Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Teams'

A major challenge of modern teams lies in the coordination of the efforts not just of individuals within a team, but also of teams whose efforts are ultimately entwined with those of other teams. Despite this fact, much of the research on work teams fails to consider the external dependencies that exist in organizational teams and instead focuses on internal or within team processes. Multi-Team Systems Theory is used as a theoretical framework for understanding teams-of-teams organizational forms (Multi-Team Systems; MTS's); and leadership teams are proposed as one remedy that enable MTS members to dedicate needed resources to intra-team activities while ensuring effective synchronization of between-team activities. Two functions of leader teams were identified: strategy development and coordination facilitation; and a model was developed delineating the effects of the two leader roles on multi-team cognitions, processes, and performance. Three hundred eighty four undergraduate psychology and business students participated in a laboratory simulation that modeled an MTS; each MTS was comprised ofthree, two-member teams each performing distinct but interdependent components of an F-22 battle simulation task. Two roles of leader teams supported in the literature were manipulated through training in a 2 (strategy training vs. control) x 2 (coordination training vs. control) design. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANO VA) and mediated regression analysis were used to test the study's hypotheses. Results indicate that both training manipulations produced differences in the effectiveness of the intended form of leader behavior. The enhanced leader strategy training resulted in more accurate (but not more similar) MTS mental models, better inter-team coordination, and higher levels of multi-team (but not component team) performance. Moreover, mental model accuracy fully mediated the relationship between leader strategy and inter-teani coordination; and inter-team coordination fully mediated the effect of leader strategy on multi-team performance. Leader coordination training led to better inter-team coordination, but not to higher levels of either team or multi-team performance. Mediated Input-Process-Output (I-P-O) relationships were not supported with leader coordination; rather, leader coordination facilitation and inter-team coordination uniquely contributed to component team and multi-team level performance. The implications of these findings and future research directions are also discussed.

In this study, we explore what can affect the development of team cohesion in the entrepreneurial team. We show the relationship between team members' cohesion and team performance over five main categories: (Ⅰ) Prior Condition, (Ⅱ) Conflict, (Ⅲ) Strategy, (Ⅳ) Task Interaction in the team, (Ⅴ) Social interaction in the team. Based on the research method of comparative cases, we selected six Chinese entrepreneurial teams as research objects. We show how individual behaviour affects the development of team cohesion in the entrepreneurial team at the individual level and team level. More specifically, we consider that entrepreneurial team cohesion changes are more complicated than traditional teams. The team cohesion of the entrepreneurial team has certain randomness because there is no guidance from the leader. The influence of personal factors on team cohesion will be more intense. When the entrepreneurial team improves team cohesion, team members need to participate more.

This report evaluates the team-structure of three software maintenance teams in order to decide their level of featureness (a term that defines to what extent a team has the quality (the set of characteristics) of being a feature team). Simulations of changes that are expressed as beneficial in an agile environment and that could increase the teams‘ level of featureness within the team structure are performed. The results show that each team‘s level of featureness is affected differently by each change. Partly, this underlines the importance of understanding the current team-structure before implementing changes that aim to increase the level of featureness. And secondly, within the scope of the study, the change where a user expert is declared a team member is concluded as the change that increases the teams‘ level of featureness the most. Based on the results the report also concludes that it is essential to implement changes that affect different, which in combination can increase the level of featureness.

Abstract. As the use of virtual teams in organizations is expected to only grow in the future, along with the continuous challenges in today’s hectic and competitive business environment, the team’s ability to withstand and overcome tough situations, in other words team resilience, becomes a crucial part of every team’s success. This study was carried out as a qualitative case study and it aims to explore how different parts of resilience appear in the context of virtual teams from the leader’s perspective, as well as the actions that occur by the virtual team leader in situations that require team resilience. The participants of this study were nine virtual team leaders who use communication technology to coordinate teamwork and to collaborate with team members in a team where some or all of members work remotely and cannot collaborate in real-time or face-to-face all the time. The data was collected with web-based online questionnaire and the data analysis was made by using a qualitative theory-oriented content analysis. The results of this study identified the parts of resilience that occur in virtual teams. Especially diversity and nonverbal communication had a lot of variation within teams of this study, but every team compensates the lack of nonverbal communication with other communication methods. Besides communication, trust and flexibility seem to be resilience-enhancing factors for almost every team. The resilient practices were investigated in relation to Alliger’s theory, and this study shows how communication is the most used tool in building virtual team resilience, and the usage of it succeed mostly in minimizing (before adversity) and mending (after adversity) phases. In ongoing adversity, communication reduces and causes stress for virtual teams. Besides communication, virtual teams use positive adaption and shared understanding to handle adversities, whereas cohesion and problem solving strategies were the least mentioned dimensions. These results create an in-depth knowledge about a relatively new and unexplored topic. Instead of generalizing the findings, the aim is to objectively explore a smaller amount of virtual team leaders who gave insights about how virtual team resilience appears in their teams. By identifying the main enhancing factors related to virtual team resilience, the leader can improve these features and lead their team to success. The results are applicable for organization’s management who use communication technologies to collaborate with team members and who seek to enhance virtual team resilience, as well as for organizations aiming to develop interaction and leadership models or educators working with e-learning.

As education evolves, leadership processes change. The concept of a single senior leader, with siloed divisions often providing direction, is transforming into a team-based culture. While there is substantive research on school-site leadership, research is limited on how the central organization impacts the system. It identified individual leadership characteristics but had not adequately addressed impact of a senior leadership team. This study addresses the concept of senior leadership teams with divisions and executives working collaboratively. It identifies characteristics of effective leadership teams to explore how they can be successfully created and sustained; and it investigates the senior leader’s role in, and what factors and methods can be replicated to sustain, team effectiveness. Four organizations participated: one school district, one government agency and two for-profit organizations. Twenty-five senior leaders and team members completed a DiSC and Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team assessment; a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis; and a hiring values survey. All were interviewed individually and as a group, and the structured and semi-structured instruments were chosen to explore group characteristics in such a way that the data would point to replicable information. Study elements, coupled with my expertise in team development and leadership, allowed me to critically consider data and identify three emerging themes. While aspects of these themes have been previously identified, they have not been linked as a pathway to creating and sustaining effective teams as a route to organizational excellence leading to student achievement. First, there is a strong relation between the factors of team culture, membership, and expectations and engagement as a foundation of an effective team. Second, crucial team management and engagement methods were identified as key to long-term sustainability. Third, the senior leader’s impact is significant to team success based on team leadership style and methodology. A paradigm emerged changing traditional leadership hierarchy to a new dynamic of leading from the center. The research indicates that deliberately designing teams may have greater potential for success and long-term effectiveness. Further research is encouraged to address issues relating to virtual teams and identify successful strategies in team building and implementation.
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019.
Humanities Education
PhD
Unrestricted

Mini-research report presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration at the University of Stellenbosch.
Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This report is a literature study that focuses on the characteristics of successful project teams in the research and development environment. Successful project teams are becoming an increasingly important factor in business. However, traditional quantitative project management tools no longer give project teams a competitive edge - additional qualitative tools are required, following a systems approach. A number of characteristics of project teams, with the focus on the qualitative issues, particularly the people issues, are investigated. A project team operates in the context of its environment, mostly an organisation with a structure and an organisational culture. Methods and concepts in selecting and managing a dynamic project team within a turbulent and fast changing environment are discussed. The topics covered are: environmental fit, visions and goals, leadership and team roles, systems and procedures, values, organisational culture, rewards and recognition methods,and training and development. This literature study aims to encourage a paradigm shift away form the traditional triangle of budget, brief and time towards a stronger focus on people issues as people are the most important assets of a project team. As people do not behave in a linear way, as required for quantitative tools, new methods and tools are required. The hypothesis that was subsequently formulated from this study states that research and development teams can be more successful if they are regarded as a non-linear system consisting of various inputs, processes and outputs.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie verslag is 'n literatuurstudie wat fokus op die eienskappe van suksesvolle projekspanne in 'n navorsings en ontwikkelings omgewing. Suksesvolle projekspanne raak al hoe belangriker in besigheid. Tradisionele kwantitatiewe metodes is nie meer voldoende vir projekspanne om 'n kompeterende voordeel te bekom nie en moet hierdie metodes aangevul word met kwalitatiewe metodes gebaseer op 'n stelselbenadering. Verskeie karakteristieke van projekspanne, met die fokus op kwalitatiewe eienskappe, in besonder die menslike aspekte word ondersoek. 'n Projekspan funksioneer in die konteks van sy omgewing, meestal 'n organisasie met 'n struktuur en organisatoriese kultuur. Metodes en konsepte in die seleksie en bestuur van 'n dinamiese projekspan in 'n tubulente en vinnig veranderende omgewing word bespreek. Die temas wat gedek word is: omgewingsaanpassing,visie en doelwitte, leierskap en spanrolle, stelsels en prosedures, waardes, organisatoriese kultuur, vergoedings en erkennings metodes, en opleiding en ontwikkeling. Hierdie literatuurstudie mik om 'n paradigma skuif aan te moedig, weg van die tradisionele driehoek van begroting, doelwit en tyd, na 'n sterker fokus op menslikesake aangesien mense die belangrikste bates van 'n projekspan is. Aangesien mense nie op 'n liniere manier reageer soos wat nodig is vir kwantitatiewe metodes nie, word nuwe metodes en gereedskap benodig. Die hipotese wat geformuleer is uit hierdie navorsing, se dat navorsings en ontwikkelingspanne meer suksesvol kan wees indien hulle gesien word as 'n nie-liniere stelsel wat bestaan uit verskeie insette, prosesse en uitsette.

