The Build and Bond: a team exercise

PurposeThis study aims to examine empirically the effect of emotional intelligence of the team, as calculated by the average of all team members’ individual emotional intelligence measurements, on the cohesiveness of the team, and the effect of the perception of self-efficacy of the team members on the relationship between emotional intelligence and team cohesion. Finally, certain financial indicators were analyzed to evaluate team performance.Design/methodology/approachThis study used quasi-experimental design. Participated in the experiment a total of 146 students (35 teams) who were senior business major students in the mid-sized university in the USA. In the experiment, the participants played a business simulation game over an eight-year simulated time frame. After the final round of the simulation game, the variables of emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and team cohesion were measured using the survey questionnaire and team performance and participation data were collected from the business simulation game. In the support of the quantitative data analysis, the current study also collected and analyzed qualitative data comments on other group members’ contribution to the group task.FindingsResults indicated that team cohesion was highest when team members demonstrated greater emotional intelligence. Self-efficacy also had a positive influence on team cohesion. High self-efficacy was found to be an important mediator of the relationship between emotional intelligence and team cohesion. High emotional intelligence promoted the development of self-efficacy, resulting in increased team cohesion. Increased team cohesion resulted in improved team performance and participation.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study has several limitations. First, the sample is mostly business major students in the mid-sized university in the USA. There is a limitation in generalizing the findings into other populations. Second, this study accessed information on 35 teams comprising a total of 146 students. While the number of students and teams is sufficient for a study, more data would improve the robustness of the results. Third, this study collected and analyzed cross-sectional data, so there is the possibility for the reversed causal relationship in the findings. Although the authors concluded that team cohesion had a positive impact on team performance and participation, they also found the reverse relationship from the additional analysis. Fourth, the validity of the construct for emotional intelligence has some detractors, mainly because of the subjective nature of the measurement that tends to overlap existing personality measures and the objective measurement which involves a consensual scoring method with poor reliability.Practical implicationsThis paper implies practical strategies to manage teams and team members for enhanced team productivity. Teams are critical resources within companies. This study demonstrates that high team cohesion leads to better team performance. As team cohesion is important for team performance, the authors found that two antecedents for team cohesion are emotional intelligence and self-efficacy within team members. Therefore, it is important for managers to hire and select team members with high levels of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy. Managers can train employees to internalize increased levels of these traits.Originality/valueThe current study demonstrated that self-efficacy mediated emotional intelligence and team cohesion during a research project lasting one semester. There have been few studies examining the mediating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between emotional intelligence and team cohesion. In particular, unlike many other studies that use short-term laboratory experiments, the duration of this study could provide enough time to more thoroughly develop cohesion among members. The current study collected both quantitative and qualitative data. In addition to the quantitative data analysis, the analysis of qualitative data reinforced the findings of the quantitative data analysis.

The purpose of this study was to develop and apply a team building program for a curling team through needs assessment. The participants in this study were 69 high-school, college, professional, and national curling athletes for the needs assessment, 4 sport psychologists and 2 curling experts for verifying the validity of the program, and 5 curling athletes of professional curling teams for the application of the team building program. The needs assessment data were analyzed by inductive content analysis. The team building program was developed based on the results of needs assessment, goal setting of the team building program, and a selection of activities for the team building program. The team building program was applied to five curling players for 7 sessions. Team cohesion, team efficacy, and effective communication were measured two times (i.e., pre and post) to examine the effects of team building intervention. The results of needs assessment indicated interpersonal relationship, communication, and performance were necessary factors for team building. Consequently, goals of the team building program were to improve communication and interpersonal relationships. Team building activities were selected through team building literature review and expert meetings. Secondly, the team building intervention had a positive influence on team cohesion, team efficacy, and communication. These results indicated that team building would positively contribute to team factors and team performance.

We investigated the relationship between personality characteristics and performance on a simulated large-aircraft instrument control task. The sample comprised 155 undergraduates in China, who completed the Cattell Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire to assess personality characteristics, and were randomly allocated to one of 31 teams of five people. We used multiple regression analysis to establish a predictive model of team performance based on team personality elevation and team personality diversity integration models. The results showed that when the team personality elevation integration was used as the independent variable, an increase in rule consciousness led to improvement in team performance, whereas an increase in vigilance, dominance, and social boldness led to a deterioration in team performance. When team personality diversity integration was used as the independent variable, an increase in warmth and openness to change led to improvement in team performance, and an increase in sensitivity led to deterioration in team performance. The simulation task designed in this study provides a specific tool for research involving flight crews on large aircraft. The findings provide a theoretical reference for optimum allocation of flight crews.

