Organizational Teamwork Research Articles

Preparing for future uncertainty: creating a crisis management team

This paper is aimed at designing a conceptual framework that explains the composition, development and operation of a Crisis Management Team (CMT) within an organisation. It approaches a CMT from the perspective of teamwork in organisations. The paper presents findings from the discussion of the relationship between crisis management phases, Team-Based Work (TBW) and the analysis of new components (fine tuning) in the Input-Mediator-Output-Input (IMOI) model. It also draws critical points from the case of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) battle in China. The suggested models are conceptual in nature and provide a holistic view of a CMT. It does not provide an in-depth analysis for the implementation of a CMT. The conceptual models provide a fresh perspective on a CMT and enable both public and private entities to understand how to build and operate a CMT before or during a crisis.

The Use of Work Teams in Organizations

The Use of Work Teams in Organizations

Some Thoughts on the Evolution of Work Teams in Organizations

In this time of flat, team-based and technology-enabled organizations the effectiveness of communication and team leadership practices will be more important than ever before. Therefore, we believe that some of the earlier, time-tested classic works on group dynamics and leadership are worthy of re-reading. We are particularly impressed by how relevant one of the oldest classics, Benne and Sheats' (1948) article on functional roles of group members, remains to this day.

An Exploratory Study of the Team Characteristics Model Using Organizational Teams

Research on teamwork in organizations has typically found positive outcomes for employees, such as high productivity, improved satisfaction, and a greater feeling of influence over their work. An important research question is, How does participating on teams lead to these positive work outcomes? In 1976, Hackman and Oldham developed their Job Characteristics Model to explain how effective job design can lead to positive work outcomes for individuals. A Team Characteristics Model was developed to explain how effective work group design can lead to positive work outcomes for teams, and it was tested on team members working on six organizational teams over a period of 4 months. The Team Characteristics Model was generally supported for the critical psychological states but generally not supported for work outcomes. Across all employees, higher levels of the critical psychological states were significantly correlated with higher levels of work outcomes. Suggestions are made for future research using the model.

The relationships among asymmetry in task dependence, perceived helping behavior, and trust.

Social relations analyses involving 132 working relationships among 60 individuals from 29 teams revealed that an increase in a team member's task dependence on another team member was associated with higher levels of perceived help from and interpersonal trust in that specific team member, provided the other member was highly task dependent on the focal member. The degree to which an actor perceived a relationship with a partner to be helpful partially mediated the relationship between task dependence and trust. These findings highlight the importance of attending to asymmetries in task dependence and provide valuable insights into mechanisms that can explain the development of trust in organizational work teams.

Development of an Instrument for Assessing Trauma Team Performance

Teamwork training is critical for patient safety and has been advocated for widespread application in many settings. A key challenge for evaluating teamwork training is measurement. Despite much effort, the team performance instruments reported thus far suffer from a variety shortcomings that prevent their wide application in assessing teams in real settings. Based on review of video recorded trauma team activities in real patient care, a multi-disciplinary research team developed an instrument based on observable behaviors (UMTOP). A set of video clips were reviewed by 6 subject matter experts who were requested to provide “descriptors” about the observed team activities. The 167 collated descriptors were combined to a reduced list, which was then sent to the subject matter experts for revision. The revised list was then categorized into 5 areas of team performance (task and clinical performance, leadership organization, teamwork organization, social environment, sterile precaution). UMTOP was developed to be a tradeoff among four criteria: ease of use, reliability, usefulness for team performance feedback, and speed of scoring. An initial assessment of reliability was conducted with surgeon and nursing reviewers.

Conceptual Model of Partnering and Alliancing

Partnering as a concept has matured in its application and many empirical studies provide evidence of its impact on project performance beyond the rather prescriptive and anecdotal claims of earlier cookbooks on the subject. What has remained elusive, however, is a guiding theory on partnering. Drawing on the literature, partnering is explained within the framework of intergroup contact theory and teamwork in organizations. More specifically, partnering has the potential to create the essential conditions for optimal intergroup contact and hence, to reduce bias and increase cooperation among construction project workgroups and, consequently, favorably impact on project performance. Demonstrating a close fit with the published literature on partnering provides useful support for the proposed model. The model can clearly help project managers to focus their attention on the necessary aspects of workgroup processes that lead to high cooperation and performance.

Cooperative outcome interdependence, task reflexivity, and team effectiveness: A motivated information processing perspective.

A motivated information processing perspective (C. K. W. De Dreu & P. J. D. Carnevale, 2003; see also V. B. Hinsz, R. S. Tindale, & D. A. Vollrath, 1997) was used to predict that perceived cooperative outcome interdependence interacts with team-level reflexivity to predict information sharing, learning, and team effectiveness. A cross-sectional field study involving management and cross-functional teams (N = 46) performing nonroutine, complex tasks corroborated predictions: The more team members perceived cooperative outcome interdependence, the better they shared information, the more they learned and the more effective they were, especially when task reflexivity was high. When task reflexivity was low, no significant relationship was found between cooperative outcome interdependence and team processes and performance. The author concludes that the motivated information processing perspective is valid outside the confines of the laboratory and can be extended toward teamwork in organizations.

