Designing Your Team for Effectiveness

Teams are a popular method of organizational problem solving. The very design of the team is often ignored in an effort to hastily put together a team of people who can achieve goals in the least amount of time and effort. However, the formation of the team, personalities contained within, and the background of members will have an unyielding influence on whether or not that team will succeed in its endeavors.

Let us consider a problem a department is having in terms of making themselves more efficient and customer focused. The standard approach is to gather together the leadership team of the department and demand that they come up with new solutions. They will certain put their minds together and come up with a laundry list of solutions of which they have already said before.

The problem is that we are not necessarily sure that this will lead to the "right" solution. The right solution is that which is comprehensive and streamlines processes while raising customer satisfaction. Including all of the same people that allowed the department to become less efficient and customer friendly in the first place really isn't that wise.

This doesn't mean all is lost. By swapping out a few of the old guard for some new blood will be helpful. However, if your going to move that far you might as well be a little more strategic. Consider some of the following tips:

Include Different Stakeholders:

Finding new and unique solutions requires including people on the team that have new and unique perspectives. This isn't possible if you continue to include the same members over and over. Try keeping managers who don't dominate the group but do have knowledge of the operations of the department while adding a few managers from other departments.

No department works in isolation and processes & procedures run together and mesh in many ways. When solving problems be sure to include a representative from the departments that will be impacted by the change. They will provide insight into how well, or poor, things worked before and whether or not they can be improved. Good solutions will have a wider group of supporters.

Include Different Personalities:

Personality has an impact not only on the group dynamics but also the way in which people perceive information. Having serious personalities mixed with more artistic personalities may create some friction in the group but ultimately does lead to higher levels of development. Experienced personalities may help steer creative ideas into something more practical while creative personalities will ultimately push innovation.

Each group comes with its own dynamics. Switching around personalities helps to ensure that the dynamics don't become solidified unless it is beneficial. For example, an extremely dominant person may attempt to force their will o  each group but this doesn't necessarily mean that the group dynamics are beneficial for solution creation.

Include Knowledge Based on Goals:

In our example of improving customer service and improving efficiency it is necessary to include those people who have the actual knowledge to contribute meaningfully to the discussion. Operational questions will need someone that can understand operations while customer service will need someone who understands customer service.  Without this knowledge it is likely that results will be off.

Depending on the type of business you are running it is beneficial to include a marketing person in the group. Ideas must have market utility and raise the value of the company. Marketing people have the ability to understand the utility of ideas and whether or not they will achieve certain external expectations. A goal of improving customer service should have the knowledge support from marketing, customer service, or other qualified representatives.

Provide Skills for the Team:

Any serious ideas should be vetted through finance, legal, and others to determine if they are feasible. Even though all of these skills need not be on the team the support to analyze this information should be available to the team. Having someone who can understand and manage the process of analysis is important.

This means someone on the team that will have a basic level of statistical understanding, data metrics, finance, and human relations abilities to understand the feasibility of proposed ideas. Before coming to a final recommendation numbers will need to be run and a SWOT conducted. Without the ability to analyze options the team will not know which are likely to be approved.

The Performance Benefits of Online Global Management Education

artwork Murad Abel

Global education is rising as students now work in varying countries and capacities not seen a few decades ago. Researchers Taras, et. al (2013) studied online international education have come to some conclusions about its success. They used experiential learning theory, social learning theory, and intergroup contact theory to effectively determine the success of virtual classrooms across borders. They evaluated the management education based upon reactions, learning, attitudes, behaviors, and performance. Their findings indicate that global online management has great potential. 

Business schools are not yet meeting challenges to develop global managers at a sufficient level for businesses. Schools do offer some international education in terms of case studies, videos, and other possible indirect interactions with international students. These are not yet adequate to meeting modern challenges and online international groups may be more effective for higher education. 

Global virtual teams are geographically dispersed teams that use the Internet communication methods to collaborate on common goals. Videos, chat functions, forums, etc. are part of the process of engaging in this international forum approach. Students interact through mediated classrooms that are run by professors. With modern technology the use of online classrooms in international education is cheaper and more effective than traditional methods.

The study relies on three major theories of learning and group interaction. Experiential Learning Theory is defined as a “holistic integrative perspective on learning that combines experience, cognition, and behavior” (Kolb, 1984). Social Learning Theory occurs when people interact they naturally learn from each other’s preferences and start making connections in behavior and culture (Maznevski and DiStefano, 2000). Intergroup Contact Theory occurs when groups live in isolation with each other and create prejudice, bias and conflict (Brameld, 1946).

