Teams and Teamwork as the Basis of Effectiveness

Developing Business Knowledge: an independent learning approach


Bachelor Thesis, 2005

21 Pages, Grade: 1,5


Excerpt


TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION

LITERATURE REVIEW
UNDERSTANDING OF THE TOPIC
DEFINING TEAMS
EVALUATING TEAMS
BUILDING TEAMS
EFFECTIVE TEAMWORK
CORE COMPONENTS OF EFFECTIVE TEAMS
COMMUNICATION
GOAL SETTING & VISION SHARING
LEADERSHIP & DECISION-MAKING
TEAM TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
TEAM SELECTION & RECRUITMENT
FURTHER CORE COMPONENTS
METHODS AND METHODOLOGY
FURTHER RESEARCH
LIMITATION OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW

CONCLUSION OF LITERATURE REVIEW

REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, teams are seen in every organisations and the majority agrees to the advantageous position of teams rather than individuals. The term team is mentioned in the same sense like effectiveness, efficiency, problem-solving and success. Referring to numerous authors, during the last 30 years the utilisation of teams and teamwork increased dramatically. (Gustafson & Kleiner, 1994; Guzzo & Dickinson, 1996; Salas, Burke & Cannon-Bowers, 2000) It is also mentioned that teamwork seems to be a winning formula. (Woodock, 1989, cited by Ingram, Teare, Scheuning & Armistead, 1997) Nevertheless, some authors mentioned that teamwork is just a ‘fashion’ and is not always the best solution. (Church, 1998)

In the following, a critical literature review on teams and team building will be given. Especially effective team performance will be centred. In order to evaluate literature adequate, the conceptual framework developed by Bloom - ‘Bloom’s taxonomy’ - will be used. Within the review, an accurate and informed awareness of the literature of teams and teamwork will be demonstrated. Therefore, material of specific topics will be evaluated. The main part of the review covers: defining teams, evaluating teams, building teams, effective teamwork and its core competences. Likewise, main themes, methods, and philosophical approaches will be analysed. Furthermore, approaches for further research will be given. Beside, own interpretation, assumptions and limitations of the review will be illustrated.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The interest in teams and teamwork from both academic and practitioner viewpoints increased immense over the last 40 years. (Tranfield & Smith, 2002) Also, there is much confusion about definitions and characteristics. Authors are in agreement about the difficulties on researching, measuring and evaluating the topic. Therefore, several authors worked on the theme and tried to discuss it. Due to it, a literature review will be given on the topic. Hart (1998, cited by Harrington & Booth, 2004) defined a literature review as follows:

The selection of available documents […] on the topic, which contain information, ideas, data and evidence written from a particular standpoint to fulfil certain aims or express certain views on the nature of the topic and how it is to be investigated, and the effective evaluation of these documents [in relation to the research being proposed].

Due to different definitions and components about teams an account of 29 articles are researched an evaluated. Main focus is on both teams and teamwork but the research involves also articles wide around the topic. Several articles of main journals like the ‘International Journal of Management Review’, ‘Team Performance Management’ and ‘Training & Development Journal’ are used. Also a few books are used for general and further information. The following review is divided into three parts. Firstly, defining, evaluating and building teams will be covered. Furthermore, effective teamwork will be reviewed. The third part covers core components to achieve effective teamwork. Each of the parts includes a critical description and evaluation of main arguments. Additionally, methods and methodologies will be highlighted and analysed. Afterwards, methodologies occurring in the literature will be illustrated in more depth. A next part, will develop approaches of further research as well as own interpretation. Finally, the appeared limitations of the literature review itself will be described briefly.

UNDERSTANDING OF THE TOPIC

Within the topic there is confusion about definition, characteristics and processes of effective team performance. Salas et al (2000) argue that is because teamwork is a multidimensional construct which is dynamic and vague and therefore difficult to study. Furthermore, there is a lack of research and understanding of the topic. (Salas, et al, 2000) In the following part, teams and their definition given by several authors will be described and evaluated. Additionally, understanding of team characteristics will be analysed. Likewise, methods and methodologies within the evaluated papers will be explained and categorised.

