Team Orientation Research Articles

Calls to Change: Embedded Career Planning Process (CPP) into Accounting Programme

In today’s business environment, academic qualifications are not enough. There is an increasing need for people who have a wide range of skills as well as professional or technical competence. Organisations need multi-skilled people and flexible project teams that can be put together to accomplish the moving tasks in the new world of work. So although technical and professional skills are as important as ever, organisations are now also seeking people with an array of employability or soft skills - people who can manage themselves, can work effectively with colleagues and customers, who can think creatively and can take responsibility. A few years ago, in response to a call from some academic and professional groups, accounting curriculums across the country were revised to include instructions aimed at improving students’ knowledge, skills, and competences which would go beyond their technical knowledge. These skills included, communication skills, analytical skills, presentation skills, team orientation, critical thinking, to name only a few. This paper is conceptual study to explore embedding the career Planning process (CPP) into accounting programme. The paper concludes that CPP is a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and/or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development. CPP cover generic skills which everyone needs to be a fully rounded and well educated person, regardless of academic subject. CPP’ skills include Written, Oral and Visual Communication Skills, Information Skills, research skills, Working with Others, IT Skills, Working with Numbers, Solving Problems and Improving your own Learning and Performance. CPP’ skills - as generic skills - will be needed in the employment after university in addition to the specialist knowledge. By developing these skills now, the students can help make the transition to employment more smoothly later on.

The psychometric testing of the Nursing Teamwork Survey in Iceland.

The purpose of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the Nursing Teamwork Survey-Icelandic (NTS-Icelandic), which was translated from US English to Icelandic. The Nursing Teamwork Survey, with 33 items, measures overall teamwork and five factors of teamwork: trust, team orientation, backup, shared mental models, and team leadership. The psychometric testing of the NTS-Icelandic was carried out on data from a pilot study and a national study. The sample for a pilot study included 123 nursing staff from five units, and the sample for a national study included 925 nursing staff from 27 inpatient units. The overall test-retest intraclass correlation coefficient in the pilot study was 0.693 (lower bound = 0.498, upper bound = 0.821) (p < 0.001). The Cronbach's alpha reliability for the total scale and subscales ranged from 0.737 to 0.911. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit of the data from the national study with the five-factor model for nursing teamwork. The NTS-Icelandic tested valid and reliable in this study. Study findings support further use of the Nursing Teamwork Survey internationally.

Effects of organizational learning on process technology and operations performance in mass customizers

This study investigates the role of organizational learning and process technology in the implementation of mass customization based on 211 samples obtained from 6 provinces and municipalities in China.Results show that team and systems orientation learning can increase process automation and operations performance. Furthermore, learning orientation does not affect process technology and operations performance. Memory orientation can improve throughput directly without the mediating effects of process technology. None of the four orientations of organizational learning affect process flexibility, but this flexibility can increase inventory and operating expenses slightly.On the basis of a theoretical view of mass customization, the current study confirmed that process automation is significantly connected to throughput. However, process flexibility does not contribute to it. As per theory of knowledge-based view, different orientations perform varied functions in the advancement of process technology and operations performance. Learning orientation does not contribute at all. Then this study confirms that the learning of existing knowledge is useful and important in MC implementation. Emerging knowledge does not contribute to process advancement and operations performance significantly; therefore, MC is not an innovative strategy. Rather, this concept is founded on the basis of existing knowledge, as with lean production.

PENGARUH BUDAYA ORGANISASI TERHADAP KINERJA KARYAWAN DIREKTORAT PRODUKSI PT DIRGANTARA INDONESIA (PERSERO)

PT Dirgantara Indonesia (Persero) is a manufacture company that provides airplane with component and service. The company has 4.225 employees. Organization culture is one of important thing that have to attentively by a company because this one possible to affect for employee performance. This research aims to determine organization culture and employee performance and the influence of organization culture on employee performance at Production Directorate PT DI. Organizational culture can be seen from the lack of implementation of the company value while the performance can be seen from the production does not reach the target and the grade of the employee's performance is still low. The method which is used in this research is quantitative research methods. Data analysis method which is used in this research are descriptive analysis, a classic assumption test, correlation analysis, regression analysis, and hypothesis testing. The sample in this research 107 respondents. The data collection is used questionnaire with Likert scale. Based on the results of data processing, organization culture currently on good category, it can be seen from innovation and risk taking, attention to detail, outcome orientation, people orientation, team orientation, aggresiveness, and stability. Then, employee performance also currently on good category, it can be seen from quantity the of work, quality of work, knowledge of job, personal qualities, cooperation, dependability, and initiative. The conclusion of this research is there’s an influence of organization culture on employee performance amounted to 28,2% which have positive by value amount 0,531 which means medium and significant value.