Drawing upon configurational theory, work group design research, virtualness concepts, and the software agility literature, the purpose of this study was to provide a starting point for theorizing about the successful configuration of globally distributed agile teams by exploring the dimensions of team structure, virtualness, and agility. Due to the complex nature of this topic, the need to examine the phenomenon within its natural setting, and the limited amount of research that has been conducted in this particular area, this study adopted an embedded multiple-case research design. The primary data collection method consisted of semi-structured interviews involving members of globally distributed agile teams within three U.S. based organizations with members located in distributed sights in multiple countries. Additional data were collected from archival records. Within-case and cross-analysis was conducted using qualitative data analysis software. This study provides a starting point for answering the question of how the configuration of globally distributed agile teams differs from the configuration of other types of globally distributed teams; it synthesizes past research and findings into a comprehensive theoretical framework; it provides a starting point for theorizing about the successful configuration of globally distributed agile teams; it helps practitioners to identify and address the challenges related to the configuration of globally distributed agile teams; and it presents a set of best practices which will inform organizations on how to configure their globally distributed agile teams.

"Practice transformation" toward team care as a singular undertaking can be daunting. In this presentation, we describe the development of a mechanism for small, iterative and sustainable practice changes toward team care known as "Champion Teams." Champion Teams are based on the Institute of Medicine's "learning health care system" approach in which practitioners develop an internal mechanism for and culture around digesting and implementing new evidence based practices on an ongoing basis. In addition to presenting the Champion Team concept as a strategy for implementing new team care initiatives, interprofessional providers will present two case examples from each adult and pediatric primary care. At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to: Define the term "learning healthcare system" and its application to Champion Teams. Describe the utility of and keys to implementing Champion Teams. Describe two examples of Champion Teams and the application of this mechanism to making data-informed changes toward team-based care in their own setting.

"Practice transformation" toward team care as a singular undertaking can be daunting. In this presentation, we describe the development of a mechanism for small, iterative and sustainable practice changes toward team care known as "Champion Teams." Champion Teams are based on the Institute of Medicine's "learning health care system" approach in which practitioners develop an internal mechanism for and culture around digesting and implementing new evidence based practices on an ongoing basis. In addition to presenting the Champion Team concept as a strategy for implementing new team care initiatives, interprofessional providers will present two case examples from each adult and pediatric primary care.At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to: Define the term "learning healthcare system" and its application to Champion Teams. Describe the utility of and keys to implementing Champion Teams. Describe two examples of Champion Teams and the application of this mechanism to making data-informed changes toward team-based care in their own setting.

Emergency medical teams operate under unusual circumstances. They assemble for a singular, temporary purpose, potentially change in size and composition, and their performance can influence whether a patient lives or dies. Although leadership is a critical component to team success, it is rarely investigated in the context of emergency medical teams. This study sought to examine the relationship between directive leadership behaviors and team performance outcomes. It was hypothesized that directive leadership would be particularly effective for emergency medical teams. In addition, a contingency model was proposed. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the effectiveness of directive leadership is contingent upon the complexity of the situation and the experience level of the team such that directive leadership is more effective when teams are inexperienced and the situation is complex. Neonatal resuscitation teams served as the emergency medical teams in this study. The proposed relationships were tested using observations from high-fidelity, neonatal resuscitation team training simulations. Hypotheses were not supported. Limitations and suggestions for future research for the development of leadership training curriculum are discussed.

Modern organizations face many significant challenges because of turbulent environments and a competitive global economy. These competitive demands have forced many organizations to increase levels of flexibility and adaptability through the use of virtual environments, and global teams are prevalent in business organizations. Although significant research has been conducted on virtual teams, the development of shared understanding among the members of these teams has not been studied adequately. Time/space barriers, communication complexities, and team diversity hinder the development of shared understanding in these teams. Based on the Media Synchronicity Theory (MST), a new theoretical model was created that used the constructs use of communication media, mode of interaction and team diversity to ascertain the influence shared understanding in global virtual teams. Additionally, the research model examined the relationship between shared understanding and team performance. The developed, web-based survey measured the participants’ use of communication media, mode of interaction, diversity, shared understanding, and team performance in virtual environments. The survey was administered through SurveyMonkey and distributed to a pool of opt-in respondents from firms with virtual teams. A total of 118 respondents participated in the study. The findings of this study indicate that use of communication and familiarity with systems are strong determinants of shared understanding, and subsequently shared understanding is a strong predictor of team performance. The study also indicates that mode of interaction is less of a predictor of shared understanding, and that cultural diversity, modified diversity construct, did not influence shared understanding. As virtual teams continue to proliferate, executive leaders and managers must ensure that teams and environments are designed for collaboration through use of communication technologies that promote synchronicity, and that its members are familiar with systems which subsequently promotes shared understanding.

Purpose - The aim of the paper is to understand how management is affected by having the customer as a member of the global virtual team within agile work methods. Research Method - This research is based on a qualitative methodological choice, and an embedded single case study conducted through a cross-sectional time horizon. The research is based on primary and secondary data. The primary data has been collected from management, employees, and customer, through semi- and in depth interviews, and observations in Sri Lanka. Secondary data is conceptualized from literature in the Global Virtual Team research field. Results - A customer is seen as a colleague and a critical team member, where the developers and management work closely with the customer. However, the customer is not fully seen as a traditional colleague. The customer’s influence outweighs the influence of the supplier, resulting in a dynamic shift of influence towards the customer. Not allowing the dynamic shift, i.e. not increasing attention towards the customer significantly, could result in a loss of business. Furthermore, the background of the customer affects the manager’s role as a Bridge Maker. How efficient the collaboration turns out within the team is dependent on the customer background, and how well the management allocates time and efforts accordingly. Research limitations - Due to time and resource limits, and the depth scope of the study, only one case firm and one customer laid the basis of this paper. Further investigation of how management is affected by having the customer as a member of the global virtual team could be the direction of future studies. Practical implications - The findings allow management to allocate their time and resources more effectively cross projects and increase the understanding of how the firm is affected by having the customer as a member of the team in the global virtual team setting. As a result, it will potentially increase the overall success of the company. Originality/value - This study supplies the contribution to existing management literature as it includes an external stakeholder, the customer, in the global virtual team, which is a growing phenomenon that has not been captured by current literature. Keywords - Global teams, Virtual teams, Multicultural teams, Customer as a team member, Bridge Maker, Team leadership, Biculturalism, Agile work process Paper type – Master thesis

This thesis extracts organizational lessons from the U.S. Armyâ s Human Terrain Teams. In the past, the Human Terrain Teams have been the topic of various debates, but none discussed their performance. Studying what influences how Human Terrain Teams perform is important to the National Security System to improve its use of socio-cultural knowledge during conflicts. A contextual narrative of team members formally involved with Human Terrain Teams and information from journalistic articles tells the story of what organizational characteristics affected the performance of the U.S. Armyâ s Human Terrain Teams.
Master of Arts

The impact of training on virtual team effectiveness was assessed in five areas: communication, planning tasks and setting goals, solving problems and making decisions, resolving conflict, and responding to customer requirements. A 12-page survey was developed exploring all aspects of virtual teams. 180 surveys were distributed, 52 were returned representing 43 companies. Training led to higher effectiveness in planning tasks and setting goals, solving problems and making decisions, and conflict resolution, but not in communication and responding to customer requirements. Training may not solve all the problems that virtual teams will encounter; however, training will make the challenges easier to handle.

