ABSTRACT Patient safety and safety outcomes in hospitals are a major concern. A hospital’s safety climate indicates the degree to which the organization prioritizes patient safety and achieves intended care outcomes. Relationships between nurse managers and frontline nurses and relationships between health care team members are pivotal in promoting a positive safety climate which in turn reduces adverse patient outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine frontline nurses’ perceived relationships with nurse managers and health team members to identify factors associated with safety climate (SC) in a community hospital located in a western Canadian city. The study was guided by Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory. Leader-Member Exchange theory postulates that dyadic relationships and work roles develop over time through a series of exchanges between nurse managers and frontline nurses. The study further incorporated Team-member exchange (TMX), a theoretical extension of LMX. Team-Member Exchange was used to guide the study of reciprocal exchanges among nurses and other members of the health care team. A non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design was used to explore the relationship between acute care nurses’ perceived LMX, TMX, and SC. A convenience sampling technique was employed. Licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and registered nurses (RNs) were invited to complete a survey package comprised of four scales. A response rate of 31.1% was achieved with N=105. The majority of respondents were female (89.5%), over 45 years of age, and employed part-time. About half of the respondents were diploma-prepared nurses, whereas the other half had a baccalaureate degree in nursing. Based upon data’s non-normal distribution and various levels of variables, Kruskall Wallis H statistics were used to assess and compare groups in terms of the nurses’ education, gender, length of experience in their current position, specialty experience, organization experience, age, and LMX, TMX, and SC scores. Age was the sole demographic factor that had a statistically significant positive association with LMX and SC. This finding supported the notion that mature nurses enhance the SC. The relationship between TMX, LMX, and SC was explored through Spearman’s rho correlation statistics. LMX and TMX were found to have statistically significant relationships with SC. Multivariable regression analysis was used to identify factors with an association with SC. Nurses’ relationships with team members had a slightly stronger association with SC in comparison with LMX. Over 66% of SC variance was accountable by LMX, TMX, and nurses’ age. This study’s results support the nurse manager who partners with nurses to promote team work to deliver safe patient care and accomplish organizational goals. The presence of strong leadership that incorporates LMX and TMX theories into practice with the reliance upon mature nurses may facilitate the attainment of a positive SC and positive patient outcomes. Further longitudinal studies are recommended to add to the knowledge of the relationships between LMX, TMX, SC and patient outcomes.

The present research examines the role of social ties and team-member exchange quality (TMX) in enabling small business owners involved in formal networking groups to gain access to new business. I report on data from two studies. First, initial data from a pilot study of 23 small business owners in networking groups revealed that more numerous social ties and more positive perceptions of team-member exchange quality (TMX) predicted performance outcomes. Specifically, individuals who had more numerous social ties within a networking group, and who reported higher TMX perceptions of their group, received significantly more referrals to potential clients compared to individuals who had numerous social ties but lower perceptions of TMX. Second, using a sample of 336 small business owners across 24 networking groups I built on these initial results, and incorporated an expanded theoretical framework, to explore how and when social ties and TMX influence the effectiveness of small business owners in networking groups. Specifically, I draw on the literatures related to social network theory, team-member exchange quality and affective organizational commitment to guide my exploration of the effectiveness of small business owners in networking groups. Data support the conclusion that both social ties and team-member exchange are important factors predicting the performance outcomes of small business owners in networking groups. Further, the data illustrate the mediating role of affective organizational commitment between the relation of social ties and team-member exchange on performance outcomes. I discuss implications and describe areas for future research based on these findings.

