Internal Team Dynamics Research Articles

Attending to the Emotional Side of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) by Cultivating Positive Team Dynamics

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are becoming increasingly commonplace in America’s schools. As part of the school community, physical educators are positioned to add and receive value within PLCs. Given that school-based PLCs are driven by collaborative teams, reaching high performing status requires external supportive school structures coupled with internal positive team dynamics. A PLC can be an emotionally charged collective action formation with the potential to positively enhance teacher practice and student learning or, conversely, be hindered by adult drama. This paper focuses on and provides research-informed practical suggestions for addressing the internal team dynamics aspects of physical education PLCs (PE-PLCs). Drawing from team dynamics literature, this analysis unpacks and applies sub-constructs associated with team member attitudes, behaviors, and cognitions (ABCs) within a PE-PLC setting. Practical suggestions for enhancing ABCs within PLCs are provided.

New product development team performance: a historical meta-analytic review of its nomological network

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to conduct a meta-analytic review based on a theoretical framework developed for investigating new product development (NPD) teams in the first two decades of the research stream.Design/methodology/approachThis study contributes to literature by investigating the presence of publication bias and synthesizing correlation effect sizes of 27 factors influencing three NPD team performance dimensions: overall, market-based (e.g. sales, profitability), process-based (e.g. budget adherence, schedule adherence) outcomes. Further, this study presents a path analytical model that uses the aggregate study effects to identify significant drivers of NPD team performance.FindingsFirst, examination of extant literature shows no publication bias. Next, analyses show that three internal team dynamic variables have the most significant positive effect on overall NPD team performance: team member job satisfaction, cross-functional integration and superordinate identity. For market-based performance, three goal-related contextual factors exert the most positive influence, namely, goal stability, goal clarity and goal support, in respective order. Further, for process-based performance, cross-functional integration’s strong positive effect is followed by team and goal stability. Moreover, physical distance, interpersonal and task conflict have significant negative effects on NPD team performance. Finally, both market- and process-based NPD team performance are significantly influenced by NPD team’s cohesion, which acts a mediator between two contextual factors: physical distance and team tenure.Research limitations/implicationsThis meta-analysis contributes to literature by providing a comprehensive model of NPD team performance predictors, their definitions, along with their corresponding effects in predicting performance. While team cohesion is found to be a strong predictor of both market- and process-based performance, future research can examine if too much cohesion has a detrimental effect, especially on market-based performance.Practical implicationsThe results assist managers in shifting their priorities to ensure optimal support of NPD teams. For example, team leadership competence externally has a larger effect on overall performance compared to team leadership for internal team dynamics. Hence, team leaders should make sure that they manage the team’s relationships with external parties (e.g. other functional units) with more caution.Originality/valueThis study provides a guiding framework for analyzing NPD team performance as well as identifies and then addresses many knowledge gaps on NPD team performance.

No Team is an Island: How Leaders Shape Networked Ecosystems for Team Success

Today’s organizations rely on networks of dynamic systems of “agile” teams to get work done. Teams are distributed, transient, and loosely bounded in service of responsiveness and innovation. The key to this new way of doing work is managing the networked ecosystem in which teams are embedded. But in the context of leading multiple teams with fuzzy boundaries and shifting membership, the average overwhelmed manager quickly defaults to what is nearest in urgency: managing internal team dynamics and responding to internal customer demands. Drawn from field interviews with 100 top-performing team leaders, this article presents a framework-for-action to leaders who want to engage the networked ecosystem with intention and precision, including specific tactics for identifying and influencing high-leverage stakeholders.