Les organitzacions actuals se veuen obligades a establir avantatges competitius sostenibles per tal de prosperar en el mercat global. Les innovacions amb èxit han estat considerades àmpliament una base fonamental per generar avantatge competitiu (Dodgson et al., 2005). Aquestes innovacions les generen habitualment els equips (Brown i Eisenhardt, 1995). Liderar un equip d’innovació s’ha identificat com un dels factors clau d’èxit per als projectes innovadors (Amabile i Khaire, 2008). El lideratge no tan sols repercuteix en uns indicadors d’acompliment hard com el caràcter innovador del projecte, sinó que s’ha vist que també contribueix a millorar l’actitud de l’equip, les seves percepcions i creences (Gordon i Yukl, 2002). En concret, los líders d’equip eficaços són els que participen en activitats orientades a la substància de la tasca de l’equip, les relacions i el canvi (Yukl, 2010), les quals alhora faciliten els processos de grup i es demostra que repercuteixen positivament en uns resultats diversos pel que fa a l’acompliment (Burke et al., 2006). En la mesura que el lideratge s’orienta a influir en els processos d’equip pel que fa a construir condicions socials, estructurar les tasques de l’equip i obrir la mentalitat dels seus membres cap a coses noves (Yukl, 2010), és interessant estudiar un procés d’equip que es basi en les condicions creades per les activitats de lideratge. L’aprenentatge cooperatiu o en equip (team learning), que aquí es defineix com la interacció entre la reflexió i l’acció (Edmondson, 2002), és un procés que requereix interaccions personals, com també l’estructura de la tasca de l’equip. A més, l’aprenentatge cooperatiu millora molt quan algú de l’equip l’impulsa a mirar més enllà dels seus límits o en qüestiona l’statu quo. El motiu d’estudiar aquests conceptes no tan sols es justifica per les condicions necessàries per a l’aprenentatge que es generen a través del lideratge, sinó també pel fet que el lideratge com a factor d’input i l’aprenentatge cooperatiu com a procés de grup són dues precondicions crítiques perquè l’equip adopti un caràcter innovador (Amabile et al., 2004; Wong, 2004). Atès que l’aprenentatge cooperatiu és especialment important en aquells equips que participen en tasques creatives no rutinàries (Edmondson, 1999), m’he centrat en el lideratge compartit en aquest projecte de tesi doctoral perquè aquest enfocament del lideratge és especialment adequat per als equips que realitzen tasques creatives, complexes i no rutinàries (Pearce, 2004). A diferència del lideratge vertical, en el lideratge compartit tot l’equip, inclòs el líder del projecte, participa en el lideratge (Carson et al., 2007; Pearce, 2004). Aquest projecte de tesi doctoral és un primer pas cap a la construcció d’aquesta teoria centrant-se en el rol del lideratge compartit en l’aprenentatge cooperatiu. He presentat dades extretes d’un estudi observatori sobre el lideratge compartit i el procés d’aprenentatge en tres equips de projecte. Observant i entrevistant aquests equips, vam extraure les conclusions següents de les dades obtingudes. En primer lloc, cercant interrelacions entre cada una de les tres substàncies del lideratge i l’aprenentatge cooperatiu, proporcionem uns coneixements amb profunditat concretament sobre la relació existent entre la substància de la tasca i la del canvi, que afecten la reflexió i l’acció, per tal com aquestes relacions mai abans no s’havien estudiat (Edmondson et al., 2008). Les relacions i la substància del canvi primerament recolzaven la part reflexiva de l’aprenentatge, mentre que la substància de la tasca del lideratge bàsicament millorava la part activa de l’aprenentatge. En segon lloc, no tan sols he estudiat aquests tres categories de lideratge en l’aprenentatge cooperatiu individualment, sinó que també he analitzat el caràcter complementari d’aquestes tres substàncies del lideratge pel que fa a l’aprenentatge cooperatiu. Les conclusions empíriques han demostrat que, per participar en cicles de reflexió i acció amb èxit, l’equip necessita prendre part en activitats de lideratge com les tasques, les relacions i el canvi.
Las organizaciones actuales se ven obligadas a fijar ventajas competitivas sostenibles con el fin de prosperar en el mercado global. Las innovaciones de éxito han sido consideradas ampliamente una base fundamental para generar ventaja competitiva (Dodgson et al., 2005). Dichas innovaciones son generadas habitualmente por equipos (Brown y Eisenhardt, 1995). Liderar un equipo de innovación se ha identificado como uno de los factores clave de éxito para los proyectos de innovación (Amabile y Khaire, 2008). El liderazgo no solo repercute en unos indicadores de desempeño hard como el carácter innovador del proyecto, sino que también se ha visto que contribuye a mejorar la actitud del equipo, sus percepciones y creencias (Gordon y Yukl, 2002). En concreto, los líderes de equipo eficaces son los que toman parte en actividades orientadas a la sustancia de la tarea del equipo, las relaciones y el cambio (Yukl, 2010), que, a su vez, facilitan los procesos de grupo y se demuestra que repercuten positivamente en unos resultados del desempeño diversos (Burke et al., 2006). En la medida que el liderazgo se dirige a influir en los procesos de equipo en lo relativo a construir condiciones sociales, estructurar las tareas del equipo y abrir la mentalidad de sus miembros hacia algo nuevo (Yukl, 2010), resulta interesante estudiar un proceso de equipo que se base en las condiciones creadas por las actividades del liderazgo. El aprendizaje cooperativo o en equipo (team learning), que aquí se define como la interacción entre la reflexión y la acción (Edmondson, 2002), es un proceso que requiere interacciones personales, así como la estructura de la tarea del equipo. Además, el aprendizaje cooperativo mejora mucho cuando alguien del equipo lo impulsa a mirar más allá de sus límites o cuestiona su statu quo. La razón para estudiar estos conceptos no solo se justifica por las condiciones necesarias para el aprendizaje que se generan a través del liderazgo, sino también por el hecho de que el liderazgo como factor de input y el aprendizaje cooperativo como proceso de grupo son dos precondiciones críticas para que el equipo adopte un carácter innovador (Amabile et al., 2004; Wong, 2004). Puesto que el aprendizaje cooperativo es especialmente importante en aquellos equipos que participan en tareas creativas no rutinarias (Edmondson, 1999), me he centrado en el liderazgo compartido en este proyecto de tesis doctoral porque este enfoque del liderazgo es especialmente adecuado para los equipos que realizan tareas creativas, complejas y no rutinarias (Pearce, 2004). A diferencia del liderazgo vertical, en el liderazgo compartido todo el equipo, incluyendo al líder del proyecto, participa en el liderazgo (Carson et al., 2007; Pearce, 2004). Este proyecto de tesis doctoral es un primer paso hacia la construcción de esta teoría centrándose en el rol del liderazgo compartido en el aprendizaje cooperativo. He presentado datos extraídos de un estudio observatorio sobre el liderazgo compartido y el proceso de aprendizaje en tres equipos de proyecto. Observando y entrevistando a estos equipos, extrajimos las siguientes conclusiones de los datos obtenidos. En primer lugar, buscando interrelaciones entre cada una de las tres sustancias del liderazgo y el aprendizaje cooperativo, proporcionamos unos conocimientos en profundidad concretamente sobre la relación existente entre la sustancia de la tarea y la del cambio que afectan a la reflexión y a la acción, tal como estas relaciones jamás se habían estudiado anteriormente (Edmondson et al., 2008). Las relaciones y la sustancia del cambio principalmente apoyaban la parte reflexiva del aprendizaje, mientras que la sustancia de la tarea del liderazgo básicamente mejoraba la parte activa del aprendizaje. En segundo lugar, no sólo he estudiado estas tres categorías de liderazgo en el aprendizaje cooperativo individualmente, sino que también he analizado el carácter complementario de estas tres sustancias del liderazgo en lo relativo al aprendizaje cooperativo. Las conclusiones empíricas han demostrado que, para participar en ciclos de reflexión y acción exitosos, el equipo necesita tomar parte en actividades de liderazgo como las tareas, las relaciones y el cambio.
Today’s organizations are forced to establish sustainable competitive advantages in order to outpace the global market. Successful innovations have been broadly considered a vital basis for the generation of competitive advantage (Dodgson et al., 2005). Such innovations are typically generated by teams (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1995). Leading an innovation team has been identified as one of the key success factors for innovation projects (Amabile & Khaire, 2008). Leadership does not only impact on hard performance indicators such as project innovativeness but is also shown to enhance a team’s attitude, perceptions and beliefs (Gordon & Yukl, 2002). Particularly, effective team leaders are those engaging in activities directed at the substance of the team’s task, relations and change (Yukl, 2010) which, in turn, facilitate group processes and are shown to positively impact diverse performance outcomes (Burke et al., 2006). As leadership is directed at influencing team processes in terms of building up social conditions, framing the team’s tasks and opening team members’ minds for something new (Yukl, 2010), it is interesting to study a team process which is based on the conditions created by leadership activities. Team learning, here defined as the interplay of reflection and action (Edmondson, 2002), is a process which requires personal interactions as well as a frame of the team’s task. Additionally, team learning is much enhanced when someone in the team is pushing the team to look outside its boundaries or challenging the status quo. Not only the required conditions for learning generated through leadership highlight the reason for studying these two concepts, but also the fact that leadership as an input factor and team learning as a group process are both critical antecedent conditions for team innovativeness (Amabile et al., 2004; Wong, 2004). Since team learning is especially important for teams engaging in creative non-routine tasks (Edmondson, 1999), I have focused on shared leadership in this PhD project because this leadership approach is especially suitable for teams in charge of creative, complex and non-routine tasks (Pearce, 2004). In contrast to vertical leadership, in shared leadership the team including the project leader is engaged in leadership (Carson et al., 2007; Pearce, 2004). This PhD project is a first step towards building up this theory by focusing on the role of shared leadership in team learning. I have presented data from an observatory study on shared leadership and learning process in three project teams. By observing and interviewing those teams, the following findings emerged from the data: Firstly, by researching interrelations between each of the three leadership substances and team learning, I provide in-depth knowledge, in particular concerning the link between the task and change substance affecting reflection and action as these links have not studied been before (Edmondson et al., 2008): Relations and change substance primarily supported the reflection part of learning, whereas the task substance of leadership basically enhanced the action part of learning. Secondly, not only have I studied these three leadership categories on team learning individually, but I have also provided insights into the complementary character of these three leadership substances as regards team learning. Empirical findings have shown that in order to engage in successful learning cycles of reflection and action, a team needs to engage in leadership activities of task, relations and change.

