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Abstract

Teamwork is a set of flexible behaviors, cognitions, and attitudes that interact to achieve desired mutual goals and adaptation to changing internal and external environments. It consists of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) that are displayed in support of one’s teammates and the team’s objectives. Essentially, teamwork is a set of interrelated thoughts, actions, and feelings that combine to facilitate coordinated adaptive performance and the completion of task-work objectives. When teamwork KSAs are mastered and displayed, teams can achieve a level of performance and effectiveness that is greater than the total efforts of all individual team members.

Outline

Importance of Teamwork
Teamwork Examined
Teamwork Derailers
Facilitators of Teamwork
Promoting Cooperation and Teamwork at Work through Training
Measuring Team Performance and Effectiveness
Conclusion

1. Importance Of Teamwork

The nature of work is changing. Recent technological advances, a shift from manufacturing to service-based organizations, increased global competition, and the importance of knowledge workers all have contributed to a dynamic and complex work environment. To survive, organizations must embrace flexibility and adaptability. They must have a systems view that helps them to integrate the meaning of common everyday occurrences into overall interrelationships, interdependencies, and patterns of change to allow them to achieve this needed adaptability. Very often, organizations accomplish these goals through the implementation of teams. It is in direct response to increasingly severe time pressures, technological advancements, and other elements of highly complex environments that teamwork has become an established stronghold and a source of competitive advantage for today’s organizations. Teams are also called on when the task demands are such that the capabilities of one individual are exceeded or the consequences of error are high. Therefore, the utility of teams and teamwork has spanned industry to include aviation, nuclear power, and the military.

A team is a collective of interdependent individuals who together have shared objectives, mental models, and procedures that guide their perceptions, thinking, and behaviors toward a common goal. The process in which teams achieve this commonality is called collaboration. Similarly, cooperation has been discussed as a team skill competency that includes offering help to those team members who need it, pacing activities to fit the needs of the team, and behaving so that actions are not misinterpreted. Collective organizations immerse themselves in the virtues of collaboration and cooperation by reducing the hierarchy of social stratification on which traditional bureaucratic organizations rely. Furthermore, they encourage decisions to be made by the collective group to foster a sense of community and shared purpose. Cooperation and teamwork facilitate coordination, communication, adaptability, enhanced employee participation, and empowerment, thereby allowing individuals to achieve collective outputs that are greater than the sum of their parts.

Organizations continue to depend on teams and the synergy they engender to assist in streamlining work processes that promote efficiency, increased innovation, and quality products and services.

This research paper outlines the nature of cooperation and teamwork as it is manifested in organizations. It examines what derails teamwork and what facilitates it as well as how to promote it through training. The research paper concludes with a discussion of the need to measure training effectiveness and offers a brief discussion on how this is done. Because teams and teamwork will likely continue to play a vital role in organizations into the future, it is a worthy endeavor to examine their nature.

2. Teamwork Examined

Despite extensive writing on the topic, a clear definition and description of teamwork continues to be elusive. In general, teamwork is more than just the summated task or task-related accomplishments of the individuals who make up a group. It is the interaction of team-related knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) of all team members—and the ability to capitalize on this pool of resources—that maximizes the potential effectiveness of the group to outperform even the most competent individual member of the team. The definition of teamwork provided here is a synthesis of previous definitions that have been advanced by established team researchers. Therefore, teamwork is defined as a set of flexible behaviors, cognitions, and attitudes that interact to facilitate task-work and achieve mutually desired goals and adaptation to the changing internal and external environments. Although many behaviors, cognitions, and attitudes have been presented in the teamwork literature, this research paper presents and briefly describes only a subset of those ‘‘components of teamwork’’ previously identified as critically important.

Team members may exhibit several behaviors that comprise teamwork: mutual performance monitoring, backup behavior, adaptability, closed-loop communication, and leadership. Mutual performance monitoring involves monitoring fellow team members’ performance while still maintaining individual responsibilities. The intent is to improve overall group performance by detecting errors, deficiencies, and overloads that inhibit the team’s actions. As team members monitor their teammates’ performance and are able to detect deficiencies or overloads, they are able to shift work responsibilities to other team members or provide feedback about errors if and when it becomes necessary. This is referred to as backup behavior. Taken together, mutual performance monitoring and backup behavior result in a team that is adaptable and flexible. Adaptability has been described as the capacity to recognize deviations from expected action and to readjust those actions accordingly.

