Team and Team Performance Evaluation

Definition of Team

According to the author Thompson (2018), a team within an organization consists of people or individuals who come together for a specific end result outcome. These individuals are interdependent on each other, are autonomous to their own work within the framework of the teams set goals, and share equal accountability for their individual aspects which as a whole reflect as the entire teams’ accountability. Even though these people constitute a team, not everyone these individuals come in contact with or get into connection over work form a part of the team. The criteria for an individual to be a part of a team includes his official acknowledgement as a part of the team by each member of the team, and him recognizing his role within it. Team have been defined “as small groups of interdependent individuals who share responsibility for outcomes, and team-based structures play an increasingly important role in organization” (Hollenbeck, Beersma, & Schouten, 2012).

Types of Teams

The most common classification of teams is it being divided into 4 types.

• Problem solving team
• Self-managed team
• Cross-functional team and
• Virtual team.

These teams are defined and differentiated based on hierarchy and mode of communication within this group and the circumstances which brings these individuals to work collaborate to achieve a common goal (Thompson, 2018).

Problem Solving Team

Problem solving team usually encompasses a group of individuals (not more than 12-14) come together and belong to a same department within a sector and works towards a similar goal. It is the most popular type of team within corporate sectors. These people share ideas and suggestions towards improvement and tend to meet often, usually twice to thrice a week (Robbins, 2000).

Self-Managed Team

Self-managed teams are a small group who voluntary chose each other to form a team abolishing authority hierarchy. They form their own autonomous body choosing and distributing responsibilities and surveying each other’s work. Higher performance outcomes, job satisfaction, and strong motivation seen with this type of team has led to its increased popularity.

Cross-Functional Team

(Zárraga and Bonache, 2005) Cross-functional team’s main feature is these individuals belong to different areas of expertise who brings in their own set of special skills to achieve and built a new and innovative end product. It is commonly used in complex projects or innovations as end result requiring various different components and skills in order to achieve a goal. No hierarchy is seen and often everyone tries and brings out the most in their own specific skill set to help achieve the common goal. These forms of teams are most commonly observed within evolving and mutable organizations changing constantly i.e. pharmaceuticals, telecommunications.

Virtual Team

(Parker, 2003) Virtual team is group of people who get together only through virtual mode and do not meet to achieve a goal. Pros being able to undermine time and distance barrier and cons as is obvious, absence of any social cues.

Internal Process of Team

Internal processes of a team tethers to the internal framework and relationship among the team members and is often quantitated based on how effective is the cooperation and communication between the members. Basically it throws light on the fluency of interactions between the team members. The major parameter of quantifying it is thus disagreements and compatibility between members, and means of undermining these conflicts to ensure smooth work progress, accountability and quality (Zaccaro, Heinen and Shuffler, 2009). Internal processes is thus something a team can control, change and overcome internally to make better a team. External processes are factors external to the team and out of the jurisdiction of team members. These factors are omnipresent and effect the team performance and unchangeable. Some of the example of external processes are political, economic, social or technology. Knowing the external factors help the team better align their efforts as well as present the project they are working on to the outside milieu (Gleeson, 2018).

A huge number of models and research are proposed in improving team performance and strategies over the time. Giddens emphasized on the structural model of a team laying emphasis on team initiatives and external factors i.e. external processes. He put forth that external processes and internal influences are interlinked and interplay (Mestrovic, 2005). Gladstein model analyzes performance based on satisfaction, needs and ability. McGrath model is based on inter versus intrapersonal factors of the group. Bettenhausens model describes success of team based on sociological and psychological effects. Hersey and Blanchard model followed team performance proportional to time i.e. maturity of team. Hackman proposed three branches which could help and improve team effectiveness and performance.

The three determinants Hackman proposed are:

1. Effort or contribution of individual member.
2. Individual member’s skill and knowledge.
3. Strategies employed.

The other underlying variables essential for team performance were observed to be motivation and accessories readily available with the team, inter team promotion, coaching and assistance (Baninajarian and Abdullah, 2009).

Effective Strategies for Enhancement

Deborah conducted a study (Outward bound: strategies for team survival in the organization) with five teams on team performance and strategies to improve it with underlying emphasis on internal and external processes. She came up with three strategies to help improve team performance.