This is a study of two community mental health teams based in Wales. The research was carried out during 1992. It focuses on the regular meetings of the two teams and analysis of transcripts of tape recordings of the meetings. The research may be seen as: (i) a case study in policy implementation and some of the features of multi-disciplinary teamwork which affect the translation of policy into action; (ii) an examination of the nature of teamwork at the interface of health and social services; (iii) a micro-sociological analysis of the production and display of occupational identities in a welfare bureaucracy. Non-participant observation of team meetings and analysis of the transcripts were supplemented by interviews with team members and other significant actors in the delivery of the community mental health services. The division of labour within the teams and the inter-professional relationships between team members were as key organisational events which provide an arena where re-constituting, or resisting, professional dominance in a changed service environment takes place. The study shows how basic decisions about the format of meetings can produce both intended and unintended consequences for the nature of the work teams do, including patient selection and categorisation.

Distributed teams continue to emerge in response to the complex organizational environments brought about by globalization, technological advancements, and the shift toward a knowledge-based economy. These teams are comprised of members who hold the disparate knowledge necessary to take on cognitively demanding tasks. However, knowledge coordination between team members who are not co-located is a significant challenge, often resulting in process loss and decrements to the effectiveness of team level knowledge structures. The current effort explores the configuration dimension of distributed teams, and specifically how subgroup formation based on geographic location, may impact the effectiveness of a team's transactive memory system and subsequent team process. In addition, the role of task cohesion as a buffer to negative intergroup interaction is explored.
M.S.
Masters
Psychology
Sciences
Industrial Organizational Psychology

Research suggested that multicultural team performance is influenced by several variables, but research on the topic has produced conflictive results. It has been suggested that bicultural individuals, due to their dual cultural schemas, can be very competent in mediating the effectiveness of bicultural teams through the use of boundary spanning and conflict perception competencies. Many studies on the topic of multicultural team effectiveness have been performed with college students or under simulated environments, which limits the generalizability of the. To address this research gap, this study provided empirical evidence on the effectiveness of multicultural teams in a real working scenario. A set of validated questionnaires previously published in peer review journals were used to survey 337 bicultural individuals that have been part of a multicultural team for more than one year. The individuals were surveyed on their experience using boundary spanning and conflict perception bicultural competencies and on their rating of the multicultural team effectiveness. Multiple regression analysis indicates that both boundary spanning and conflict perception bicultural competencies have a significant effect on the effectiveness of multicultural teams. Perception of conflict shows the most significant predictive relationship, with immediate conflict resolution, emotional conflict and disagreements on who should do what the most strongly related items to the effectiveness of multicultural teams.

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics
Given the incontestable importance of knowing to work in teams within contemporary organizations, a need for greater understanding of group dynamics and what should be a real team arises. Through the study of five sports teams, this project found four essential factors that constitute a solid base for the success of any team: Effective Leadership, Organizational Support, Strong Positive Relationships and Real Commitment to the team objectives.

This thesis explores the processes of team innovation. It utilises two studies, an organisationally based pilot and an experimental study, to examine and identify aspects of teams' behaviours that are important for successful innovative outcome. The pilot study, based in two automotive manufacturers, involved the collection of team members' experiences through semi-structured interviews, and identified a number of factors that affected teams' innovative performance. These included: the application of ideative & dissemination processes; the importance of good team relationships, especially those of a more informal nature, in facilitating information and ideative processes; the role of external linkages in enhancing quality and radicality of innovations; and the potential attenuation of innovative ideas by time deadlines. This study revealed a number key team behaviours that may be important in successful innovation outcomes. These included; goal setting, idea generation and development, external contact, task and personal information exchange, leadership, positive feedback and resource deployment. These behaviours formed the basis of a coding system used in the second part of the research. Building on the results from the field based research, an experimental study was undertaken to examine the behavioural differences between three groups of sixteen teams undertaking innovative an task to produce an anti-drugs poster. They were randomly assigned to one of three innovation category conditions suggested by King and Anderson (1990), emergent, imported and imposed. These conditions determined the teams level of access to additional information on previously successful campaigns and the degree of freedom they had with regarding to the design of the poster. In addition, a further experimental condition was imposed on half of the teams per category which involved a formal time deadline for task completion. The teams were video taped for the duration of their innovation and their behaviours analysed and coded in five main aspects including; ideation, external focus, goal setting, interpersonal, directive and resource related activities. A panel of experts, utilising five scales developed from West and Anderson's (1996) innovation outcome measures, assessed the teams' outputs. ANOVAs and repeated measure ANOVAs were deployed to identify whether there were significant differences between the different conditions. The results indicated that there were some behavioural differences between the categories and that over the duration of the task behavioural changes were identified. The results, however, revealed a complex picture and suggested limited support for three distinctive innovation categories. There were many differences in behaviours, but rarely between more than two of the categories. A main finding was the impact that different levels of constraint had in changing teams' focus of attention. For example, emergent teams were found to use both their own team and external resources, whilst those who could import information about other successful campaigns were likely to concentrate outside the team and pay limited attention to the internal resources available within the team. In contrast, those operating under task constraints with aspects of the task imposed onto them were more likely to attend to internal team resources and pay limited attention to the external world. As indicated by the earlier field study, time deadlines did significantly change teams' behaviour, reducing ideative and information exchange behaviours. The model shows an important behavioural progression related to innovate teams. This progression involved the teams' openness initially to external sources, and then to the intra-team environment. Premature closure on the final idea before their mid-point was found to have a detrimental impact on team's innovation. Ideative behaviour per se was not significant for innovation outcome, instead the development of intra-team support and trust emerged as crucial. Analysis of variance revealed some limited differentiation between the behaviours of teams operating under the aforementioned three innovation categories. There were also distinct detrimental differences in the behaviour of those operating under a time deadline. Overall, the study identified the complex interrelationships of team behaviours and outcomes, and between teams and their context.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1999.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-202).
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.
by Maw-Der Foo.
Ph.D.

