Enhancing the Effectiveness of Working in Groups

Introduction

Many global private and public organizations that have incorporated teamwork in their departments are successful. For nearly half a century, teamwork had been a focus of social psychological inquiry, with many researchers studying the influence of teamwork in various processes and activities. When a company involves the team in its goals, the complexity of the work, a person would have done alone reduces. The essay reviews the study’s procedures, the variables, the results, and a critique of the journal “Enhancing the Effectiveness of Work Groups and Teams” by Kozlowski.

Procedures of the Study

Kozlowski developed a conceptual framework based on the input-process-output (IPO) heuristics to drive the study. Input heuristics involved the team composition concerning team members’ differences, including experience, personality, and cognitive ability. Process heuristics involve the team member’s actions that combine resources to achieve the overall goal—outputs related to the team viability, performance, and member satisfaction. Kozlowski initiated the study by focusing on the review of the core team processes contributing to team effectiveness. The research identified cognitive team processes as mental models, team climate, team learning, and transactive memory. The authors then classified various team processes into multiple categories: behavioral, cognitive, and motivational-affective. The research team also examined several motivational and affective processes, including efficacy, cohesion, and potency.

Additionally, the journal addressed various behavioral processes, including the team member’s knowledge, competencies, abilities, and skills, collaboration, coordination, communication, adaptation, and performance regulation. Ultimately, the team focused on the interventions capable of shaping and aligning team processes with situational demands. The interventions included team leadership, team design, and training and development of the team members. Nonetheless, the research incorporated a perspective emphasizing the emergent, dynamic, and team member adaptation while interacting with the environment, the task, and colleagues.

Variables or Research Questions

Two variables are included in the study to identify the effect of teamwork on the overall organizational performance. To measure the core team processes, the researchers determined whether the team climate was a direct motivating factor for the team members. Moreover, the study assessed whether working in a collaborative group encourages learning and sharing ideas. To measure team motivation and affective processes, the research aimed to identify the influence of cohesion on team members’ performance and commitment to a collective task. Every individual has their attitude toward work. Some people hate working while others love it. The study confirmed the effects of shared positive and negative effects on performance.

Additionally, the study determined whether an individual’s positive or negative affect can influence the entire group members. The research assessed various interventions, including team training, leadership, and design. The main aim was to identify if the interventions could improve the effectiveness of teams across a range of companies. The study also examined whether the critical regulatory mechanism responsible for skill acquisition, performance, and individual resource allocation apply at the team level.

Discussion of Results

The results of Kozlowski’s study confirmed that enhancing the effectiveness of group work improves the overall production and efficiency. The study’s findings revealed that team climate is a direct motivating function for the team members. Members working together share an understanding of how the expertise is distributed. Therefore, understanding the network of knowledge distribution allows the work to be done without every team member knowing everything. The findings have proven that group working facilitates learning. Most people working in a group are experts in different fields; thus, interaction gives room for learning and teaching one another. Additionally, the study found that team cohesion influences employees’ commitment to collective work. Because every group member is assigned a role in a joint task, everyone tends to work hard to outsmart others hence high performance. Concerning the group affect function in a collective job, the study revealed that shared positive affect results in high team performance due to increased social integration while shared negative effect impedes social integration, thus low performance.

Critique of the Study

The study did well in explaining the team’s motivational and affective processes. The study first categorized these processes into efficacy, cohesion, and potency representing bonding and motivational states. The study further categorizes mood, affect, conflict, and emotion as affective, interpersonal states. The study also well addressed the team behavioral processes such as team (KSAs) communication, collaboration coordination, competencies, and function. Unfortunately, the study reveals less work on how performance regulation and adaptive processes increase a team’s effectiveness. Additionally, the study did not use any practical research. However, the study results are based on secondary data analysis, which may not always be accurate. More research should be done on working in groups to minimize conflicts among the group members. Ultimately, the above study’s results affect the executive managers and the employees in any company.

Conclusion

The essay reviews the study’s procedures, the variables, the results, and critique of the journal “Enhancing the Effectiveness of Work Groups and Teams” by Kozlowski. The author developed a conceptual framework based on the IPO heuristics to drive the research. The study was focused on measuring core team processes and team motivation, and affective processes. The study’s findings revealed that positive intervention of core team and affective processes result in higher performance while negative affective processes lower group performance. The study well-addressed team motivational and behavioral processes but did less work on how performance regulation and adaptive strategies increase a team’s effectiveness. Nonetheless, success requires interested and coordinated group members with a common goal.

References

Kozlowski, S. W. (2018). Enhancing the effectiveness of work groups and teams: A reflection. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(2), 205-212. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617697078