Teamwork in secular and faith-based organizations

The word teamwork has become a favorite of corporate leaders; however, many employees view teamwork as a word devoid of meaning. Part of the problem is that teamwork has an entirely different meaning to people at various levels in an organization, and this prevents individuals and different departments within a company from moving forward with a single vision. Another factor is the issue of fair compensation. Traditional managerial views emphasize individual incentives or piecework compensation as the key to employee motivation, while more modern managerial theory contends that giving workers autonomy and showing them appreciation is just as important as financial incentives. There is also a growing trend of mixing religion and business principles to create a harmonious work environment. This article examines research and best practices around key factors that contribute to a team-based work environment and also explores whether employees at faith-based organizations are more willing to embrace the team concept than their secular counterparts.

Managing organizational context for engineering team effectiveness

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a study investigating the role of organizational context on the effectiveness of engineering work teams.Design/methodology/approachPrevious research was used to operationalize organizational context and work team effectiveness, and a survey was developed to assess both in this research. This study was conducted within two engineering units of a high‐technology company. In total, 16 teams of engineering knowledge workers participated in the study. Correlation and path analysis were used to investigate both direct and mediated relationships between nine organizational context variables and team effectiveness.FindingsDirect relationships between eight organizational context variables and team member satisfaction and between two organizational context variables and team performance were found. Effects of five variables on team member satisfaction were either fully or partially mediated by team processes (TP).Research limitations/implicationsThis study empirically validated existing models of team effectiveness and identified multiple dimensions of organizational context that are important to the development of effective teams as measured by team member satisfaction and team performance. The study took place within a single organization. Additional research is necessary to generalize the findings.Originality/valueA broader cross‐section of organizational context variables were included in this study than in previous studies. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by empirically studying organizational‐team relationships using intact work teams. This research addressed an increasingly important set of teams – teams of knowledge workers. Finally, this research was designed to specifically test for the existence of a mediating variable (TP).

Development and implementation of a participative intervention to improve the psychosocial work environment and mental health in an acute care hospital

Objectives: To describe the development and implementation phases of a participative intervention aimed at reducing four theory grounded and empirically supported adverse psychosocial work factors (high psychological demands, low decision...

Benchmarking as a tool of continuous quality improvement in postoperative pain management

Quality of acute pain management is far from being satisfactory. These deficits are not caused by the complexity of the medical problem but by difficulties in organization and hospital structures, sand procedures. Continuous quality improvement is a recommended tool to overcome such difficulties and to increase quality in the long run. This study reports the implementation of benchmarking-based continuous quality improvement to improve postoperative pain management at a university hospital. A specialised pain nurse interviewed patients of three surgical departments on the first day after surgery, and continuously assessed process and outcome quality parameters. A multidisciplinary team of anaesthetists, surgeons, nurses and pharmacists implemented a regular procedure of data analysing and internal benchmarking. Results and suggested improvements were fed back to the healthcare teams. From 1998 to 2002, 6,756 patients were assessed. Average pain on ambulation and maximal pain were 3.7 +/- 2.4 and 5.0 +/- 2.5 (mean +/- SD) on a 11-point numeric rating scale. Pain intensity at rest was 1.9 +/- 1.8. Over time, pain intensity on ambulation decreased (P = 0.022) whereas maximal pain and pain at rest remained unchanged. There was an increase in the number of patients who received non-opioid analgesia (P < 0.001). A continuous quality improvement process could be established and is now successfully used in clinical routine. Cornerstones of this project were frequent assessments of process and outcome parameters, regular benchmarking and implementation of feedback mechanisms. Changes in organization of medical management and multidisciplinary teamwork seem to be more important than medical or technical aspects.

Human resources management and its impact on innovation performance in companies

This study is based on the recent literature concerning the management of Human Resources (HR) and, more specifically, how this may influence innovation in a company. We start with the hypothesis that certain management practices in this area (goal recognition and reward for achievement, team work organisation, the creation of a common language and the sharing of experiences amongst R&D workers, inter alia) will have a positive effect on innovation performance in the firm. The influence of industrial sector to which a firm belongs and the combined application of these politics are also considered. These hypotheses are tested with a survey of 670 innovations developed by the Spanish firms.

Organizational leadership and its relative influences

In this study, we look at the attributes of effective leadership which leads to the satisfactory organizational teamwork, occupational wellness, job satisfaction, and organization performance. Out of all the organizations that participated in this survey, we focus on looking at two specific organizations in detail, and compare the points scored in these various areas of both organizations. Organization A is a small non-for profit organization; it is a serviceprovider and does not have any competitors. Organization B is an outlet from a large franchise organization; it is in the food and drinks industry, having many competitors. Organization A scored a relatively higher score in comparison to Organization B; therefore we make a hypothesis involving the level of leadership scored in relation to four categories taken from the survey: Hypotheses: An organization that scored a high score in the leadership category also has relatively high scores in the organizational teamwork, occupational wellness, job satisfaction, and organization performance categories.

