are social networks whose boundaries are based on the shared interdependence of all members toward the accomplishment of a higher-order network-level goal. Multiteam systems are different from teams, because they are composed of multiple teams that must coordinate and collaborate. In MTSs, component teams each pursue proximal team goals and at the same time, work toward the larger system level goal. Because of this dual focus on team goals and systems goals, there are many situations where interventions aimed at improving the internal cohesion of teams will come at a cost to the larger goal. The past decade has witnessed an explosion of interest in the social sciences in understanding multiteam systems. MTSs are thought to explain the dynamics that arise in the public sector such as Provincial Reconstruction Teams, and in the private sector with strategic alliances.

Team composition refers to the overall mix of characteristics among people in a team, which is a unit of two or more individuals who interact interdependently to achieve a common objective. It is based on the attributes among individuals that comprise the team, in addition to their main objective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astronaut organization in spaceflight missions</span>

Selection, training, cohesion and psychosocial adaptation influence performance and, as such, are relevant factors to consider while preparing for costly, long-duration spaceflight missions in which the performance objectives will be demanding, endurance will be tested and success will be critical.

Shared leadership is a leadership style that broadly distributes leadership responsibility, such that people within a team and organization lead each other. It has frequently been compared to horizontal leadership, distributed leadership, and collective leadership and is most contrasted with more traditional "vertical" or "hierarchical" leadership that resides predominantly with an individual instead of a group.

Functional diversity encapsulates the cognitive resource diversity theory, which is the idea that diversity of cognitive resources promotes creativity and innovation, problem solving capacity, and organizational flexibility. Functionally diverse teams “consist of individuals with a variety of educational and training backgrounds working together." This differs from social diversity, which in accordance with the similarity attraction (homophily) paradigm, is the idea that individuals who are more similar together are able to work together more effectively. There is a degree of ambiguity in academic literature in the definition of functional and social diversity due to many studies in this matter either focusing on one or the other or mashing up the different characteristics. Psychologists, economists, sociologists have conducted numerous studies on diversity within groups to examine the effects on group performance. There are debates about benefits and costs of working in a functionally diverse groups. Milliken and Martins (1996) concluded that “diversity appears to be a double-edged sword”.

Team diversity refers to the differences between individual members of a team that can exist on various dimensions like age, nationality, religious background, functional background or task skills, sexual orientation, and political preferences, among others. Different types of diversity include demographic, personality and functional diversity, and can have positive as well as negative effects on team outcomes. Diversity can impact performance, team member satisfaction or the innovative capacity of a team. According to the Input-Process-Output Model, team diversity is considered an input factor that has effects on the processes as well as on the team outputs of team work.

References

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  2. ↑ Halvorsen, Kristin (2013). "Team decision making in the workplace: A systematic review of discourse analytic studies". Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice. 7 (3): 273–296. doi:10.1558/japl.v7i3.273.
  3. ↑ Kozlowski, Steve W.J.; Ilgen, Daniel R. (December 2006). "Enhancing the Effectiveness of Work Groups and Teams". Psychological Science in the Public Interest. 7 (3): 77–124. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.115.953 . doi:10.1111/j.1529-1006.2006.00030.x. PMID   26158912. S2CID   20030504.
  4. ↑ "The GRPI Model of Team Effectiveness".
  5. ↑ "The Wisdom of Teams".
  6. ↑ "Driving Team Effectiveness" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-05-16. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
  7. ↑ "Teamwork". 2019-02-02.
  8. ↑ "A Normative Model of Work Team Effectiveness" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-11-18. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
  9. ↑ "Five Dysfunctions of a Team".
  10. ↑ "Understanding team effectiveness".
  11. ↑ Hackman, J. Richard (1987). "The design of work teams". Handbook of Organizational Behavior: 315–42.
  12. ↑ Hackman, J. R.; Wageman, R. (1 April 2005). "A Theory of Team Coaching". Academy of Management Review. 30 (2): 269–287. doi:10.5465/AMR.2005.16387885.
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  14. ↑ Mach, Merce; Dolan, Simon; Tzafrir, Shay (September 2010). "The differential effect of team members' trust on team performance: The mediation role of team cohesion". Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. 83 (3): 771–794. doi:10.1348/096317909X473903. hdl: 2445/122936 .
  15. ↑ Collins, Catherine G.; Parker, Sharon K. (December 2010). "Team capability beliefs over time: Distinguishing between team potency, team outcome efficacy, and team process efficacy". Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. 83 (4): 1003–1023. doi:10.1348/096317909X484271.
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  18. ↑ Duhigg, Charles (2016-02-25). "What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team – NYTimes.com". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
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  23. ↑ Neck, C. P. (1 August 1994). "From Groupthink to Teamthink: Toward the Creation of Constructive Thought Patterns in Self-Managing Work Teams". Human Relations. 47 (8): 929–952. doi:10.1177/001872679404700804. S2CID   142506441.
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  26. ↑ thompson, leigh (2017-01-03). Making the team : a guide for managers (Sixth ed.). ISBN   978-0134484204.
  27. ↑ King, Ralph T Jr. (May 20, 1998). "Jeans Therapy – Levi's Factory Workers are Assigned to Teams, and Morale Takes a Hit". The Wall Street Journal.
  28. ↑ Arditti, Fred D.; Levy, Haim (December 1980). "A Model of the Parallel Team Strategy in Production Development". American Economic Review. 70 (5): 1089–1097.
  29. ↑ Öztürk, Pinar; Rossland, Kari; Gundersen, Odd Erik (21 November 2008). "A multiagent framework for coordinated parallel problem solving". Applied Intelligence. 33 (2): 132–143. doi:10.1007/s10489-008-0154-7. S2CID   28456633.
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  31. ↑ CORDERY, JOHN; SOO, CHRISTINE; KIRKMAN, BRADLEY; ROSEN, BENSON; MATHIEU, JOHN (2009). "Leading Parallel Global Virtual Teams". Organizational Dynamics. 38 (3): 204–216. doi:10.1016/j.orgdyn.2009.04.002.
  32. ↑ Park, Jonghyuk (2011). "The Team Structure Design, Team-Coaching, Team Development, and Team Performance of Cross-Functional Project Team". The Journal of the Korea Contents Association (in Korean). 11 (8): 260–273. doi: 10.5392/JKCA.2011.11.8.260 . ISSN   1598-4877.
  33. ↑ Sarin, Shikhar; O'Connor, Gina Colarelli (March 2009). "First among Equals: The Effect of Team Leader Characteristics on the Internal Dynamics of Cross-Functional Product Development Teams". Journal of Product Innovation Management. 26 (2): 188–205. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5885.2009.00345.x .
  34. ↑ Reed, April H.; Knight, Linda V (2013). "Project Duration and Risk Factors on Virtual Projects". Journal of Computer Information Systems. 54 (1): 75–83. doi:10.1080/08874417.2013.11645673. S2CID   61443123.
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  37. ↑ Ou, A. Y.; Tsui, A. S.; Kinicki, A. J.; Waldman, D. A.; Xiao, Z.; Song, L. J. (8 January 2014). "Humble Chief Executive Officers' Connections to Top Management Team Integration and Middle Managers' Responses". Administrative Science Quarterly. 59 (1): 34–72. doi:10.1177/0001839213520131. S2CID   145599812.
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  41. ↑ Qian, Cuili; Cao, Qing; Takeuchi, Riki (January 2013). "Top management team functional diversity and organizational innovation in China: The moderating effects of environment". Strategic Management Journal. 34 (1): 110–120. doi:10.1002/smj.1993.
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