Impact of team design and technical factors on team cohesion

PurposeBased on the interpersonal interaction perspective of team cohesion, this study aims to examine the effects of team boundedness, formal coordination and organization tenure diversity on both task and social cohesion. The authors test for the interaction effect of organization tenure diversity on the relationships between the independent variables and the dimensions of team cohesion.Design/methodology/approachData was collected from 111 software development teams and aggregated to the team level. Common latent factor test for common method bias showed no significant bias. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test all the hypotheses.FindingsSEM results show that team boundedness and formal coordination have positive and significant association with both dimensions of team cohesion. Formal coordination was found to be a stronger positive predictor for task cohesion than for social cohesion. Organization tenure diversity was found to be a stronger negative predictor for social cohesion than for task cohesion. Organization tenure diversity in the team moderates the relationship between formal coordination and task cohesion.Research limitations/implicationsThe data was collected using a cross-sectional design. However, the authors have mitigated the effect of common method variance by adopting both procedural and statistical methods.Originality/valueThis paper expands extant literature by examining the antecedents of two important components of team cohesion, task and social cohesion. The authors proposed and found that the independent variables have different impacts on task and social cohesion. This study furthers both theory and practice by considering team boundedness as a variable of interest and its impact on internal team dynamics.

COLLABORATION OR CLASH? MAPPING THE EFFECTS OF TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM CONFLICT ON FIRM ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY

Top management teams (TMTs) that work (not so) well together enhance (restrict) the ability of the firm to leverage capabilities, which affects outcomes such as innovation. Although internal team dynamics at this level have notable effects on the firm, much remains to be understood about how these effects occur. Therefore, we investigate TMT conflict (cognitive and affective) to understand how the firm-level knowledge capability of absorptive capacity (ACAP) is altered as a result of such types of conflict. Further, given that strategic orientations offer guiding principles for organisational behaviours, we suggest that the main effects of conflict are augmented by strategic orientations. Specifically, both entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation are posited to affect the relationship between conflict and ACAP, which expands understanding of the conditions in which TMT conflict affects ACAP. In all, a conceptual framework is developed to offer insight into how TMT conflict affects firm-level ACAP, highlighting differences that are dependent on whether team members collaborate via cognitive conflict or clash given affective conflict.

Organizational Knowledge Creation in the Context of a Professional Development Program: Mixed-Methods Longitudinal Results From the ALPS Study

In Quebec (Canada), the 2004 health system reform brought new challenges for organizations and professionals. To support the reform, the Regional Public Health Directorate of Montreal designed a professional development pilot program, the Health Promotion Laboratory, a strategy to develop and improve health promotion practices and competencies in local health and social services centers. This article reports the results of an analysis of two laboratory sites using a mixed-methods approach and a multiple case study design; the aim was to describe the creation of knowledge through the laboratory and its dissemination in the organization, as well as to identify influencing factors. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted to collect data on the knowledge creation process and organizational context. Self-administered questionnaires were used four times over the course of each laboratory to measure active participation, commitment, psychological safety, innovation, and satisfaction. Our findings showed that knowledge acquired through participation in the laboratory was disseminated in the host organizations, both through externalization, combination, and, to a lesser extent, internalization. It is highly plausible that team processes and outcomes such as commitment, satisfaction, and innovation influenced this process, as well as contextual factors such as participant turnover, university affiliation, and internal team dynamics. These results show the potential of the laboratory for improving professional practices. They also suggest useful avenues for managers and decision makers interested in implementing such an initiative. Future work should consider the inclusion of other constructs derived from the literature on team effectiveness such as group learning, communication, and skill development.

Identifying some internal S/F factors of NSD project performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to integrate existing streams of literature in service innovation and services marketing and adopt an internal perspective of the new service development (NSD) process by discussing the role of some intra‐organizational contingencies that determine NSD project performance.Design/methodology/approach – This paper develops a number of propositions applicable to new service development projects, in order to shed light on how internal team dynamics and contextual antecedents of service innovation affect NSD project performance.Findings – The importance of adopting an internal market orientation (IMO) for new service development performance is illustrated. The role of intrateam contingencies, such as trust, relationship conflict and political activity and some contextual antecedents, such as resource allocation effectiveness and efficiency and cross‐functional integration for NSD project performance are also discussed.Originality/value – This study is clearly a fruitful p...

