Effective Team Performance Research Articles

A Geriatric Neuropsychiatric Inpatient Unit

Geriatric neuropsychiatry units have been developed in hospitals in various parts of the United States to provide an intensive diagnostic and treatment program for geriatric patients who have behavioral problems or the early signs of dementia. The Geriatric Neuropsychiatry Unit at the Boston City Hospital is described as a model unit. The process of patient selection and admissions criteria are outlined. Diagnostic interventions and the full evaluative process are then presented, followed by a summary of the therapeutic interventions. These interventions include pharmacologic, psychotherapeutic, behavioral, and milieu therapies. The communications process essential for effective multidisciplinary team function is also reviewed. Discharge planning procedures are presented, along with a summary of patient outcomes.

Individual and group performances as functions of the team-training load.

The effects of team training load on both individual-and group-skill performances and training were measured in the laboratory with 10 five-member teams. Each team consisted of a specific five-member combination drawn from a total of 20 undergraduate volunteer male subjects. During the first 48 h of work, subjects were trained to perform the five individual- and one group-performance tasks presented with the Multiple-Task Performance Battery employed in the synthetic-work approach to performance assessment (see Alluisi, 1964; Chiles, Alluisi, and Adams, 1968; Morgan and Alluisi, 1972). Subsequently, trained subjects were combined in different numbers with untrained subjects to provide teamtraining loads (percentages of untrained team members) ranging from 0 to 100% in 20% steps. The five subjects in each of these teams worked together for 48 h over six consecutive days. Both individual and team performance effectiveness was reduced in direct proportion to the percentage of untrained personnel substituted into a trained team. However, neither the individual performances of the trained personnel nor the skill acquisition rates of the untrained personnel were adversely affected by increasing the team-training load.

Design and Maintenance of Computer Based Training

As automation penetrates deeper in the organization, designing for automation has envolved more and more from a pure technical undertaking into a more sociotechnical one. Computer based training is presented as an important training concept for automation, and the way C.B.T. is produced, as an example of an automation process of a sociotechnical nature. The question how to manage the development of C.R.T. materials is approached from the general soft-ware life cycle concept, the instructional system development model and from the perspective of site management and effective interdisciplinary team functioning. The C.B.T. site is part of the organization it works for and the implementation of C.B.T. can be seen as an organizational change process in which various human conditions should be given proper attention.

Intervening in Family Systems with Observer Messages*

This article presents an approach to family therapy in which a group of observers becomes part of a therapeutic team by introducing strategic messages into the sessions. The observers, who operate from behind a two‐way mirror, are thus able to effect change in both the family system and the therapeutic system consisting of family and therapist. Messages are described in terms of five components: function, target, timing, content, and delivery. Some guidelines for effective team functioning are given and three examples illustrate the approach. Finally, implications for training are discussed.

Self-Concepts of Children in Summer Baseball Programs

One of the most commonly held beliefs about children's sports is that they greatly develop participants' self-concepts and otherwise benefit players psychologically. But aside from that popular belief, does a first experience in a summer baseball program indeed contribute significantly to players' self-concept? In an attempt to answer this question, the Piers-Harris Children's Self-concept Scale was administered to 66 novice players and 99 nonplayers, 9 to 10 yr. old, before and after the baseball season. Of the former group, 35 subjects were players in a league which was highly competitive and 25 were players in a recreational league. The competitive league had the following characteristics: paid coaches, full uniforms, post-season playoffs and awards, all-star games, tryouts and drafts, no age-grouping, and games outside the residential area. The recreational league was characterized by volunteer coaches, no or limited uniforms (tee-shirts and caps), no post-season playoffs, tee-ball or pitching machines, everybody having a chance to play every game, players closely age-grouped, and games at parks close to residences. When all players were contrasted against all nonplayers, the players (M = 55.9) had a marginally higher (F1.l~ = 2.79, p < .09) mean self-concept than the nonplayers (M = 51.4) befoie the season. The significant main effect of league structure (PI,m = 4.85, p < .03) indicated that the mean self-concept of players in the competitive league (+4.2) increased more than that of recreational players (-0.3). The mean self-concept of the nonplayers increased significantly (from 51.4 to 56.1, p < .05) from the pretest to the posttest. When the data were analyzed in relation to the teams' season performance (win percentage), the main effect of team performance and the interaction of team performance and league structure were nonsignificant. It appeared that those in the competitive league significantly improved in selfconcept, whereas the recreational players remained the same over the baseball season. The increase for both nonplayers and competitive players suggests that the traditional Little League baseball was no more effective than various activities of nonplayers during the summer. Children must be intrinsically motivated by rheir activities for self-concept to increase (1, 2, 3). The higher mean self-concept of players than that of non-players before the season may reflecr a self-selection and intrinsic motivation.

Developing a motivating organizational climate for effective team functioning.

In order to enhance team functioning and to prevent the development of back wards, an institution must have a climate that motivates both staff and patients. The author summarizes the current technology for developing a motivating organizational climate, and describes the introduction of motivation factors into the climate of a hospital. Subsequent changes in morale, motivation, and innovation affected every segment of the hospital population--administrators, lineworkers, and patients--as well as departments and wards. On a 50-bed custodial back ward of chronic schizophrenics, motivation factors promoted more effective team functioning, improved discharge rates, and conveyed a sense of the ward as no longer backward.

An analysis of the dynamics of interdisciplinary collaboration

This paper describes an interdisciplinary collaboration for helping retarded delinquents to function effectively in a residential treatment center, in public schools, in their homes, and in the community. The essential components and processes of effective team functioning, including the evaluation of institutional resources, interdisciplinary team composition, formulation of team goal, and team leadership and coordination, are analyzed and discussed. Results of team work are presented along with a case illustration. Factors contributing to the positive result of the team effort also are discussed.

Communications content training as an ingredient in effective team performance.

In a first study, the relationship between helicopter team performance and the content and flow of communications within the team during simulated problem solution was investigated. Communications variables found to be correlated with an objective performance criterion were factor analyzed. The four emerging factors wore named: ‘ probabilistic structure ’, ‘ evaluative interchange ’, ‘ hypothesis formulation ’, and ‘ leadership control ’ In a second study, involving a different helicopter simulator, geographic location. and sample, the first study was replicated. Three of the four previously isolated communications factors were recovered. A training programme emphasizing the employment of the communications factors was doveloped, administered, and evaluated. The results indicated that, in terms of a performance criterion, team proficiency was affected in the proper direction, but the differences between the course trained and a control group were not statistically significant.

Nurse-Physician Teamwork

As the complexity of knowledge and skills required for good patient care continues to grow and the number of individuals involved in the management of a single patient accordingly increases, effective team functioning becomes progressively more important. Physicians and nurses are the most active participants in this team. In the hospital setting, however, it is apparent that their efforts in patient care are not always efficient or harmonious; and recognition of this fact has led to growing national concern.