Simulation and Millennials—The Perfect Storm

Simulation in its various forms has developed extensively over the past 15 - 20 years for use in undergraduate nursing programs. The widespread integration of technology-based educational tools into nursing curricula is raising concerns that technology rather than sound philosophically-based pedagogy is informing nursing education. Some believe that educational soundness has been overtaken by a focus on technological prowess. The manikins used in this immersive classroom often breathe, blink, and even speak in response to lecturer-controlled commands. This research explores how Millennials as a generational cohort (18 - 30 years of age) interface with the teaching/learning platform of simulation. This action research study is unfolded in three distinct action cycles involving 161 undergraduate nursing students. Millennial characteristics of confidence, high achievement, team orientation, technology focus, feedback-saturated, and trophy-seeking traits make them especially adept in immersive simulation environment. If supported by appropriate philosophical underpinnings, simulation as a teaching/learning platform has the potential to become the preferred classroom for Millennial nursing students.

Vocational Interest and Personal Style Patterns

The present study examined the relationships between vocational interests, personal styles, and subjective well-being (SWB) using the Strong Interest Inventory (SII) among 4,945 working adults across eight occupational samples, including administrative assistant, realtor, elementary schoolteacher, sales manager, graphic designer, attorney, automobile mechanic, and a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics field composite. Regression analyses demonstrated that the General Occupational Themes (GOTs) and Personal Style Scales (PSSs) each explained significant and independent variance in SWB. Occupation-specific hypotheses for GOTs and PSSs were also supported for four of the eight occupations. This study enhances the understanding of the contribution of interests to life satisfaction and provides further validation for the 2005 SII, specifically the newest PSS, Team Orientation. Future research, theory, and practice implications are also discussed.

HEALTHCARE HUMAN RESOURCE FOR ENSURING PATIENT FOCUSED CARE

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between human resource practices and employee satisfaction, and to examine the impact of both on patient satisfaction. This study examines the mediating role of employee satisfaction on the indirect relationship between human resource practices and patient satisfaction. Data for this study was collected from employees, and patients of secondary eye hospitals. Hierarchical regression modelling with a two-step approach was utilized to empirically test the proposed hypotheses and the relationships between the constructs. Findings suggest that employees satisfaction fully mediate the relationship between six human resource practices and patient satisfaction except employee perception of the HR practice, team orientation. This result has significant implication for healthcare as it strongly demonstrates the vital role a well coordinated healthcare human resource has in ensuring patient satisfaction. Keywords: patient satisfaction, human resources, India. Normal 0 21 false false false RO X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Table Normal; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Times New Roman; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}

Team performance in cross cultural project teams

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to test the conditional effect of team composition on team performance; specifically, how collective team orientation, group consensus, faultline configurations and trust among team members explain the objective performance of project teams in cross-cultural contexts.Design/methodology/approach– Employing path analytical framework and bootstrap methods, the authors analyze data from a sample of 73 cross cultural project teams. Relying on ordinary least-squares regression, the authors estimate the direct and indirect effects of the moderated mediation model.Findings– The findings demonstrate that the indirect effect of collective team orientation on performance through team trust is moderated by team member consensus, diversity heterogeneity and faultlines’ strength. By contrast, high dispersion among members, heterogeneous team configurations and strong team faultlines lead to low levels of trust and team performance.Research limitations/implications– The specific context of the study (cross-cultural students’ work projects) may influence external validity and limit the generalization of the findings as well as the different compositions of countries-of-origin.Practical implications– From a practical standpoint, these results may help practitioners understand how the emergence of trust contributes to performance. It will also help them comprehend the importance of managing teams while bearing in mind the cross-cultural contexts in which they operate.Social implications– In order to foster team consensus and overcome the effects of group members’ cross-cultural dissimilarities as well as team faultlines, organizations should invest in improving members’ dedication, cooperation and trust before looking to achieve significant results, specially in heterogeneous teams and cross-cultural contexts.Originality/value– The study advances organizational group research by showing the combined effect of team configurations and collective team orientation to overall team performance and by exploring significant constructs such as team consensus, team trust and diversity faultline strength to examine their possible moderated mediation role in the process.