DEFINING TEAMS

Nowadays, teams and teamwork are seen in every organisation and are inescapable in modern systems to achieve and sustain success. (Church, 1998) Over the last 30 years many organisations turned from individual working to team-acting. It is argued that, due to the new advanced technology, teamwork in a sense of employee commitment is more needed than control and compliance. (Huszczo, 1990) Teamwork is worldwide used (Church, 1998) and it seems to be a trend or a ‘fashion’ that everybody has to be involved in a team to be successful. (Mullins, 2002, Ingram et al, 1997)

Within the literature, that is reviewed, definitions of teams vary significantly. It also has to be mentioned that there exist no clear and sustainable explanations. Many authors are not able to explain the term in a clear sense. Everyone has a subjective and formless understanding of ‘teams’, which can be summarised as: Several people who are co-operating together to achieve an organisational or individual goal. (Belbin, 1973; Gustafson & Kleiner, 1994; Ingram, et al, 1997; Spears, 1996; Staniforth, 1996; etc.) The vagueness of a definition is caused by a lack of research and evaluation of the topic. (Currie & Procter, 2003; Staniforth, 1996) Nevertheless, according to Salas et al (2000), and there review, a leading definition categorise teams as a set of individuals “interacting adaptively, interdependently, and dynamically towards a common […] goal” (Salas, et al, 2000, p.341) Teams are defined from two perspectives: The functionalistic and the interpretative approach. The functionalist paradigm dominates the business and management research and tries to generalise findings and assumptions. Compared to that, the interpretivist paradigm tries to identify conclusion in a more individual and subjective way. (Burrell & Morgan, 1979)

In a more functionalistic sense, teams are defined as follows: they “are composed of individuals who work together in close proximity with each other and who interact with other teams in the workplace.” (Ingram, et al, 1997, p.125) Teams are affected by environmental issues and changes including economy, organisation and needs of customers. (Ingram, et al, 1997; Stevens & Campion, 1999) According to Belbin (1993), teams are characterised by a limited size, a crucial selection and leadership which is shared or rotated. Furthermore, teams are following a role spread and co-ordinated style as well as a spirit of dynamic interaction. (Belbin, 1976; Belbin, 1993¸ Salas, et al, 2000, Mullin, 2002) Teamwork is also reported as an organisational form to support and enact many tactical and strategic developments. (Tranfield & Smith, 2002) Tranfield & Smith’s (2002) definition is based on research in manufacturing and was afterwards generalised to all types. Teams are seen as an open system which interacts between inputs and outputs to accomplish a given task (Ingram, et al, 1997; Plovnick, Fry & Rubin, 1975)

Because of the difficulties in describing teams many authors defined it from a more interpretative position. In the considered literature a variety of different types of teams can be found. Salas et al (2000) claimed that there exist several types of teams and therefore it is difficult to categories and evaluate them. In their paper they defined three types of teams: The action team, the production team and the management team. Each of these teams requires different processes as well as measurements in order to work effective. Likewise, Huszczo (1990) distinguished teams by their definition of goals and specific objectives. He differentiated teams where outcomes are less clear and those with ‘everyday working tasks’. (e.g. management and job-floor teams) (Huszczo, 1990; Tranfield & Smith, 2002) Affirmative to Huszczo (1990), Ingram et al (1997) illustrate the existence of many different teams instead of just one type of teams. Also Sundstrom (1999, cited by Salas et al, 2000) categorised six types of teams: The production team, the service team, the management team, the acting/performance team, the project team and the parallel team. Functionality is the underlining nature of each of these teams. Sundstrom (1999) also mentioned that each team requires different characteristics to succeed. (Sundstrom, 1999, cited by Salas, et al, 2000) Katzenbach & Smith (1993) distinguished between three types of teams in a hierarchical order, based on primary research of 50 teams in 30 countries: Teams which recommend things, teams which produce things and teams which lead things. The first type solves problems and includes task forces and project groups. The second type is linked to more valuable contributions like change management, creative and cross-functional teams (Church, 1998; Katzenbach & Smith, 1993)). The third team is often described as inter-disciplinary. Things are often self-managed or self-directed as management leadership teams. (Huszczo, 1990; Hut & Mollemann, 1998; Katzenbach & Smith, 1993; Tata & Palmer, 2000) Within the production industry Tranfield & Smith, S., Foster, M., Wilson, S. & Parry (2002) and Tranfield & Smith (2002) categorised an overall self-directed archetype with two subtypes. Subtypes are the lean team, which is characterized by routine tasks, less autonomy, formal leadership, and high productivity, and the project team. The second subtype regards to special task, informal leadership, and a high participation.

Most of the papers which distinguish between different types of teams are based on the interpretivist paradigm - to a greater or lesser extent. Criticising these papers, the majority is based on meta-analysis and own statements. Ingram et al (1997) already mentioned that the literature of teams is inconclusive and often described by anecdotes and subjective assumptions rather than primary research. Also if several teams are distinguished, only a few of the above theorists and practitioners analysed processes and characteristics of these teams in depth. (e.g. Rushmer, 1997a; Katzenbach & Smith, 1993; Tranfield, et al, 2002) The assumption of the existence of different types seems obviously. Nevertheless, differences are only based on a different environment and not by different characteristics. Even if goals and purposes are diverse, there is less evidence that behaviours, structures or processes have to be different. Just in the differentiation of team leading - self-managing teams versus top-down managing teams - differences in style and methods are provided. (Rushmer, 1997a; Rushmer, 1997b; Tata & Prasad, 2004) An extreme subjective definition of teams is given by Currie & Procter (2003), who argues that teams are never identical. Teams and especially teamwork varies from team to team.

