Groups & Teams

units, airplane crews, research and development teams, production crews).

Although teams are ubiquitous in organizations, most employee-related functions are

individualized (e.g., selecting, training, evaluating, rewarding). Such a disconnect between

an organization’s need to foster effective teams and its natural tendency to focus on the

individual employee can create many problems. In addition, some research suggests a key

reason why some teams fail is that employees are ill-prepared to make the transition from

individual contributor to team member

In this white paper, it is further stated that Bergmann and De Meuse (1996) investigated

the implementation of self-managed work teams in a large food processing plant. They

observed that employees lacked the basic team skills of problem solving, dealing with

conflict, conducting effective meetings, and interpersonal communication. Eventually, the

employees resisted the movement to self-managed work teams to such an extent that

management returned to the old system of production after 10 months.

One of the keys to developing high performing teams is to remember that successful

teams do not simply happen. They take much effort and time. They take proper guidance

and support from the team leader. They require an organizational culture which enables

and fosters team work. To attain a high level of team performance, we must be

knowledgeable about what factors influence team dynamics and effectiveness.

Page 3

In an attempt to understand how teams work, a number of authors have proposed models

of team performance. Each of these models presents several variables that the author(s)

posit influence the effectiveness of teams. Some of the models highlight group structure

and interpersonal dynamics, while others tend to focus on the talent and motivation of

individual team members. Still others emphasize factors external to the team itself (e.g., a

company’s culture). Some models were proposed more than...