Teams have increasingly become the means for completing tasks in many organisations, and organisations have turned to teams as a better way to use employee talents. Many South African companies have established work teams to solve both complex and minor problems, and some companies’ performance has increased due to the implementation of work teams. The fact that organisations are using teams does not necessarily mean they are always effective, there are many factors that contribute to team effectiveness in an organisation, and these factors need to be identified and managed properly so that the team can remain effective and produce the results that are expected. Management of most companies is unaware of the factors that contribute to group and team effectiveness, and most teams are ineffective because of the lack of focus on the factors that improve group and team effectiveness. This is the reason or objective why this study was conducted at Transnet Engineering, to identify the factors that are critical to improving team effectiveness. The researcher conducted a literature review in order to determine the factors that improve group and team effectiveness. Some of the factors deal with organisational culture, motivation (monetary and non-monetary motivation), diversity in teams, size of teams, formulation of teams, team leadership, team goals, team structures, team member training, trust in teams, etc. An empirical study with the use of a questionnaire was also conducted to determine the perceptions that supervisors, superintendents, foremen and managers have at Transnet Engineering with regards to factors that improve group and team effectiveness. The research instrument was grouped into five categories; organisational context, individual context, team context, management support and team effectiveness. More than 50 percent of the respondents agreed with the organisational and individual context factors that were tested, around 75 percent of the respondents agreed with team context factors that were tested, almost 60 percent of respondents agreed with management support factors, and more than 60 percent of respondents indicated that their teams are effective. Although there is general agreement between most factors identified in the literature study and the empirical study, the following will need more focus:  Offering of team resources  Leadership support from executive committee members (EXCO)  Proper reward and recognition systems  Conducting research to identify employee satisfaction levels  Team development  Diversity management  Talent management  Team size

M.Phil. (Personal and Professional Leadership) / in the workplace often cannot work together effectively towards optimal performance. Employees often experience relationship problems in the workplace. Not many realise that a lack of understanding of personality contribute to these problems. Through this study, the objective was to investigate whether a basic understanding of personality types is a factor that can significantly improve workplace relationships in teams and therefore improve effective teamwork and team performance in companies. The motivation for this study was to make a contribution towards helping teams function more effectively, specifically by improving workplace relationships through applying an understanding of personality types in teams. The empirical research method used in this study was a mixed method approach of quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative research was done through a survey questionnaire that was completed by a sample of respondents (n=183) from companies in the financial industry. This was supplemented by qualitative research by means of focused group interviews (n=16) with team leaders and managers of the survey participants. While the results were not found to be typical of the broader population, enough evidence were found to suggest that employees in the workplace realise the need for working together better in their teams, and seeing the value that personality profiling can bring towards achieving this reality.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-129).

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-107).

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. Available at http://hdl.handle.net/1947/9667. / "September 2008" Title from PDF cover (viewed on 25 September, 2009) Includes bibliographical references.

M.Tech. (Operations Management) / For any organisation to be effective and efficient in achieving its goals, its employees must maintain a shared vision of what they are striving to achieve, as well as clear aims and objectives of the organisation. Employees may be grouped into teams with which play important roles in an organisation. Companies have discovered that the introduction of teams to the production process, leads to innovative and goal oriented performance, with new products generated at a faster pace. Teams become a force of change when interaction within the group is dynamic. Similarly, effective teams may influence productivity and improve quality. In this context, a study was conducted at the Ferrosilicon Plant of Dense Media Separation (DMS) Pty Ltd located in Meyerton, South Africa, where a sink float process for the separation of mineral particles, involving suspension of dense powders in water is used. The study focuses on team structures, which are currently experiencing job dissatisfaction. It attempted to establish the problem areas that may be at the core of team ineffectiveness and offered suggestions for resolution. At the root of the study is an attempt by management to resolve job dissatisfaction by facilitating team development, establishing explicit team norms and expectations, fostering a collaborative team climate, exercising leadership skills in pursuit of team goals and encouraging open and candid communication within the production section. The study argues that if decisive action is not taken to address these issues, it would be difficult for any organisation to function and would in turn inhibit management’s control of the organisation, ultimately leading to a loss of productivity.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The research assignment was conducted to evaluate the influential dimensions for building high performing teams in virtual organisations. The new business unit, Middle East and Africa has the challenge of operating globally for the first time. The leadership has the daunting task of getting the virtual team to become a high performance team. An intensive literature review was conducted to draw on the knowledge of previous theory for both high performance teams as well as virtual organisations. A representative sample of the organisation’s leadership was interviewed by means of an online questionnaire, whilst employees were survey by means of both physical and online surveys. The results provided insights into the dimensions that strongly influence high performance teams in virtual global organisations. A deeper understanding of success factors that influence team performance and virtual organisations were learnt and recommendations was made to the company.

Prof. W. Backer

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Commerce (M Com) at the University of the Witwatersrand, February 2017 / Information systems development (ISD) project teams are involved in requirements elicitation, analysis, development, testing and deployment of various information technology solutions. These teams often compete with each other for limited resources in an attempt to fulfil their organisational mandate. As a result, project teams can exert power over each other and employ various influence tactics in attempt to gain and maintain positions of power which allow them to control key resources and influence decision making processes. This study examined the strategic environmental and structural conditions of fulfilment which influence the power of ISD project teams, and the extent to which influence tactics can impact on team power level. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire instrument. A sample of 106 teams from five companies was obtained. The companies operate in the financial services and government sectors. A single key informant responded on behalf of their team. Correlation and regression analysis was used to test the hypothesized links between power and the structural conditions of fulfilment namely centrality and substitutability, as well as, the environmental condition of coping with uncertainty. The moderating effects of influence tactics on these relationships was tested via hierarchical moderated regression. Results indicated that the strategic condition of coping with uncertainty significantly and positively affects perceived team power, whilst substitutability significantly and negatively affects perceived team power. Support for the structural condition of centrality was not found to be significant. Additionally, the influence tactic of rational persuasion was found to moderate the relationship between power and coping with uncertainty such that rational persuasion interacts with coping with uncertainty to affect power. Results also indicated that the influence tactic of collaboration was not a moderator but rather has significant direct effects on perceived team power. The study concluded that ISD project teams who cope with project uncertainties and whose tasks and functionalities are difficult to replace, as well as, those who effectively collaborate with other teams will have greater power within project settings. Moreover, ISD project teams can combine rational persuasion tactics with coping with uncertainty to exert even stronger effects on power. The outcomes of this study help to bring an understanding of the impact of the strategic conditions factors on perceived team power within ISD project settings, as well as the role of specific influence tactics in the formation of power. / GR2018