Hello again funtech-ga,
I?m glad you liked my proposed outline for organizing your paper on
exploring the relationship between teamwork and productivity. As you
know, there is a tremendous amount of information available on this
topic. The challenge is to choose a focus point for explaining how you
will go about examining the subject so that you can then have a way to
winnow down the material.
I?ve followed my proposed outline and included a few links for each
section. Again, your challenge is to extract what you need from the
wealth of resources available. I suggest that you read through the
research and formulate your own viewpoint about the importance of
teams for improved productivity. Once you?ve formed your own thesis on
this topic you will be able to develop a detailed outline and write a
well-researched paper.
I wish you well for your project.
~ czh ~
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1) Examine the difficulties of defining the parameters for discussing
the relationship between teamwork and productivity.
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I suggest that you address the problem of setting parameters around
this topic as a jumping-off point for your paper. Then present how you
went about sorting out the issues and finally highlight the points you
will make about what you think is the relationship between teamwork
and productivity.
http://siop.org/tip/backissues/tipoct96/church.htm
From Both Sides Now: The Power of Teamwork--Fact or Fiction?
It seems like the notion of teams and teamwork is everywhere in
organizations these days. You've got your change management teams,
your project teams, your creative teams, your cross-functional teams,
and your reengineering teams. ? These bastions of collective cohesion
are inescapable in the modern organizational system. Between continued
pressures to reduce staff, do more with less, increase employee
involvement, benchmark best practices both internally and external,
empower employees to better serve their customers, and continually
improve one's processes, it is no wonder that leaders, managers and
practitioners have turned to teams and teamwork as the "next wave" of
organizing work (e.g., Cohen, 1993).
***** This is a long article that gives you a good overview of the
current issues around teams and teamwork in today?s organizations.
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http://www.ondernemerschap.be/documents/pdf/wp_productivity_outcomes_of_teamwork.pdf
Productivity Outcomes of Teamwork as an Effect of Team Structure
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Page 9 ff. ? The Organizational Benefits of Teamwork
***** This is a 26-page report that provides an excellent review of
the issues involved in evaluating the impact of teamwork on corporate
performance, including the impact on productivity. This can serve as
an excellent starting point for getting your bearings about the topics
to include in your paper. The paper reviews the prior research that
shows teamwork leads to greater productivity and discusses in detail
the surprising findings of no such correlation in this extensive
research project. There is also a very extensive bibliography that
should help you continue your research.
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2) Review the common current assumption that there is a positive
correlation between teamwork and productivity. Discuss why teamwork is
supposed to be good for corporate outcomes and the need to get
management and employees to buy in to this belief system.
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This section should include points based on common knowledge in the
business and trade press and current management and organizational
development literature. You may want to highlight some dramatic or
high profile cases that you found particularly interesting.
http://www11.sdc.gc.ca/en/cs/sp/arb/publications/research/2000-002584/page00.shtml
The Influence of Employee Involvement on Productivity: A Review of Research ?
June 2000
http://www11.sdc.gc.ca/en/cs/sp/arb/publications/research/2000-002584/page06.shtml
3. Trends in Workplace Practices
It is relevant to look more specifically at teamwork, the form of
employee involvement which has been studied most thoroughly in the
academic literature and which is rightly considered as the most
representative example of autonomy and self-regulation. The
development of teamwork, internationally, is the object of much
discussion in the academic literature. Sometimes labelled
"semi-autonomous," "self-directed" or "self-managed," teams are groups
of workers who gradually take charge of many activities and decisions
concerning the organization and coordination of their work, many of
which used to be dealt with by front-line supervisors.3
***** This article and this entire report give you some excellent
historical information on the evolution of teamwork and assessments of
how worker involvement impacts productivity.
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http://www.eiro.eurofound.eu.int/1997/07/feature/uk9707151f.html
Teamworking improves productivity and employee satisfaction?
New research findings on teamworking in the UK and North America
suggest that more "advanced" systems of teamworking may raise levels
of worker job satisfaction and labour productivity. However, there is
little evidence that teamworking brings about high-trust
management-worker relations, or high-commitment work orientations.
