Team Output Research Articles

Individual accountability in teams

We consider a model of team production in which the principal observes only the team output, but agents can monitor one another (at a cost) and provide reports to the principal. We consider the problem faced by a principal who is prevented from penalizing an agent without evidence showing that the agent failed to complete his assigned actions. We show the first-best (high effort but no monitoring) can be achieved, but only if the principal assigns second-best actions. The principal requires monitoring, but agents do not monitor, and as long as output is high, the principal does not penalize agents who fail to monitor. If the principal has the responsibility for monitoring, the first-best outcome cannot be achieved, thus we identify an incentive for delegated monitoring even when agents have no informational advantage.

Modelling the characteristics of virtual teams' structure

The main research question is whether output of virtual teams is affected by the teams' structure. A model, suggesting that the team structure can be manipulated in order to increase the team's output will be presented. The study used an experiment, in which subjects, who were grouped into teams, had to share information in order to complete an intellective task. The findings indicated that virtual teams output were inferior to face-to-face teams output, and that structure did overcome two negative impacts of the virtuality – less effectiveness and less satisfaction; yet it did not raise the virtual team efficiency.

Hierarchy and opportunism in teams

We use an experiment to compare two institutions for allocating the proceeds of team production. Under revenue-sharing, each team member receives an equal share of team output; under leader-determined shares, a team leader has the power to implement her own allocation. Both arrangements are vulnerable to opportunistic incentives: under revenue-sharing team members have an incentive to free ride, while under leader-determined shares leaders have an incentive to seize team output. We find that most leaders forego the temptation to appropriate team output and manage to curtail free riding. As a result, compared to revenue-sharing, the presence of a team leader results in a significant improvement in team performance.

Team Personality Composition and Team Effectiveness:The Mediating Effects of Team Process

As organizations increasing usage of teams, the success of team management is vital to the survival and development of organizations. Therefore, the research on team effectiveness has gained more and more attention lately. Based on previous literature, our current study examined the mediating role of team process through which team members' personality composition contributes to team effectiveness. Input-Process-Output (I-P-O) model was used as a key theoretical framework. With a transverse approach, this study supported the I-P-O model. Our 1341 participants were all from a large Southeastern University of China. They formed 342 short-term self-managing teams. Greenland Survival was used as the team task. The data were self-reported. Both hierarchical regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) were applied to test the hypotheses. The relationship between team personality composition and team effectiveness was mediated by team process in this transverse study, namely cooperation, cohesion and potency. This study contributes to the literature of team research in two ways. First, a large sample made it possible to analyze the mediating effect of team process between team personality composition and team effectiveness at the team level, which may enlighten team-level research in the future. Second, the I-P-O model was supported by SEM in our study, the first time with a Chinese sample. In a word, our findings showed that team personality composition significantly explains team processes and team outputs, which calls for more attention to personality factors in future team research and team management practice.

Teams, Leaders, and Performance Measures

This paper studies the effect of leadership on the ability to promote cooperation in teams through the performance measurement system. Performance measurement of teams can promote cooperation by rewarding team success, or can emphasize and reward individual success, by promoting competition via relative performance evaluation. In order to highlight the tradeoff between individual and group incentives, I consider the impact of leadership, where one agent with private productivity information acts as a leader and partially signals his information via his action to the agent who is an uninformed follower. With symmetric, privately informed agents, promoting cooperation with group incentives is more costly than promoting competition with individual incentives. The team is more likely to be successful than individuals and agents rewarded based on the team output earn more informational rents than agents rewarded for individual performance. With one informed agent, group incentives that promote cooperation can be preferred for both agents but only with signaling between the leader and follower. With no signaling, group incentives are too costly for the informed agent, but may be preferred for the uninformed agent. Uninformed agents earn fewer rents, but are productively inefficient; with signaling, the follower’s productive efficiency improves, lowering the cost. Also, because of the effect of the follower’s action on the leader’s incentives, the leader’s incentives are decreased, resulting in a lower payment. The results suggest that leadership can not only improve productive efficiencies via information sharing, but can reduce information rents, allowing for the use of cooperative performance measures.

