abhishreshthaa
Abhijeet S
Characteristics of Effective Teams
No matter what the type of team, be it a small manager team, technical team, special project team or task force, senior management team of a big firm or even the non-managerial team - though differing in many ways - all will have four features in common.
They have all been formed for a particular purpose, they individually have a job to perform which requires them to work together and coordinate their activity, they are recognized as such by the senior management and are vested with power and authority.
Empirical research points to the following characteristics of effective teams:
Team members should feel that their participation is important and personally beneficial to them.
Teams should only remain intact as single entities so long they are working on a particular problem. When the goals they have set have been met they should be formally disbanded or discontinued.
Whenever possible, the team should include some of the persons who will be responsible for implementing the decision. When there is complete separation between persons responsible for making decisions and persons responsible for implementing them, confusion and lack of commitment frequently arise.
Members of a team must possess the appropriate balance or mix of skills and traits. Homogeneous teams are not usually as effective as teams composed of members whose skills and talents differ in relevant ways, especially when dealing with complex problems. On the other hand, it is disruptive if teams consist of members whose talents and especially personalities are more heterogeneous than required by the nature of the problem and the demands placed on members.
Although the research findings are not absolutely clear cut it appears as if there is an optimum size for most teams. At the one end, the advantage of working in groups is usually diminished, if there are less than five members. On the other end, with more than ten or fifteen members, teams typically become unwieldy. While optimum size will vary with circumstances, the ideal size of teams for many tasks appears to range from five to ten members. For more detailed discussion on the subject the reader may refer to CDM handbook, Effective Decision Making, 2nd Ed, Page 45, para on Group Size.
Members of the teams should have knowledge and information that is relevant to the problem and task. In addition, experience in team development work suggests that it is usually desirable for persons significantly affected by the team decisions to be either members of the team or, at least represented on it.
The influence of members on decisions in teams should be based on their capacity to contribute (relevant expertise) and not on the authority they possess in the Organization. Group norms should be instilled to the effect that influence would be based on relative knowledge. This is obviously, a more important consideration when the teams are composed of members from more than one level in the Organization, as is seen to occur frequently.
Team decisions should be integrated with the normal or regular decisions of the departments or units from which the members are drawn. This requirement is frequently overlooked in team building. In the enthusiasm of improving the effectiveness of the team, the necessity for the activity of the team to be consistent with what is occurring around it tends to get overlooked. Therefore the department or unit members who are not on the team must be kept fully informed of the team's progress and decisions at all times, and a few persons made deliberately responsible for ensuring that the teams decisions are fully compatible with the actions and choices of the wider Organization of which the team is an integral part.
Conflicts that develop within teams should be confronted and resolved with a problem solving approach, instead of being avoided or smoothed over. The team members should be trained or at least encouraged to find settlements and reconcile or integrate the needs of the parties involved.
It is necessary for the team to select a leader. Only in exceptional circumstances can a team function without a leader.s
No matter what the type of team, be it a small manager team, technical team, special project team or task force, senior management team of a big firm or even the non-managerial team - though differing in many ways - all will have four features in common.
They have all been formed for a particular purpose, they individually have a job to perform which requires them to work together and coordinate their activity, they are recognized as such by the senior management and are vested with power and authority.
Empirical research points to the following characteristics of effective teams:
Team members should feel that their participation is important and personally beneficial to them.
Teams should only remain intact as single entities so long they are working on a particular problem. When the goals they have set have been met they should be formally disbanded or discontinued.
Whenever possible, the team should include some of the persons who will be responsible for implementing the decision. When there is complete separation between persons responsible for making decisions and persons responsible for implementing them, confusion and lack of commitment frequently arise.
Members of a team must possess the appropriate balance or mix of skills and traits. Homogeneous teams are not usually as effective as teams composed of members whose skills and talents differ in relevant ways, especially when dealing with complex problems. On the other hand, it is disruptive if teams consist of members whose talents and especially personalities are more heterogeneous than required by the nature of the problem and the demands placed on members.
Although the research findings are not absolutely clear cut it appears as if there is an optimum size for most teams. At the one end, the advantage of working in groups is usually diminished, if there are less than five members. On the other end, with more than ten or fifteen members, teams typically become unwieldy. While optimum size will vary with circumstances, the ideal size of teams for many tasks appears to range from five to ten members. For more detailed discussion on the subject the reader may refer to CDM handbook, Effective Decision Making, 2nd Ed, Page 45, para on Group Size.
Members of the teams should have knowledge and information that is relevant to the problem and task. In addition, experience in team development work suggests that it is usually desirable for persons significantly affected by the team decisions to be either members of the team or, at least represented on it.
The influence of members on decisions in teams should be based on their capacity to contribute (relevant expertise) and not on the authority they possess in the Organization. Group norms should be instilled to the effect that influence would be based on relative knowledge. This is obviously, a more important consideration when the teams are composed of members from more than one level in the Organization, as is seen to occur frequently.
Team decisions should be integrated with the normal or regular decisions of the departments or units from which the members are drawn. This requirement is frequently overlooked in team building. In the enthusiasm of improving the effectiveness of the team, the necessity for the activity of the team to be consistent with what is occurring around it tends to get overlooked. Therefore the department or unit members who are not on the team must be kept fully informed of the team's progress and decisions at all times, and a few persons made deliberately responsible for ensuring that the teams decisions are fully compatible with the actions and choices of the wider Organization of which the team is an integral part.
Conflicts that develop within teams should be confronted and resolved with a problem solving approach, instead of being avoided or smoothed over. The team members should be trained or at least encouraged to find settlements and reconcile or integrate the needs of the parties involved.
It is necessary for the team to select a leader. Only in exceptional circumstances can a team function without a leader.s