This research investigates the congruence and incongruence effects of leader-team proactive personality on team cohesiveness and collective team identification, which in turn affect team performance. Drawing on dominance complementarity theory, we propose that the incongruence of leader-team proactive personality exerts positive influence on team performance through team cohesiveness and collective team identification. In addition, we hypothesize that the congruence in leader-team proactive personality has an inverted-U shaped relationship with team cohesiveness and collective team identification, thus affecting subsequent team performance. Using a sample composed of 286 team leaders, 1,893 team members, and 286 manufacturing work teams, our hypothesized relationships received empirical support. Our findings provide a deeper understanding of how (in)congruence in personality traits functions differently at the team level. Our findings highlight both leader-team complementarity and a middle (rather than high/low) leader-team congruence in proactive personality facilitated key team processes and performance outcome.

ABSTRACTThis study investigates whether task interdependence in teams alters the effectiveness of managerial discretion in motivating team performance. Teams are particularly useful when employees' tasks are interdependent—that is, when the degree to which the increase in team performance resulting from a team member's effort depends on the effort and skills of the other team members. The reason is that the more interdependent tasks are, the more employees need to coordinate their actions and help one another to achieve their objectives. Prior research analyzing settings where task interdependence is absent suggests that providing managers with discretion over team bonus allocation can improve team performance relative to equal team bonus allocations because it strengthens the link between contributions to team output and rewards. Economic theory suggests that managerial discretion will also improve team performance when task interdependence is present and information is efficiently used. However, we use behavioral theory to predict that managerial discretion is less effective in the presence of task interdependence, because managers do not fully incorporate all relevant information into bonus decisions and because managerial discretion hurts coordination and helping, which is particularly problematic under task interdependence. We find that while discretion over compensation has a positive effect on team performance relative to equal bonus allocation when task interdependence is absent, it has a negative effect when task interdependence is present. Additional analyses provide support for our underlying theory. Results of our study contribute to both theory and practice by suggesting that, ironically, managerial discretion may be most useful when the potential benefits of employing teams are lowest and least useful when the potential benefits are highest. Our results help explain why firms often grant managers only partial or no discretion over team members' compensation.

Teamwork has been regarded as an important vehicle for an organization to achieve success. Many leading enterprises around the world have implemented programs to promote their staffs’ teamwork spirit. In the Vietnamese context, leaders tend to focus on improving corporate government in which enhancing human resources and collaboration among employees is a need. Thus, promoting culture of teamwork to adapt to the fast changing market-driven economy in these enterprises has become a significant factor for their survival. This paper provides a showcase of the enhancement of the teamwork through a teambuilding program in Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) in 2014. Two hundred and one participants divided into six teams attended the program and underwent teambuilding activities and team performances. The findings elicited from observation data showed that the program was successful in building and improving the culture of teamwork across all the six teams in light of team membership, team problem relationship, team problem solving, team leadership and organizational environment. The success of this activity made a significant contribution in enhancing intimate relationships among HOSE’s employees. Based on the results, recommendations are given to improve organization’s culture of teamwork through implementing teambuilding activities.

Teams are the primary unit of working in the construction industry, and thus the performance of an industry can be improved when team performance is improved. Therefore, managers in the field should be well aware of good team-working practices for successful forming and managing of teams within construction industry and many authors in the field have pointed out this as a necessity. Team composition is a key factor in influencing team performance; when considering the team composition, it is relevant to take into account the different roles which the members play and the way they interact with one another. Team roles of the members can be used as a tool for the team to have effective execution of their work, effective management of their relationships with its environment and also to maintain the team's strength in meeting social needs of individuals who form the team. The design team being a major and most prominent sub-team will have an impact on project success; the applicability of team role concept in construction design teams will be beneficial to its clients, project managers, team members and, finally, for the project and construction industry as a whole. According to Belbin's team role theory, when a team is more balanced in terms of the spread of naturally occurring team roles, it tends to be high performing. This study explored the existence of team roles and their effect to team performance in construction design teams. To explore this research problem, three case studies of in-house design teams which were involved in building construction projects with separated procurement arrangement were conducted in Sri Lanka. Team roles of the design team members were assessed using the Belbin Team Role Self Perception Inventory, while semi-structured interviews were conducted with the key design team members as well as team selectors. The findings revealed that individuals are assigned to design teams considering their functional roles rather than team roles. But, team members naturally adopted team roles in a way that it suits their functional role, project requirements and team setting under which they operate, in most of the situations. Team performance was affected by several complex factors. Hence, even though there seems to be an effect from team role balance to team performance, it could not be isolated and figured out. Despite this limitation, this study offers implications particularly to design team selectors such as clients and their project managers on application of team role theory in construction context.

