Organizational Teamwork Research Articles

Emotional Intelligence Tests: Potential Impacts on the Hiring Process for Accounting Students

Emotional intelligence is increasingly recognized as being important for professional career success. Skills related to emotional intelligence (e.g. organizational commitment, public speaking, teamwork, and leadership) are considered essential. Human resource professionals have begun including tests of emotional intelligence (EI) in job applicant screening processes. Consequently, if accounting education fails to develop EI skills, students may seem to recruiters to be less qualified. Alternatively, if the tests for EI are inaccurate or easily manipulated, qualified applicants may be overlooked. We examine the ability of subjects studying accounting at a Canadian university to purposely alter their results on two of the most frequently used EI tests: the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) and the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). We find that subjects can purposely change their EI score to fit the job description. We conclude that neither instrument is clearly better than the other is in the hiring process and both require revision as potential applicants are able purposely to alter their scores.

Trabalho em equipe e interdisciplinaridade: desafios para a efetivação da integralidade na assistência ambulatorial às pessoas vivendo com HIV/Aids em Pernambuco

The complexity of providing healthcare to people with HIV/Aids requires investment in comprehensive action and care, constituting a challenge for the multidisciplinary work teams to build an interdisciplinary practice. This study sought to analyze comprehensive healthcare in the Specialized Assistance Services for HIV/Aids (SAE-HIV/Aids) in Recife, in the State of Pernambuco, starting with the process and organization of team work. This is a case study developed in three SAE-HIV/Aids units, based on a qualitative approach using different research techniques. The results show that SAE-HIV/Aids have complied with most of the Brazilian Health Ministry recommendations in terms of basic infrastructure, though none of them had a team of appropriate size. These services have shown signs of fragmentation and difficulty in establishing a systematic intersectorial and interdisciplinary practice, with failings in ensuring the reference and counter-reference flow. It was seen that there was little appreciation of the role of the manager as team leader. The need to perceive the user as a whole was identified, as well as for the team to work in a coordinated manner in order to ensure communicative and relational activities.

Utilization of trauma guidelines by ER nurses in Thailand

ObjectiveTo improving trauma nursing practice in Thailand and other countries. MethodsAs part of a larger study of 164 ER nurses, 83 nurses provided narrative responses to questions of CNPG utilization and barriers to implementation. Using a qualitative descriptive design and analysis, three major themes were identified: Guidelines reflect good practice; Nurses do not always follow guidelines; and System problems limit use. ResultsThe results suggest optimized guideline adherence would require using judgment in following CNPG; ensuring organized teamwork is essential; and providing maximum resources would promote optimal care. ConclusionClinical nursing practice guidelines (CNPG) have been developed in Thailand for resuscitation care of emergency room (ER) trauma patients. However, many nurses do not use guidelines effectively.

Frogs and Ponds

Regulatory mode is a psychological construct pertaining to the self-regulatory orientation of individuals or teams engaged in goal pursuit. Locomotion, the desire for continuous progress or movement in goal pursuit, and assessment, the desire to critically evaluate and compare goals and means, are orthogonal regulatory modes. However, they are also complementary, in that both locomotion and assessment are necessary for effectual goal pursuit. In the present research, the authors sought to demonstrate that multilevel regulatory mode complementarity can positively affect individual-level performance on goal-relevant tasks. The authors recruited 289 employees (177 men, 112 women) from preexisting work teams in workplace organizations in Italy and obtained (a) employees' individual-level scores on the Regulatory Mode Scale and (b) supervisor ratings of each employee's work performance. The results supported the multilevel complementarity hypothesis for regulatory mode. Limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Expectation gaps, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of fresh graduates

