Effects of Teamwork on Employee Performance

The effect of teams on organizational performance has been a topic of many researches done by academics and practitioners for the past four decades. One possible reason for this interest is the widespread belief that teams can affect the performance of organizations. The composition of a team is considered by some researchers to be particularly important in achieving organizational goals and in evoking performance among subordinates. Several reasons indicate that there should be a relationship between teamwork and performance. Scholars and practitioners suggest that effective team behaviors can facilitate the improvement of performance when organizations face new challenges. Understanding the effect of teamwork on performance is important because teamwork is viewed by some researchers as one of the key driving force for improving a firm’s performance.

A team is a formal group of members who interact at a high level and work together intensely to achieve a common group goal. When teams are effective, they draw on the abilities and experiences of their members to accomplish things that could not be achieved by individuals working separately or by other kinds of work group (Jones et al, 2008). Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.

A group then is a set of two or more people who interact with each other to achieve certain goals or meet certain needs. A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximize his or her strengths and minimize his or her weaknesses.

The term groups and teams are used interchangeably, with the personal preference of writers and tradition guiding the choice of word, rather conceptual distinction. For example, the ‘how-to-do it’ books aimed at a management audience tend to refer to teams in organizations, while, for historical reasons, discussions about shop floor working arrangements refer to autonomous work groups. Hayes (1997) noted that the idea of team must be one of the most widely used metaphors in organizational life.

1.1 Proposed Research Topic

Assessing the impact of teamwork on employee performance

1.2 Research Questions

1.2.1 Central Research Questions

• Why do organizations need teams?
• Do most members of an organization want to work in teams?
• In what kind of situation might it be especially important to have teams?
• Why are roles an important means of controlling team members’ behaviors?
• What are the negative impacts of teams on performance?

1.2.2 Theoretical Research Questions (Desk)

• What is the difference between teams and groups?
• What are the different types of teams that exist?
• How does communication affect team performance?
• How are grievances or complaints solved in a team?

1.2.3 Empirical Research Questions (Field)

• Which type of task need teams to be able to have it accomplished?
• What are some of the constraints in forming teams?
• How many times teams are formed in a fiscal year?
• How easily do members relate to each other in teams?
• Are these teams always able to perform tasks to the satisfaction of the leaders?
• Does the organization work with the same team or a different team is set up for different task?

2.0 Research Objectives

The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between teamwork and its effects on employee performance. The main objectives are:

• To determine the value of teams in an organization.
• To analyze the necessity of teamwork on employee performance.
• To determine the types of task that needs a team to be able to accomplish them.
• To determine the negative impacts of teams on employee performance.

Scope of the study

This study will investigate team performance in ……..sector. It is rapidly expanding, and a number of new companies are being established. All these companies are high tech, and many of them are primarily service providers. To provide good services, these organizations need to be very good in technical advancement, adopting modern management styles, mainly team work to cope with the changing environment demands. Due to time and financial limitations, the main focus is only on one organization. A convenience sample is selected from the organization in order to administer the questionnaires and conduct interviews in few visits.

3.0 Research Design

3.1 Research Philosophy

3.1.1 Interpretivism

The interpretivism advocates that it is necessary for the researcher to understand differences between humans in our role as social actors. The interpretivist perspective is highly appropriate in the case of business and management research, particularly in such fields as organizational behavior, marketing and human resource management. Philosophy to be applied by this research will be the ability to interpret both qualitative and quantitative data. The study will enter the social world of the research

3.2 Research Approach

The study will use both deductive and inductive approaches to relate to the findings to existing theories. With the data which will be gathered and the questionnaire data from employees, an inductive approach will be used to explore any useful relationships or patterns.

3.3 Longitudinal Research

The researcher will use questionnaires to assess the performance of team in the past years in order to make a period analysis of trends in employee performance in the organization.

4.0 Research Strategy

4.1 Desk Research

The research will use quantitative secondary data and qualitative secondary data to be obtained from the organization. The study will use news articles, journals, books in order to get the most recent trends in employee performance in the organization. This study will likewise use related internet sources to fully support the information which will be provided in the research.

4.2 Literature Research

For this research the sources of data will be books related to the topic and to Organizational Behavior and Organizational behavior and change in addition to the books that are used in the MBA program at The Hague University.

4.3 Theoretical Framework

The study will explore documented information on teamwork on employee performance, especially employees in different organizations. It will also focus on the Human Resource practice and policy as it is applied in organizational behavior in organizations.

4.4 Primary Data

Primary data would be sought through administering of questionnaires to the employees and Management of the organization. Interviews with relevant staff will be conducted to collect additional data for the research

4.5 Secondary Data

The organization’s website and the filled in questionnaire by employees will be our primary sources of secondary data. The other secondary data will be obtained through literature search at The Hague University library and other public libraries in Den Haag.

4.6 Referencing Method

In this research, the Harvard System or method of referencing will be employed

4.7 Sampling Method

This study will use systematic sampling by targeting employees in the organization. About two hundred employees will be sampled. Out of these two hundred employees one hundred will be senior staff and one hundred will be junior staff

4.8 Empirical Framework:

Adequate and representative primary data will be collected from the organization to meet the requirements of this research. This will include data to be collected through questionnaires, interviews with relevant staff of the organization. Two hundred Students per university will be sampled and will be the respondents at each participating Dutch University

4.9 Environment of Field Research

This will entail interaction with the sponsor, staff and management in order to collect the needed data. Continuous and relevant communication by telephone, email and visits by appointments will form a major form of coordinating the activities of the research.

5.0 Research Population (Sources of primary data)

Two hundred from each of the seven Dutch universities at which Studentalent is operating will be sampled. It is felt that a sample of 400 students will be a fair representative of the student population at each university.

The student categories to be used will include undergraduate or graduate student and also whether the students are Dutch or Non Dutch. The table below shows the research population.