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Adventure learning (AL) programs have strong support in the West but are only emerging in Asia. This study shows a cultural dimension – collectivism (specifically, a preference to work in groups) was negatively related to changes in two key teamwork attitudes – task‐participation and social‐support among a group of Asian AL participants. Despite this, absolute mean differences between post‐test and pre‐test scores were positive across the sample. Changes in the two teamwork attitudes predicted similar changes in team‐spirit, which in turn led to changes in organizational‐identification. Results also indicated that too much focus on member maintenance needs could detract from this identification. Overall, AL was shown to have a positive impact on the Asian participants.

The use of public engagement (PE) has been encouraged by the Hong Kong government in recent years, with the construction industry under particular pressure to employ it. However, society as a whole has been suffering as a result of various levels of discontent and conflict in many construction development projects. The logical paths to analyze public need and resolve conflict in the PE process are vague. Value methodology (VM), a logical method, is thus proposed as an initial framework to support PE activities in construction projects. The purpose of this paper is to enhance PE performance for the complicated construction development projects with the application of VM principles.

Based on an extensive literature review, PE logical team process factors and PE outcomes were identified. A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the relationships between the logical PE team decision-making process (VM application in the logical process and team behaviors) and final PE outcomes.

The results showed that the PE team process with the application of VM, especially information and analysis phases, influenced PE outcomes positively. Conflict (both destructive conflict and constructive conflict) influenced PE outcomes in different directions.

It is recommended that the information and analysis phases of VM are applied to PE process in order to achieve consensus, cultivate team spirit, improve project performance, and enhance organizational reputation.

This paper innovatively proposes the application of VM into the PE team process in order to analyze the project logically and subsequently improve holistic PE project performance and finally promote social cohesion.

Human resource management, Training and development, Competency development and team spirit.

The case is intended for MBA/PGDM level students as part of a human resource management curriculum. The case is more diagnostic in nature and should be discussed in the same spirit. The case is suitable for developing conceptual thinking and community orientation of professionals aspiring or pursuing a career in the area of human resource management.

The case examines the imperatives behind Sterling Tools Limited (STL), a leading fasteners manufacturing Indian company's decision and strategy adopted to inculcate team spirit through outdoor experiential training (OET). The case explores in detail the process undertaken to execute the OET at STL. The case also briefly mentions the tangible benefits of OEL. The case is structured to enable readers to: understand the basic objectives of OET; understand the innovative approach adopted by STL; and understand how an organization responds to changes and challenges in the external environment.

This case is structured to enable students to: understand the meaning and significance of outdoor experiential training (OET); analyze the challenges faced by HR managers in modern day organizations; learn the conceptual framework and understand the principles of OET; examine the measures that can be taken by management to ensure a smooth induction and socialization process of employees; and understand the need of inculcating team spirit among employees.

Teaching notes are available.

Summarizes the basic principles of Bioenergetics along with its origin in Riechian psychology. Clarifies that Bioenergetics is used at Cranfield not as psychotherapy, but as an aid to personal development for a specific population of high‐functioning individuals, i.e. managers. Places the Bioenergetic body‐mind notion into a philosophical context of human goodness and potential; thus expanding the focus to body‐mind‐spirit. Examines five body‐mind types through the following aspects: how they operate at work; how they were formed; key attitudes; unique gifts; body shape; development path; how they are best managed. Case histories illustrating the different types in various modes of consultant intervention, i.e. individual development, team building and culture change.

Information systems (IS) research in developing countries (DCs) has attracted increasing attention over recent years. Nevertheless, empirical studies in these countries in general, and particularly those drawing on the cultural values influencing project team success (PTS), are still far from satisfactory. Hence, scholars strongly recommend this specific area as prime research territory to improve the successful development and implementation of IS initiatives in DCs. The purpose of this paper is to provide better insights and an improved understanding about the cultural values influencing PTS.

In order to investigate the cultural values which may affect PTS, data were collected from project experts working on business process reengineering and information technology projects in ten public and private organizations in the service sector in Ethiopia (n=200 questionnaires). A multivariate model was employed to identify the most important cultural values.