Enhanced exact solution methods for the Team Orienteering Problem

The Team Orienteering Problem (TOP) is one of the most investigated problems in the family of vehicle routing problems with profits. In this paper, we propose a Branch-and-Price approach to find proven optimal solutions to TOP. The pricing sub-problem is solved by a bounded bidirectional dynamic programming algorithm with decremental state space relaxation featuring a two-phase dominance rule relaxation. The new method is able to close 17 previously unsolved benchmark instances. In addition, we propose a Branch-and-Cut-and-Price approach using subset-row inequalities and show the effectiveness of these cuts in solving TOP.

A matheuristic for the Team Orienteering Arc Routing Problem

In the Team Orienteering Arc Routing Problem (TOARP) the potential customers are located on the arcs of a directed graph and are to be chosen on the basis of an associated profit. A limited fleet of vehicles is available to serve the chosen customers. Each vehicle has to satisfy a maximum route duration constraint. The goal is to maximize the profit of the served customers. We propose a matheuristic for the TOARP and test it on a set of benchmark instances for which the optimal solution or an upper bound is known. The matheuristic finds the optimal solutions on all, except one, instances of one of the four classes of tested instances (with up to 27 vertices and 296 arcs). The average error on all instances for which the optimal solution is available is 0.67 percent.

Team Role Experience and Orientation

We review and synthesize previous team research and suggest that individuals’ previous experiences and orientations combine to yield predispositions to occupy six different team roles, which we refer to as Team Role Experience and Orientation (TREO) dimensions. We report the development of a survey measure of TREO dimensions and establish its content validity using a sample of subject matter experts’ item classifications. Furthermore, we provide evidence that TREO dimensions are distinguishable from, but related to, measures of the “Big 5” personality constructs. We also illustrate the temporal stability of the measures. Moreover, we test the predictive validity of TREO scores as related to peer ratings of members’ behaviors during team activities. We discuss future theoretical and research implications of TREO dimensions, and potential future applications of the measure.

Effective workgroups: The role of diversity and culture

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the clarification of the conditions under which teams can be successful. To attain this goal, the direct and interactive effects of diversity and of the team's cultural orientation towards learning on team outcomes (team performance, team members’ satisfaction) were analyzed. Data were obtained from a survey among 73 teams from different industrial and service companies, which perform complex and non-routine tasks. In order to test the hypotheses, multilevel analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted. The results show a significant (although marginal) effect of diversity on members’ satisfaction with the team. The team orientation towards learning presented positive effects on both team performance and members’ satisfaction with the team. No interactive effects were identified. Although the positive impact of a learning culture on organizational effectiveness has already been studied and is well established in the literature, this is one of the first studies that provides empirical evidence of the impact of this kind of culture at the team level. At an intervention level, this study points to managers who want to create successful teams that they may be advised to enhance the levels of the team orientation towards learning, creating conditions in the team to promote and support the acquisition of knowledge.

A Hybrid Heuristic for the Team Orienteering Problem

A Hybrid Heuristic for the Team Orienteering Problem

Algorithms and Methods Inspired from Nature for Solving Supply Chain and Logistics Optimization Problems

The current work surveys 245 papers and research reports related to algorithms and methods inspired from nature for solving supply chain and logistics optimization problems. Nature Inspired Intelligence (NII) is a challenging new subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) particularly capable of dealing with complex optimization problems. Related approaches are used either as stand-alone algorithms, or as hybrid schemes i.e. in combination to other AI techniques. Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Particle Swarm Optimization, Artificial Bee Colonies, Artificial Immune Systems and DNA Computing are some of the most popular approaches belonging to nature inspired intelligence. On the other hand, supply chain management represents an interesting domain of OR applications, including a variety of hard optimization problems such as vehicle routing (VRP), travelling salesman (TSP), team orienteering, inventory, knapsack, supply network problems, etc. Nature inspired intelligent algorithms prove capable of identifying near optimal solutions for instances of those problems with high degree of complexity in a reasonable amount of time. Survey findings indicate that NII can cope successfully with almost any kind of supply chain optimization problem and tends to become a standard in related scientific literature during the last five years.

The Mediating Effect of Cooperative Goals on the Relationship Between Team Orientation and Team Member Exchange

We examined the relationships among team orientation, team member exchange (TMX), and cooperative goals. We predicted that, at the group level, average team orientation would be positively associated with TMX, and that cooperative goals would mediate that relationship. Over a 6-week period we conducted a 2-wave survey among 540 Chinese college students who were living in 93 dormitories. Results showed that, at the group level, team orientation at Time 1 significantly predicted TMX at Time 2, through the mediation of cooperative goals at Time 2. Implications of this research and future directions are discussed.

Why TQM does not work in Iranian healthcare organisations.