This research recommends a new approach to brand strategy for Korean professional football teams, focusing on the relationships between team brand identity as the basic element of sports team branding, team brand loyalty as the most desirable goal, and identification between fans and teams as the mediator between identity and loyalty. Nowadays, professional football teams are no longer merely sporting organisations, but organisational brands with multi-million pound revenues. It is vital for football teams to build a relevant brand strategy based on the relationship with their fans. Existing research on sports branding suggests that fans who are deeply identified with a specific team tend to possess extremely high loyalty, holding a particular team as central to their identity. Therefore, managing the relationships between team brand identity, fan-team identification, and team brand loyalty can be the most powerful brand strategy for football teams, particularly for Korean football teams that do not retain strong fan bases and yet desire to gain consumers who identify with them. Through two empirical studies and case study analysis this research investigated a construct of team brand identity in the professional football context. Consumers’ associations with football teams were examined and 13 elements of a team brand identity scale were developed. It was revealed that team brand identity is composed of four identity dimensions which are experience, visual, non-product, and product. Case studies, with a further literature review of team brand identity, clarified and confirmed the first study findings. The final empirical study tested and confirmed the correlated and serial relationships, and provided the basis for the new theoretical model on which to build the brand strategy.

My dissertation challenges the dominant situational theory developed by Deutsch (1949) that conceptualizes cooperation and competition as situational factors equally shape all team members’ behaviors. Based on interdependence theory and social network techniques, I offer a configural theory that accounts for the complex, nonlinear patterns of within team cooperation and competition. Acknowledging the tension between team setting and conventional competition, I argue that within team competition is a restrained form of competition as its participants are bonded together by the team membership. Instead of competing for limited prizes or ranks that place individuals against each other, in typical team settings, team members compete for within team status. It has three dimensions, including demonstrating superiority over each team member on competence, participation and connection. I also argue that within team cooperation has three dimensions – sharing, helping and voicing that are directed towards each team member. I developed and validated social network-based measures of within team cooperation and competition based on a student sample in Study 1. The theoretical factor structure was supported. I then tested the overall research model in a field sample in Study 2. Utilizing quadratic assignment procedures, I found that characteristics of each dyad, including dependence, similarity and liking, are able to influence the cooperative behaviors within the dyad. However, why within team competition is differentiated was less consistent with what I expected. The overall pattern of within team cooperation and competition, captured by three network indices, density (i.e., overall connectedness), centralization (i.e., tie distribution), and subgrouping (i.e., disconnection), did not predict team performance. Future research directions are discussed.

This dissertation incorporates the ontological perspective of sociomateriality into the literature on teamwork process to posit that member behavior and technology use are inherently enmeshed (termed process sociomateriality). Three programmatic studies were conducted In order to establish the construct and examine the effects of process sociomateriality on team functioning. First, a qualitative critical incident study (Study 1) found that process sociomateriality is comprised of three higher-order dimensions, reflecting that technology use in team settings may facilitate, expand, or impair process behaviors. A psychometric measure of process sociomateriality was then developed and administered to the general population in Study 2. Findings from Study 2 revealed that the measure exhibits acceptable psychometric properties and displays sufficient convergent and discriminant validity with relevant teamwork constructs. Study 3 tested the manner in which the process sociomateriality factors impact important team outcomes. Findings revealed that process facilitation and expansion improve team performance and team viability indirectly by shaping affective and motivational states. Further, results also demonstrated that the process sociomateriality factors account for variance in team viability and emergent states beyond prior conceptualizations of the process/technology relationship.

In order to remain competitive, firms must be able to merge diverse, differentiated people into teams. In comparison to solo ventures, venture teams not only offer a broader base of physical and financial resources and varying points of view, but also positively influence the profitability, growth, and survivability potential of new ventures. Despite the growing importance and potential benefits offered by venture teams, relatively little is known about assembling and maintaining effective venture teams in the field of entrepreneurship. More specifically, information is needed to understand what composition and combination of demographic characteristics of team members would contribute to the effectiveness and success of a venture team. In this study the relationship between venture team demographic characteristics and team effectiveness (which is defined in terms of the interpersonal process of venture team members in their group activities) is investigated. The demographic characteristics examined include average age, age heterogeneity, average level of education, educational background heterogeneity, gender heterogeneity, and functional background heterogeneity. A field study, involving face-to-face and telephone interviews with the venture teams is used to gather data from40 computer related venture teams in a large midwest U.S. city. The venture teams are identified through the local Chambers of Commerce, peer referrals, and library research. Information is gathered on demographics and team interpersonal process effectiveness using a pre-validated instrument. Data are analyzed using regression analysis. The results indicate that average age negatively and significantly relates with team interpersonal process effectiveness. Furthermore, average level of education positively and significantly relates with team interpersonal process effectiveness. The other demographic variables, age heterogeneity, educational background heterogeneity, gender heterogeneity, and functional background heterogeneity do not produce significant relationships.

The decisions behind choosing teammates for an interdisciplinary team are significant. Team assembly – the reasons behind individuals’ decisions about whom to work with in teams – likely play a key role in shaping crucial team processes, such as conflict and viability. This thesis advances a two dimensional taxonomy of team assembly where member decisions of who to team up with can be: (1) driven by team maintenance or task performance concerns (i.e., team versus task), and (2) based on individual characteristics or dyadic relationships (i.e., compositional versus relational). The effect of these four assembly mechanisms on resulting conflict and viability perceptions were tested in a sample of thirty-nine design teams enrolled in a master’s level human-computer interaction course (over three years). Within each of three cohorts, individuals self-assembled into project teams to develop a product that would better lives in some way. Relational team assembly was measured at week 1, compositional team assembly was measured at week 2, team conflict at week 5, 10 & 14, and team viability at week 14 using surveys. Hypotheses were tested using exponential random graph models to predict conflict tie formation based on dyadic assembly rules, and regression to test if relational team assembly mechanisms predict team viability. Results indicate that taskwork assembly mechanisms predict team conflict, but teamwork assembly mechanisms do not. Relational teamwork and taskwork assembly mechanisms do not predict team viability. Future directions of research in team conflict, team assembly, and team networks are discussed based on the current findings. This thesis contributes to science by providing an interdisciplinary model of team assembly mechanisms, and evaluates the model in explaining team conflict and viability.

The purpose of the current research is to contribute to the VE community’s understanding of how the dynamics of temporary teams may influence participant engagement, by answering the question, “what factors impact individual team member engagement on a VE study team?” In today’s business environment, the traditional permanent work team is no longer a reality for many employees (Jacobssen & Hallgren, 2016). Even those who do maintain membership in a permanent team are often tasked with serving on additional committees, task forces and decision-making teams to aid their organization in developing new products or navigating change. Value Engineering (VE) study teams present a unique scenario in which small, in-person teams of technical subject matter experts must solve complex problems in just a few days, having had no previous interaction. These teams can be classified as “temporary.” To understand what factors contribute to a participant’s engagement during a VE study, ten, semi-structured interviews were conducted with VE study team members. Themes from the interview data aligned with the literature’s framing of intellectual, social and affective engagement (Soane et al., 2012). Technical expertise, direct engagement by the facilitator, clear roles, prioritization of teambuilding, and viability of the project, were among the factors cited as impacting team member engagement. Recommendations were made related to prioritizing pre-study activities, creating a VE team member cadre for continued team member development, and setting the tone for engagement. These findings and recommendations may be applied to temporary team settings other than VE teams as well, in terms of the importance of context setting, early team member interaction, psychological membership and psychological safety for team success.

The focus of this study is the phenomenon of teams and teamwork. Currently the Professional Standards of Queensland’s teachers state that teams are critical to teachers’ work. This study uses a phenomenographic approach to investigate science teachers’ conceptions of teams and teamwork in the science departments of fifteen Queensland State secondary schools. The research identifies eight conceptions of teams and teamwork. The research findings suggest that the team represents a collective of science teachers bounded by the Science Department and their current timetabled subject. Collaboration was found in the study to be an activity that occurred between teachers in the same social space. The research recognises a new category of relationship between teachers, designated as ‘ask-and-receive’. The research identifies a lack of teamwork within the science department and the school. There appears to be no teaming with other subject departments. The research findings highlight the non-supportive team and teamwork policies, procedures and structures in the schools and identify the lack of recognition of the specialised skills of science teachers. The implications for the schools and science teachers are considerable, as the current Professional Standards of Education Queensland and the Queensland College of Teachers provide benchmarks of knowledge and practice of teams and teamwork for teachers. The research suggests that the professional standards relating to teams and teamwork cannot be achieved in the present school environment.

