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The purpose of this paper is to research factors like task-orientation and collectivism and to examine the relationship between them and goal-setting as research construct. This research investigates the phenomena of team goal-setting in a selected sports organisation. Therefore 49 players from three Portuguese elite male handball team were selected for the study.

Three well-known questionnaires were employed to determine the relationships between the above factors in a case setting. Task- and ego-orientation in Sport Questionnaire, the Jackson Psychological Collectivism Measure and the Goal-setting in Sport Questionnaire.

The results reveal that the team and players are task-oriented, collectivist and possessing professional and personal goal habits. The correlations between questionnaire outcomes indicate that, when the team wants to set goals, it should consider the players’ orientation and the team’s collectivism. Thus team goal-setting is more than only goal-setting, because of the need for task-orientation and collectivism.

The research was conducted using three teams in a specific sports and thus cannot be generalised to the general sports environment. Yet, certainly the strength of the findings indicate that the results and conclusions may be used in a wider sports or business setting.

This research paper should provide managers and coaches with insight into the complexity of team goal-setting. It also should provide insight into the chosen process related to human resources.

The paper adds and demonstrates to the literature on team goal-setting the importance of task-orientation and collectivism as goal-setting mediators.

Research testing a complex process model, incorporating moderating and mediating mechanisms associated with virtual team (VT) performance, remains rare. This paper aims to introduce trust climate as a crucial boundary condition for high performance in VTs. It also aims to propose a moderated‐indirect model such that the relationship between team goals and task performance is mediated by task cohesion and the relationship between team goals and task cohesion is moderated by trust.

Hypotheses are tested using a longitudinal design with a sample of 50 teams.

The proposed moderated‐indirect model is confirmed. The model explains the indirect relationship between team goal setting and performance transmitted through task cohesion, which is dependent on the level of trust climate.

Although hypotheses were tested in a longitudinal setting, common source bias might be a potential problem for some of the observed relationships. Future research could build on this model for further investigations on more complex theoretical models for VT performance.

This research suggests that managers should emphasize the development of team trust at early stages of collaboration in a VT to reach high performance outcomes.

For VTs, trustful working environments should become even more important in the future, supporting team members' satisfaction in working in VTs.

Through this study, a complex process model for VTs was developed and trust climate established as a prominent context factor for VT success.

Introduction Most management by objectives (MBO) programmes feature a one‐on‐one dialogue between a subordinate and superior about individual goals and goal attainment. However, the emphasis on this two‐person relationship, the clarification of individual goals in hopes of enhanced motivation and performance and the review of individual performance against objectives may represent some lost opportunities for increasing organisational performance. In fact, it may at times be counter‐productive. Our purpose is to identify some elements missing from many MBO programmes, to review the history of group or team approaches to goal setting, to speculate on why one‐on‐one approaches dominate the literature on MBO, and to suggest conditions for making team approaches to MBO most useful.

Servant leadership is a new follower-centric style of leadership. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the project leaders’ servant leadership style on project team effectiveness via team goal clarity and team process clarity within the project-based organizational context.

A total of 58 teams working in 3 project-based organizations participated in the survey study. Team members rated their project leaders’ servant leadership style, team goal clarity and team process clarity in the project, while leaders evaluated team effectiveness. Hypotheses were tested using multi-level structural equation modeling.

Results suggested that servant leadership had a positive and significant impact on project team effectiveness via team goal clarity and team process clarity.

The study examined the influence of servant leadership as a team leadership approach within a project context. As a multi-level design, the study also identified the team-specific mechanisms (team goal clarity and team process clarity), which could help accomplish team effectiveness.

Describes a field experiment conducted in a US automotive parts manufacturing plant to explore the impact of team goal setting, feedback and problem‐solving activities on product defect rates. Two manufacturing cells were randomly selected, with one cell serving as the treatment group and the other as the control group. The treatment group employed a team defect‐reduction goal‐setting approach, received daily performance feedback, and developed a group problem‐solving mechanism as part of the experimental treatment. The control group was physically isolated from the treatment group and performed their work under the organization’s traditional operating structure. The treatment group achieved a statistically significant reduction in product defect rates compared to the control group over the 15‐month period of this study. Discusses the implications of this study and suggests that a combination of team goal setting, feedback and problem‐solving practices can improve product quality and can be used as a starting point for an overall quality improvement effort.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between self‐leadership behaviors in a self‐managed work team environment and relevant organizational variables, i.e. supervisory trust, decision‐making, feedback and team goal setting.

Data were collected on‐site over a period of three days from employees working in a non‐union paper mill located in a small rural community in the northwestern region of the USA. The survey was completed by 141 employees, representing a 99 per cent response rate. Self‐leadership, supervisory trust, decision‐making, feedback and team goal setting were measured using different scales.

The results indicated that supervisors, who give feedback, and who are perceived as trusting, and encouraging innovative behaviors contribute to the development of self‐leadership behaviors of rehearsal, self‐goal setting, self‐criticism, self‐reinforcement, self‐expectation and self‐observation. In addition, providing team training, fostering communication within the team, and allowing the team members to make work related decisions also enhance the movement toward self‐management.

The study relied on self‐report data, thereby allowing for the possibility of same source bias. However this is a common problem with cross‐sectional designs.

The paper is of value in pointing out that a different approach to leadership is required in a self‐managed work team environment, and by suggesting that building trust, fostering communication within the team, giving feedback and encouraging goal setting, innovative behaviors, and decision‐making can contribute to the development of self‐leadership behaviors important to the success and effectiveness of self‐managed work teams. Organizations should therefore through training programs encourage the development of these behaviors.

Groups, goals and organisation development — the literature has tended to recommend a one‐to‐one MBO. Now consider the team approach.

Purpose – Recent research has highlighted the importance of individuals' beliefs regarding the malleability or fixedness of negotiator characteristics as key determinants of negotiation processes and performance. In this chapter, we examine how these implicit negotiation beliefs affect negotiation at the team level.

Approach – We explore the effects of implicit negotiation beliefs on team negotiation by articulating a model that considers their impact on important group processes such as goal setting, conflict, and communication.

Findings – We propose that individuals' beliefs regarding the fixedness of negotiator characteristics affect team negotiation processes and outcomes, in particular through their effect on interpersonal processes within a negotiation team. We expect that individuals who believe that negotiator characteristics are malleable will focus on long-term success, will devote relatively high levels of effort toward the team's goals, and will share and discuss important information with other members of the team. In contrast, individuals who believe that negotiator characteristics are fixed will focus on short-term goals, will dedicate relatively low levels of effort to the team, and may put their own self interest ahead of the team by withholding key information from other team members. In light of these differences, teams characterized by heterogeneity in team members' implicit negotiation beliefs may experience high levels of intrateam conflict.

Value – This chapter suggests that implicit negotiation beliefs may have a powerful influence on team-level negotiation. Through our review and model development, we aim to stimulate research on implicit negotiation beliefs within groups and teams.