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This paper aims to examine the impact of humble leadership on project success. The authors propose that such an effect is mediated by team-building, and top management support moderates the direct relationship (humble leadership and project success) as well as an indirect relationship through team-building.

Data were collected from 337 individuals employed in the information technology sector of Pakistan. A two-step approach consisting confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling was used for analysis. To examine conditional direct and indirect effects, the authors utilized model 8 in PROCESS.

The results showed that humble leadership is positively related to project success. Furthermore, team-building partially mediates the relationship between humble leadership and project success. Moreover, top management support was anticipated to have a moderating effect on the direct and indirect link (via team-building) between humble leadership and project success.

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, this study found that how humble leadership is vital for project success, and thus, extends the utility of the concept of humble leadership to the project literature.

Ten common “sand‐traps”, selected by two team‐building consultants from their experiences in team building, are discussed along with the interventions that have worked successfully for them and with their clients, both team leaders and team members, in chipping out of the sometimes unavoidable sand‐trap. The sand‐trap metaphor also points to sharpening skills already apparent in the team, and to increasing alternatives for constructive problem solving. A consultant′s checklist is included for managing a successful team‐building effort.

The purpose of this paper is to present The Build and Bond, an experiential exercise which engages student teams while they apply team dynamics, enhance team skills and foster team member interpersonal bonds.

During The Build and Bond, teams design and execute their own team-building activity. Specifically, teams set goals, generate ideas, make decisions, create a team-building activity, develop implementation plans and ultimately execute the activity. Finally, during an all-class debrief discussion, teams describe their team-building activities, connect their experiences to the learning objectives and reflect on how these lessons can be applied in future team experiences. Pretest and posttest surveys were used to determine if participants perceived increases in team performance and cohesion following The Build and Bond.

All teams reported that their activity added value, was preferred over an instructor-assigned team-building activity and improved team states. Findings from t-tests supported an improvement in team performance and cohesion.

The Build and Bond is designed to help students feel more equipped to communicate, have fun and work interdependently with current and future team members.

Teams design the team-building activity themselves, so members are often more interested in participating and engaging during the team-building activity.

The pressures currently facing US health care organisations, especially hospitals, in a risk environment are analysed. An important route to maximising efficiency is identified as improved collaboration amongst personnel. Team‐building interventions are recommended and the elements essential to effective team building are listed together with the benefits that can accrue from such exercises.

The purpose of this study is to explore how gender influences peer assessment in team-building activities in China.

A nine-player Werewolf game was adopted to conduct the experiment. Nine abilities were defined to evaluate players’ performances. Before the game, players filled out a self-assessment questionnaire (five-point Likert scale). After the game, players evaluated other game members’ performances using the same questionnaire. Data were analyzed using linear regression.

The results showed that gender bias clearly existed in team-building activities, with men more likely to receive better peer assessment than women. In addition, when women presented themselves as actively as men did, they received less favorable evaluations than men, whereas their failures were more likely to be exaggerated.

This study may help build harmonious teams for gender equality, and we give practical suggestions respectively from the perspective of female employees, their managers, and their companies.

Given the importance of team-building activities in teamwork, fair evaluations of team-building performances are essential. However, gender influences on peer assessment in team-building activities in China remain unclear. This study adds new and important knowledge to research on gender bias in teams.

This study examines the mechanisms and conditions that influence how transformational leadership affects project success through the lens of social information processing theory.

A dual-stage moderated mediation model was proposed wherein the effect of transformational leadership on project success is mediated by team building, and empowering climate moderates the direct and indirect effects at both the first and second stages. The model was tested based on 370 survey responses of project management practitioners from Pakistan's IT industry. The measurement model was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Moderated mediation analyses were conducted using Hayes' PROCESS macro.

The findings suggest that team-building partially mediates the effect of transformational leadership on project success. Furthermore, the conditional indirect effect of transformational leadership on project success via team-building is strengthened at both the first and second stages at higher levels of empowerment climate.

It is recommended that project managers and project-intensive organizations should strive to cultivate an empowerment climate to fully realize the beneficial effects of transformational leadership behaviors in enhancing positive team outcomes and, consequently, overall project performance.

This study broadly contributes to the literature on the influence of project managers' leadership styles on project outcomes. Specifically, we elucidate the role of empowerment climate as an important boundary condition that enhances the beneficial effects of transformational leadership. Furthermore, we extend the application of social information processing theory to the context of projects.