Referring to the above definitions, it can be said that definitions and assumptions changed over the last 30 years. Due to that, Guzzo (1998, cited by Church 1991) describe the explanation of teams in four subjective and timely stages: During the 1960s teams have just been an instrument for training and experience to improve management. Afterwards, teams were seen to reduce alienation between workers. In the 1980s teams were used as a competitive advantage to enhance productivity and quality. Since an increasing globalisation teams are an inherent component in almost every organisation.

To sum up, definitions of teams vary significant within the literature. As an often found functionalistic description, they are seen as a co-operation of several people working together to achieve common goals or fulfil given tasks. Furthermore, many interpretivists defined several subtypes of teams which require numerous circumstances, processes and structures. It can also be concluded that the difficulty to define teams results from a lack of research. Most definitions are based on subjective assumptions rather than primary research.

EVALUATING TEAMS

Like mentioned earlier, both researchers and practitioners believe in a positive and advantageous affect of teams and teamwork. Many papers, which are written about the topic, are analysing components how organisations can work more effectively and efficiently with the use of teams. In the following part, advantages as well as disadvantages indicated by several authors will be highlighted and evaluated critically.

One of the sustainable opinions within the literature is that teams are achieving a higher outcome than individuals. The increasing need of teams is based on increasing technology, environmental purposes and speed of changes. (Nurick, 1993; Stevens & Campion, 1999; Tranfield & Smith, 2002) Bradley (1994) holds a strong functionalistic position while he assumed the need of teams to survive the 1990s. Most practitioners and academics belief, teams are working more efficiently and effectively than individuals do. It is also argued that teams and groups are creating more and better solutions. (Belbin, 1976; Harris & Harris, 1996; Huszczo, 1990; Nurick, 1993; Staniforth, 1996; West, 1994; etc.) It has been mentioned that evidences underline the approach of a higher effectiveness, but these proofs have not been described in depth. (Huszczo, 1990; Shawn, 1981) In this context, it has to be noticed that less writers, neither Shawn (1981) nor Huszczo (1990) support the above benefits with own evidences. Furthermore, it is claimed that teamwork supports redesigning structure (Chance, 1989, cited by Ingram, et al, 1997) and maintaining quality. (Ingram, et al, 1997) Regarding to Salas et al (2000) teams are offering more than just the knowledge and experiences of several individuals; they are also sharing responsibilities for decision-making processes and deliver extent resources and ideas. Teamwork is seen as a central and necessary structural feature which has long been judged for enhancing organisational efficiency. (Bradley, 1994; Dyer, 1977, cited by Nurick, 1993; Tranfield & Smith, 2002) Benefits of teamwork are highlighted by Ingram et al (1997) from their primary research. These benefits include: Increased commitment and motivation, quantitative and qualitative communication, the ability to learn from each other, and a higher sense of organisational and personal satisfaction. Teamwork is also reported as an organisational form to support and enact many tactical and strategic developments in manufacturing. (Tranfield & Smith, 2002)

The above characteristics as a consequence of introducing teams in workplaces seem to be logical and plausible, but fewer evidences are given. Most of the reviewed authors used meta-analysis or secondary research to develop the above assumptions. Just a few papers are showing real proofs for the above assumptions. Teare et al (1997), for examples, are underlining their assumptions based on primary research of several teams in different circumstances. Furthermore, outcomes are defined as the only measurements of teamwork. (Ingram, et al, 1997; Teare, et al, 1997) Assumption are only based on own experiences. Also Harris & Harris (1996) argued from a strong functionalistic approach that team building is possible in each organisation, and each level of management using the right constellation of people. The different opinions about the right constellation of team members will be described in the next part of the review.

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Details

Title
Teams and Teamwork as the Basis of Effectiveness
Subtitle
Developing Business Knowledge: an independent learning approach
Grade
1,5
Author
Year
2005
Pages
21
Catalog Number
V119451
ISBN (eBook)
9783640226320
ISBN (Book)
9783640227655
File size
533 KB
Language
English
Keywords
Teams, Teamwork, Basis, Effectiveness
Quote paper
Sven Rosenhauer (Author), 2005, Teams and Teamwork as the Basis of Effectiveness, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/119451

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