Closed-loop communication also facilitates teamwork by ensuring that accurate information is given and understood by team members. It involves the sender initiating a message, the receiver accepting and acknowledging the message, and the sender ensuring that the intended message was received. When communication fails, implicit coordination and the shared understanding of the team’s task may deteriorate. Finally, effective team leaders facilitate teamwork by consistently encouraging mutual performance monitoring, backup behavior, adaptability, and communication. The team leader’s failure to guide the team in these behaviors may inhibit coordinated and adaptive action and can be a key factor in deficient team performance. However, the behaviors described previously are only a part of the overall picture of teamwork. There are also cognitive and attitudinal components of teamwork that facilitate these behaviors, and a few of them are briefly described in what follows. Shared mental models have been a frequently discussed cognitive component of teamwork. In 1995, Cannon-Bowers and colleagues suggested that shared mental models are shared understandings or representations of the goals of the team, individual team member tasks, and how the team members will coordinate to achieve their common goals. Similarly, familiarity of task-specific teammate characteristics is also an important component of teamwork. Familiarity includes knowledge of the task-related competencies, preferences, tendencies, and strengths and weaknesses of teammates. Knowledge of teammates and their weaknesses can have a profound influence on team communication and interaction patterns. In fact, research has demonstrated a moderate relationship between high levels of familiarity in teams and both productivity and decision-making effectiveness. The primary attitudinal component of teamwork is team orientation. Team orientation is frequently described as a preference for working with others. More specifically, however, it is a tendency to enhance individual performance by placing value on group input and using input from other group members while performing a group task. When discrepancies occur among team members’ levels of understanding, those with a team orientation have been found to spend more time comparing their comprehension of the situation with that of their teammates to resolve the discrepancy. This provides greater opportunity to reevaluate their shared understanding of a task and to assist in error detection. Team members who do not have a team orientation are more likely to reject the validity of input from other team members, and this can potentially lead to a decline in team performance. Not all employees see value in working with others, and those who do not are less likely to succeed on teams or to be as cooperative as others. Research has shown that better decisions and higher performance result from teams that contain team-oriented individuals.

Now that the primary cognitive, behavioral, and attitudinal components of teamwork have been examined, the next section presents some concrete explanations for why teams might go off-track or ‘‘derail.’’ Although other factors can lead to deficient teamwork (e.g., individual differences, organizational climate, stress), the section focuses specifically on factors that can be influenced through team training and team building.

3. Teamwork Derailers

Teamwork does not ‘‘just happen.’’ Often, an organization will place a group of well-qualified individuals together to work on a project and is surprised when the team does not achieve greatness. Despite the many benefits of teamwork and cooperation at work, teamwork does not occur automatically. But why do teams derail, and how does teamwork erode? Team derailment is defined as the process whereby an effective team experiences a significant decline in performance. This section, from the vantage point of a team competency framework, identifies three primary culprits: high levels of stress; lack of knowledge of the team’s mission, objectives, norms, and resources; and dissolution of trust. Any of these may lead to a decrement in team performance and cooperation.

Stress can have a significant effect on an individual’s or a team’s ability to perform a job. For example, teams operating in the military often face a high-stress environment in which multiple tasks must be performed under time pressure and in ambiguous situations. However, stress can result from situations in which resources are stretched or exceeded, there is danger of physical or personal harm, or the capacity to perform is diminished. Outcomes of stress for individuals in teams can be physiological (e.g., increased heartbeat, sweating), emotional (e.g., fear or anxiety), social (e.g., difficulty in coordinating actions), cognitive (e.g., a narrowing of attention), or have a direct influence on performance (e.g., trade-offs in the speed and accuracy of task performance, impaired decision making). None of these outcomes is particularly pleasant, and all can potentially impair team performance. One solution for teams operating in high-stress environments may be to provide stress exposure training (SET), which is designed to reduce stress through the provision of information, skills training, and practice to trainees.