When it comes to how the team members build trust three themes were found; knowledge sharing, expectations and shared values and relationship building. Further on when it comes to the challenges five bigger themes were found which are; distance, culture decisions from above, knowledge and other challenges. Furthermore, the study also explored how difficult it is to build trust due to its complexity as several challenges were identified. Some suggestions have been made on how to face these challenges and it has been concluded that you need to take into account many different aspects when it comes to building trust in agile teams.

Five models for designing work teams from the Work Group Design Measure (Campion & Medsker, 1992b) and the models7 relationships to effectiveness criteria were compared using 30 self-directed work teams (SDWTs) in a manufacturing/production setting of a large defense contractor. The models which are from social psychology, socio-technical systems theory, industrial engineering, and organizational psychology include Job Design, Composition, Context/Resources, Potency/Interdependence, and Process. The study also examined distinguishing demographics, team characteristics, and interpersonal processes within the teams that differentiate higher performing teams and/or teams with higher job satisfaction. Effectiveness criteria were performance and job satisfaction. Among the findings, four of the five team design models (i.e., excluding the Composition Model), and the team-oriented interpersonal group processes correlated with performance and SDWT member job satisfaction.

Thesis (Sc. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 261-275).
Groups of geographically and/or organizationally dispersed members are increasingly being assembled to accomplish a wide range of organizational tasks using a combination of telecommunication and information technologies. The emergence of such technologically savvy globally dispersed teams has also heralded a complex and largely uninvestigated area of interaction practices of such team members. By enabling team interactions via non-traditional media, information technologies have actually expanded and transformed the conventional team interaction space. This merger of physical space with digital space has created a new kind of team interaction spaces, one where organizational, technological and spatial dimensions play significant roles. This research assesses the impact of team interaction space on perceived team performance using qualitative and quantitative research techniques. To collect qualitative data, interviews were conducted with 82' members from globally dispersed teams from three Global 500 companies. 45 audio, video and face-to-face team interactions between these team members were observed and analyzed. A survey on team interaction space was administered to the team members to substantiate the research hypotheses with quantitative data. Triangulating the qualitative and quantitative data, the research discovered significant correlation between the effectiveness of the team interaction space and perceived team performance. Factor, path and qualitative analysis demonstrated that organization protocols, communication technologies and spatial setup positively affect interaction space effectiveness. To explain the impact better, statistical evidence indicates that the impact of technology needs to be considered in multiple dimensions: ability, capability, reliability, accessibility and support. The research introduced team interaction space as a mediating variable to explain the role of technology, organizational processes and spatial setup on perceived team performance. The research also developed a team interaction space framework.
by Sanjeev Vadhavkar.
Sc.D.

This research initiative responds to some of the issues raised by theoretical challenges leveled at Industrial Psychology (postmodernism), and practical challenges in the workplace (the use of teams) by investigating notions of what a team is via the postmodern methodology of discourse analysis. The research explores “team talk” – repertoires of speech employed by individuals to construct particular versions of “the team” for specific effects, of importance given emphasis placed on shared understanding, expectations and goals in a “team”. A Rhodes University Industrial Psychology Honours class required to work as a team (having participated in a team building exercise), as well as their lecturers who facilitated the team building process were interviewed to obtain “talk” to analyse. This uncovered a multiplicity of meaning, namely four ways of speaking about (constructing) the team. These repertoires are explored in terms of how they are constructed, how they differ across context and speakers, how they interrelate and what they function to achieve. The educational team repertoire constructs academic hierarchy, justifies individualism, positions members as experts and maintains distance from interpersonal processes. The machine repertoire divides work and interpersonal issues, regulates productivity and constructs team roles (defining individual activity and “team fit”), but is inflexible to change. The family repertoire voices emotive aspects to maintain cohesion via conformity, leaderlessness, group identity and shared achievement, but cannot accommodate conflict or workpersonal boundaries. The psychologised team repertoire constructs the team primarily as a therapeutic entity legitimately creating individual identities (and expertise) and facilitating personal growth, but this flounders when support in the “team” fails. Given that each repertoire has a different emphasis (reflective learning versus work processes versus building relationships versus personal growth), there are slippages / clashes between repertoires. This postmodern look at “the team” thus assists in recognizing and problematising these multiple meanings and identifying practical implications.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2000.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-61).
This thesis examines various aspects of high performance, globally dispersed teams through an in-depth case study. Aspects explored include: Understanding the leadership role in teams where members are physically dispersed, Learning how to build and maintain trust within teams that are not located together, Examining preparatory steps and management actions that enhance the success of dispersed teams, Understanding the relationship between social and technical team activities and Learning how technology, physical space and organizational issues influence the performance of distributed teams.
by Edoardo Malfè and Rusty W. Petree.
M.B.A.

Despite much attention given to effective teams in the workplace, school counseling teams have been neglected in the research. The primary purpose of this mixed methods study was to learn what characteristics secondary counselors perceive contribute to an effective school counseling team. The first research phase conducted six team interviews; themes emerging from the interviews yielded the development of the Effective School Counseling Team Questionnaire (ESCTQ). The following research questions were investigated: What factors do counselors perceive contribute to their team's effectiveness?, Are the scores on the Effective School Counseling Team Questionnaire related to team effectiveness as described by school counselors? Is there a relationship between team characteristics (amount of time together, individual counseling experience, gender, age) and team effectiveness? Is there a relationship between the perceptions of members of effective and ineffective teams? The literature on effective team factors was reviewed and analyzed in three categories: internal, interpersonal, and external. Qualitative results indicated that the majority of participants viewed internal traits as the number one factor contributing to their team's success. Most frequent were competencies, respect, sharing duties, caring for each other and serving students. The second area participants listed as most important was interpersonal factors, such as communication, interactions, and planning. Overall, communication was cited as the number one factor needed for an effective team. Conclusions drawn suggested that teams need altruistic, personal qualities to feel most effective. These were summarized by participants as a team member who is caring, giving, and putting the needs of students first. The second key area for school counseling teams was support from external sources, primarily school administration and central office. In phase two, the questionnaire was developed and used to confirm the interview findings. During the second phase, the ESCTQ was administered to 199 secondary school counselors, yielding an 82.4% (n = 164) return rate. The survey when analyzed by teams did not show major significant differences between the teams; it did, however, confirm the qualitative findings of the internal and personal characteristics counselors of effective school teams posses. The survey also allowed team members to rate their current team and their ideal team. The difference between the two ratings (ie. gap score) showed there was a significant mean difference (20.50) between the means of those who perceived their team as highly effective (26.55) and those who perceived their team as least effective (6.05). When looking at the questionnaire this could be interpreted to mean that the team members who felt most effective had the smallest gap score between their current team and their ideal team. When teams' gap scores were compared to their overall team rating "global" scores, as the global score increased for a team their gap score decreased. Meaning an effective team had fewer discrepancies (smaller gap) between their current and ideal team. Clearly, teams that perceive their team as "relatively effective" are rating the team closer to their ideal team than those that see their team as "relatively ineffective". In order to enhance performance of a counseling team, this study was important to assess school counseling team's effectiveness. Two research methods were used to analyze effective teams; this research provides valuable information relating to school counselors and effective teams.
Ph. D.

