To produce superior team performances members must be able to work well together to exceed the sum of their parts. Despite an extensive body of research in healthcare, business, military, and aviation, there is limited understanding of what effective teams do in sport. In an attempt to address this gap in the literature the present doctoral thesis - commissioned by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) - sought to uncover, measure, test, and improve the most important factors for team effectiveness in cricket. The thesis contains three empirical studies which address the following research questions: (i) what factors contribute to the effectiveness of cricket teams? (ii) How can team functioning and effectiveness be measured? (iii) Can factors of team functioning accurately predict effective cricket teams, and what is the relative importance of those factors? (iv) Can team functioning and effectiveness be improved in cricket teams? Chapter 1 of the thesis defines some of the key terms associated with the group-based literature, before critically reviewing the organisational and sport psychology literature on team effectiveness and group dynamics, highlighting limitations that need to be addressed. These include a lack of research attention on teamwork or team functioning in sport, the investigation of group-related variables in sport in isolation, an overreliance on deductive approaches to framework development, a lack of appropriate measures, and the exclusive focus upon the development of cohesion within team building interventions in sport. Chapter 2 is an abductive, qualitative investigation involving 21 cricket experts, which explores the factors most important for team effectiveness in cricket. Based on this elite samples' construal, we propose a parsimonious and novel conceptualisation of team effectiveness in cricket (Essential Team Ingredients model; ETI). Chapter 3 contains two studies concerned with the development and validation of the Inventory of Essential Team Ingredients (IETI), designed to measure each sub-component of the ETI model. The first study adopted a new paradigm of measurement design to validate a multi-construct, single-item based inventory. The second study examined the extent to which factors within the ETI model could accurately predict effective teams in a sample of 32 high performing male and female cricket teams. Through the application of novel pattern recognition analyses, results suggested that certain features could accurately predict an effective team in nearly 90% of instances. Chapter 4 presents an intervention study, whereby a team building intervention based on the IETI was designed, delivered and evaluated, providing an indication that team functioning can be improved over a short period, and preliminary evidence for the utility of the IETI. Finally, Chapter 5 concludes the thesis by discussing some of the theoretical, conceptual, and applied implications of the findings, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the research and potential avenues of future research.

This research addressed the question: "Which factors predict the effectiveness of healthcare teams?" It was addressed by assessing the psychometric properties of a new measure of team functioning with the use of data collected from 797 team members in 61 healthcare teams. This new measure is the Aston Team Performance Inventory (ATPI) developed by West, Markiewicz and Dawson (2005) and based on the IPO model. The ATPI was pilot tested in order to examine the reliability of this measure in the Jordanian cultural context. A sample of five teams comprising 3-6 members each was randomly selected from the Jordan Red Crescent health centers in Amman. Factors that predict team effectiveness were explored in a Jordanian sample (comprising 1622 members in 277 teams with 255 leaders from healthcare teams in hospitals in Amman) using self-report and Leader Ratings measures adapted from work by West, Borrill et al (2000) to determine team effectiveness and innovation from the leaders' point of view. The results demonstrate the validity and reliability of the measures for use in healthcare settings. Team effort and skills and leader managing had the strongest association with team processes in terms of team objectives, reflexivity, participation, task focus, creativity and innovation. Team inputs in terms of task design, team effort and skills, and organizational support were associated with team effectiveness and innovation whereas team resources were associated only with team innovation. Team objectives had the strongest mediated and direct association with team effectiveness whereas task focus had the strongest mediated and direct association with team innovation. Finally, among leadership variables, leader managing had the strongest association with team effectiveness and innovation. The theoretical and practical implications of this thesis are that: team effectiveness and innovation are influenced by multiple factors that must all be taken into account. The key factors managers need to ensure are in place for effective teams are team effort and skills, organizational support and team objectives. To conclude, the application of these findings to healthcare teams in Jordan will help improve their team effectiveness, and thus the healthcare services that they provide.

We tested the hypothesis that top management team¡¦s effectiveness and Chaxu Geju have an positive effect relationship. Our analysis was base on data from 650 schools , including 120 pairs of team leaders and their team's members .To survey whether the leader's Chaxu Geju which is Guanxi , loyalty and talent has positive effect on team's effectiveness. The first result shows, Team leader will divide team members into insiders and outsiders according to Chaxu Geju . Finally, indicated leader¡¦s criterion of categorization didn¡¦t significant affect the top management team¡¦s effectiveness. The two group insiders and outsiders are the same .

Based on a proposed input-process-output model of team goal, leader goal orientation, team cohesion, and team effectiveness, this study examined the influences of the leader trait goal orientation on the relationships between team goals and team cohesion. Results from 73 five-person teams working on an interdependent command and control simulation game indicated that team learning goal positively relates to team viability. Social cohesion mediates the effects of a team learning goal on team viability. In addition, the leader’s learning orientation moderates the effect of a team learning goal on team task cohesion. Results of supplementary analyses are also presented. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as well as possible limitations and directions for future research.