To avoid team derailment, team members also need to know their team’s strategic and tactical goals, what resources are available to help achieve those goals, and under what conditions the team members will be expected to perform. When this knowledge is lacking, coordination of team member actions and provision of backup behavior and support are also deficient. It has been suggested that when a team initially forms, team members should be given the opportunity to gauge each other’s abilities and skills and to cooperatively determine the purpose of their team. This is often referred to as creating a shared mental model of the team, the task, and the processes by which the team will complete the task. Having completed this, the team can then determine how it will accomplish its goals and establish norms of behavior and performance. When a team lacks a clear mental model, it fails to recognize and integrate task contingencies as they arise. Similarly, failure to maintain a shared perception of the situation, strategic and tactical goals, and the resources available to accomplish those goals can lead to decreased cooperation and teamwork. Finally, trust has become a common construct in the teamwork literature due to its positive relationship to organizational citizenship behaviors, successful negotiation, and conflict management. Understandably, all of these behaviors are essential to cooperation as well. In 1998, Rousseau and colleagues defined trust as a willingness to accept vulnerability due to positive expectations of the intentions or behaviors of others. Mutual trust in a team is a deeply held confidence toward the team’s climate, internal environment, and members. It is an attitude held by team members regarding the climate or mood of the team’s internal environment. When team members work interdependently to achieve group goals, they must be willing to accept a certain amount of risk so as to rely on each other and openly share information. Lack of trust in this situation may result in a reduction of information sharing as well as extensive time spent in monitoring team members, not for the purpose of improving performance but rather for ensuring their trustworthiness. When organizations fail to create policies that foster trust among team members or do not allow sufficient team interaction, cooperation will deteriorate. Now that some ways in which teams and teamwork may erode have been presented, the next section describes ways in which teamwork may be enhanced in work organizations.

4. Facilitators Of Teamwork

A successful team is infused with an energizing spirit that draws the participants together into a cohesive unit and has everyone pulling together to reach a common goal. In general, teamwork can be facilitated, promoted, or encouraged at either the organizational or team level. Important organizational variables include the amount of organizational support offered and the design of the team (e.g., size, diversity, skill composition). At the team level, effective leadership, closed-loop communication, interdependence, and cohesion all contribute to team effectiveness. Although this is clearly not an exhaustive list of all elements that contribute to team functioning, these variables are instrumental in facilitating effective team performance. Each is briefly discussed in turn.

Organizational support is a primary facilitator of team-work. It is the organization and managers that must instill cultures that encourage common objectives, shared values, mutual trust, frequent and honest communication, and the ability to act in a unitary manner. Sometimes, organizations maintain cultures that do not promote interaction. Instead, these organizations maintain a culture in which blame is constantly placed and responsibility is shifted elsewhere. When this happens, teamwork cannot be facilitated. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the team leaders to structure team tasks. This includes delegating and assigning the tasks, managing resources, and establishing priorities. Broadly speaking, team leaders set the direction and provide the resources, whereas team members enact organizational objectives and engage in teamwork in service of their organizations.

The design of the team is another organizational level factor that can act as a facilitator of teamwork. Factors such as the size of the team, the diversity within it, and team member skill composition are important. As such, proper selection of team members is important to facilitating team performance. Research suggests that effective teams are composed of between 6 and 10 members. Larger teams provide individual members with the opportunity to ‘‘social loaf’’ as individual inputs may become uninterpretable and indistinguishable from the group’s product or service.

Team diversity is another design issue. Research has demonstrated that the amount of cooperation that occurs in teams can be dependent on the degree of heterogeneity of individuals within it, and this heterogeneity can be related to any differences such as those in skill, qualifications, gender, and/or ethnicity. For example, accomplishing innovation and creativity goals in product teams is more likely when members are very diverse (i.e., heterogeneous). Conversely, teams whose goals include quick production and decision making exhibit increased levels of teamwork when members are very similar (i.e., homogenous). Typically, however, teams composed of heterogeneous members will take longer to begin working together effectively. Over time, and as team members become more familiar with each other, team performance generally increases for teams composed of diverse members.