PurposeThe aim of this research is to attempt to reveal the difference between what fresh graduates expect and their actual experiences pertaining to the working environment.Design/methodology/approachUsing a set of self‐administered questionnaires, data were collected from 128 graduates. They were asked to indicate their preferences on organizational culture, leadership, communication, decision making, team working, motivation, and development. Using the same dimensions, the respondents then reported their actual experiences, thus enabling gaps to be determined.FindingsThe results from paired‐sample t‐tests suggest that significant expectation gaps exist in all the areas surveyed. While communication, decision making and motivation are found to be significantly related to job satisfaction, none of the seven variables is found to be significantly correlated to organizational commitment.Research limitations/implicationsThe study focuses only on a rather limited sample size of Malaysian graduates; therefore it cannot ensure generalization of results obtained.Practical implicationsThe resulting expectation gaps, and their influence on the graduates' job satisfaction and organizational commitment, have implications for the important roles played by employers, higher learning institutions, and graduate themselves.Originality/valueThis study makes significant contributions in three key areas. First, it is perhaps one of the earliest studies to comprehensively address the issue of expectation gaps using a myriad factors. Second, it is also one of the few that examines the influence of the expectation gaps on job satisfaction and commitment. Third, instead of focusing on employees as a whole, which has been the practice of prior research, this study concentrates only on fresh graduates who have been in the workforce for less than two years.

Global Virtual Sales Teams (GVSTs ): A Conceptual Framework of the Influence of Intellectual and Social Capital on Effectiveness

International sales opportunities, consolidation of global accounts, and advancements in communication technologies have led to the prevalence of global virtual sales teams (GVSTs). GVSTs enable salespeople from different geographical areas, time zones, and cultural backgrounds to use virtual interfaces and work closely together on interdependent global sales objectives. However, as technology-enabled, culturally diverse, and globally separated teams have not lived up to their potential, researchers have called for furthering our understanding of such teams. Therefore, drawing from literature streams on traditional sales teams, global sales teams, virtual teams, teamwork in organizations, intellectual capital, and social capital, we offer a framework for enhancing the effectiveness of GVSTs. Specifically, we define GVST effectiveness, identify effectiveness enhancing components of the GVST environment, and examine unique dimensions of GVST intellectual and social capital that influence the GVST environment. We conclude with several directions for future research in this promising, yet underresearched, area and implications for practice.

Market characteristics, intra-firm coordination, and the choice of human resource management systems: Theory and evidence

This paper begins by constructing a team-theoretical model of organizational adaptation and coordination with three distinct task coordination modes: vertical control, horizontal coordination, and hybrid coordination. The model is then used to provide fresh insights on complementarities involving team work organization, communication channels, training and hiring, and other human resource management practices, and illustrate how such choice of practices is affected by the firm's output market conditions. Our econometric analysis of new data from Japan which provide up-to-date information on the adoption of new team-based instruments for a horizontal coordination system (cross-functional problem solving project teams and Self-Managed Teams) yields results that are broadly consistent with the theory. First, new team-based instruments are more likely to be adopted by firms with well-established formal shop-floor-based communication channels (such as shopfloor committees), while they are much less likely to be adopted by firms with well-established information sharing institutions such as joint labor-management committees, which presumably enhance the efficiency of the vertical control system by minimizing labor-management communication errors. Finally, firms in more competitive markets and those with a higher concentration of sales among a small number of customers are more likely to adopt both types of team, whereas firms facing more erratic price movement tend not to adopt Self-Managed Teams.

Teamwork and Program Organization in Developing Countries

Establishment of congenital heart surgery programs in developing countries is often impeded by competition among providers for scarce resources and opportunities. To avoid this problem, the authors have sought to focus program development on a domestic medical team that includes a visiting North American surgeon. A leadership group was formed consisting of a domestic cardiologist and surgeon, the visiting surgeon, and leading local benefactors. Surgery was initiated beginning with closed cases, and the volume and complexity were gradually increased. The team was mentored by the visiting surgeon, and full medical brigades visited periodically. All members of the leadership group interacted with local health care providers, missionary groups, and visiting medical teams from international organizations, aiming to develop a single congenital heart surgery center. Over a period of 3 years, 185 children have been operated on and the team has progressed to do more complex open and closed cases. Overall mortality is 6.5%. Actively working with the program are 3 of the 5 local pediatric cardiologists, 2 of 4 pediatric intensivists, the only pediatric perfusionist, and the only active pediatric heart surgeon. Three additional international organizations currently participate in program development. Fundraising by the domestic nonprofit organization has increased approximately 20-fold in 5 years, and the program has been evaluated and approved by the government-based health insurance program. Focusing program development around a domestic leadership team allows coordination of patient referrals and resources, which contributes to excellent patient care and program sustainability.