The Effects of Team Personality Awareness Exercises on Team Satisfaction and Performance

Marketing courses heavily utilize team projects that can enhance student learning and make students more desirable to recruiters seeking greater teamwork skills and experience from students. Unfortunately team projects that provide opportunities to learn and improve such skills can also be great sources of frustration and dissatisfaction for instructors and students. This research investigates the effects of exercises designed to encourage student reflection on their behavior as team members and engage in proactive communications with teammates. The exercises are based on a set of humorous personality types derived from common maladaptive student behavior in teams (e.g., “The Dictator,” “The Monarchist”). The exercises are tested in a field study, which shows their use results in greater student satisfaction with the team and team output. They also result in increased student learning as measured by improved team project performance and better individual exam and course grades compared to students who engage in the same team projects without participating in the exercises. Details on the personalities and how to run the exercises are provided along with reflections from 8 years of their use in the classroom.

Leadership by Confidence in Teams

We study endogenous signaling in teams by analyzing a team production problem with endogenous timing. Each agent of the team is privately endowed with some level of confidence about team productivity. Each of them must then commit a level of effort in one of two periods. At the end of each period, each agent observes his partner's move in this period. Both agents are rewarded by a team output determined by team productivity and total invested effort. Each agent must personally incur the cost of effort that he invested.We show a sufficient condition under which sender and receiver emerge endogenously in a stable equilibrium. This result implies that leadership in teams emerges through the leader's signaling incentives only based on his confidence.

On the Impact of Different Coordination Devices on Team Performance - An Experimental Study

In this study we investigate the impact of different types of coordination devices on agents' behavior in a team situation. One principal and three agents are randomly assigned to groups, where the principal has to decide between three types of contract he can offer to the agents. The three contracts offer different ranges of contribution to the agents from which the agents choose the amount they want to contribute to the team output. To check whether the impact of the different contracts might change if the agents have the possibility to communicate, we implement a chat software in a further treatment. The results significantly show that a requested minimum amount seen as a helpful support for the agents to solve their coordination problem is a fundamental factor of success in teams. Furthermore, communication increases the entire contribution in all contracts but does not change the agents' attitude towards their decision.

MEDIATED AND DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF TRUST ON TEAM PERFORMANCE: A STUDY OF ONGOING WORK TEAMS.

The article discusses the effects of trust on team performance in the workplace. The article concerns itself with how trust affects teams and in what performance dimensions. Teamwork behaviors are viewed as potential mechanisms that facilitate trust. As a development of caring for others, trust exerts pressure on individual members to comply to group standards, which has positive relations with team output and effectiveness. Team trust has a negative relation to the need for team monitoring, which can affect production negatively through reduced motivation of members. Team members that are not monitored are more likely to withhold effort than those that are aware of the judgment of others.

Study on Incentive Factors of Team Cooperation based on Synergy Effect

This article analyzes the influences of compensation system, risk aversion, and synergy effect on team cooperation, within a unified framework. The research results indicate that a higher share of team output and a stronger synergy effect deepen the cooperation, whereas, the more the promotion bonus, the lesser will be the cooperation. Further analytical results show that the more the agents avert risk, the easier it is for them to cooperate. Moreover, it is relatively difficult to realize cooperation in teams that are very large or very small in scale, while it is relatively easy in a team of a medium scale.

Modelling and analysis of productivity teamwork based on information technology

Organizations are usually represented and evaluated by their output. Therefore, all procedures and models which may affect and improve output attract the attention of researchers. The effects of organizing work teams as one essential resource of organizations, in addition to the structure, size and effectiveness of the team, are also considered important factors. This paper reports on an investigation performed to define a model to explain how the results of teamwork may improve production, while considering the role of IT as an effective parameter. Also, it is shown that if there is a number of IT improvement options, there may be a mix of IT improvement and team size increase that will yield the most cost efficient increase in team output.