Team members must display critical knowledge, skill, and attitude competencies while performing in dynamic environments. Team researchers have suggested that general team skills should be used when selecting team members to ensure team effectiveness. Ideally, individuals possessing both task-specific skills (i.e., those relating directly to the tasks to be performed) and team-contingent skills (e.g., those with a team or collective orientation) would be selected to participate in teams. Unfortunately, this luxury is not always available. So, how do the team-level variables of leadership, closed-loop communication, and shared awareness influence team performance and effectiveness?

Team leadership may be the most important element in creating a cooperative work environment. Leadership affects team effectiveness through many processes (e.g., cognitive, motivational, affective). Team leaders set the tone by articulating a clear and motivating vision and creating a supportive climate that promotes effective team processes and behaviors, which may include specific advanced planning, communication of critical process information, and promotion of functional coordination among team members. Information from all team members must be pooled to develop plans and evaluate the consequences of team decisions. However, team leaders must remain flexible and must adapt plans and team strategies to meet task demands so as to avoid a deterioration of teamwork in dynamic and stressful situations. Team leaders’ failure to guide and structure team experiences that would otherwise facilitate the development and maintenance of cooperative interactions can be a key factor in ineffective performance. An important point not frequently discussed in teamwork literature is that team members cooperate and commit to teams for different reasons. Some may be motivated to cooperate due to a desire for results, others may be motivated by the satisfaction of working with others, and still others may have less admirable aims.

Therefore, leaders should not assume that motivations are the same for all team members. However, if handled appropriately, even individualistic team member motivations can contribute to common overall team goals.

Communication is also essential for teamwork. Communication creates a shared understanding of the task at hand and ensures that all members possess the required and precise information needed. This is especially important for teams operating in very complex and dynamic environments (e.g., flight deck crews, surgical teams) because it facilitates teamwork behaviors (e.g., backup behaviors) and shared mental models that allow teams to adapt quickly and implicitly. As mentioned previously, closed-loop communication is a particularly important enabler of effective teamwork. Communique´ s presented in the prescribed form, tempo, and cadence are examples of proceduralized closed-loop communication used in the military today.

Finally, teamwork behaviors are facilitated by a sense of cohesion and interdependence among team members. Teamwork involves group members’ collectively viewing themselves as a group whose success depends on their interaction. Cohesion can be understood as a shared value, whereby the group interests, responsibilities, and success all are taken into account, even at the expense of individual goals. Similarly, interdependence is also typically seen as an essential characteristic of team performance. Effective teams not only have an awareness of the importance of their role in team functioning but also put this into action by fostering within-team interdependence. Effective teams contain individuals who know one another’s jobs, offer to help fellow members when it is appropriate to help, and depend on one another for this help.

Discussions of both the possible derailers and potential facilitators of teamwork have now been provided. However, very little has been said about how to promote these behaviors, cognitions, and attitudes. The next section describes ways in which cooperation can be promoted at work through training.

5. Promoting Cooperation And Teamwork At Work Through Training

The primary purpose of team training is to provide skills that enhance teamwork. For instance, team training often emphasizes interpersonal and feedback skills in addition to clarifying the need for mutual performance monitoring, backup behavior, and goal setting. Without this training, efficient and effective task-work might be handicapped or hindered altogether. Team training is not a program, a place, a simulator, or a collection of individuals being trained together; rather, it is a set of instructional strategies designed to enhance teamwork competencies. Nor is team training the same as team building. Team building primarily targets role clarification and has a greater influence on team member attitudes than on performance.

Although many types of instructional strategies have been developed to assist individuals in teams to cooperate at work, only four of the most prominent and relevant ones are briefly discussed in this section: cross-training, team coordination training, team self-correction training, and team leader training. A discussion of team building is also provided, with a specific focus on the distinction between team building and team training.

The first strategy, cross-training, generally involves training each individual member on the tasks of all other team members. The goal is to create shared task models and knowledge of task-specific role responsibilities to facilitate enhanced performance monitoring and backup behavior. Knowledge of the team’s mission and objectives is also targeted in cross-training. This strategy is primarily information based but may also involve simulation exercises.