Job satisfaction is the central attitude about work and can be considered among the most important constructs in organizational psychology and managerial practice. While scholars traditionally focused on job satisfaction of individual employees, the ongoing shift from individual to team-based working led to a new emphasis of satisfaction in the context of teams. Specifically, the focus on job satisfaction as an individual-level construct was complemented by a group-level perspective, which describes the satisfaction of teams as a whole. Furthermore, employees’ satisfaction with the team (i.e., team satisfaction) appeared as a new facet on the research agenda. Although research on job satisfaction in teams has grown in recent years, it still faces important challenges. The main problem is that prior research mostly viewed satisfaction in teams from a single-level perspective and conceptualized it as construct that is shared by all team members, overlooking that exclusion and polarization processes might lead to other than uniform satisfaction patterns. Second, while the literature already established a relationship between teams’ average satisfaction and performance, authors so far devoted only little attention to multi-level conceptualizations, neglecting that satisfaction on different levels of analysis can have different effects on emergent states, team processes, and performance. Finally, a lack of validated scales to assess satisfaction in teams forces researchers to rely on ad-hoc measures, on scales that were adapted from different research contexts, and on single-item measures, which complicates the testing of theoretical models, and the prediction and improvement of performance of individuals and teams. This dissertation addresses these challenges in a series of four studies. Study 1 presents a conceptual multi-level framework of team satisfaction. Current theorizing on team satisfaction as a group-level construct and its relationship to team performance faces two challenges: (1) a merely consensus-based conceptualization of team satisfaction at the group level and (2) a neglect of multi-level effects. This limits our understanding of team satisfaction and its influence on team performance because team members’ satisfaction does not always emerge as a uniform group-level construct. In this case, current theory cannot adequately explain the relationship between team satisfaction and team performance. In this conceptual paper, my co-authors and I develop a typology of different forms of team satisfaction (uniform, fragmented, deviate, and bimodal satisfaction), and introduce a multi-level framework that explains how these forms affect team performance within and across different levels of analysis. Based on our framework, we propose that the forms of team satisfaction affect emergent states, such as cohesiveness and trust climate, and team processes, such as cooperation and conflict resolution, that affect team performance beyond the effects of team members’ individual level of satisfaction. The paper contributes to current theory about team satisfaction and its relationship to team performance. Study 2a focuses on a methodological problem concerning the measurement of job satisfaction. Although an economical and differentiated assessment of job satisfaction is important for research and practice, German job satisfaction scales are often extensive or cannot differentiate between satisfaction facets. In order to fill this gap, I construct and validate a short questionnaire to assess general job satisfaction as well as satisfaction with the work itself, coworkers, promotions, pay, and supervision. First, I derive a large item pool from different versions of the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) and its German equivalent Arbeitsbeschreibungsbogen (ABB). Second, based on data collected with an online survey (N = 217), I subsequently reduce the item pool to a 30-item short questionnaire. Finally, I cross-validate the short questionnaire with an independent sample (N = 377). Given its satisfactory psychometric properties, the new scales allow for a reliable, valid, and economical measurement of job satisfaction and its facets in the German language. Study 2b adapts these newly developed scales to the context of teams. Studies that assess satisfaction in the team context usually rely on ad-hoc measures that are not validated and difficult to compare across studies. To address this problem, Study 2b adapts the scales developed in Study 2a to the team context and validates them using the data from 202 team members working in 47 teams. Despite a small method bias due to reverse-coded items, the scales’ psychometric properties are satisfactory. The results further show that, in contrast to non-team contexts, satisfaction with the team members appears to be the most important facet of satisfaction as it exhibits the strongest relationships with performance-related criteria and overall satisfaction. In summary, the results suggest that the adapted scales provide for a reliable and valid measurement of satisfaction in the context of teams. Study 3 addresses the emergence of job satisfaction in teams by examining homogeneity of satisfaction. Job satisfaction homogeneity is necessary for aggregating team members’ job satisfaction to the group level, and affects team-related outcomes such as social integration, team cohesion, and absenteeism. However, our understanding of the processes that lead to shared satisfaction is limited. Based on affective events theory, I test competing hypotheses about situational, dispositional, and social antecedents of satisfaction homogeneity. Path analyses based on data from 415 team members working in 110 teams suggest that job satisfaction homogeneity primarily depends on characteristics of the working environment, and to a lesser extent on team members’ personality traits. Unlike earlier studies, the study finds no evidence that social interaction leads to agreement in job satisfaction. Additionally, the study partly replicates the finding that satisfaction homogeneity moderates the group-level satisfaction—team performance relationship. Taken together, the studies comprising this dissertation contribute to three research domains — emergence, measurement, and consequences — of job satisfaction in teams. Concerning emergence, the studies comprising this dissertation present strong arguments and empirical evidence why satisfaction dispersion can occur in real-life teams, which marks a departure from the former emphasis on satisfaction as a shared group-level construct. In particular, whereas Study 1 argues that team satisfaction can emerge as a configural construct on the group-level in addition to uniform satisfaction, Study 3 analyzes the antecedents of satisfaction homogeneity. Concerning measurement, the results of Studies 2a and 2b provide valuable shortscales for future research and organizational practice that can be used to assess overall and facet-specific job satisfaction in team and non-team contexts. Given their individual-level nature, scale scores can be interpreted in cases without sufficient consensus and can be used for a variety of research questions at different levels of analysis. Finally, concerning consequences, this research emphasizes the importance of satisfaction facets and configurations for the relationship to team performance. Whereas Study 2b showed that facets of satisfaction are differently related to individual-level and group-level performance criteria, the theorizing of Study 1 and the findings of Study 3 build on and advance prior studies that have shown that differences in jo satisfaction are meaningful in the team context. A further contribution of this dissertation lies in the development of a multi-level input-mediator-outcome framework which advances prior team effectiveness frameworks and connects to a wide range of research areas. Taken together, the theorizing and empirical findings of this dissertation show that a configural and multi-level conceptualization is necessary to advance research on satisfaction in teams