The three strategies being

1. Informing
2. Parading
3. Probing.

A strategy of informing structured around passing of information and effective communication between team members and addressed internal processes of the team. Parading was more on the essence of team building and intrapersonal relations promotion to help reach the goals and promote team performance. Probing addressed specifically the external processes wherein the team members individually and as a unit was encouraged to build relations outside the team with factors, organizations and environment that can help promote the teams goals and objectives and thereby thus enhance team performance (Ancona, 1990).

Social Loafing

Yes, in every organization we face this issue of social loafing where sometimes the team members would not keep their full effort when they work as a team. If the team member is not keeping their full effort while they work with team, the objectives of that sprint have to be delivered in up and down for the customers. I feel that this happens in only larger teams usually. Though the member is good technically and productive there might be some problems which will result in this kind of problem. This social loafing is observed by the team lead according to the work they allotted to the team member where the efforts and outcomes are keenly observed. This also would be called a pair programming in the organizations to see how collectively they are working. I feel that when working in a team each team member should work collaboratively and cooperative as the deliverables need to go in to market without any flaws or bugs. Teams are becoming more important in organizations these days as they work on different technology and integrating with each functionality they has to properly align the work (Schippers, 2014).

To avoid this issue, team member should know why the team lead is doing it and how it is going to effect the productivity. I feel that this issue will drag the team productivity like a anchor of the boat where we cannot move either sides without resolving it. So let us take a simple example to understand it, a team lead gave a rope to a team members to pull from one side with a group of five members and observed their maximum capacity to pull. So in the same way when two people are working on the same functionality one of the team member doesn’t want to put a full effort and he gives of the work to other person on the tam. In a team not every individual is skilled as others and cause social loafing as they take a lot of time to do. So the best way to avoid this issue is to know the capacity of the team member and skills he has and how much time he can take to complete an assigned objective.

Incentive Pay System

In our organizations as many people work on different technologies and put lot of effort in to the work they do. Sometimes an incentives will keep them motivating and encouraging and its one of the way to congratulate them to in a form to keep up their good work and efforts they put. So let us see the advantages and disadvantages of this system.

Advantages

• The organization will make sure that we are keeping the talent with us only by providing this incentives either in the form of finance or hike in their position.
• Its gives a Job satisfaction for the employees which makes them feel that they can stay with the organization.
• The organization will also have a benefit that the deliverables will be delivered on time if they provide such incentives to the member.
• This grows the competition between employees in their work and also helps to know the ability of team mate.
• Confidence in the team mate will build up.

Disadvantages

• Behavior of the team mate may look irrelevant on the other team mate who got an incentive for their work.
• The confidence and the contribution to the team will be less when compared to his previous cooperation on the work.
• May not support the plan in resolving the problem or thinking new approaches if there is any proof of concept has to be provided.
• Coming to the results by not providing incentive performance of team will be reduced.

References

1. Ancona, D. Gladstein. Outward Bound: Strategic for Team Survival in an Organization. Academy of Management Journal, vol. 33, no. 2, 1990, pp. 334–365.,
2. Baninajarian, N., & Abdullah, Z. B. (2009). Groups in context: A model of group effectiveness. European Journal of Social Sciences, 8(2), 335-340.
3. Hollenbeck, John R., et al. Beyond Team Types and Taxonomies: A Dimensional Scaling Conceptualization for Team Description. Academy of Management Review, vol. 37, no. 1, 2012, pp. 82–106., doi:10.5465/armr.2010.0181.
4. Mestrovic, S. (2005). Anthony Giddens: the last modernist. Routledge.
5. Parker, G. M. (2003). Cross-functional teams: Working with allies, enemies, and other strangers. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
6. Patrick Gleeson, P. D. (2018, June 29). Internal & External Factors That Affect an Organization. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/internal-external-factors-affect-organization-16641.html
7. Schippers, M. C. (2014). Social Loafing Tendencies and Team Performance: The Compensating Effect of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 13(1), 62–81. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2012.0191
8. Thompson, L. L. (2018). Making the team: A guide for managers. NY: Pearson.
9. Zaccaro, S. J., Heinen, B., & Shuffler, M. (2009). Team leadership and team effectiveness. Team effectiveness in complex organizations: Cross-disciplinary perspectives and approaches, 83-111.
10. Zárraga, C., & Bonache, J. (2005). The Impact of Team Atmosphere on Knowledge Outcomes in Self-managed Teams. Organization Studies, 26(5), 661-681.