Team coordination training is similar to cross-training in that it creates a general understanding of teamwork skills, but it does so with a more specific focus on promoting mutual performance monitoring and backup behavior. Coordination training uses practice and behavioral modeling to teach members about teamwork skills and help them understand the underlying processes of teamwork. Team members may be given opportunities to practice and demonstrate the skills taught in low to moderate-fidelity simulations. These are similar to the ideas that are presented in discussions of crew resource management (CRM) and are frequently used in aviation and military settings.

Another type of training that improves mutual performance monitoring, as well as initiative, leadership, and communication, is team self-guided correction training. The team directly drives this instructional strategy in that team members are taught techniques for monitoring their own behavior and assessing the degree of training effectiveness. The team members then use feedback regarding their performance and effectiveness to correct problems that may have surfaced. The primary focus of this strategy is improved communication and increased levels of performance feedback to facilitate future performance. Feedback enables team members to perform their subtasks competently and demonstrates the contribution of that performance to the performance of others and of the team as a whole.

Finally, team leader training aims to create leaders who are better able to motivate others, structure tasks, and facilitate shared task models of teamwork behaviors within the team. The emphasis is often on teaching team leaders to effectively debrief their members using input from their whole teams regarding specific behaviors rather than general results or proxies of effectiveness. Lecture, behavioral modeling, and practice are the typical mechanisms used to deliver this type of training.

Another technique that is often used to improve team functioning and effectiveness is team building. Team building should not, however, be confused with team training. Although team training and team building are seemingly similar, they approach teamwork from different perspectives. For instance, team training is generally intended to facilitate a shared understanding of job-related KSAs, whereas team building focuses on the process of teamwork and is intended to assist individuals and groups in examining their own behavior and relationships. It is important to note, however, that team building has been found to have a greater impact on the attitudes of individual team members than on overall team performance. Researchers have suggested that this is due to the fact that team building typically focuses on interpersonal relations, communication, problem solving, goal setting, and/or decision making rather than focusing directly on affecting performance. Because team building is generally one-dimensional in its aim (e.g., problem solving, interpersonal skills), its impact on overall team performance is limited. Finally, it should also be noted that team building is not a one-shot deal; observable improvements in cooperation may take time to appear and often require ongoing attention to attain long-term effectiveness.

Taken together, the importance of team training (and, to a lesser extent, team building) is that it focuses on deficiencies in teamwork KSAs to bolster and coordinate team member actions. Both team and organizational performance are likely to improve as a result of team training interventions. Studies conducted in military and aviation settings have found that enhanced training has resulted in significant team performance improvements. For example, researchers have seen as much as a 45% improvement in mission performance following team training. This includes a 33% improvement in tactical decision-making performance and a 10 to 34% improvement in team coordination. Regardless of the training strategy used, it is important to measure the impact of training on team performance to determine its utility to the organization. The next section discusses issues related to measuring team effectiveness.

6. Measuring Team Performance And Effectiveness

The underlying assumption of team training is that teams can be led to perform more effectively. However, to determine whether the enhanced instruction produced its desired effect, the effectiveness of training must be assessed. The effectiveness of training refers to the degree to which desired training outcomes are achieved, that is, the degree to which a team accomplishes its assigned tasks and mission objectives. The most important of these outcomes is the degree to which trainees transfer learned material to the job. When training transfers, the organization can be certain that learned material is used by trainees when they return to their normal work roles. Team performance measures can focus on any section of the team effectiveness input, process, or outcome system and can indicate how the team carried out assigned tasks and objectives.

Extant literature on teams and team effectiveness has identified a number of issues that should be addressed during measurement. Specifically, Salas and colleagues identified five ingredients for any team performance measurement system. First, it must be theoretically based. Second, it must consider multiple levels of measurement. Third, it must be able to describe, evaluate, and diagnose performance. Fourth, it must provide a basis for remediation. Fifth, it must support ease of use. These requirements are described in turn.