Understanding the Benefits and Detriments of Conflict on Team Creativity Process

Intra-team conflict research has shown the different effects of conflict on team output, but it has not fully addressed how conflict influences the team creativity process in different task types of project teams over the project life cycle. Conflict, project life cycle, and project types are important predictors of team creativity. This paper focuses on examining the degree of conflict that the different types of project teams experienced, and more specifically this paper seeks to understand the benefits and detriments of conflict on the team creativity process. Furthermore, this paper shows that the project life cycle is a significant moderator of the conflict-creativity relationship in different project teams.

Matching and Network Effects

Individuals form teams to produce an output. The quality and quantity of a team's output depends on the ability and the effort level of its members. The ability of individuals as well as their work ethic is however imperfectly known. In such an environment, individuals wishing to form a new team can get information about each other from the network of past collaborators. The paper carries out an empirical examination of the existence and magnitude of this network effect. This empirical work looks at the formation of coauthor relations among economists over a twenty year period. Our principal finding is that a new collaboration emerges faster among two researchers if they are 'closer' in the existing coauthor network among economists. This proximity effect on collaboration is strong: being at a network distance of 2 instead of 3, for instance, raises the probability of initiating a collaboration by 29 percent. However, proximity has no effect on subsequent collaboration among the two individuals. Thus the coauthor network acts as a 'referral' mechanism among economists.

A team performance measurement model for continuous improvement

We propose a performance measurement model for providing feedback to total quality teams with the purpose of improvement. This model empowers the teams for their own performance measurement. The management should provide necessary training and facilitation to the teams for effective use of the model. The model has four components: team structure, inputs, processes, and outputs. It suggests methods for developing measures in each component, as well as use of radar charts for presenting measurement results. Teams should work together for developing the measures and necessary data collection mechanisms. The management should validate the appropriateness of the measurement systems developed with regard to organizational policies, goals and objectives. The model has been applied to a health care team for a measurement period. Results are discussed, and suggestions are made for implementing the model in other environments far from a total quality setting.

Controlling the diversity in classifier ensembles through a measure of agreement

In this paper, a simulation method is proposed to generate a set of classifier outputs with specified individual accuracies and fixed pairwise agreement. A diversity measure (kappa) is used to control the agreement among classifiers for building the classifier teams. The generated team outputs can be used to study the behaviour of class-type combination methods such as voting rules over multiple dependent classifiers.

Change‐oriented leadership, satisfaction and performance in work groups

PurposeTo analyse the impact of change‐oriented leaders on group outcomes. An explanatory model is proposed, in which the team climate (in particular as it relates to innovation) mediates between change‐oriented leadership and group outcomes, while group potency reinforces this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThis study is designed as a correlative and cross‐level research. The sample comprises 318 health‐care professionals in 78 health‐care teams at different public hospitals throughout Spain.FindingsHierarchical regression analysis was used to evaluate mediating and moderating effects. Results offer considerable empirical support for the proposed model.Research limitations/implicationsIt would be of interest to increase the sample, differentiate it by service, and to get samples from other sectors, as well as to carry out experimental and longitudinal research. It would also be interesting to further explore the conditions that implement change‐oriented leadership impact, analysing environment, external relations and so on, to examine the relationships between other variables and to study their effects on new forms of work organisation and on virtual teams.Practical implicationsTo make more useful change‐oriented leader actions, it would be advisable to identify, modify or improve team climate, using strategies such as management by objectives, delegation and empowerment and so on. It would also be necessary to boost group potency before going ahead with change, for example, by developing the skills of team members, or by fostering the self‐confidence of the team.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to developing actual research about how change‐oriented leaders influence team outputs.