***** The section on ?Effects on performance? is particularly helpful
and provides several cases demonstrating the teamwork improved labor
productivity.
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http://www.umich.edu/~urecord/0001/Dec11_00/2.htm
Date: 2000-12-13
Working Together In "War Rooms" Doubles Teams' Productivity,
University Of Michigan Researchers Find
PHILADELPHIA---Teams of workers that labored together for several
months in specially designed "war rooms" were twice as productive as
their counterparts working in traditional office arrangements, a study
by University of Michigan researchers has found.
***** This is a good resource for discussing improved productivity
among knowledge workers.
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http://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/cenear/991115/7746etea.html
Teamwork
Multifunctional teams help companies cut through bureaucracy and
unleash creativity to improve their bottom line
***** This is a long article that discusses how teams have been
implemented in a selection of major chemical companies. It gives you a
good overview of the issues involved and may help you determine a
framework for your paper.
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3) Review the historical evolution of teams in organizations. Why did
teams evolve? What problems were they supposed to solve?
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In this section you can give the historical background on the
evolution of teams as an element of organizational structure and
management method. You could relate it to management theories,
evolution is social structures and interpersonal relationships as well
as the emergence of the global economy and the need for worldwide
collaboration.
http://www.workteams.unt.edu/literature/History/history-index.htm
Social Indicators Research Series (Volume 6)
Work Teams: Past, Present, and Future
***** This bibliography offers about a dozen resources that will help
you get an overview of the development of teams and teamwork in the
organizational development context.
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http://web.cba.neu.edu/~ewertheim/introd/history.htm
Historical Background of Organizational Behavior
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http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NUB/is_6_12/ai_110530634
The link between teamwork and patients' outcomes in intensive care
units - CE Online
American Journal of Critical Care, Nov, 2003
***** This article has a very extensive bibliography that should be
very helpful in developing your topic. The section on Theoretical
Perspective provides a good review (along with an annotated
bibliography) of the social science literature linking teamwork to
productivity gains.
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4) What does it take to implement teams? What are the costs and
benefits? What are the current trends?
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You could review the principles for establishing teams, current
organizational development trends, the stages of team development and
the importance of technology. You will have your own take on what is
happening with teams based on your personal experiences as well. You
could also talk about the importance of learning team skills if you
are to be successful in today?s team-based organizations.
http://web.mit.edu/hr/oed/learn/teams/art_stages.html
Using the Stages of Team Development
Teams go through stages of development. The most commonly used
framework for a team's stages of development was developed in the
mid-1960s by Bruce W. Tuckman, now a psychology professor at Ohio
State University. Although many authors have written variations and
enhancements to Tuckman's work, his descriptions of Forming, Storming,
Norming and Performing provide a useful framework for looking at your
own team.
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http://www.hrzone.com/articles/team_variables.html#higher_productivity
Teamwork -- What makes teams go and what to watch out for?
Work teams are essential to organization success. But, what makes them
go? The experts say its designing work so tasks are shared experiences
and providing compensation or rewards that are based on group success.
Good news - researchers have found that the experts are mostly right.
However, when choosing people to place on teams don't ignore
personality. Some rugged individuals don't like depending on others
and actually produce less in group situations.
***** This article addresses issues around team formation, rewards and
personality styles as important elements in contributing to team
productivity.
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http://www.rvarmstrong.com/TBOSummary.htm
Team-Based Organization Systems
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http://www.ravenwerks.com/Teamwork/transitioning.htm
Transitioning to Teamwork - Without Losing Control
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http://www.abs.uci.edu/depts/vcabs/2-6.html
TEAMWORK PRINCIPLES
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http://www.hrzone.com/articles/group_productive.html
Complaining is not good for productivity
Making improvements in how team members relate to each other could pay
off by as much as a 16% to 25% improvement in quality and quantity of
production. A study reported in the Journal of Applied Psychology
finds that work groups whose members help each other and exhibit good
sportsmanship, dwelling on the positive, produce more products and
higher quality products than groups whose members complain and focus
on whats wrong.
