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1 – 10 of over 11000Taghrid Saleh Suifan, Salah Alhyari and Rateb J. Sweis
Teamwork is important for firms’ innovation and effectiveness, but often within-team conflicts arise. Prior literature reported inconsistent associations between conflict…
Abstract
Purpose
Teamwork is important for firms’ innovation and effectiveness, but often within-team conflicts arise. Prior literature reported inconsistent associations between conflict and team outcomes. This study aims to clarify these relationships and examine if team reflexivity improves outcomes and weakens intragroup conflict tendencies.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through a survey questionnaire of 288 team members working on projects at 41 different high-tech firms in Jordan. The authors then built a model of intragroup conflict effects and used structural equation modeling to test for both direct and indirect effects.
Findings
Indirect effects of intragroup conflict were significantly associated with teamwork quality. Teamwork quality was also significantly related to improved team outcomes, and team reflexivity moderated this relationship. Furthermore, it was found that the direct effect of intragroup conflict was not significantly related to either teamwork quality or effectiveness. Finally, results supported the idea that some conflict is required for teams to remain viable, self-critical and innovative.
Research limitations/implications
This is a cross-sectional study conducted in a single country and business industry, which limits the generalizability of results.
Practical implications
Team leaders should use reflexivity to create a sense of openness for collaborative interaction to improve group performance and member satisfaction.
Originality/value
This study provides a verified model to determine the circumstances in which conflict benefits team innovation and effectiveness. A central study contribution is that reflexivity reduces the negative impact of intragroup conflict.
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Jeffrey Boon Hui Yap, Wen Jie Leong and Martin Skitmore
Teamwork in the construction industry has attracted much attention from both academic and industrial circles. Most importantly, improving team effectiveness will increase…
Abstract
Purpose
Teamwork in the construction industry has attracted much attention from both academic and industrial circles. Most importantly, improving team effectiveness will increase the likelihood of successful project delivery. Recognising the factors influencing team dynamics is important for enhanced team performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a detailed literature review, a survey questionnaire containing 10 aspects and 25 attributes of teamwork relevant to construction is used to collect feedback from Malaysian construction practitioners from client, consultant and contractor organisations to prioritise these hypothesised variables. The data are then subjected to reliability analysis, descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, and frequencies), a one-sample t-test, the Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA and exploratory factor analysis.
Findings
The significance of these aspects and attributes is then presented. The three most crucial aspects are “project performance”, “decision-making capability” and “problem-solving ability”. The most influential attributes are “effective communication between project team members”, “efficient team leadership”, “well-defined team responsibilities and roles”, “clear team goals and objectives” and “good collaboration between all project leaders”. The Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA reveals five attributes having statistically significant differences with respect to company size, namely “clear team goals and objectives”, “commitment to the project”, “adequate resources”, “team or task processes” and “creativity and innovation”. Six underlying dimensions are found, comprising (1) participative engagement and task commitment; (2) team responsibility structure and accountability; (3) culture of trust and respect; (4) leader's skills and abilities; (5) top management support; and (6) synergic working environment.
Practical implications
The identification of these dimensions for team effectiveness provides rigorous basis for formulating useful team-building strategies for integrating a collaborative environment among project stakeholders and consequently improving project performance.
Originality/value
This paper bridges the identified knowledge gap concerning the dimensionality of teamwork attributes in construction-based setting and adds to existing knowledge of how team effectiveness can be leveraged to improve project performance in the construction management literature.
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Nathalie Drouin and Mario Bourgault
Work in distributed project teams is always a challenge for organizations. Many researchers have studies different aspects of distributed project teams, as witnessed by…
Abstract
Purpose
Work in distributed project teams is always a challenge for organizations. Many researchers have studies different aspects of distributed project teams, as witnessed by the impressive number of papers published in the last decade. However, it appears that the dimensions related to organizational support have still not received much attention in empirical studies. This study investigates the dimensions of organizational support in distributed project teams that contribute most to the quality of the decision‐making process and teamwork effectiveness in distributed project teams.
Design/methodology/approach
The initial intent of this research was to test a theoretical model on the basis of data from the field, namely real‐life situations. A two‐step approach (qualitative and quantitative method) was used. The research model was tested in a sample of experienced project managers on distributed project teams.
Findings
The results suggest that strategic staffing and training and tools provided to team members have a positive impact on the quality of decision making and teamwork effectiveness. Team autonomy is more salient and influential in fostering decision quality in a highly culturally diverse context. Our findings also re‐confirm the link between the quality of decision making and team effectiveness. Thus, teams are perceived as vehicles for identifying and integrating various individual viewpoints and combining knowledge.