Distributed teams often have limited contact resulting in less effective collaboration and decreased cohesion. Those in 24/7 industries are further impacted by fatigue and sleep loss which threatens workers’ safety, productivity, and performance. To date little is known about distributed team cohesion with extended periods of time awake. Hence, this study examined the impact of sleep deprivation on distributed team performance and cohesion.22 healthy individuals (M=22.81,SD=4.4 years,11f) aged 18-45 years participated in a five-day sleep study. Participants were randomly allocated into teams consisting of four members and underwent 62h of total sleep deprivation (TSD). Distributed teams completed the COHESION task at 10h intervals throughout the wake period. COHESION required distributed teams to attempt resource movements, while avoiding visible and invisible barriers. Team members could dedicate time to reveal barriers to all, making successful resource movements easier. Distributed team performance was assessed using team successful resource movements. Distributed team cohesion was assessed through team members’ barrier reveal responses in relation to their total responses. Data were analysed using linear mixed models. Results showed that distributed team cohesion decreased with TSD (F(5,495.19)=3.18,p=.008), and there were significant differences between teams (F(5,21.99)=8.74,p<.001). Team performance also decreased with TSD (F(5,144)=3.01,p=.013), with significant differences between teams (F(5,21.01)=7.03,p<.001). This study found distributed team cohesion was reduced with TSD, as was overall team performance. We found each distributed team used a different strategy to manage the team task during sleep deprivation and these differences impacted their overall team performance.

This thesis hypothesizes that providing task specific information to individual team members will improve coordination and decision-making, and therefore team performance, at time critical tasks. Major themes addressed in this research include teams and team processes, mental models, team mental models, work domain analysis, and hierarchical task analysis. Furthermore, the theory behind the development of complementary models is introduced. A unique method to identify the information sources and requirements in a complex team environment is first discussed in general and then specifically applied in two domains. The findings are presented of two experiments examining the effects of imposing different information distribution strategies that range from no complementariness to full complementariness of information. Team communication, team and individual task performance, workload, and timeliness and effectiveness of team decision making were assessed in nominal and off-nominal conditions. The first experiment used an automobile simulator and examined team navigation while driving. A second experiment was designed to incorporate additional measures to more specifically investigate individual performance, team workload, and clarity of information requirements using a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter simulator. The procedures used for both experiments provided for dynamic yet controlled environments through which critical factors that influence team process and performance could be evaluated accurately. Results of these experiments provide empirical evidence that providing task relevant information to individual team members in a time critical environment, while limiting their access to non-relevant information, improves individual and team performance. Furthermore, there is evidence of increased individual performance that indicates this method of distributing information among team members may provide individual crewmembers with a more accurate “task relevant” mental model of their own environment. This research provides new insight into how the distribution of information among team members effects the development of mental models, information requirements, team and individual performance, and communications, and highlights several directions for future research. The information distribution design principles presented in this thesis address the heterogeneity of teams; teams cannot be thought of as groups of identical individuals. The results concerning the communication, workload, performance and team of mental models were consistent across the domains in this research.

It is the aim of the present study to investigate how Human Resource (HR) interventions help to address conflict and communication issues that are often observed to flare up in cross-functional project teams. The challenge associated with cross-functional teams is unique because team members usually include people with dissimilar backgrounds in terms of professional affiliations and the goals of their departments as well. The role clarification, conflict resolution training, communication training, team-building activities, and psychological safety programs were some of the HR interventions which were reviewed in terms of their effectiveness in influencing the team dynamics. The study used a mixed methods design that involved the qualitative data through interviews and quantitative results provided by cross functional teams in different industries through surveys. Findings demonstrate that role clarification and psychological safety programs were the most successful ones in terms of improving communication, eliminating conflict, and, making the overall team performance better. Training in conflict resolution and communication skills also played a major role to the bonding and performance of the teams. This research emphasizes the importance of HR to support a productive and constructive attitude in the cross-functional team and should interest the HR professionals who might want to balance the dynamics in a team and enhance successes on projects.

