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CHAPTER 8
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BUILDING EFFECTIVE TEAMS: Chapter 1: Effective Teamwork: Operational Definitions and Historical Look Chapter 2: The Need for Teams Chapter 3: Effective Teams - Factors of Team Effectiveness Chapter 4: Team Building and Development Chapter 5: Goals - Effective Team Goals Chapter 6: Results Driven Team Structures - Building Effective Teams Chapter 7: Competent Team Members - Effective Teams Chapter 8: Unified Team Commitment - Effective Teams Chapter 9: Team Collaboration Chapter 10: Team Standards of Excellence Chapter 11: External Team Support and Recognition Chapter 12: Principled Leadership - Effective Teams Chapter 13: Inside Management Teams - Effective Teams Chapter 14: Training Activities for Teamwork
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In Teamwork: What Must Go Right/What Can Go Wrong Carl E. Larson and Frank M. J. Lafasto's fourth characteristic of effective teams is unified commitment. This is commonly called "team spirit." Unified commitment is composed of two elements: commitment and unity.
Commitment consists of mental and physical energy. Effort is the minimal requirement to be on the team - you must be willing to work at it. Team success involves many intangibles, including attitudes and energy.
Unity is group spirit. Teamwork comes about as a result of identification with a team (Sherwin 1976).
Teams work differently, and achieve goals in differing ways. This is okay - the leader and team members should concentrate on coalescence, unity, and "emotional bonding."
Fostering unified commitment is one way to create a more effective team. Keep in mind that involvement enhances commitment.
Differentiation and integration must be balanced. We must appreciate differences, and require unity. Too much requiring unity can lead to groupthink and stifled creativity. Too much differentiation leads to "analysis paralysis," conflicts in values/vision, and conflict in the area of personal vs. team goals.
Leaders must deal with non-productive/self-serving members in order to help the team to function.
Most American workers acknowledge low levels of commitment. Daniel Yanklovich and John Immerwahr surveyed workers in 1983, and only 25% said that they were working as hard as they could be (Nelson-Horchler, 1985: 47).
Katzenbach and Smith (The Discipline of Teams: A Mindbook-Workbook for Delivering Small Group Performance 112) write that common commitment includes the purpose team members believe in or direction the team goes, sometimes in responses to management . The purpose belongs to team (collectively) and to team members (individually). These are transformed into specific performance goals.
Sanborn (Teambuilt: Making Teamwork Work) identifies three types of commitment: unilateral, consultative, and consensus. Hersey and Blanchard identify five kinds of team commitment: 1) commitment to the customer (internal and external); 2) commitment to the organization (and its management); 3) commitment to self ; 4) commitment to people (individuals and work team); and 5) commitment to the task (mission) (420).
It is difficult to define the term group cohesion, and Bettenhausen gives a biography of authors that have written about the subject of the definition of cohesion (Bettenhausen 361). An early study about group cohesion was done by Organ and Hamer in 1950 (Bettenhausen 351).
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