Working Together in Organizations Using Social Network Sites: A Laboratory Experiment on Microblog Use for Problem-Solving

We can observe nowadays a proliferation of social network sites and tools. Faced with this increasing availability of opportunities, it is crucial for organizations to understand how to use them and for what purposes . In this paper we investigate whether an SNS can be used as a tool for teamwork in organizations. Could microblogging tools be preferred to traditional communication tools for individual and group problem-solving? To answer this research question, we focused on Twitter, a well known SNS for microblogging, and Skype, a standard communication platform. The laboratory experiment method was selected in order to conduct a rigorous comparison with well defined measurements. Different teams of the same size carry out a problem-solving task communicating via Twitter or Skype. Comparative group performance is measured in terms of task completion time. Our results show that the lower volume of information exchanged via Twitter does not negatively affect group performance: Twitter teams are just as effective as Skype teams. These results can be only partly explained in terms of learning effects, but more interestingly they may be related to the different group dynamics within teams using different systems, disclosing new paths for further research. 1.Introduction We can currently observe a proliferation of social network sites and tools (SNS): there are dozens of tools, and new concepts are constantly emerging . This makes it necessary for business executives, decision makers, as well as consultants, to develop the ability to identify how firms can make profitable use of social network instruments as well as the ability to select among them.

The Effectiveness of Self-Managed Work Teams in Government Organizations

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of self-managed work teams in government organizations. The article discussed three distinct indicators to organizational effectiveness: participant satisfaction, goal attainment, and system resources. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). Data were collected from a national survey of 176 city government employees from 24 American cities. Both self-management and teamwork were positively related to resource attainment. The study also found that teamwork related positively to job satisfaction as well as team performance. In addition, both self-management and teamwork were indirectly associated with team members’ job satisfaction through team resource attainment. The central implication is that self-managed work teams can improve the effectiveness of organizational practice. However, the effect of self-managed work teams varies in terms of different indicators of effectiveness. Teamwork is a more powerful tool to increase organizational effectiveness than the self-management factor. The most significant contribution of this study comes in the investigation of complex causal relationships among the effectiveness indicators and factors about self-managed work teams. These findings offer a more realistic model of how self-managed work teams achieve effectiveness.

The Organizational Context, Job Embeddedness, And Effectiveness Of Managing Knowledge Work Teams

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The relationships between organizational context, job embeddedness, and knowledge work team effectiveness are examined in this paper. We proposed a research model and tested the model empirically based on a sample of 144 enterprises from the Taiwanese Information Service Industry. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The results show that open-mindedness and organizational commitment are positively related to job embeddedness. Job embeddedness also has strong relationship with knowledge work team effectiveness. However, the link between job autonomy and job embeddedness is not significant. <span style="color: black;"></span></span></span></p>

IT knowledge integration capability and team performance: The role of team climate

Previous research considering a normative perspective for fostering knowledge integration at the team level of analysis underscores that teams are often reluctant to share important knowledge among their members. In the attempt to provide a wider perspective on team knowledge integration, we take a different perspective, basing our arguments on team climate theoretical framework. Specifically, we argue that an autonomy and experimental climate (i.e. shared perception that the team supports autonomous action and experimentation and risk taking) can favor the team's ability to integrate members’ knowledge. Indeed, focusing on members’ willingness to contribute to team well-being, team autonomy and experimental climate may enhance the team's capability to integrate knowledge enabled by the IT infrastructure (IT knowledge integration capability). We tested our research model on a sample of 410 members and leaders of 69 organizational work teams. Results show the critical role played by team climate in favoring IT knowledge integration capability, which in turn affects team outcomes.

Team Boundary Spanning: A Multilevel Review of Past Research and Proposals for the Future

In response to increased complexity of work tasks, flatter organizational structures, and changing environmental conditions, organizational work teams must increasingly coordinate efforts across their boundaries and actively manage key relationships external to the team itself. Despite evidence of the importance of these processes—referred to as team boundary spanning—for both team and organizational success, significant gaps exist in our understanding of the nature of team boundary spanning, how and when these behaviors are carried out by teams, and the resulting impacts of team boundary spanning beyond that of enhanced team performance. Therefore, this article seeks to advance knowledge in this area by offering a taxonomy of team boundary spanning actions, reviewing the existing stream of team boundary spanning literature across multiple levels of analysis, and integrating this body of work with findings and perspectives from other boundary spanning research areas so as to stimulate fruitful avenues for future research.