Despite the potential benefits of total quality management (TQM), many healthcare organisations encountered difficulties in its implementation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the barriers to successful implementation of TQM in healthcare organisations of Iran. This study involved a mixed research design. In-depth interviews were conducted with TQM practitioners to explore TQM implementation obstacles in Iranian healthcare organisations. In addition, this study involved survey-based research on the obstacles associated with successful TQM transformation. TQM implementation and its impact depend on the ability of managers to adopt and adapt its values and concepts in professional healthcare organisations. Unsuccessful TQM efforts in Iranian healthcare organisations can be attributed to the non-holistic approach adopted in its implementation, inadequate knowledge of managers' about TQM implementation, frequent top management turnover, poor planning, vague and short-termed improvement goals, lack of consistent managers' and employees' commitment to and involvement in TQM implementation, lack of a corporate quality culture, lack of team orientation, lack of continuous education and training and lack of customer focus. Human resource problems, cultural and strategic problems were the most important obstacles to TQM successful implementation, respectively. Understanding the factors that are likely to obstruct TQM implementation would enable managers to develop more viable strategies for achieving business excellence. Understanding the factors that are likely to obstruct TQM implementation will help organisations in planning better TQM models.

Applying Particle Swarm Optimization for Solving Team Orienteering Problem with Time Windows

The Team Orienteering Problem With Time Windows (TOPTW) is a transportation problem case that have a set of vertices with a score, service time, and the time windows, start and final at a depot location. A number of paths are constructed to maximize the total collected score by the vertices which is visited. Each vertice can be visited only once and the visit can only start during the time window of vertices. This paper proposes a Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm for solving the TOPTW, by defining a specific particle for representing the solution of TOPTW within the PSO algorithm and two alternatives, called PSO_TOPTW1 and PSO_TOPTW2, for translating the particle position to form the routes of the path. The performance of the proposed PSO algorithm is evaluated through some benchmark data problem available in the literature. The computational results show that the proposed PSO is able to produce sufficiently good TOPTW solutions that are comparable with corresponding solutions from other existing methods for solving the TOPTW.

An intervention to improve nursing teamwork using virtual simulation.

The purpose of this study was to test the use of virtual simulation to improve teamwork among nursing staff. Using a quasi-experimental design, nursing staff (n = 43) from one patient care unit participated in a 1-hr session, which focused on common nursing teamwork problems. The overall mean teamwork scores improved from pre- (M = 3.25, SD = 0.58) to post-intervention (M = 3.49, SD = 0.67, p < .012). The intervention also had large (0.60 ≤ d ≤ 0.97) and significant effects on the measures of three teamwork subscales (i.e., trust, team orientation, and backup).

Management challenges and responses

Purpose– Efforts to understand the nature of the demanding world of property managers have tended to focus on quantitative inquiry in areas such as property management portfolio decision making, without much study of their lived experiences (Levy, 2006). The purpose of this paper is to understand the management challenges and responses of Jamaican property managers in managing the property management organization and real estate assets.Design/methodology/approach– Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data to explore the nature of the management challenges and responses to them by property managers. Using the case study approach, property managers from eight of Jamaica's largest property management companies, accounting for a large share of the formal commercial and residential property management activity, were profiled. The collected data were then analyzed and the results presented.Findings– The research results provided support for the assertions that the nature of management challenges and responses reflected the nature or composition of property management portfolios or customers served; the professional success of these property managers was linked to their managerial innovativeness and team orientation; and that property managers utilized work demands and adversities as positive motivators.Originality/value– Responding to the paucity of qualitative research in the field of property management in small, open economies such as Jamaica, this paper employs the qualitative research paradigm to provide insights into the nature of management challenges experienced by property managers and their responses to those challenges. Review of the literature has unearthed no similar study.

Compatibility of Employee Personal Values with the Organisational Culture of an ODL Institution: Some observations from the Zimbabwe Open University.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the compatibility of the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) organisational culture with employee personal values. The study used the quantitative and qualitative research methodology. The questionnaire instrument was used to collect data from one hundred and twenty, (120) employees. The study revealed that team work, professionalism, education, strong work ethic are the dominant personal values among ZOU employees. These values are compatible with the dominant culture at ZOU which is basically premised on team orientation, commitment to educational empowerment and the upholding of ethical behaviour and professionalism. The research recommended that the ZOU management should promote additional cultural attributes related to participatory decision making of lower level employees, innovativeness and risk taking to improve organisational performance and survive the competitive world market and open communication between top management and employees. The research also recommended that the institution should recognise and reward outstanding employees.