1、原文:Goal attainment, satisfaction and learning from teamworkAuthor: Peter Richardson and D. Keith Denton, Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri, USAMagazine: Team Performance ManagementAbstractPurpose Businesses have increasingly relied on educators to train students on teamwork skills tha
2、t are valuable in a highly competitive marketplace. But what are students actually getting from these initiatives? Are they seeing the linkage between teamwork skills and goal accomplishment? Are they developing positive attitudes toward teamwork? What skills are they learning from their teamwork ex
3、periences?Design/methodology/approach This study investigated the relationship between student team member outcomes and the team activities that they engage into achieve these outcomes. Students were surveyed using items developed from a taxonomy of team processes found in the management literature,
4、 and measures of goal attainment, satisfaction and learning.Findings Results show that students derived different outcomes when practicing specic team process activities. Students who engaged in transition and action processes perceived that their goals were accomplished through teamwork. Those who
5、engaged in transition and interpersonal tasks developed a more positive attitude toward teamwork and felt that they learned signicantly from their teamwork experience.Research limitations/implications This study is meant to help educators ne-tune their understanding of the linkages between teamwork
6、skills and team performance outcomes in student team projects so that they can structure the teamwork experience more effectively. The reader, however, is reminded that the ndings were obtained in the context of student team projects.Originality/value Unlike most of the past research on team process
7、es and outcomes, this study examined which team processes are linked to each of several team performance dimensions.Keywords: Learning Students Team working Team performance Team learning Job satisfactionIn an era of fast-paced change and hyper-competition, cutting-edge leaders recognize the importa
8、nce of teamwork. Teams can magnify the outputs of individuals through collaboration in the pursuit of personal and team goals. College graduates who have effective teamwork skills are becoming the norm for college recruiters.In response to changing expectations in the business world, instructors are
9、 assigning more classroom team projects to provide students with opportunities to strengthen their knowledge of and develop their teamwork skills. According to Hartenian (2003), team training and experiences positively correlate with team knowledge, skills and abilities. When these knowledge, skills
10、 and abilities are applied by the student, are all aspects of team performance being met?Brief overview of team process researchThere is a large body of research that looks at a variety of factors associated with group effectiveness such as group design, context, group composition and group process
11、in different types of groups. However, it is not always clear that what works in one type of group will work in all groups.The denition of team or workgroup that we use is based primarily on that of Cohen and Bailey (1997) which in turn builds on the work of Alderfer (1977) and Hackman (1987) and is
12、 similar to the denition that Guzzo and Dickson (1996) used in their review of research on groups and teams. A project team is dened as a collection of individuals who are interdependent in the tasks they perform and who share responsibility for outcomes. The student teams we studied are most like p
13、roject teams in that they are time-limited, produce one-time outputs and perform work that involves the application of knowledge, judgment, and expertise to the solution of a unique problem (Cohen and Bailey, 1997). While we do not equate student project teams with organizational work teams, we note
14、 the similarities between them.Process describes those interactions among team members that inuence effectiveness. This is in contrast to factors such as autonomy, self-efcacy, team size, diversity and supervision that are either inputs which team members deal with or emergent states that arise out
15、of member interactions. Team members engage in a wide range of activities to accomplish their goals. Several constructs have been used to dene team processes in the literature. Marks et al. (2001) grouped these processes into categories of activities that can occur at any time during the teams life.
16、 Specically, transition processes refer to those activities involved in mission and goal specication, and strategy planning. Action processes refer to those activities directly related to task attainment such as tracking task progress, assisting teammates and coordinating work. Interpersonal process
17、es include those activities teams engage into manage conict, build condence and regulate members emotions.Teamwork enables team members to plan, organize and coordinate the activities of the team for goal attainment. Research on team processes have shown that teams that engage in these activities ar
18、e more effective. The focus in these studies has been on the relationships between cooperation and outcomes, between conict and team performance, between team process constructs, and team effectiveness, and between task process and efciency.None of these, however, have focused on the impact of team
19、processes on all aspects of team effectiveness. The literature on teams suggests that team effectiveness is a multi-dimensional construct whose facets reect what most organizations regard as desirable workplace team goals. Team effectiveness has been dened broadly to include several outcome measures
20、: an objective measure of the output of the group, a subjective measure of attitude such as satisfaction and developmental outcomes for team members.An assessment of objective output among project teams would involve the extent to which the team achieves the goals of the project as determined by an
21、outside party or by team members themselves. Goal-setting research is based on the premise that the presence of goals improves task performance. A study of project teams from industry, government laboratories, and not-for-prot organizations showed that the presence of team goals had a positive impac
22、t on team performance (McComb et al., 1999). At the individual level, the preferred output can vary across students. Anecdotal evidence suggests that students in team projects have goals ranging from getting a high grade to merely fullling the project requirements. In this study, we let the student
23、dene her expected outcome by asking her whether or not she achieved her goals for the project.Studies on attitudes toward teamwork suggest that a team members satisfaction with his team could lead to greater commitment, fewer absences and reduced turnover in the workplace. Students would often reect
24、 on their emotional experiences when dealing with their teammates and would sometimes resolve that they would never work with particular students in the future. Ruiz Ulloa and Adams (2004) found that several process variables such as mature communication, accountable interdependence and role clarity
25、 had a positive effect on an individuals attitude toward teamwork. Learning how to deal with other team members could serve as a valuable developmental outcome for a team member, especially if the team has to work together on a recurring basis. Continuous improvement has been a very popular mantra a
26、mong administrators and leaders alike. Our experience has shown that most students encounter similar situations across team projects. It begs the question of whether or not they learn from their past successes and mistakes. According to a survey of studies on project teams, Cohen and Bailey (1997) d
27、iscovered that managers and external stakeholders were often asked to assess objective team output while team members were used to assess member satisfaction. None of those studies surveyed used developmental outcomes as a performance measure.Discussion of results and suggestions for future research
28、Engaging in transition activities such as establishing team goals, rules and guidelines, assessing team member skills and assigning roles and responsibilities are positively associated with all three outcomes. This result supports prior research that emphasizes the importance of goal specication and
29、 planning (Bacon, 2005; Ruiz Ulloa and Adams, 2004) and expands on this information by demonstrating that not only is goal specication and planning associated with better performance in terms of goal attainment, but is also associated with greater satisfaction on the part of team members and greater
30、 knowledge and learning about teamwork. This result would seem to be especially important as far as students are concerned. A goal shared by many who use team projects in their courses is to enhance students learning about how teams work and to leave students with a positive feeling about teamwork a
31、nd the potential benets associated with working with others on team projects. The ability to get the project off on the right foot so to speak may also contribute to feelings of satisfaction and enhanced learning about how teams can accomplish their goals. Given the desired outcomes, it seems especi
32、ally important for instructors to build opportunities for planning into the project experience and perhaps to require students to engage in such activities both in class and through outside activities.With regard to interpersonal processes, while engaging in these activities is not associated with perceived goal attainment, it is positively associated with satisfaction and enhanced teamwork skills and knowledge. The idea of using team building activities has often been suggested as a way to increase the overall success of a team. Many teamwork building activitie
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