Arbeitszufriedenheit ist die zentrale Einstellung gegenüber der Arbeit und zählt zu den wichtigsten Konstrukten in der Organisationspsychologie und der praktischen Personalarbeit. Traditionellerweise beschäftigte sich die Forschung mit der Arbeitszufriedenheit individueller Mitarbeiter. Der anhaltende Trend hin zu team-basierten Arbeitsformen führte jedoch zu einer Betonung der Arbeitszufriedenheit im Teamkontext. Zum einen wurde der Fokus auf Arbeitszufriedenheit als Konstrukt auf der Individualebene durch eine Gruppenlevel-Perspektive ergänzt, die die Zufriedenheit von Teams beschreibt. Zum anderen erschien Team-Zufriedenheit, die Zufriedenheit mit dem Team, als eine spezifische (Sub-)Facette von Arbeitszufriedenheit auf der Forschungsagenda. Obwohl die Forschung zu Arbeitszufriedenheit in Teams in der Vergangenheit große Fortschritte verzeichnen konnte, sieht sie sich nach wie vor wichtigen Herausforderungen gegenüber. Das Hauptproblem ist in der Konzeptionalisierung von Gruppen-Level-Zufriedenheit ausschließlich als geteilte Eigenschaft des Teams und im Verzicht auf Mehr-Ebenen-Konzeptionen zu sehen. Die Möglichkeit, dass Exklusions- und Polarisierungsprozesse zu anderen als uniformen Zufriedenheitsverteilungen führen könnten, wird in der Regel nicht betrachtet. Ein weiteres Problem besteht darin, dass sich die Forschung insbesondere auf durchschnittliche oder summierte Zufriedenheit konzentriert, um den Zusammenhang von Zufriedenheit auf Gruppenebene und Teamleistung zu erklären. Mehr-Ebenen-Konzeptionen, die unterschiedliche Effekte auf Teamprozesse, Teameigenschaften und Teamleistung auf verschiedenen Analyseebenen beleuchten, werden nicht betrachtet. Schlussendlich ist das Fehlen validierter Messinstrumente zur Erfassung von Zufriedenheit in Teams zu konstatieren. Forscher greifen daher häufig auf Ad-hoc-Maße, Ein-Item-Skalen oder adaptierte Skalen aus anderen Forschungskontexten zurück, was sowohl das Testen theoretischer Modelle als auch die Vorhersage und Verbesserung von Individual- und Gruppenleistung erschwert. Die Dissertation befasst sich mit diesen Herausforderungen in vier Studien. In Studie 1 wird ein konzeptionelles Mehrebenen-Rahmenmodell von Arbeitszufriedenheit in Teams entwickelt. Das derzeitige Verständnis von Arbeitszufriedenheit in Teams und ihrem Zusammenhang zur Teamleistung ist durch zwei Probleme gekennzeichnet: (1) ein ausschließlich konsensbasiertes Konzept von Zufriedenheit auf Gruppenebene sowie (2) die Vernachlässigung von Mehrebenen-Effekten. Diese schränken das Verständnis von Zufriedenheit auf Gruppenebene und ihrem Zusammenhang zur Teamleistung ein, da aus der Arbeitszufriedenheit einzelner Teammitglieder nicht immer geteilte Zufriedenheit entsteht. Da der Zusammenhang zwischen Zufriedenheit auf Gruppenebene und Teamleistung mit den derzeitigen Ansätzen nur unzureichend erklärt werden kann, entwickeln meine Koautoren und ich in Studie 1 eine Typologie von Zufriedenheitsformen (uniforme, fragmentierte, abweichende und deviante Zufriedenheit), und stellen ein Mehrebenen-Rahmenmodell vor, das den Zusammenhang dieser Formen und Teamleistung innerhalb und zwischen verschiedenen Analyseebenen erklärt. Auf Basis des Rahmenmodells stellen wir dar, dass die Zufriedenheitsformen emergente Eigenschaften wie die Teamkohäsion und das Vertrauensklima sowie Teamprozesse wie Kooperation und Konfliktlösung beeinflussen. Diese wiederum beeinflussen die Teamleistung über die individuelle Zufriedenheit hinaus. Die Studie leistet einen Beitrag zur aktuellen Forschung zur Teamzufriedenheit und ihrem Zusammenhang zur Teamleistung. Studie 2a befasst sich mit dem methodischen Problem der Messung von Arbeitszufriedenheit. Obwohl eine ökonomische und differenzierte Erfassung von Arbeitszufriedenheit für Forschung und betriebliche Praxis von hoher Relevanz ist, sind deutschsprachige Messinstrumente meist sehr umfangreich oder nicht in der Lage, zwischen Zufriedenheitsfacetten zu differenzieren. Vor diesem Hintergrund besteht das Ziel des Beitrags darin, einen Kurzfragebogen zu entwickeln und zu validieren, mit dem sich die Gesamtzufriedenheit sowie die Zufriedenheit mit den Tätigkeiten, Kolleginnen und Kollegen, Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten, der Bezahlung und der/dem Vorgesetzten messen lassen. Hierfür wird zunächst auf Basis verschiedener Versionen des Job Descriptive Index (JDI) und des Arbeitsbeschreibungsbogens (ABB) ein umfangreicher Itempool abgeleitet. Dieser wird anschließend mit Daten einer Onlinebefragung (N = 217) zu einem 30 Items umfassenden Kurzfragebogen verdichtet. Der neu entwickelte Kurzfragebogen wird schlussendlich an einer zweiten, unabhängigen Stichprobe (N = 377) kreuzvalidiert. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass das neu entwickelte Verfahren in der Lage ist, Arbeitszufriedenheit und ihre Facetten reliabel, valide und ökonomisch zu messen. In Studie 2b werden die neu entwickelten Skalen auf den Teamkontext adaptiert. Frühere Studien nutzten in der Regel Ad-hoc-Maße, die nicht sorgfältig entwickelt und validiert sind, häufig keine Differenzierung von Zufriedenheitsfacetten zulassen und deren Messergebnisse sich nur eingeschränkt zwischen Studien vergleichen lassen. An den Items und Vignetten der in Studie 2a entwickelten Skalen wurden daher linguistische Anpassungen vorgenommen und die adaptieren Skalen anschließend mit Daten von 202 Teammitgliedern aus 47 Teams validiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die psychometrische Qualität der Items und Skalen, abgesehen von einem schwachen Methoden-Bias aufgrund negativ kodierter Items, solide und vergleichbar zu der der Original-Skalen ist. Darüber hinaus offenbart die Studie Unterschiede zur Arbeitszufriedenheit in Nicht-Team-Kontexten. Insbesondere zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass die Zufriedenheit mit den Tätigkeiten nur eine untergeordnete Rolle für die Gesamtzufriedenheit sowie für individuelle und teambezogene Leistungsmaße spielt. Insgesamt deuten die Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass die adaptierten Skalen eine zuverlässige und valide Messung von Arbeitszufriedenheit im Teamkontext ermöglichen. Studie 3 befasst sich mit der Emergenz von Arbeitszufriedenheit in Teams, insbesondere mit ihrer Homogenität. Zufriedenheitshomogenität ist eine wichtige Grundvoraussetzung, um individuelle Zufriedenheitsurteile zu einem Gruppenkonstrukt zu aggregieren und wirkt sich auf verschiedene Teammaße, wie z.B. soziale Integration, Kohäsion und Absentismus aus. Die Prozesse, die eine geteilte Zufriedenheitsstruktur begünstigen, sind jedoch noch weitgehend unklar. Auf Basis der Theorie affektiver Ereignisse werden in dieser Studie alternative Hypothesen zu situativen, dispositionalen und sozialen Einflussfaktoren auf Zufriedenheitshomogenität getestet. Pfadanalysen (n = 415 Teammitglieder; N = 110 Teams) zeigen, dass Zufriedenheitshomogenität primär von der Arbeitsumgebung und zu einem geringeren Ausmaß von Persönlichkeitsmerkmalen der Teammitglieder abhängt. Im Gegensatz zu früheren Studien konnten keine Effekte sozialer Interaktion auf Zufriedenheitshomogenität nachgewiesen werden. Zudem werden frühere Untersuchungen teilweise repliziert, die zeigen konnten, dass Zufriedenheitshomogenität den Zusammenhang zwischen Zufriedenheit auf Gruppenebene und Teamleistung moderiert. Im Zusammenhang leisten die vier Studien dieser Dissertation Beiträge zu den Forschungsbereichen Emergenz, Messung und Konsequenzen von Zufriedenheit in Teams. Bezüglich der Emergenz auf Gruppenebene liefern die zusammengefassten Ergebnisse sowohl theoretische Argumente als auch empirische Evidenz, wieso Zufriedenheit in Teams unterschiedlich verteilt sein kann und stellt damit eine Abkehr vom vorherrschenden Fokus auf geteilte Zufriedenheit dar. Während Studie 1 postuliert, dass sich Teamzufriedenheit nicht nur zu einer uniformen, sondern auch zu einer konfiguralen Eigenschaft auf Gruppenebene entwickeln kann, untersucht Studie 3 die Emergenz zu einem geteilten bzw. uniformen Gruppenkonstrukt. Bezüglich der Messung von Zufriedenheit liefern die Ergebnisse von Studien 2a und 2b wertvolle Kurzskalen für die Forschung und Praxis, die zur Erfassung von allgemeiner und facettenspezifischer Zufriedenheit sowohl im Teamkontext als auch in anderen Kontexten genutzt werden können. Da die Skalen die Zufriedenheit auf der Individual-Ebene erfassen, lassen sich die Messergebnisse auch ohne hinreichende Übereinstimmung im Team interpretieren und sind daher für verschiedene Forschungsfragen auf verschiedenen Analyse-Ebenen nutzbar. Bezüglich der Konsequenzen von Zufriedenheit verdeutlichen die Ergebnisse die Wichtigkeit von Zufriedenheitsfacetten und -konfigurationen für den Zusammenhang zur Teamleistung. Während Studie 2b zeigen konnte, dass sich unterschiedliche Facetten von Zufriedenheit in unterschiedlichem Maße auf gruppenbezogene Leistungsmaße auswirken, verdeutlichen die Befunde aus Studien 1 und 3 die Relevanz von Zufriedenheitsdifferenzen im Teamkontext. Die Dissertation leistet einen weiteren Beitrag in Form der Entwicklung eines Mehrebenen-Rahmenmodells, das in Studie 1 vorgestellt wird. Das neue Rahmenmodell stellt eine Weiterentwicklung vorheriger Rahmenmodelle zur Teameffektivität dar und ist an verschiedene Forschungsbereiche anschlussfähig. In ihrer Gesamtheit zeigen die theoretischen und empirischen Befunde dieser Dissertation, dass eine konfigurale Mehrebenenkonzeption nötig ist, um die Forschung zur Arbeitszufriedenheit in Teams weiterzuentwickeln

This thesis aims to define international team and conflicts and identify the essential competencies for a manager and employee of international teams. It is argued that everyone in an international team should possess more skills and competencies than those who belong to homogeneous teams. As a result, representatives of international team must be able to understand culturally diverse backgrounds manage conflicts constructively, and comprehend different strategies to handle sensitive cases. The research begins by reviewing literature on culture, cultural dimensions in the team and conflict. A survey was performed on 167 individuals from various cultural backgrounds to analyze their attitudes towards multicultural teams and their managers. Some findings are in accordance with theories and some show different interesting opinions experienced pragmatically by the respondents. Eventually, the author based on the results obtained from the empirical research and the theoretical literatures has created a recommendation.