Managing stakeholders in team‐based innovation

PurposeTeam‐based innovation requires a balance of creative and pragmatic processes both within teams and between teams and their organizational stakeholders. However, prior research has focused primarily on the internal team dynamics that facilitate innovation, paying comparatively little attention to team‐stakeholder dynamics. The purpose of this study is to address this limitation by studying the impact of team‐stakeholder networks and shared cognition on the effectiveness of innovation teams.Design/methodology/approachThis study investigates the knowledge and trust linkages between 51 new product development (NPD) teams and their organizational stakeholders using a mixed methods design that combines network analysis, surveys, and qualitative interviews. Multiple indicators of team effectiveness were collected at various stages of the innovation process.FindingsThe results show that effective NPD teams establish knowledge ties with many non‐redundant organizational stakeholders and foster a high level of agreement among stakeholders about team innovation factors. Conversely, effective NPD teams also establish highly centralized trust networks that are focused on only a few key stakeholders in the organization.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focuses on NPD teams in chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Future studies should seek to replicate the findings using larger samples of teams involving diverse innovation tasks.Practical implicationsThese results have implications for the most effective way to build and manage innovation teams, considering both pre‐existing stakeholder linkages and networking strategies for the future.Originality/valueThe results suggest that the optimal characteristics of team‐stakeholder knowledge and trust networks differ and highlight the unique importance of shared understanding about risk‐taking and creativity beyond higher overall levels.

First among Equals: The Effect of Team Leader Characteristics on the Internal Dynamics of Cross‐Functional Product Development Teams*

Drawing on the path‐goal theory of leadership, the present study examines the effect of team leader characteristics on an array of conflict resolution behavior, collaboration, and communication patterns of cross‐functional new product development (NPD) teams. A hierarchical linear model analysis based on a survey of 246 members from 64 NPD teams suggests that participative management style and initiation of goal structure by the team leader exert the strongest influence on internal team dynamics. Both these leadership characteristics had a positive effect on functional conflict resolution, collaboration, and communication quality within the NPD team while discouraging dysfunctional conflict resolution and formal communications. Comparatively, team leader's consideration, initiation of process structure, and position had a surprisingly weak effect on internal team dynamics. Further, the findings underscore the differential effects on various dimensions of team dynamics, the importance of controlling for project and team characteristics, and the use of multilevel modeling for studying nested phenomena related to NPD teams. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Once More With Feeling: Ethnographic Reflections on the Mediation of Tension in a Small Team of Call Centre Workers

This article explores the labour process of a team of call‐centre workers based in a multi‐client call centre in the West Midlands. Founded on the basis of a 13‐month ethnographic study into workplace resistance in call‐centre environments, this article provides insights into control in call centres, focusing on sexuality, internal team dynamics and discipline. It is argued that control is exerted through management and information technology but it is crucially exerted laterally in the team and sexuality is an important medium of such control. This article focuses specifically on how worker sexuality is deployed to regulate the tension between contradictory imperatives faced by workers. The article then considers the emotional content of the call‐centre labour process, arguing that the apparent resolution of potentially contradictory logic, in fact, depends upon the development by call‐centre workers, encouraged by more senior employees, of informal, pseudo‐sexualized client relations at the point of production. Crucially however the fieldwork reveals that the demands placed upon customer service representatives are subtly gendered.

Teamwork or interdepartmental cooperation: which is more important in the health care setting?

A survey of 75 nursing department employees was conducted to assess the relative importance of across-department and within-team cooperation on workplace outcomes. As compared with within-team cooperation, across-department cooperation is more positively associated with procedural justice, interpersonal justice, satisfaction with supervisor feedback, supervisory rating, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Across-department cooperation is more negatively associated with role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, job tension, and job withdrawal intentions. No significant correlational differences are noted for either distributive justice or politics. Type of cooperation also was analyzed using hierarchical regression, and more variance was explained in across-department cooperation than within-team cooperation by organizational variables. Based on these results, it may be more important for the health care manager to attend to issues of interdepartmental cooperation rather than to internal team dynamics.