The measurement of team performance must be theoretically based, preferably on previously identified models of teamwork. After all, theory building requires that established models be empirically tested to advance the current state of knowledge. Capturing, defining, and measuring the interactions that characterize teamwork are basic to our ability to understand its meaning. Furthermore, understanding the KSAs that define teamwork is critical to establishing a nomological net of the interrelationships of these variables that should be used as the basis for structuring measurement tools. Without grounding the measurement of team performance in theoretical models of teamwork, team theory cannot move beyond the conceptual stage.

The level of measurement must also be considered. Multiple levels of measurement should be used in the measurement system because teamwork occurs at multiple levels (e.g., individual vs team, process vs outcome). To begin, team performance needs to be evaluated at the individual level, as well as at the team level, to get a complete picture. Effective team performance can be enabled by the actions of team members operating both individually and as a collective.

Often it is impossible to determine what part of performance is due to an individual’s abilities and what part is due to the actions of the team as a whole. For teams with a large number of members, individual input to the overall task may be obscured, causing individuals to lose sight of team goals. When this happens, team members will often put their needs in front of helping other team members to achieve the collective goal. Similarly, research has suggested that many individuals prefer individual assessment and find that method to be fairer. This is especially the case when individuals perceive that their individual performance is higher than what is observed at the team level. The consensus seems to indicate that individual performance should be evaluated throughout, whereas team-level outcomes should be assessed following completion of the training task or objective.

Another issue concerning the level of measurement relates to whether a greater emphasis should be placed on evaluating teamwork processes (e.g., compensatory behavior, communication, information exchange, shared task models) or team outcomes (e.g., accuracy, timeliness, product quality, goal accomplishment). Although the outcome of performance is nearly always significant, the measurement instrument should clearly differentiate between the outcome and how the outcome was achieved. In team performance measurement, the decision to evaluate team effectiveness as a team process or a team outcome is particularly important when the purpose of performance evaluation is to provide feedback for performance improvement.

Although many managers focus on team outcomes (e.g., factors that directly affect the bottom line), this evaluation provides no information to the team as to how to make performance improvements. For instance, telling sales team members they did not make the goal of selling 300 widgets provides less information to guide performance improvement than does telling the same team that there had been a noticeable decrease in information exchange among the team members during the past month that resulted in decreased sales. Measurement must provide information that indicates why processes occurred and how those processes are linked to performance outcomes.

To be of any value, the measurement mechanism must be able to describe, evaluate, and diagnose performance. Measures must be sensitive enough to document the moment-to-moment interactions and changes in performance. Measures must also distinguish between effective and ineffective processes, strategies, and teamwork behaviors. The level of evaluation, type of performance to be evaluated (i.e., process or outcome), and environmental constraints within the organization collectively determine the measurement tools needed to measure team effectiveness. However, if the performance evaluation is conducted for developmental or remediation purposes, it is especially important that the tool be able to describe, evaluate, diagnose, and provide feedback regarding performance. Cannon-Bowers and colleagues provided a concise framework of team performance measurement tools. A few of the more flexible tools (i.e., those that can be used in most situations) are observational scales and expert ratings. More situation-specific tools include decision analysis, policy capturing, and archival records. In a broad sense, performance is typically evaluated through direct observation (e.g., employee behavior) or indirect observation (e.g., employee records, customer communication). The decision to use direct or indirect observation generally depends on what information is available to the evaluator. Both forms have their pros and cons. Similarly, the choice of measurement tool may be guided by the particular organizational and situational constraints imposed on the researcher.

Next, team performance measurement systems must outline a path to improvement. From the performance diagnosis generated, a logical basis for remediation that includes feedback, knowledge of results, and direction for subsequent instruction must be provided. Practitioners must be able to provide teams with feedback necessary to improve future performance. Measurement tools must provide information that indicates why processes occurred as they did and how particular processes are linked to certain outcomes.

A final ingredient of team performance measurement systems is that they must be easy to use. The focus of a particular measure should always be operationalized from a construct that is relatively free of contamination and deficiency, and it should not be tedious or cost-prohibitive to use. One challenge of team research has been to develop powerful, reliable, and valid measurement techniques for measuring team performance.