Business Process Outsourcing Indian Context: A Retrospect and Prospect

The rationale for the existence of the firm is primarily based on considerations of the transaction cost and production cost efficiencies. The transaction cost approach to the theory of the firm exists to reduce the transaction costs. The concept of production cost efficiency posits that production by a team is the distinguishing characteristics of the firm and the team continues in existence only as long as the team output is sufficiently greater than the sum of the output under independent production to justify costs of organizing and monitoring team members. There are some challenges faced by industry globalisation of business change in the customers' expectations. Increased competitive pressure and shorten widows of opportunity are few challenges from industry points. The Indian software industry has grown during 2002-03, a period marked by fall in ICT sector revenues, a major drop in IT sluggish market condition. During this period Indian Software made efforts to manage on existing customer relationship to generate additional business and to tap geographies outside like US. And now many Indian Software and service companies are trying to tap other political markets like Europe and Asia Pacific. India is the forth-largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity. India is one of the world's better performing and economically stable countries. GDP growth in past 10 years has been ranged between 5-7%. As the sector wise composition Agriculture- 27%, Industry- 30% and services- 45%. As far as IT and telecom sector is concerned currently India has the 12th largest network in the world and is growing rapidly every year due to privatisation and deemed surge. In 2002-03 according to National associations of Software and Service companies (NASSCOM) estimates, the Indian ITES-BPO industry is likely to grow by about 65%. Also according to the estimates of NASSCOM, total export revenues of the Indian IT enabled service industry are projected at Rs. 117 billion from Rs. 71 Billion from 2001-02. The key drivers of Indian ITES-BPO industry are Cost Focus on Core competencies, High Attrition. India has maintained its global competitiveness offering the best combination of cost-Quality-Scalability versus competing offshore destinations like Philippines and China. India is by far the leading destination for software and IT-enabled services exports, with total export value of nearly US$ 8 billion in 2001. The other significant destination Ireland has shown significantly slower growth with the CAGR of 18% over the last 8 years compared to India's 41% CAGR over roughly the same period. India has the closest competition with Ireland have slower growth with Cumulative Average growth rate (CAGR) of 18% over last 8 years as compared to India's 41% over the same period. Today India is the largest and fastest growing exporter of IT services. Based on current and future strength India scores over Ireland, Russia, China and other competitive destinations. The industry will employ 2 million people directly and create indirect employment opportunities for at least an additional 2 million peoples. Russia is known for its high quality talent but the policy support makes it difficult to compete on an international scale. China has the vast potential base of talent that could rival Indian Industry. However there are certain weaknesses such as the higher cost, limited project management talent and inadequate familiarity with English language, among others. The future of Indian ITES Industry depends upon the place and direction of globalisation; especially how the government policy creates a further impetus for facilitation FDI and specific programmes of support it provides to the industry. Also the ability of the industry to exploit the business opportunities to their advantage and counter threats in the international environments is also imported.

Hierarchy and Opportunism in Teams

We use experiments to compare two institutions for allocating the proceeds of team production. Under revenue-sharing, each team member receives an equal share of team output; under leader-determined shares, a team leader has the power to implement her own allocation. Both arrangements are vulnerable to opportunistic incentives: under revenue sharing team members have an incentive to free-ride, while under leader-determined shares leaders have an incentive to seize team output. We find that most leaders forego the temptation to appropriate team output and manage to curtail free-riding. As a result, compared to revenue-sharing, the presence of a team leader results in a significant improvement in team performance.

Mechanical innovation in the industrial revolution: the case of plough design

Variations in levels of embodied technology generated variations in English plough prices in 1770. Using plough prices as a quality index, this article explains size and daily output of plough teams. It shows that variations in plough technology were due to technological change—not static optimization—and village plough technology was influenced by neighbouring villages. But technological advance was not constrained on the demand size: farmers purchased the best ploughs available. Rather, local supply of technology was the limiting factor. Technological change, urbanization, and information networks are rejected as explanations of local supply of technology. The key factor was market density.

Citation analysis of research performer quality

Background: Citation analysis for evaluative purposes typically requires normalization against some control group of similar papers. Selection of this control group is an open question. Objectives: Gain a better understanding of control group requirements for credible normalization. Approach: Performed citation analysis on prior publications of two proposing research units, to help estimate team research quality. Compared citations of each unit"s publications to citations received by thematically and temporally similar papers. Results: Identification of thematically similar papers was very complex and labor intensive, even with relatively few control papers selected. Conclusions: A credible citation analysis for determining performer or team quality should have the following components: – Multiple technical experts to average out individual bias and subjectivity; – A process for comparing performer or team output papers with a normalization base of similar papers; – A process for retrieving a substantial fraction of candidate normalization base papers; Manual evaluation of many candidate normalization base papers to obtain high thematic similarity and statistical representation.