Leadership and team effectiveness
Abstract
Team effectiveness can broadly be defined as a combination of internal and external factors that determine how well a team works as a unit. Organizations that employ teams often find that the complexities of group dynamics make it difficult to ensure sustained high performance. Leader interactions with the team further complicate the predictability of desired outcomes. Although researchers have developed a number of models to aid in understanding team effectiveness, more recent investigations have shown that the operating environment created by the broader organization itself may also have a major impact on performance. Yet, many of the studies that exist today were conducted in artificial environments in an attempt to adequately isolate individual influence factors. ^ To further investigate the influence of contextual factors, this study focuses on work teams in the context of the broader organizational environment of a Global 500 manufacturing company. Team effectiveness constructs from previous research were investigated using a qualitative approach. The goal of this study was to explore the influence team leaders had on team effectiveness within the context of an ongoing deployment of the company's new team empowerment framework. ^ Several important research findings, specific to the context of the study company, were developed using the rich descriptions collected from study participants. First, the investigation highlighted the importance of not only establishing the correct leadership functions, but also focusing on enabling conditions to accelerate and sustain team effectiveness. Second, the impact of the broader organizational context played an important role in the level of team effectiveness achieved. Third, successful leaders had transitioned from traditional command and control functions to a shared leadership structure as their team developed higher levels of work team empowerment. ^
Subject Area
Business Administration, Management|Education, Business
Recommended Citation
David Scott Andrews,
"Leadership and team effectiveness"
(January 1, 2012).
Dissertations available from ProQuest.
Paper AAI3530069.
http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3530069