A final topic to consider within team measurement should be noted. That is the idea of team mental models or the ‘‘shared cognition’’ of a team. The idea that shared mental models allow team members to coordinate by anticipating and predicting each other’s needs through common expectations of performance was discussed previously. However, the ability to measure these expectations as an external observer has proven to be more difficult than have other team processes. Currently, indirect measures of shared cognitions measure individual mental models of the team and task and aggregate the individuals’ mental models to assess the degree of overlap between the cognitions used. Further research is needed to develop tools that can directly address team shared cognition. The diversification of techniques such as automated measures, or measures that are embedded in the task (e.g., simulations), also provides avenues for future research endeavors.

7. Conclusion

Experience has shown that teamwork and cooperation can substantially affect organizational effectiveness. However, organizations, managers, executives, and leaders need to know what develops and fosters teamwork as well as what derails it. This research paper has discussed why teamwork is important.

The research paper also discussed the nature of teamwork, indicating that it consists of the KSAs that are displayed in support of one’s teammates, objectives, and mission. Ways in which cooperation and teamwork can be derailed were examined as well. Similarly, a presentation of teamwork facilitators was provided. For example, very often it is the responsibility of the leader to create a shared understanding of the vision and goals of those who report to him or her. Furthermore, it is the leader who is usually able to obtain resources and distribute them appropriately, whether through reward systems, work tools, personnel, or training opportunities. At the group level, many factors contribute to the level of cooperation that occurs among individuals. Not only do shared vision, the task itself, and the organizational culture play a part, but factors such as the level of diversity, familiarity, and the number of individuals working together also affect cooperation.

The research paper also presented a discussion of how training is used to promote cooperation and teamwork. Training opportunities are especially important from a cooperation perspective in that training teamwork skills is imperative to effective cooperation. Training allows members to gain knowledge about their teammates’ skills, abilities, roles, and responsibilities, and this allows them to better anticipate each other’s needs and to adapt to the changing organizational environment and tasks. Training can also assist in the creation of a shared vision through goal setting and interpersonal relations.

The research paper then examined the measurement requirements for team effectiveness research. The fact that teamwork and training effectiveness must be measured should not be lost on the reader. Without effective description, evaluation, and diagnosis of team effectiveness, we would not know where to begin to correct performance deficiencies.

From an organizational perspective, teams and the social system in which they are embedded are interdependent, such that a change in one will affect the other. Thus, organizations that encourage cooperative behaviors through their leadership and organizational systems (i.e., reward systems) will facilitate and encourage cooperation among employees. There is clear evidence that cooperative work arrangements improve overall organizational performance. Individuals also have a role in the effectiveness of cooperation and teamwork as an organizational tool. Evidence indicates that attitudinal factors such as team identity, orientation, commitment, and trust are important. Commitment to the group will increase the willingness of the individual to expend effort and have higher involvement in the group task that is required for cooperation.

Understanding the nature of teamwork and how its interrelated components manifest themselves in terms of cognitions, behaviors, and feelings is critical to promoting coordinated adaptive team performance in increasingly complex and dynamic environments.

Thus, actions taken to improve cooperation and teamwork can have a substantial impact on the organizational bottom line.

References:

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Jones, G. R., & George, J. M. (1998). The experience and evolution of trust: Implications for cooperation and teamwork. Academy of Management Review, 23, 531–546.
McIntyre, R. M., & Salas, E. (1995). Measuring and managing for team performance: Emerging principles from complex environments. In R. Guzzo, & E. Salas (Eds.), Team effectiveness and decision making in organizations (pp. 149–203). San Francisco: Jossey–Bass.
Rothschild, J., & Whitt, J. A. (1986). The cooperative workplace: Potentials and dilemmas of organizational democracy and participation. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Salas, E., & Cannon-Bowers, J. A. (2000). The anatomy of team training. In S. Tobias, & J. D. Fletcher (Eds.), Training and retraining: A handbook for businesses, industry, government, and military (pp. 312–335). New York: Macmillan.
Sundstrom, E., McIntyre, M., Halfhill, T., & Richards, H. (2000). Work groups: From the Hawthorne studies to work teams of the 1990’s and beyond. Group Dynamics, 4, 44–67.

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