A Team of Leaders: Empowering Every Member to Take Ownership, Demonstrate Initiative, and Deliver Results Paul Gustavson and Steward LiffAMACOM (2014) 226 pages, hardcover, $26.95Do you manage teams or belong to a team? The vast majority of us will respond yes to this question. As a college professor, I often have students work in teams for the entire semester to complete assignments and projects. Interestingly, it is one of the activities they most dislike, second only to public speaking. Yet, when they enter the workforce these skills may be the most important ones they possess. In general, universities recognize that courses to improve communication skills need to be in the curriculum, but those that include team building and performance primarily cover theory. Perhaps we need a course in which team building activities are instructed, practiced, evaluated, and improved.In the meantime, organizations must conduct the training for these skills in-house or seek expert advice because we understand that team skills are central to organizational success in the 21st century. This understanding is the reason A Team of Leaders: Empowering Every Member to Take Ownership, Demonstrate Initiative, and Deliver Results by Gustavson and Liffis so important. Gustavson and Liffhave spent decades developing the expertise that they share with us in this book. As a manager or member of a team, this book is a rich and valuable resource, and one that I expect will be referred to frequently as your organization evolves through this transformation.Gustavson and Liffprovide us with six chapters of information including tools, models, actions, and expected outcomes for developing a team of leaders. In their experience, the authors find that the highest performing teams are those that include self-sufficient and more engaged members. In addition, they believe that most problems within teams are caused by the design of the team as well as management systems and processes. They are not assigning blame, but providing insight to what improvements are possible in order to achieve the organizational outcomes we desire.It follows, therefore, that a basic premise of the book is that creating a team of leaders requires altering the roles of the team's leader and members as well as a redesign of the organization's systems and processes. A five stage model to develop this team of leaders is the subject of the book with the ultimate goal that everyone on the team steps up and provides leadership. This allows the formal team leader to become an advisor while members of the team rotate through the lead role, provide shared leadership, and are involved and committed.At the beginning of each chapter, the authors include a Key Principle that provides insight into the chapter contents and anticipated outcome. Guidelines, frameworks/models, tool kits, and examples support the material and offer the reader a series of questions to ask in order to appropriately apply the information within their organization. At the end of each chapter two additional resources assist in understanding this process: (a) challenges, tensions, and key facts during implementation; and (b) how the chapter topic will help build leaders. The first resource recognizes that change is difficult and that this process will be different in each organization; the second reinforces the key concept of the chapter and its strategic role in the process toward developing a team of leaders.In chapter one, each of the five stages in developing a team of leaders is summarized in a chart and detailed in the reading. This chapter serves as the foundation for the rest of the book. Gustavson and Liffhighlight that communication is key to the process. …

Team entrepreneurial passion（TEP）is defined as “the shared positive emotion on the basis of shared identity by new venture team members to effectively carry out entrepreneurial activities such as the founding and developing of new ventures and improve their performance”, which is the inexhaustible power for the new venture team to maintain entrepreneurial passion and forge ahead. Although more and more scholars gradually pay attention to team entrepreneurial passion, the research on team entrepreneurial passion is still in the initial stage. Therefore, team entrepreneurial passion has become a very cutting-edge and challenging research topic in the field of entrepreneurship. This paper is a constructive qualitative exploration research. By systematically reviewing the existing literature of team entrepreneurial passion, we explore the formation mechanism of team entrepreneurial passion and its influence mechanism. Firstly, we systematically review the literature about “team emotion”, “team identity” and team entrepreneurial passion, and the main viewpoints of team entrepreneurial passion are thoroughly sorted out. Secondly, we divide the emotion sharing and identity sharing process during the formation of team entrepreneurial passion into different entrepreneurial passion. The former includes four key sub-processes: individual positive emotion, emotion contagion, emotional convergence and shared emotion, while the latter includes four key sub-processes: individual identity, collective identity, entitativity and shared identity. Based on this, a bottom-up team entrepreneurial passion emergence model is constructed, which is of great theoretical significance to clearly deconstruct the formation mechanism of team entrepreneurial passion and further promote the empirical research on team entrepreneurial passion formation. It has certain practical significance for new ventures to help teams form effective and stable entrepreneurial passion through emotion and identity process. Finally, the overall research model of the top-down influencing mechanism of team entrepreneurial passion is constructed. This paper explores the mediating effect of team psychological empowerment, team process and team member entry and exit between team entrepreneurial passion and team performance, and studies the moderating effect of team vision in these three paths. The construction of this model responds to the research limitations and the calls for more research on the formation and the function of team entrepreneurial passion. And the model has important theoretical significance for further enriching and expanding the current research of team entrepreneurial passion. At the same time, a new venture team can use team entrepreneurial passion to influence the emotion and identity of individual team members, so as to choose team members more efficiently, which is of certain practical significance for achieving the dynamic stability of team size and team status, and improving team performance. The main conclusions of this study are as follows: First, although the research on team entrepreneurial passion can use the view of team passion for reference to some extent, there are essential differences between the two. Second, team emotional sharing and team identity sharing are two key processes for the formation of team entrepreneurial passion, and the process of team emotional sharing and identity sharing can promote and reinforce each other. Third, team entrepreneurial passion can affect team performance through team psychology, team behavior and team structure.

