Team Performance

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training/development, where social capital can be formed from performance appraisal and compensation as seen in figure 4.

Figure 4. Slocum et al. (2014) Human Resource Management Practices

2.7 Team Performance

Understanding teams, collaborative learning, and team environments is becoming more important because advances in technology, globalization, and organizations are moving toward utilizing more network structures and team-based functions (Lipnack & Stamps, 1997). Team-based philosophy as the appropriate mechanism for enabling effective operation of an organization is to accept that teams are an effective way of making people productive when they work together. Clearly this is not true on the first day that a new team is assembled (Sheard and kakabadse (2002). Tuckman (1965), proposed a model describing four stages in the development of a team forming, storming, norming and performing as seen in figure 5, in a new formed company it is necessary to gather loose group into an effective team.

Figure 5. Illustration of Tuckman’s four stages of team development

Performance Outcomes Human Resource Practices

Recruitment & Selection Performance Appraisal Compensation Training & Developement

Human Resource Managemet Practices

Strategy Human Resource

Forming Storming Norming Performing

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 Stage1 Forming: In this stage, most team members are positive and polite. Some are anxious, as they haven’t fully understood what work the team will do. Others are simply excited about the task ahead.

 Stage2 Storming: The team than moves on into the storming phase where people start to push boundaries established in the forming stage and this is the stage where many team failed. Storming often starts where there is a conflict between team members’ style of work, this is due to people work differently in different manners, but these different methods is what will cause unforeseen problems, they may become frustrated.

 Stage3 Norming: The team moves into the norming stage. This is when people start to resolve their differences, appreciate colleagues’ strength.

This is the time when team members starts bonding, by socializing outside work and will gradually ask each other for help.

 Stage 4 Performing: The team now has a common goal in mind and will work hard without friction, it is easy for other members to join or leave at this stage, as this will not disrupt the performance since there are working structure and processes.

It has been suggested by Adair (1986) that “group” at the most generic level shares certain common needs and those needs can be categorized into three basic elements of task, group and individual. It is weird to call one of the categorized

“group” when the generic level is also named “group”, thus for this paper the categorized group will be named “team” to avoid confusion. Critchely and Casey (1984), who point out that the conditions for effective team-working relate to

situations entailing high uncertainty and maximum choice, considered the situations in which teams will add value. From this, Sheard and kakabadse (2002) pointed out when a complex problem has a strategic element complicating the optimum solution, and a significant amount of planning is inevitable due to the complexity of the issues, then team working is the optimum organizational solution.

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In Sheard and kakabadse (2002) study, the research provided nine key factors for differentiating a loose team from an effective group as seen in table 2 below;

Table 2.Nine key factors differentiating a loose team from an effective team

Key Factor Loose Team Effective Team

Clearly defined goals Individuals opt out of goals not understood

Understood by all

Priorities Split loyalty of individuals to other groups

Cohesive team alignment

Roles and responsibilities

Unclear, with gaps and overlap

Agreed and understood by individuals

Self-awareness Individuals guarded Social system established and accepted

Leadership Directive Catalytic

Group dynamics Individuals guarded Social system established and accepted

Communication Formal Open dialogue.

Content Tasked focused Influenced, but not

controlled by organization Infrastructure Tasked focused Stable support from

organizational infrastructure

Clearly defined goal is considered essential that the task be articulated to the team in terms of clearly defined goals. In this paper, clearly defined goal is one set of goal the company is aiming for. Priorities refer to where within any organization there are a wide range of options, many of which would be advantageous if pursued. In reality, due to the practical constraints of time, money and available resources, an organization must choose a small number of options from those available, make them the organizational priority and pursue only those. Thus in this paper, priorities will be based upon if each team members are pulling their weight to help the company gain profit. Roles and responsibilities and self-awareness are two key factors that are

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considered to capture the essence of what is important about individual team members from the teams’ perspective. In individual factor, this paper will focus on how much work each individual will need to do. Leadership, group dynamic and communication embody the aspects of team working. Team working is where this paper will pay attention, such as interaction between the founder and his/her employee. Since content and infrastructure are key factors of environment, infrastructure will be based upon on-site observation as the office layout and division will be the factor during interview.

Environment was added by Sheard and kakabadse (2002) after the study of Mills et al.

(2000). This is to ensure the factors covered all the ability of a team to function as a unit.