Organizing for Information Retrieval in Transactive Memory Systems

Advancing transactive memory (TM) theory, this research explores information retrieval between members of 12 preexisting organizational work teams. The teams examined are larger than the ad hoc groups studied in previousTM research. The central components are team members' (a) communication for topic-specific information retrieval, (b) perceptions of their own knowledge levels, and (c) perceptions of each others' knowledge levels. Social network analysis techniques were used to examine the communication ties between members at multiple levels. The emergent communication patterns were compared to theoretically expected patterns. The perceptions of self and others' expertise were used to understand the emergent patterns. The results show emergent communication patterns in these work teams only partially match the theoretical predictions and are highly related to members' perceptions of others' expertise. Self-reported expertise levels were not good indicators of the communication patterns. The results also reveal emergent structures counterintuitive to TM theory.

Coordination and Motivation in Flat Hierarchies: The Impact of the Adjudication Culture

This paper considers a variation of the partnership game with imperfect public information, in which teams are semi‐autonomous. The only hierarchical intervention in teamwork is when a superior is called in by a team member to adjudicate alleged cases of free‐riding or unjustified lateral punishment (flat hierarchy) according to publicly known adjudicative rules (adjudication culture), using for statistical inference a publicly known organizational norm for teamwork cooperation. It is shown that it is advantageous to set a non‐elitist organizational teamwork norm. Furthermore, fairness in adjudication is valuable for economic reasons alone.

Teamwork in healthcare organisations

The concept of teamwork represents the basis of a new paradigm and a shift from the traditional inter-professional boundaries. A questionnaire was developed to analyse potential benefits and/or limitations of teamwork, and to determine the importance and existence of this notion with the Maltese public healthcare organisation. Of the 200 questionnaires distributed through email amongst employees within the Ministry of Health, 92 responses were received, giving a response rate of 46.5%. Whereas 40.2% stated that teamwork does exist locally, a slight majority remarked that teamwork doesn’t exist. Approximately 98% affirmed that it would be beneficial for a healthcare organisation to embrace the concept of teamwork. The majority believe that barriers are a reality that inhibit effective teamwork and deem that intraprofessional learning would aid health professionals to work and provide care together. The results indicate that teamwork is an important issue within the contemporary healthcare organisation.

TEAM ROLE PREFERENCE AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STYLES

In the context of the widespread and extensive use of team work in organizations this study analyses the relationship between individual team role preference and styles of managing interpersonal conflict. Data were collected from 26 work teams containing 169 individuals at two times four months apart. Results show that team role preference is related to Dominating, Integrating, Avoiding, Compromising and Obliging conflict management styles. Moreover, two different effects were observed over time. Firstly, at Time 2 an increase in the role clarity (reduction of role ambiguity) of team members was observed. Secondly, time pressure and team learning processes moderated the relationship between team roles and conflict managing style. Results have theoretical as well as practical implications for team building programmes in search of integrative solutions to conflict.

A national survey of health professionals and volunteers working in voluntary hospices in the UK. II. Staff and volunteers' experiences of working in hospices

In this paper we report findings of a 1999 nationally representative survey of independent hospices in the UK, focusing on hospice staff and volunteers' experiences of working in hospices. Nineteen of 25 sampled services participated, and these differed little in terms of service provision, size and region from the total sample of 175 services. A response rate of 70% for randomly sampled hospice staff and volunteers was achieved (n=504). There were significant intergroup differences (doctors, nurses, nursing auxiliaries, other staff and volunteers) in participants' reported experience of working in the hospice with, for example, doctors being more likely than other groups to feel appreciated and to report receiving adequate support from hospice management. Overall, 31% of respondents wanted more support from management. Half had considered leaving the hospice (65% nurses, 60% other staff, 55% nursing auxiliaries, 40% doctors and 37% volunteers). Nurses who had considered leaving were less satisfied than other nurses with, for example, support from hospice management, and less likely to feel valued by the hospice. These results raise questions about the quality of the relationship between hospice trustees, managers and staff, and about the realities of enhancing multiprofessional teamwork in organizations where there are significant differences between staff groups in perception of, and satisfaction with, the working environment. Voluntary hospice trustees and managers face a difficult task in managing and supporting staff whilst also negotiating relationships with the NHS at a time of rapid change, and ensuring hospices' financial viability. Access to high quality leadership programmes may play an important role in ensuring voluntary hospices are characterized by effective, supportive working relationships.

Profile characteristics and the variables influencing job satisfaction of extension personnel

The study "Profile Characterstics and the Variables influencing Job satisfaction of Extension Personnel" was conducted at Malappuram district of Kerala in 2003. A total of 60 Extension personnel were selected to serve as respondents for the study by applying random sampling technique. Majority of the respondents profile belong to medium category. Organizational communication, Team work, Task identity and Clarity of task were found to be positively and significantly correlated with Job satisfaction of Extension personnel.