Three Major Team Processes Can Influence Team Effectiveness

Managers have often wondered why some teams are effective and some aren’t. Today’s best managers know that three major team processes help influence team effectiveness. First, transition processes involve analyzing the mission and setting goals and strategies. Second, action processes involve coordinating effort and monitoring progress toward team goals. Third, interpersonal processes involve managing conflict, motivating team members, building confidence, and handling team member emotions. Today’s best managers help ensure that all three types of team processes are running smoothly which can help improve team effectiveness.

Source: LePine, J. A., Piccolo, R. F., Jackson, C. L., Mathiew, J. E., & Saul, J. R. 2008. A meta-analysis of teamwork processes: Test of a multidimensional model and relationships with team effectiveness criteria. Personnel Psychology, 61, 273-307.

High Team Quality Relationships Can Lead To Positive Emotions For Team Members

Today’s best managers know that TMX stands for team member exchange and refers to the quality of the relationship between team members. Team members who have high quality relationships with their team members tend to assist each other and share information more than teams with low TMX. Teams with higher TMX tend to have higher positive emotions, such as excitement, enjoyment, satisfaction, and enthusiasm, compared to teams with low TMX. This happens because over time teams become more experienced, and negative emotions are reduced due to familiarity and understanding among team members.

Source: Tse, H. H M., & Dasborough, M. T. 2008, April. A study of exchange and emotions in team member relationships. Group & Organization Management, 33, 194-215.

Structure Teams So That Team Members Aren’t In Competition With Each Other

Managers used to believe that teamwork was always the way to structure employees in order to get optimal organizational outcomes. Today’s best managers know that sometimes teamwork can get in the way of good performance. Instead of unifying different groups, teamwork can sometimes have unintended negative effects on team member attitudes and performance. Negative teamwork results can happen when employees get rewards for being good, specialized, and individualistic performers, and at the same time get rewards when being good, integrated team players. Today’s best managers are aware of this potential problem and help structure rewards to lessen these conflicts.

Source: Finn, R. 2008. The language of teamwork: Reproducing professional divisions in the operating theatre. Human Relations, 61, 103-130.

Help Team Members Understand How Teams Develop For Better Team Performance

Today’s best managers know that teams develop and change as they mature. Time plays a critical role in this process. Teams develop over time through a series of episodes in which team members must perform different behaviors at different times depending on task demands. The context of the organization, the team, and the team members influence team performance and lead to team processes such as feelings of safety, potency, and belonging. These team processes then lead to team performance success or failure, which in turn leads back to shaping aspects of the organization, the team, and the team members.

Source: Mathieu, J., Maynard, M. T., Rapp, T., & Gilson, L. 2008, June. Team effectiveness 1997-2007: A review of recent advancements and a glimpse into the future. Journal of Management, 34, 410-476.

Team Role Knowledge Helps Team Members Be More Effective

Today’s best managers understand that team role knowledge is an important component of effective team performance. Team role knowledge means that team members know the different roles that they need to play for their team to be effective, plus they know when and where to play those roles. For example, a team member might play the role of coordinator when a team first starts, but then the team member shifts over to critic once the team starts designing a new product. Today’s best managers help team members understand and play the right roles when needed.

Source: Mumford, T. V., Iddekinge, . H. V., Morgeson, F. P., & Campion, M. 2008. The team role test: Development and validation of a team role knowledge situational judgment test. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 250-267.

Improve Employee Social Environment To Help Increase Employee Psychological Health

Today’s best managers know that they should spend a significant amount of time improving the quality of the social environment for their employees. Managers who would like to help improve the psychological health of their employees should pay attention to the quality of interpersonal relationships between employees and their supervisors. Managers should also focus on actions that enhance the interaction of team members and foster team work, such as helping employees bond through activities like common work breaks and offsite meetings and retreats.

Source: Rousseau, V., Aube, C., Chiocchio, F., Boudrias, J.-S., & Morin, E. M. 2008. Social interactions at work and psychological health: The role of leader-member exchange and work group integration. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38, 1755-1777.

Build Teams That Can Better Withstand Downsizing

Unfortunately, in organizations today layoffs and downsizing are often everyday events. For example, team leaders may be laid off and teams are left to fend for themselves. Today’s best managers know that some teams can cope better than others when team leaders are let go. Teams that are emotionally stable where team members are typically calm and even-tempered will perform better after a team downsizing. Also, teams where members have positive interaction, exchange information, and cooperate with each other will survive a leader layoff better than teams that don’t behave. In other words, create teams that are emotionally stable and extroverted and they may better withstand the loss of a team leader.

Source: DeRue, D. S., Hollenbeck, J. R., Johnson, M. D., Ilgen, D. R., & Jundt, D.K. 2008. How different team downsizing approaches influence team-level adaptation and performance. Academy of Management Journal, 51, 182-196.

Backing-Up Behavior on Teams Can Sometimes Help and Sometimes Hurt Team Performance

Many teams have someone who backs up or assists another team member when they need help to accomplish their tasks. Today’s best managers know that backing up another member of your team could be helpful or hurtful to the team’s effectiveness. When team members have uneven workloads, then the costs of backing up a team member when needed are not high. However, when team members have even workloads, then the costs of backing up a team member are high. So, be careful when assigning a backup for tasks where the workload is roughly equal for team members, as this may actually hurt, instead of help, team performance.

Source: Barnes, C. M., Hollenbeck, J. R., Wagner, D. R., DeRue, D. S., Nahrgang, J. D., & Schwind, K. M. 2008. Harmful help: The costs of backing-up behavior in teams. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1299-1319.

Self Versus Team Assessments Of Employees Can Improve Diverse Team Performance

Today’s best managers know that managing diverse teams can be especially problematic. Traditional team-building activities tend not to work for diverse teams because they don’t handle the unique qualities and differences among diverse team members. Today’s best managers know that 360-degree feedback can help diverse teams improve. Compare team members’ assessments of themselves with the teams’ assessments of them. When using this approach be sure that teams have coaching available to help them. Without someone to guide and counsel team members, this approach can uncover old team wounds, and that could hurt, rather than help, team performance.

Source: Polzer, J. T. 2008, July-August. Making diverse teams click. Harvard Business Review, 20.

Mutual Contributions To Team Success Can Result in Team Members Contributing Even More

More and more organizations are requiring employees to work together in teams. Team success often depends on how well team members cooperate with each other. Today’s best managers know that some team members may not contribute, but instead may ride on the efforts of other team members. To decrease this problem, managers can help create a feeling of reciprocity, meaning that team members see how much everyone is contributing and benefitting in return. When team members perceive a reciprocal relationship, then they contribute even more and overall team performance will continue to rise.

Source: Biele, G., Rieskamp, J., & Czienskowski, U. 2008. Explaining cooperation in groups: Testing models of reciprocity and learning. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 106, 89-105.