A vivência dos trabalhadores de um CAPS diante da nova organização do trabalho em equipe

The CAPS - Psychosocial Care Center, substitute service to the insane asylum, considers a new organizational arrangement. The objective of this research was to analyze the experience of the workers of the CAPS of São Carlos - SP facing the new team work organization in mental health. It is a qualitative research carried out through field observation and interviews. The observation disclosed that the work comes to meet the interdisciplinar work proposal in mental health. From the analysis of the interviews with 17 workers we apprehended three great categories: 1. Considering the experience of team work as a process, identifying positive points, conflicts and difficulties; 2. Recognizing the difference of the work in the CAPS in relation to previous works; 3. Living the difficulties at the beginning, adapting and learning how to like. We stand out the importance of the new organization of the work that makes possible greater bond with the users generating satisfaction in the work, autonomy and learning. There is the necessity of changes in the working conditions with the implementation of effective public policies directed to the improvement of the work in health.Key words: Mental health services; Patient care team; Deinstitutionalization.

What Makes a Team Work?

Teams are increasingly becoming an essential component of organizations across industries. A lot has been written on team work in the recent years. While the importance of teams in organizations has largely been recognized, our understanding about what makes a ‘team’ work has remained limited. Reviewing the relevant literature related to some aspects of teams, the present paper identifies certain issues and areas which require further investigation for a better insight about team work in organizations.

Integrated project management system

The development of an integrated project management system for the building industry is described. Some principles of electronic document management and authority ranking for getting access to documents are considered. A methodology is presented for the organization of team work planning using Web access mode, project stage monitoring, and report generation.

Swiss Romande burn center: A model of multidisciplinary team work and network organization

Swiss Romande burn center: A model of multidisciplinary team work and network organization

STILL FEELING PROUD TO BE WORKING FOR YOUR EMPLOYER? LONGITUDINAL CHANGES IN WHITE COLLAR EMPLOYEES' MORALE IN A TIME OF ORGANIZATIONAL RESTRUCTURING

Using two panels of employer-employee matched datasets, this study investigates the changes in work morale for white-collar employees—managerial, professional, and technical (MPT) workers—and how such changes are related to organizational restructuring. Findings suggest little changes in work morale of white-collar workers—more MPT workers in the 2002 data strongly agreed that they “feel proud to be working for their employers” than did their counterparts in 1991, but fewer of them agreed to the statement. Moreover, managerial employees have been increasingly akin to the tall organizational hierarchy, but display some resentment toward teamwork. In contrast, work morale of professional/technical workers is not related to the changes in organizational hierarchy and teamwork, but their positive reaction to internal labor markets has significantly declined from 1991 to 2002. The conclusion section summarizes major findings and discusses implications for future studies on this subject.

BM_Virtual Enterprise Architecture Reference Model for Concurrent Engineering: An experiment

In order to test the potential of Virtual Enterprise (VE) organizational principles for Concurrent Engineering (CE) team work organization, an experiment applying the BM_Virtual Enterprise Architecture Reference Model (BM_VEARM) is organized. Three CE teams are asked to create a web site. The teams have been organized as follows: 1) CE distributed team (virtual team according to literature); 2) CE agile team (agile organization according to BM_VEARM) and 3) CE virtual team (virtual organization according to BM_VEARM), in order to complete the required task. The main objective of the experiment is to show that the three organization models of CE teams work effectively, and analyse the performance according to previously defined criteria. In this paper the results in terms of product quality are presented. The experiment has shown that better product quality, for the product quality aspects analysed, is achieved in cases when VE organization is applied.

Legitimacy of team rewards: Analyzing legitimacy as a condition for the effectiveness of team incentive designs

This article illustrates how the legitimacy of pay and evaluation processes in teams affect the effectiveness of team-based incentive designs in organizational work teams. We present a theoretical model of the development of legitimacy in team-based incentive designs and propose that the development of legitimacy for both pay dispersion in teams (i.e., difference in allocations of incentives among team members) and for the use of interdependent evaluations of performance promote team effectiveness. Our model introduces a new perspective to theorize about the conditions under which team rewards are an effective incentive design.