The researchers studied 6,000 students from 80 universities in 43 countries to determine their results. They found that cultural intelligence, problem understanding, course examination grades, project assessment, and reduction in perceived differences improved. Students came to not only improve upon their coursework and learning but also upon their perception of others. The complexity of their thinking also increased thereby creating cognitive benefits. 

Comment: Even though online learning is different than face-to-face interaction there are many parallels and similarities. The interaction of students in collaborative international teams helps to better prepare them for global competition while raising their learning. Universities and corporations can learn to hedge and use online international education to raise their business learning and problem-solving skills. The market is likely to grasp this beneficial and cost-effective method of staying in competition.

Brameld, T. (1946). Minority problems in the public schools. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Maznevski, M. & DiStefano, J. (2000). Global leaders are team players: developing global leaders through membership in global teams. Human Resource Management, 4.

Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential Learning. Englewood Cliffs. NJ: Prentice Hall.

Taras, et. al. (2013). A global classroom? Evaluating the effectiveness of global virtual collaboration as a teaching tool in management education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12 (9).

Improving on Teamwork by Understanding Your Weaknesses

Understanding the weaknesses employees have in their ability to engage effectively in team-work is beneficial in creating higher levels of organizational performance. As companies seek to develop new products and service the use of teams become important in putting to effective use the diversified skills. Certain weaknesses work in association with other weaknesses and can be used as a starting point to improvement.

The use of work groups has become more common in modern times as a concept borrowed from Japanese manufacturers.  The ideal employee is often seen as that person who is capable of working effectively in groups (Guffey, 2000). It is through this group effort that individuals are capable of hedging their skills to create stronger results through mutual synergy. 

The skills needed to be a strong group player can be elusive. Business leaders and employees alike can have difficulty understanding these concepts and defining them precisely enough to be of significant use.  According to Ainsworth (2000) strong group skills include confidence in one’s abilities, interpersonal skills, open-mindedness, listening skills, and an ability to recognize the contribution of others. 

It is beneficial to see an example of the difficulties someone may create if they have not developed these attributes. Let us assume an employee named John is argumentative, seeks personal recognition above other group members, refuses to listen to varying perspectives, is set in his ways, and lacks personal confidence in his abilities. We might find John to be self-seeking and unable to come to agreement with anything that doesn’t recognize the “rightness” of his perceptions. 

Such a group is likely to disintegrate on the single influence of John and his personality. The more John is involved in the group the more likely it will become ineffective wasting time, cost and resources. John’s inability to develop proper teamwork skills will create an atmosphere where either poor decisions are being made to appease John or group resistance begins to form to thwart him. A single poor group member can impact the actions and reactions of the entire group and the effectiveness of the company.

Business leaders and college professors can help improve upon people’s weaknesses by helping them find strategies to recognize areas of improvement and methods of overcoming these challenges. As students move into the business world they will be more prepared through the relevant instructional methods and self-awareness. Business and education can further recognize these poor skills and provide relevant methods of overcoming them.

Due to this confusion of teamwork skills Schullery & Gibson (2012), from Western Michigan University, have conducted research on undergraduate business and organizational communication skills. The purpose of the study can be summed in a single sentence, “How well does, or can, the business communication syllabus address students’ group skill needs?” A total of 356 students participated in the study through four 15-week semesters.  Students were asked to rank their abilities and skills throughout their courses.

The Results:

-Group of skill deficiencies seem to travel together in factors:

.-Factor 1:  Shy, conflict avoidances, public speaking anxiety, and leadership seem to be associated.

-Factor 2: Motivation, Oral Skills, and Brainstorming.

-Factor 3: Impatient, Intolerant and dislike groups. 

The study helps to come to some important understandings that these skill deficiencies seem to travel together. For example, a person who is shy is not necessarily unmotivated. A person who lacks oral skills is not generally intolerant of others.  Importantly, many of the students were aware of their skill weaknesses but have not developed abilities to overcome them. This inability leads to continued poor group performance throughout a person’s life. 

Let us move back to the example of John. His confrontational, self-seeking, and rude behaviors is most likely to fall into Factor 3 which means that these can be a result of poor skills such as impatient, intolerant and dislike of groups. In these poor skills he will have an impact on the nature and function of that group as he fails to compensate for his weaknesses. It is through proper development and training that employees can both recognize their weaknesses and learn how to overcome them. 

Ainsworth, S. (2000). Teamwork 2000: multifunctional teams help companies cut through bureaucracy and release creativity to improve their bottom line. Chemical and Engineering, 77.

Guffey, M. (2000).  Business communication: process and product. (3^rd Edition). New York: South-Western.

Schullery, N. & Gibson, M. (2001). Working in groups: identification and treatment of student’s perceived weaknesses. Business Communication Quarterly, 64 (2).