Exploring Team Performance: Bridging the Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality

1. Views of Team Performance • Teamworking is central to new forms of work organisations (Cully et al, 1999) • Teams are an aspect of post industrial society (Geary & Dobbins, 2001) • The team is now the norm at work (Blau, 2002) • Gap between rhetoric and reality (Griffith, 2002)

2. Prevalence of Teamwork Difficult to determine due to defining teamwork But team based working has been increasing

3. Attempts to Define Teamwork • An aspect of high performance work systems • Empowering employees and facilitating full potential • Corresponds with the flatter organisation • Autonomous working groups

4. Unintended Consequences of Teamwork • Performance dips on introduction • Loss of skills • Work Intensification • Peer pressure

5. What is a Team? • More than the sum of the individual members • Demands collaborative, not competitive effort • Each member takes responsibility for not just their performance but that of the team’s • The team comes first, the individual second

6. Moxon 1993 Definition • Common purpose • Agreed norms • Values that regulate behaviour • Interdependent functions • Recognition of identity

7. Key Team Variables • Time span • Leadership • Interchangeability • Task and functional range

8. Broad Team Types Figure 13.1  Different types of team (Note: High range of activities indicates activities over a broad range of functions; low range of activities indicates activities within a function and within a single task.)

9. Self Managing Teams Production and service teams that are given authority to: • Submit a team budget • Order resources within budget • Organise training • Select new team members • Plan production to meet predefined goals • Schedule holidays and sickness cover

10. Hierarchical Teams Team autonomy does not mean team member autonomy Much responsibility in hands of team leader

11. Shared Responsibility Teams A leader may emerge Leadership may vary according to the nature of the task

12. Teamwork Relationships in the 1990s Figure 13.2  Teamwork relationships (Source: L.M. Oliva (1992) Partners not Competitors, p. 76. London: Idea Group Publishing. Reproduced with the permission of Idea Group Publishing.)

13. Positive Aspects of Self Managing Teams • Increase in employee ownership and control • Greater release of commitment, creativity and potential of team members

14. Problems With Self Managing Teams • Resistance from other parts of the organisation • Resistance within the team • Peer pressure

15. Cross Functional Management Teams • Each member brings own expertise in their own function • Members are likely to retain other roles in organisation • Often manage the development of a product or service • Members can be allocated by their home function for all or part of their time • Are often virtual teams – rarely physically together

16. Performance Measures Process measures are key as they help the team to gauge their progress and identify and rectify problems Measures designed by team Measures designed against a strategic context

17. Functional Teams • Made up of individuals within a function • Provides customers with identified set of individuals to deal with

18. Problem Solving Teams • May exist within a function or be cross functional • Quality circles an example • Can be brought together to solve identified and specific organisational problems • Role is not to manage anything but to collect and analyse data and perspectives and make recommendation on how to solve issues

19. Requirements For Team Effectiveness Clear and agreed: • Vision • Objectives • Set of rules which all team members work within • Climate of openness and honesty, conflict resolution, and problem solving

20. Selection of Team Members • Technical or functional expertise • Problem solving and decision making skills • Interpersonal skills • High level of emotional intelligence (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993)

21. Belbin’s Selection by Team Roles • Coordinator • Shaper • Plant • Resource investigator • Implementer • Team worker • Completer • Monitor evaluator • Specialist

22. Value of Belbin’s Team Roles Inventory (BTRSPI) Furnham et al (1993) questions reliability of inventory as a measure Fisher et al (2002) concludes that it has intuitive appeal

23. Training for Team Members Team members have to play new roles so will require some form of training Team leaders – moving from a directive to coaching and counselling role for example Team members – problem solving, communications for example Team development

24. Team Recognition & Reward • Articles in company newsletters about team successes • Inscribing the team name on product • Monetary rewards

25. Are Teams Always The Right Answer? • Not all employees feel comfortable or perform their best in team based situations • Teamwork may not be the best approach • Not all teams are effective • Teams can have a downward levelling effect

26. Summary • Team based working has been increasing • Belief that team working empowers employees to use their full potential • Key variables – time span, interchangeability of team members, range of activities • Four main types of team • Agreed goals and methods essential for team effectiveness • Selection of team members is key