The results indicate that personally focused cultural values (e.g. openness to change) rather than socially focused cultural values (e.g. self‐transcendence) have the most significant influence on project team performance. Moreover, cultural values (independent of their designation as personally or socially focused) were found to have a strong relationship with two out of three dimensions of PTS, namely, project team learning and development, as well as project team working spirit, when compared to project team leadership.

Identifying the relationships between cultural values and the dimensions of PTS contributes to the establishment of theoretical insights into the success factors of IS projects in DCs. Moreover, it also assists practitioners, particularly project managers, in maximizing the possibility of PTS, which has been shown to be a major determinant of overall project success.

The pace of organizational and environmental change seems to demand that such professional organizations as CPA firms become learning organizations in order to compete adequately with other firms. The flattening out of traditional hierarchical structures within organizations argues that traditional mentoring and supervisory structures may be inadequate for fostering needed individual learning and personal learning. One effect of the lack of such learning may be increased role stress, job burnout, loss of commitment to the organization, intention to leave, and diminished job satisfaction. Using a sample of 440 accounting professionals from major CPA firms in several regions of the USA, studies the ability of team social interaction processes within work teams to foster the personal, organizational, and team‐source learning, and also to influence attitudinal outcomes directly and indirectly. Also examines whether personal learning, organizational socialization and team‐source learning mediate the impact of team social interaction process on attitudinal outcomes. Uses a hierarchical regression‐based test to evaluate our hypotheses. The results supported our expectations. A structural equation modeling test of the model showed that organizational and personal learning mediated the relationship between team social interaction processes and the attitudinal outcomes, but team‐source learning did not.

The objective of this paper is to contribute empirical evaluation of the factors, behaviours and processes that lead to intra‐functional conflict, and in so doing to contribute to theory building on these issues, which have important contemporary relevance for theorists and practitioners.

A survey of 1,000 firms was conducted to elucidate the associations between both functional and dysfunctional intra‐functional conflict and a number of intra‐ and extra‐organisational variables.

Evidence was found indicating that participative decision making (positively), heterogeneity and centrality of marketing (both negatively) are linked to functional intra‐departmental conflict, while leadership quality of senior staff, team spirit and risk‐taking proclivity are positively associated with functional intradepartmental conflict and negatively with dysfunctional intra‐departmental conflict. No support was found for the claims that departmentalisation and organisation size were associated with either form of conflict.

The study supplies an empirical contribution through conceptualising, and subsequently empirically verifying, a model of the antecedents of intra‐functional conflict. Empirical contributions stem from findings that, while some parallels exist between the antecedents of intra‐functional and inter‐functional conflict, differences are evident, and in some cases even orthogonal. This study further reinforces suggestions that marketers have over‐emphasised the negative dimensions of conflict and have overlooked the positive (that is, the functional) aspects of conflict.

The findings of the study also have numerous implications for practitioners. At a strategic level, the study suggests that executives should acknowledge in their change processes that decisions at an organisational level could have a profound effect on both the functional and dysfunctional conflict in their organisation. Further, given the significant effect of inter‐group dynamics, managers of functions may find it beneficial to manipulate a range of intra‐functional variables to enhance functional conflict.

The value of the current study centres on the conceptual and empirical contributions regarding the drivers of intra‐functional conflict.

This study examines 56 R&D projects, in each of which several organizations cooperate via an electronic system platform. The aim was to examine the relationships among leadership, cooperation, and project success (product improvements).

The paper investigates to what degree the relative importance of different aspects of leadership and cooperation in R&D projects on electronic platforms differs depending upon situational conditions.

Given a low level of electronic system and process integration, the frequency of personal contacts makes a significant contribution to explaining success variance. The quality of communication (team trust) is particularly important in the case of a high degree of electronic linkage. Enhancement of team spirit is more conductive to success in larger groups. Ensuring frequent personal contacts and clarifying goals, tasks, and responsibilities, respectively, contributes significantly to explaining success variance in large projects (but not in small ones). In projects with a great degree of task novelty (exploration), trustful communication becomes particularly important.

The sample was rather small, as is the population of interorganizational cooperative projects that was studied. Further research is needed in regard to the moderator effects that is posited.

Knowing what is important in a particular project configuration makes it possible to take informed action with respect to the success criterion.

The paper shows how, in the context of R&D projects on electronic platforms, the relative importance of different aspects of leadership and cooperation depends on the specific project characteristics.