Academic literature on the topic 'Team e performance'

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1999.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-202).<br>In this dissertation, I study the factors that influence the performance of short-term teams engaged in an entrepreneurial activity. This is an important area to study because team-started businesses account for a disproportionately greater number of high-growth firms (Kamm, Shuman and Seeger, 1990). Unfortunately, there has been limited research on team started businesses. The entrepreneurial teams that I study are participants in the MIT $50K Business Plan Competition. This sample is chosen because business plan competitions are increasingly becoming the meeting place for new ideas, people interested in starting business ventures and others who are interested in participating in these ventures (e.g., patent attorneys, investors and venture capitalists). In addition, the sample overcomes some problems typical of many entrepreneurship studies including left censoring biases, population identification and low response rates. Chapter 1 is an overview of the thesis while chapter 2 describes the entrepreneurial activities at MIT. Chapter 3 describes the MIT $50K Business Plan Competition and elaborates the steps taken to collect information from competition participants. Since entrepreneurial team performance is influenced by factors both internal and external to the team, this thesis takes a comprehensive approach, presenting three papers that explore the effects of team composition, team design and external contacts on entrepreneurial team performance. Both external and team-member evaluations of entrepreneurial team performance are used. Both evaluations are important because positive external evaluations can increase the venture's chances of getting resources (e.g., Roberts, 1991a) while positive internal evaluations can increase the chance that members will be satisfied with their teams and continue in team involvement (e.g., Hackman, 1987). The first paper, described in chapter 4, explores the influence of team design, both team structure and member interaction, on short-term entrepreneurial team performance. The findings show that there are different drivers of performance. While task design predicts external evaluations of performance, the way in which members interact predicts member-rated performance. The second paper, described in chapter 5, explores the influence of team-member functional diversity on short-term entrepreneurial team performance, with team design as the mediating variable. This study shows the need to investigate the indirect effects of functional diversity on performance and to distinguish between external and team-member evaluations. The results show that functional diversity has negative indirect effect on member-rated performance but no effect on external-rated performance. The third paper, described in chapter 6, explores the influence of member contacts with people outside the team on short-term entrepreneurial team performance. The study shows that high-performing teams gather a range of information and are efficient in information gathering. The study shows that social capital concepts, such as strong and weak ties, can be integrated with the team literature. The concluding chapter proposes a model that combines the influence of internal and external factors on entrepreneurial team performance. The chapter also summarizes the findings and compares them to the new venture and team literatures. Finally, areas for future research are proposed.<br>by Maw-Der Foo.<br>Ph.D.

The purpose of this research study was to identify the specific components of team training that contribute most to a team's ability to perform effectively. The analysis conducted involved examining the relationship between the Training Support System Survey (Hall, 1998) along with the Training Strategies and Training Content sub-scales, and the overall measure of team performance from Beyerlein's (1996) Perceptions of Team Performance survey. Results were mostly inconclusive, due to limitations of the research. However, a few interesting findings were found related to team training for different types of teams. In addition, this research is helpful in moving toward a better understanding of the relationship between team training and team performance and pointing toward the need for additional research in this area.

This thesis presents two studies of alternative methodologies for assessing team performance, specifically in the context of teams for which there are no objective performance criteria. The first study derived its methodology from personal construct theory to explore the viability of using repertory grid technique, firstly to generate team performance constructs and then to use these to assess team performance. The team performance constructs that emerged from the first study were used to give construct validity to the second study that consisted of the development of a questionnaire (the Team Performance Survey) for assessing team performance. Exploratory factor analysis, together with internal consistency assessment, was used to develop three possible scale structures. Confirmatory factor analysis assisted in the establishment of the final seven-scale version of the questionnaire. The outcomes from these studies show that the use of repertory grid technique does provide a useful and interesting method of measuring of team performance and, that given time and resources, this could well be a better method of assessment than that of generic questionnaires. Having said this, the generic questionnaire developed directly from the earlier study, lays claim to validity and reliability through its base in the perceptions of team members and the rigorous process of psychometric testing employed to produce the final version. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of these two approaches to team performance assessment. Suggestions for future research are made.