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http://www.rvarmstrong.com/TeamsAtWorkArticle_IndustryWeek.htm
Small-company executives tell how team development improves
productivity and profits.
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5) Review research on impact of teamwork on productivity. What
evidence is there that teams have a positive impact and are there
negative findings?
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This is your chance to make sense of the research that you reviewed.
Did you find consistency in the research or was it contradictory? How
solid is the research? What issues need to be examined further?
http://www.iza.org/en/webcontent/events/transatlantic/papers_2003/hamilton_nickerson_owan.pdf
Diversity and Productivity in Teams
***** This is a 47-page paper that examines the diversity as a leading
factor for the productivity of teams.
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http://www.shef.ac.uk/~iwp/current_research/summary_team_eff.html
Team Effectiveness:
The Impact of Interpersonal and Self-Management Skills
Teamwork is becoming increasingly popular in UK organisations. With
its potential to streamline processes, enhance employee participation
and improve quality, this form of work design is seen as a means of
achieving competitive advantage. However, teamwork has not always
yielded the expected benefits. Previous research attempting to
identify the characteristics of effective teams has concentrated on
the impact of task and technical factors. This project takes a
complementary perspective. It follows a new line of inquiry focusing
on interpersonal and self-management skills (team skills rather than
task skills) and their impact on team effectiveness.
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http://www.roughnotes.com/rnmag/february99/02p100.htm
MAXIMIZING PRODUCTIVITY
IMPROVEMENT TEAMS
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http://www.orgnet.com/MCO.html
Managing the Connected Organization
Improving Team Effectiveness
Meanwhile in a high-tech firm in Silicon Valley, Morten Hansen, also
of Harvard, had a similar research agenda. The key difference was that
Hansen was interested in the productivity and effectiveness of teams.
Hansen found that teams who could easily reach other teams and access
the knowledge they needed were more successful than teams with poor
network connections. Both Greve and Hansen found that the ability to
reach a diverse set of others in the network through very few links
was the key to success.
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http://static.highbeam.com/j/journalofmanagerialissues/june222003/productivityincreasesduetotheuseofteamsinservicega/
Productivity increases due to the use of teams in service garages.
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6) Summary and conclusions based on all of the above.
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Pull together your findings based on the points you made in the
earlier sections. You might want to assess what are the emerging
trends with teams and make some predictions for the future of teams
and the importance of teamwork for productiviy.
======================================================
BIBLIOGRAPHIES, DIRECTORIES, PORTALS, ETC. ON TEAMWORK
======================================================
http://www.workteams.unt.edu/
Center for Collaborative Organizations
formerly The Center for the Study of Work Teams
http://www.workteams.unt.edu/research.htm
Research
***** See list of completed projects for ideas on how to organize your
topics for your paper.
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http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/hqlibrary/ppm/ppm5.htm
Teams and Teamwork
Program/Project Management Resource List #5
Revised September 2002
Provided by the NASA Headquarters Library
Contents: Articles Books and Videos Internet Resources
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http://www.maaw.info/TeamsTeamworkArticles.htm
Teams &Teamwork Articles & Books
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http://www.questia.com/popularSearches/teams_and_teamwork.jsp
Teams and Teamwork
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http://www.css.edu/users/dswenson/web/odlinks.htm
OD Resource Links
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http://www.meansbusiness.com/suitelist.asp?FID=CD81CBACDBC911D1B7781C6C07C10000
Organizing Work & People
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http://reviewing.co.uk/toolkit/teams-and-teamwork.htm
Teamwork Links: selected reviews of teamwork websites
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http://www.opm.gov/perform/teams.asp
Performance Management -- Teams
"Teams" are two or more people who must coordinate their activities to
accomplish a common goal. Teams are a way of organizing people to
support inter-dependence and cooperation that requires close
coordination among the team members. Team performance includes both
the outputs produced by the group or team as a whole, as well as the
contribution of individual team members to the success of the team.
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SEARCH STRATEGY
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research on connection between productivity and teamwork
research teamwork productivity
research teams productivity
team productivity
measuring team productivity
history of teams in organizational development
teams increase productivity |