Ideal and effective communication consists of a clear, audible, and focused message from a transmitter that is delivered to an attentive, undistracted receiver, and consists of both verbal and nonverbal types. Communication in the health care setting is highly complex and dynamic, involving multiple settings, participants, and unique challenges. Effective communication in the perioperative environment is a requirement for safe patient care delivery and an important element of teamwork. A message must be accurately delivered in a uniquely high-risk and time-sensitive location, beset with numerous distractions, barriers, and challenges. Surgical checklists and time-out procedures have promoted a standardized, "all-hands" approach to addressing some of the challenges to effective communication in the perioperative environment. Postoperative debriefing sessions have demonstrated effectiveness in improving team functioning in the simulated learning environment and hold promise as another strategy to address these challenges, but require further research and development. Other promising strategies to improve effective perioperative communication are focused on team building activities and minimizing distractions at critical time points within patient care delivery, but to date are not substantiated by evidence. Future research is necessary to examine these novel approaches to improving communication in the perioperative environment to influence the safety of patient care delivery in this highly challenging health care setting. Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Plato.

Guided reflexivity interventions (i.e., formal and structured interventions to induce teams to engage in team reflexivity) have been touted as being beneficial in terms of team processes and team performance. However, it is less well known under what conditions a guided team reflexivity intervention is beneficial for team performance improvement . Importantly, the leadership style employed by the team leader, i.e. directive versus empowering, may determine under what conditions guided team reflexivity is more beneficial for team performance over time. Drawing on the motivated information processing in groups (MIP-G) theory and on reflexivity theory, we argue that a guided team reflexivity intervention is particularly helpful for teams with directive leaders because those leaders do not foster team reflexivity. To test this, we conducted two experimental studies manipulating leadership style (directive vs empowering) and guided team reflexivity (reflexivity vs no-reflexivity). In Study 1, 37 three-person teams composed of aspirant army officers performed the Virtual Battle Space simulation. In Study 2, 77 three-person teams composed of undergraduate students performed an emergency management simulation. Random coefficient modelling was used to test the hypotheses. Across both studies, and in line with our hypotheses, we found that the positive effect of guided team reflexivity on team performance improvement is higher in teams with directive leaders than in teams with empowering leaders. Thus, we found support for the idea that teams led by directive leaders benefit from guided team reflexivity for improving performance over time.

This paper focuses on the development of intelligent multi-agent robot teams that are capable of acting autonomously and of collaborating in a dynamic environment to achieve team objectives. Fuzzy and neuro-fuzzy based mechanisms are proposed that enable these robots automatically to generate co-operative behaviours and to adapt their performance during the specified time of the mission. These abilities are important because of uncertainty in the environmental conditions and because of possible functional failures in some team members. The improvement in team performance is achieved by updating the control parameters of the robots based on knowledge acquired on-line. These techniques are applied to a simulated team of mobile robots performing two different proof-of-concept tasks: dynamic target tracking and co-operative box pushing, The results show that the robot team is able to achieve adaptive cooperative control despite dynamic changes in the environment and variation in the capabilities of the team members.