Practical implications
This study underscores the importance of selecting practices that enhance the recognition of team members’ contributions in the context of distributed project teams. It is now clear that managers cannot treat these distributed project teams in the same way as conventional teams. Several intervention and support methods are possible. This research contributes to identifying which of them are the most appropriate in this context.
Originality/value
This study contributes to research on distributed project teams and on organizational support theory. It highlights the importance of understanding the processes or dimensions underlying the consequences of perceived organizational support. It bolsters the need to select practices that enhance the recognition of team members’ contributions and treat them favourably in the context of distributed project teams.
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Mehmet Karakuş and Fatih Töremen
The main purpose of this study is to find out the importance levels of obstacles to teamwork in the view of teachers and thus inspire school leaders to remove these…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this study is to find out the importance levels of obstacles to teamwork in the view of teachers and thus inspire school leaders to remove these obstacles and to make teamwork more effective.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey‐based descriptive scanning model was used. This study was performed in Elazig city centre during the 2006‐2007 academic year. A four‐dimensional and 32‐itemed “ordering questionnaire” was administered to 424 teachers working at primary schools.
Findings
In the light of related literature, the most significant factors for the effectiveness of teamwork have been classified in four dimensions. These are leadership actions, structural characteristics of work group, individual characteristics of members, and interrelationships among members. Administrators' inequitable applications, lack of a group climate in which each teacher is appreciated and valued, teachers' lack of motivation, competitive and not cooperative relationships were sorted by teachers as being the most important obstacles to teamwork. There were meaningful differences among teachers' views according to the gender and tenure variables.
Research limitations/implications
Since teamwork is a necessity for school effectiveness, it is very important to determine and to remove the obstacles on the way to effective teamwork.
Practical implications
The study gives cues for school leaders on how teachers should be treated in general and in the aspects of their personal characteristics to attain effective teamwork in schools.
Originality/value
With an original classification of the components of effective teamwork, the study seeks to determine teachers' perceptions about the importance level of obstacles of effective teamwork through an ordering questionnaire in a different perspective.
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This paper aims to explore the nature and the function of teamwork cohesiveness in organizations in the UAE.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the nature and the function of teamwork cohesiveness in organizations in the UAE.
Design/methodology/approach
While many organizations are successful at managing the materials and machinery of the organization, they fall short in managing the human side of their business. This research addresses and assesses how teams can progress to be of maximum use through teamwork and to view teams as performing organizational units which is similar to other studies that focus on teamwork processes. Teamwork cohesiveness is defined as a small number of people with complimentary skills who are committed to common purposes, performance goals, and approaches for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. These include being a team player with participation propensity, cooperative behaviors, and leadership skills. A model was tested, relating teamwork cohesiveness with intelligence and skills; reduce conflict, and 2D of organizational commitment, i.e. value, and performance. Survey data from 76 teams (n=294) were collected in three industrial institutions in the UAE.
Findings
The results are supportive of a multi‐component structure for cohesiveness and of its importance to the functioning of teams and organizations. Teamwork cohesiveness appeared strongly related with team member's attitudes towards the organization. Cohesiveness between team members was positively associated with value commitment and negatively with performance commitment. In addition, intelligence and skills appeared strongly related to team satisfaction.
Originality/value
The paper offers insights into cohesiveness within teamwork.
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Teamwork represents a democratic logic that may contradict the bureaucratic logic characterizing many organizations. I develop arguments based on new institutional theory…
Abstract
Teamwork represents a democratic logic that may contradict the bureaucratic logic characterizing many organizations. I develop arguments based on new institutional theory suggesting that such a contradiction threatens a team’s legitimacy. My study of 71 teams lends support for two claims that capture a legitimacy paradox confronting teams: (1) Egalitarian work processes do correspond to more effective interactions within teams, however (2) To the extent that egalitarianism is uncommon in the organization in which a team is embedded, external evaluations of team effectiveness are less favorable. I discuss the implications of these arguments for subsequent research on organizational teamwork.
Emre Burak Ekmekcioglu, Belgin Aydintan and Mustafa Celebi
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of behavioral dimensions constituting the essence of charismatic leadership (CL) on coordinated teamwork (CTW).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of behavioral dimensions constituting the essence of charismatic leadership (CL) on coordinated teamwork (CTW).
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 113 members among 20 ad hoc project teams formed by specialists and assistant specialists employed in a public institution. Simple linear and multiple regression models were employed to analyze the effect of CL on CTW.
Findings
The behavioral dimensions of CL, which include possessing a strategic vision and articulation skill, sensitivity to the environment and sensitivity to member needs, were found to have a significant and positive effect on CTW, while the personal risk and unconventional behavior dispositions of a leader were found to render no significant effect on CTW.