Organizations invest in team-based systems in order to generate innovative practices that will give them a competitive edge. High-performing teams require training and other support systems to gain the skills they need as well as to create and maintain an environment conducive to their success. The challenge for managers is to make resource allocation decisions among investment alternatives to maximize team effectiveness and still ensure a financial return for company investors. This study has three objectives. The first objective is to investigate whether there is a positive relationship among organizational environment, team potency (the team's collective belief it will succeed) and team performance. Results indicate that the presence of four organizational support systems influences team potency and performance. These support systems are the Design and Measurement, Rewards, Training and Communications Systems. In addition, results indicate that team potency is a mediating variable between the Design and Measurement and Communications Systems and team performance. These results suggest that companies are able to influence team performance by investing in environmental support systems. The second objective is to examine whether team members and managers view the organizational environment differently. Results indicate that managers view the Training and Communications Systems as more important, while teams perceive the Design and Measurement System and the Rewards System to be more important to their success. Since the systems that team managers view as important may influence their investment decisions, these differences may suggest a resource alignment issue. Third, a measure of team effectiveness based on financial measures is introduced. Published literature emphasizes attitudinal, behavioral and operational measures of performance. A financial measure offers a method of evaluating performance that is similar to methods used in capital budgeting and may be consistently applied across different types of teams with different purposes. The data collection process was performed by persons external to the team and covered a 12-month period. This method led to a loss of information and did not accurately portray team performance. However, the teams that were successful in calculating project savings were different types of teams from both manufacturing and service industries. This result is encouraging and warrants further investigation.

The purpose of this study, a quasi experimental design, was to investigate the relationship between team leader behavior and team performance and satisfaction. This field research tested leader behavior dimensions from two theoretical models of team effectiveness: Hackman's (1992) "expert available coaching," and Cohen's (1994) "encouraging supervisory behaviors." The relationship between coaching behaviors and team performance, employee, and customer satisfaction was assessed. Manager behavior was assessed with the SMT Leader Survey (Burress, 1994), an instrument determined appropriate for team environments, that measures Communication, Administration, Leadership, Interpersonal Skills, Thinking, and Flexibility. Employee satisfaction and performance information was archival data provided by the organization. The results demonstrated that leader behavior is a less important component of team effectiveness than initially expected. Even though direct customer interaction was 25% of these manager jobs and considered the organization's most important predictor of corporate profitability, no relationship between leader behavior and customer satisfaction was found. Among the key findings was, that while flexibility differentiated leader behavior more than any other scale, its relationship with both team performance and team satisfaction was negative. Interpersonal skills were positively associated with team performance, while leadership was positively associated with team performance and satisfaction. The SMT data were factor analyzed and formed into three factors. Two were historical leadership constructs: consideration (which correlated positively with employee satisfaction) and structure. A third factor, decisiveness, was negatively related to team performance. This research determined some essential skills for managing high performance teams and improving employee satisfaction. The results indicate that managers in a team environment may need to alter their roles if high performance and employee satisfaction are organizational objectives. Possibilities include building and developing the corporation's business, creating in depth relationships with customers, and establishing alliances and partnerships with other organizations. These roles will require new manager skills which have the potential to increase manager job satisfaction and augment manager value to the corporation.

We provide a framework for understanding managerial implications of multinational teams. In addition to context, four major categories of variables have a determining influence on multinational team performance: universal values, norms of behavior, perceptions of others and self, and personality traits. Size of teams, kind of task, learning opportunities, power and interests change the effects of these variables. Of particular importance is the team implementation process, which can neutralize adverse effects of wrong perceptions, helps to establish team norms and, thus, contributes to success of multinational teams. (author's abstract)<br>Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

Doctor of Education<br>Department of Educational Leadership<br>Sarah J. Fishback<br>In today’s interconnected world, teams must form quickly, learn and adapt to overcome challenges regardless of the environment. For example, complexity in responding to natural disasters or man-made political, economic and security crises often requires the ability to learn collaboratively to minimize human suffering and protect property. When teams find success, the operation succeeds beyond what a single organization can provide, but when teams fail they can make a bad situation worse. Leveraging an approach called a Leader Team Exercise (LTX), teams can generate the shared qualities of understanding, confidence and competence in a structured manner to accelerate learning and performance. This research study investigated the potential of an LTX through initial research in a within-subjects experimental design of the 161st Artillery Battalion, Kansas Army National Guard as they negotiated obstacles located on the Fort Riley, Kansas Field Leaders Reaction Course (FLRC). The quantitative data collected was evaluated employing non-parametric statistical tests to answer five research questions about the relationship of the LTX to dependent variables of team performance, shared understanding and shared confidence to further explore field observations of learning action teams. The study provides new knowledge to further advance understanding of the LTX and its relationship to team performance and learning. In addition, the study also offers a source of data as a foundation for future research to continue investigation into the full depth and breadth of the LTX in other settings and conditions. The study found a relationship among the dependent variables and the FLRC, as well as a relationship between the LTX and team demographics related to shared understanding and performance. The findings also advance the adult education body of knowledge about learning dynamics, which occur outside the classroom. The implications to improve teams that rapidly form, disband, and form again will impact adult learning in a wide spectrum of applications in the government, academia and industry. Finally, the study offers recommendations for future areas of research and practical application based on current knowledge for the Kansas National Guard and others who might use or plan on using the LTX in the future.