Teams, Team Process, and Team Building

This chapter examines what is involved in creating effective teams first by differentiating between work units and teams, examining team processes, understanding how and when teams can contribute to a more effective organization, and discussing how to select and develop the best team members, develop effective team leadership, and motivate team performance. It examines some of the latest developments and challenges in teams, including virtual and global teams. The group process model says that the sum of the individuals’ potential plus process gain minus process loss equals group effectiveness. The chapter describes the situations in which teams can be productive and those in which they cannot. It is important for employees to understand how their tasks contribute to the success of others’ tasks and what the successful performance of these tasks means to the organization. Team members should be selected based on either possessing technical skills, problem-solving and decision-making skills or interpersonal skills, or having a strong aptitude for their development. The chapter explains the importance of training with respect to teams, distinguishes between task-related training and team-related training, and helps the reader to understand the concept of team building. Successful team leaders know that team performance comes from collective effort and action. Goal-setting theories suggest that goals can improve performance because they generate, direct, and sustain effort. The chapter explains how to evaluate team and team member performance, and emphasizes individual performance in terms of contribution to the team