Teams in organizations: a review on team effectiveness

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to review the research on organizational teams. The aim is delimiting the conceptual space of effectiveness and determining team-level measurement issues.Design methodology approach - A range of published works, which analyse the different variables of effectiv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Team performance management 2008-01, Vol.14 (1/2), p.7-21
Main Authors: Delgado Pia, Mara Isabel, Mara Romero Martnez, Ana, Gmez Martnez, Luis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absenteeism
Effectiveness
Group dynamics
Measurement
Organization theory
Perceptions
Productivity
Studies
Team working
Teams
Teamwork
Variables
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Summary:Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to review the research on organizational teams. The aim is delimiting the conceptual space of effectiveness and determining team-level measurement issues.Design methodology approach - A range of published works, which analyse the different variables of effectiveness for each type of team, is reviewed (the most used effectiveness criteria are shown in a table). According to the existence of different types of teams - work team, parallel team, project team and management team - the authors assess what variables and measures are more appropriate according to team type, analyse the problems in gathering data and measuring in this level of analysis and, finally, offer a proposal of measurement issues for future research.Findings - The authors conclude that effectiveness is a multidimensional concept with three dimensions: performance, attitudinal outcomes, and behavioural outcomes. Regarding team-level measurement issues, the authors also conclude that there is a need to use multiple data sources and multimethod analyses incorporating consensus and aggregation methods, as well as observation and key informants.Practical implications - The results of this work can support future research on teams. Although considerable headway has been made in the team effectiveness studies, there are things that still need to be done. The paper shows that a more complete measure of effectiveness must be developed, according to the three dimensions: performance, attitudinal outcomes, and behavioural outcomes.Originality value - The paper is a comprehensive review and provides a basis for researchers in the area of effective teams.
ISSN:1352-7592
1758-6860
DOI:10.1108/13527590810860177