Principles of Team Effectiveness
Structural Factors Impacting Team Effectiveness
1. Overview
- Optimum team size is approximately 4-6
- Diversity on a team increases productivity but lengthens the process
- Every team member should have clearly articulated roles
- Norms help establish and control team members’ behaviors
2. Diversity
- Diversity among team members fortifies the team but extends the process of getting work done
- Types of diversity to consider:
| Age |
Language |
| Attitudes |
Learning styles
|
Cognitive aptitude
|
Motivation |
Critical thinking ability
|
Opinion |
Communication ability
|
Problem-solving ability
|
Conflict resolution ability
|
Race
|
| Education |
Religion |
| Ethnicity |
Socio-economic status
|
| Experience |
Values |
| Gender |
|
3. Team Norms
- Norms are rules that have some amount of agreement and are enforced through social sanctions
- Norms define appropriate behaviors
- Norms establish mutual understanding
and team identity
- Areas to consider for establishing team norms include:
- Attendance
- Contribution
- Courteous-conversations
- Decision-making
- Enforcement
- Handling disagreements
- Participation
- Punctuality
- Tasks-assignments
4. Team Size
- Small teams are typically more productive than large ones
- Teams that are too small have difficulty accomplishing tasks – not enough people to share the work
- Large teams enable shared responsibility and accountability
- Management problems
on very large teams may outweigh the incremental resources additional people provide
- Tasks determine the size of the team
- Student projects teams of between 4-6 members are a good rule of thumb
5. Roles
- Every team member should have a role – this keeps members committed to the work of the team
- Roles need to be clearly defined
- Problems
can result from role ambiguity
- Types of roles:
- Behavioral (e.g. contributor, coordinator, critic, evaluator)
- Social (e.g. encourager,
expediter, group process observer, follower)
- Meeting (e.g. facilitator, recorder, timekeeper)