The present study attempts to extend leader-member exchange theory to the team-level by including team social cohesion and two team-level exchange relationship constructs (i.e., team-level leader-member exchange [LMX] and team-member exchange [TMX]) simultaneously, and by examining antecedents and outcomes associated with these variables. The research model includes transformational leadership and team-members' individualism-collectivism as antecedents of the team relational environment and both team performance and team viability as effectiveness measures. Survey data were collected for a field sample of 89 Airborne Special Operations (ASO) teams in the Korean Army. Each team's effectiveness was rated by three different sources: team members (N=823, 7~11 people per team; M=9.4), regional unit (RU) peers (31~42 peers for each team; M=37.2), and RU commanders (N=17). The hypothesized model and several alternative models were tested three times, using team effectiveness measures from each of the three sources in a separate model. Overall, results from path analyses conducted using EQS were consistent with the hypotheses. Specifically, both team-level LMX and TMX were positively affected by transformational leadership and team members' collectivism. TMX showed a stronger positive association with team social cohesion than did team-level LMX. Team performance was positively affected by TMX, team social cohesion, and transformational leadership in the model that employed team members' ratings as team effectiveness measures. However, when the ratings from RU peers were used as team outcome measures, the path from team social cohesion to team performance remained significant, but the other two paths became non-significant. None of the three variables significantly predicted team performance as rated by RU commanders. When viewed in terms of team viability, team social cohesion showed a significant association with team viability across all three models. Although TMX predicted team viability when team members' ratings were used in the model, it did not predict team viability when the ratings were from either RU peers or RU commanders. Finally, transformational leadership showed a significant positive and negative relationship with the number of collectivists and individualists within a team, respectively, across all three models. The limitations of the present study and recommendations for future research are presented.

Teams offer more flexibility within organizations and their business is shaped around teams to be more competitive in complex business environments. Teams are also the ideal work structure in which team members can influence each other’s perceptions of their work climate. Existing research results positively linked organizational climate with productivity prediction. The perception of team members of their social environment influence their behaviour and should be of interest to organizations if it can be proven that these perceptions of climate can be influenced. The main research question guiding the study was, “What is the predictability of emotional intelligence, team member exchange and goal orientation on team climate?” A literature study highlighted that team climate (TCI) is assumed to be the aggregation of individuals perceptions of the team context they work in. If the perceptions of the climate that people work in guide their behaviour, then it is likely that those perceptions of climate, and the responses that follow, may be influenced through individual attributes, appropriate structures, processes and interaction in the team. Emotional intelligence (EI) reflects the ability to recognize and control and regulate emotions in oneself and in others, with regulating in others implying an element of influence. It was further established that goal orientation (GO) refers to the two predispositional goal orientations individual seems to have indicating a different approach to setbacks, challenges and goal achievement. Team member exchange (TMX) was used in this study as reflection on an individual’s evaluative perception of his exchange interaction relationship as well as the anticipated reciprocal exchange with fellow team members. A confirmatory factor analysis was done on each of the four different instruments (TCI, EI TMX and GO). A path analysis was then developed based on the correlation matrix in order to reflect the relevant relationships between the different variables. The results reflected a strong causal relationship between team member exchange and team climate. Contrary to that, emotional intelligence and goal orientation had elements of a very weak to no causal relationship at all with team climate. The result confirmed that team exchange actions, facilitated through team meetings, influence team members’ perception of their team climate. If climate can be influenced to a positive supporting climate, team performance will be enhanced. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Human Resource Management / Unrestricted

The objective of this thesis is to provide theoretical and empirical insights on the subject of group communication and perceived performance within work teams. The theoretical section provides a definition and outlines the importance of work teams, it references selected psychological aspects and factors. This study details aspects of communication and performance in the context of work teams. It reveals opportunities to increase performance in the subject of learning teams, especially, where communication is its foundation. In addition, this thesis describes and interconnects new knowledge regarding the possibilities of improving performance, whilst exploring the relationship between communication and performance. At the same time, it presents an overview of the approaches and methods of measuring these aspects. The empirical section details the various the relationships of various communication parameters and the perceived performance within teams. The empirical section is devoted to the study of relations of communication parameters and perceived performance in teams. It is a built-in measuring tool for measuring three team constructs: group communication, team-member exchange quality and perceived performance. It provides analysis of psychometric properties, reliability and constructive...