Principles of Team Effectiveness

Reading this text will help you understand the criteria that affect team effectiveness. Of particular note is the section on assessment. Teams formed to achieve specific tasks need to determine whether they succeed and meet performance benchmarks. The text provides information for you to think about your team's performance.

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
team size

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)