Research limitations/implications
Having tested the effect of CL behaviors on CTW, this particular model provides salient implications in clarifying which CL behaviors particularly render a significant effect on CTW and the consequential effectiveness of teamwork. Nevertheless, there is a need for longitudinal studies conducted in a range of different sectors and institutions.
Originality/value
The originality of this empirical study is that it advances the grasp of the relationship between CTW and the behavioral factors of CL.
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Stanley J. Smits, Dawn Bowden, Judith A. Falconer and Dale C. Strasser
– This paper aims to present a two-decade effort to improve team functioning and patient outcomes in inpatient stroke rehabilitation settings.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a two-decade effort to improve team functioning and patient outcomes in inpatient stroke rehabilitation settings.
Design/methodology/approach
The principal improvement effort was conducted over a nine-year period in 50 Veterans Administration Hospitals in the USA. A comprehensive team-based model was developed and tested in a series of empirical studies. A leadership development intervention was used to improve team functioning, and a follow-up cluster-randomized trial documented patient outcome improvements associated with the leadership training.
Findings
Iterative team and leadership improvements are presented in summary form, and a set of practice-proven development observations are derived from the results. Details are also provided on the leadership training intervention that improved teamwork processes and resulted in improvements in patient outcomes that could be linked to the intervention itself.
Research limitations/implications
The practice-proven development observations are connected to leadership development theory and applied in the form of suggestions to improve leadership development and teamwork in a broad array of medical treatment settings.
Practical implications
This paper includes suggestions for leadership improvement in medical treatment settings using interdisciplinary teams to meet the customized needs of the patient populations they serve.
Originality/value
The success of the team effectiveness model and the team-functioning domains provides a framework and best practice for other health care organizations seeking to improve teamwork effectiveness.
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Mirjam Körner, Corinna Lippenberger, Sonja Becker, Lars Reichler, Christian Müller, Linda Zimmermann, Manfred Rundel and Harald Baumeister
Knowledge integration is the process of building shared mental models. The integration of the diverse knowledge of the health professions in shared mental models is a…
Abstract
Purpose
Knowledge integration is the process of building shared mental models. The integration of the diverse knowledge of the health professions in shared mental models is a precondition for effective teamwork and team performance. As it is known that different groups of health care professionals often tend to work in isolation, the authors compared the perceptions of knowledge integration. It can be expected that based on this isolation, knowledge integration is assessed differently. The purpose of this paper is to test these differences in the perception of knowledge integration between the professional groups and to identify to what extent knowledge integration predicts perceptions of teamwork and team performance and to determine if teamwork has a mediating effect.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is a multi-center cross-sectional study with a descriptive-explorative design. Data were collected by means of a staff questionnaire for all health care professionals working in the rehabilitation clinics.
Findings
The results showed that there are significant differences in knowledge integration within interprofessional health care teams. Furthermore, it could be shown that knowledge integration is significantly related to patient-centered teamwork as well as to team performance. Mediation analysis revealed partial mediation of the effect of knowledge integration on team performance through teamwork.
Practical/implications
In practice, the results of the study provide a valuable starting point for team development interventions.
Originality/value
This is the first study that explored knowledge integration in medical rehabilitation teams and its relation to patient-centered teamwork and team performance.
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Michael A. West and Joanne Lyubovnikova
The ubiquity and value of teams in healthcare are well acknowledged. However, in practice, healthcare teams vary dramatically in their structures and effectiveness in ways…
Abstract
Purpose
The ubiquity and value of teams in healthcare are well acknowledged. However, in practice, healthcare teams vary dramatically in their structures and effectiveness in ways that can damage team processes and patient outcomes. The aim of this paper is to highlight these characteristics and to extrapolate several important aspects of teamwork that have a powerful impact on team effectiveness across healthcare contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws upon the literature from health services management and organisational behaviour to provide an overview of the current science of healthcare teams.
Findings
Underpinned by the input‐process‐output framework of team effectiveness, team composition, team task, and organisational support are viewed as critical inputs that influence key team processes including team objectives, leadership and reflexivity, which in turn impact staff and patient outcomes. Team training interventions and care pathways can facilitate more effective interdisciplinary teamwork.
Originality/value
The paper argues that the prevalence of the term “team” in healthcare makes the synthesis and advancement of the scientific understanding of healthcare teams a challenge. Future research therefore needs to better define the fundamental characteristics of teams in studies in order to ensure that findings based on real teams, rather than pseudo‐like groups, are accumulated.
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