Communication deficiencies within interdisciplinary teams are known to reduce the effectiveness of those teams by causing erroneous behaviors (Alvarez & Coiera, 2006; Reader, Flin, & Cuthbertson, 2007). Also, many design defects have been attributed to communication breakdowns across disciplines (Chen & Lin, 2004). As the number of interdisciplinary teams in industry grows in order to adapt to dynamic business environments of the twenty-first century, providing an appropriate environment to improve interdisciplinary team effectiveness is critical for many organizations. In spite of its importance, little is known about what kind of environments support interdisciplinary team interactions. There were three objectives of this dissertation: 1) to investigate the influence of physical environment on the effectiveness of interdisciplinary engineering design teams, 2) to investigate the influence of interaction strategy design support on the effectiveness of interdisciplinary engineering design teams, 3) to construct behavioral indicators of successful interdisciplinary teamwork to design testing and design guidelines for interdisciplinary team collaboration spaces. To achieve these goals, the study was conducted in two phases. In Phase 1, the researcher conducted a direct observation of industry teams operating in the novel design space, the Kiva, at a design-consulting firm based in Pittsburgh, PA. The observation data provided 1) a list of significant participant behaviors to be examined and 2) interaction strategy design support (ISDS) procedures to be used during phase 2. Phase 2 was a laboratory-based 2x2 experimental study with physical room condition (Kiva vs. conference room) and interaction strategy design support (present vs. absent) as independent variables. The dependent variables were categorized as team process and output that measured team effectiveness. Overall, a significant interaction effect between the physical conditions and interaction strategy design support was found from all dependent measurements except for product evaluation. A significant main effect of physical conditions and interaction strategy support were found to a lesser extent. Based on the findings, testing methodology guidelines and design guidelines were developed. / Ph. D.

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Adverse events and medical errors plague the healthcare system. Hospital acquired infections and teamwork are some of the biggest contributor to these adverse outcomes. In an effort to mitigate these problems, administrators and clinicians alike have developed mechanisms, such as telemedicine. However, little research has been conducted investigating the role of telemedicine on teamwork -- a fundamental component of quality patient care. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the impact of telemedicine on teamwork behaviors and subsequent teamwork attitudes and cognitions during a common medical task, rounds within the Trauma-Intensive Care Unit. To this end, rounds were conducted with and without telemedicine. During this 60 day period, 16 clinicians completed three surveys and 34 rounds were video recorded. The results of this study suggest that the relationships between teamwork attitudes, behaviors, cognitions, and outcomes are differential impacted under conditions with and without telemedicine. More specifically, telemedicine is associated with an increase in attendance and communication density. Meanwhile, it does not significantly impact teamwork attitudes or cognitions. The primary implications of these findings indicate that telemedicine is not the solution for improving all teamwork elements but yet it is not a complete detriment either

The impact of training on virtual team effectiveness was assessed in five areas: communication, planning tasks and setting goals, solving problems and making decisions, resolving conflict, and responding to customer requirements. A 12-page survey was developed exploring all aspects of virtual teams. 180 surveys were distributed, 52 were returned representing 43 companies. Training led to higher effectiveness in planning tasks and setting goals, solving problems and making decisions, and conflict resolution, but not in communication and responding to customer requirements. Training may not solve all the problems that virtual teams will encounter; however, training will make the challenges easier to handle.

The purpose of this research study was to identify the specific components of team training that contribute most to a team's ability to perform effectively. The analysis conducted involved examining the relationship between the Training Support System Survey (Hall, 1998) along with the Training Strategies and Training Content sub-scales, and the overall measure of team performance from Beyerlein's (1996) Perceptions of Team Performance survey. Results were mostly inconclusive, due to limitations of the research. However, a few interesting findings were found related to team training for different types of teams. In addition, this research is helpful in moving toward a better understanding of the relationship between team training and team performance and pointing toward the need for additional research in this area.

In these years, corporations have valued the cooperation among departments in their organizations. Team members from cross-functional teams composed of different functional areas have frequent communication due to the need for cooperation and support by each other. A well-performed team relies on effective communication and such interactive behavior between team members. These team members come from different departments or functions, which results in the variations in team members¡¦ standpoint and ways of doing things, but these make the teams more flexible and diversified. On the other hand, each department¡¦s sectionalism and patterns of behavior by usual practices cause the cross-functional teams¡¦ barrier of communication. Thus, this study applies the concept about the classification of teams raised by Larson & Frank (1989), and to study the issue of teamwork effectiveness of cross-functional teams through the qualitative interview method, and further to bring up conclusion and suggestion towards cross-functional teamwork. This study considers the inter-dependence between cross-functional team members, need for innovation of team¡¦s task, and organizational support as three dimensions to generalize the managerial implications in the respect of the performance of teamwork. In sum, under general conditions, ¡§the autonomy of teamwork¡¨ and ¡§the clarity of team¡¦s task¡¨ both could be coordinated to improve the performance of teamwork, however , ¡§the trust among team members¡¨ is both a necessary factor and basis to facilitate the communication and coordination in cross-functional teams and on which teams could work smoothly. Corporate culture and team leader would also influence communication among team members, therefore organization should build a free, open, and respectful communication environment. In addition, organization should empower team members with enough authority which helps team members exert their influence while communicating with other department. Besides, as a vital role of guiding, facilitating, and coordinating cross-department cooperation, the team leader boosts team¡¦s morale, provides decision-making support, and motivate team members to achieve team¡¦s goal. If necessary, team leaders should make good use of their ability of coordination to raise team members¡¦ coherence to their team, and further to help team members to reach an agreement.