Looks at the use of the Team Management Index (TMI) as a team building intervention in a programme of organizational development (OD). Attempts to assess the instrument’s effectiveness using a variety of measures (including the taxonomy of De Meuse and Liebowitz, 1981). In so doing, raises wider methodological and epistemological issues as to the whole nature of data collection, validity and proof in measuring the effectiveness of OD interventions. Discovers that, according to the measurement criteria, set out by De Meuse and Liebowitz, the TMI can be considered to be an effective OD instrument. However, finds that these measurement techniques are “blunt” and, by their very nature, lacking in academic rigour. Argues, therefore, that all levels of data collection and evidence gathering can never constitute 100 per cent proof of a causal link between OD interventions and resultant changes in the organization. Concludes that what will be deemed to count as adequate evidence or proof of an intervention’s effectiveness ultimately will be a personal choice; that in concentrating on comparing before and after measures of a team’s effectiveness theorists have ignored the change process which is taking place as a team begins to become effective, and have treated teams at the end of a team building intervention as if they were finished products; and finally that research time should be devoted to studying the process of change which a team undergoes during its development (of which team building is just the beginning) in order to highlight the ways in which an organization could nurture, support and facilitate this process to ensure the effective development of its work teams.

This paper reports a study that compares two different team-building approaches. The first one is the traditional top-down management approach. The second one is a hybrid bottom-up approach based on the consensus model. The aim of this paper is to determine which of the two approaches is the most effective across a number of performance measurements.

A case study is presented using data collected and analysed from a small family-owned vehicle maintenance firm. A mixed methods approach to data collection is utilized, including participant observation, focus groups, survey questionnaires and organizational performance reports. A convenience sample of eight routine maintenance jobs was selected for team performance comparison purposes. The measures used for comparing the two team approaches were lead time, customer satisfaction ratings and employees’ satisfaction ratings.

The teams assembled using the consensus approach performed better than those selected using the traditional top-down approach across all three performance measures, i.e. the jobs were completed faster and both customers and employees were more satisfied.

This is an exploratory case study limited to one small family-owned business and, as such, findings may not be generalizable.

As an alternative to manager selected work teams, managers should involve and empower employees to select their own teams. This has the potential to offer benefits for both customers and employees of faster delivery times and increase satisfaction, as well as increase productivity for the firm.

This is the first field study to compare the performance of a hybrid, bottom-up approach to team building with the performance of a more traditional management, top-down approach to team building. It paves the way for a wider study to be conducted in the future to test the findings’ generalizability.

To provide readers with a better understanding of the organizational conditions that lead to complexity in team structure, operation, and dynamics, and introduce guidelines for facilitating complex team interventions.

This article is based on the author's 20 years' experience as an internal OD executive, external consultant, and associate professor in the areas of organizational change and teambuilding.

The article concludes that team‐building failures frequently occur when facilitators operate from team archetypes that are radically outmoded, and severely underestimate the complexity of certain team‐building issues. Readers are introduced to six guidelines for managing complex team interventions.

This article is designed to help OD practitioners plan extremely complex and difficult team‐building interventions. The article should serve as a useful tool to experienced OD consultants who are attempting to tackle more advanced team‐building interventions. An organizational example is provided to illustrate key concepts.

The author believes that this article provides a unique perspective, by examining issues of organizational complexity that must be faced by experienced team facilitators.

For many years there has been a preoccupation with the need to evaluate the effectiveness of team building interventions (TBIs) in organizational development projects. Often these evaluations attempt some kind of measurement of the team before and after the team‐building event in order to measure any change in skills or attitudes. Such work has several potentially valuable outcomes. However, such research often has had mixed success in gathering or assessing data that would serve as conclusive (“bottom line”) proof in these cases. Much of the research does not even attempt an evaluation. It may be that the nature of the phenomena under investigation itself, or the circumstances under which data are collected, is not amenable to that kind of analysis. The starting point for this paper then, is twofold: (1) if it has proved elusive and largely fruitless to try to evaluate team building in these ways; maybe there is a better and more useful way to examine the action that takes place on TBIs?; and; (2) if it is the case that team building is often an intervention that in practice turns out to be less than permanent (and perhaps even damaging), what can be done to help overcome this problem? Takes the view that to try and assess the effectiveness of the team building event per se is to treat the team after the team‐building event as a finished product. Instead, the team‐building intervention is seen as a start, with the team in the process of becoming. Sees the team as a dynamic entity, always under flux and adapting to its circumstances. Postulates that if we can identify what is happening both within the team and to the individuals involved during a team‐building event that sparks off this process of becoming an effective team, then this might gives assistance to the organization as to what kinds of support, practices and resources they might be able to offer the team on its return to ensure the becoming continues. Data were collected from 22 full‐time MBA students on a three‐day outward bound residential course via an open‐ended questionnaire. Each student was asked to recount, in their own words, positive and negative events on a daily basis and consider whether anything had changed regarding themselves or the team. Examines emergent themes in a discursive way and proposes tentative recommendations in what is a preliminary study in an ongoing piece of work.