THE EFFECT OF VERBAL SELF-GUIDANCE TRAINING ON COLLECTIVE EFFICACY AND TEAM PERFORMANCE

Organizational Citizenship Behavior Predicts Quality, Creativity, and Efficiency Performance: The Roles of Occupational and Collective Efficacies

Although numerous studies have shown that prosocial behavior impacts performance within organizations, the mechanisms that encourage or discourage these effects have rarely been explored. Two studies were conducted to shed light on the role of psychological beliefs on prosocial dynamics in predicting organizational performance. In Study 1, employees’ beliefs in their inner job-related resources (Occupational Efficacy – OE) were examined as a predictor of OCB. It was posited that OE, which is an inner resource, should positively predict OCB. Study 2 examined whether Collective Efficacy (CE), which is an external resource over which employees have less control, would moderate the OCB-performance prediction. Overall, performance and three core dimensions of performance (quality, creativity and efficiency) were assessed to better capture the specific influence of OCB effects on performance. In Study 1, employees completed inventories measuring their OE, OCB and performance. In Study 2, employees completed inventories measuring their CE and OCB. In addition, their managers completed inventories measuring the CE of their employees’ teams and their employees’ performance. The results of Study 1 revealed that OE emerged as an antecedent of OCB in predicting performance. In Study 2, OCB positively predicted employee performance above and beyond and the effects of their managers’ tenure in position, and CEs. In addition, both employees’ and managers’ CEs moderated the effects of OCB on performance: the performance effects of OCB increased as employees’ and managers’ CE increased, and specifically performance efficiency and performance creativity. These findings contribute to a better theoretical and practical understanding of the core factors that affect the organizational dynamics of prosocial behaviors that can lead to higher performance, and the ways in which OCB positively predicts performance in organizational settings.

Which Goals should Participants Set to Enhance the Transfer of Learning from Management Development Programmes?

This paper is designed to critique the goal setting literature, with particular emphasis on the effectiveness of different types of goals for successful transfer in management development programmes. In reviewing the literature, particular focus was given to goal interventions used in education, training and skill acquisition settings over the last 20 years and how these studies have advanced the understanding of knowledge transfer from management development programmes. Overall, the evidence suggests that the traditional result (or distal outcome) based goals are ill-suited for effective transfer and instead management development scholars and practitioners should use the newer forms of goal setting (e.g. proximal plus distal, behavioural and learning) to facilitate transfer.

The Effectiveness of Teamwork Training on Teamwork Behaviors and Team Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Controlled Interventions

The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of teamwork interventions that were carried out with the purpose of improving teamwork and team performance, using controlled experimental designs. A literature search returned 16,849 unique articles. The meta-analysis was ultimately conducted on 51 articles, comprising 72 (k) unique interventions, 194 effect sizes, and 8439 participants, using a random effects model. Positive and significant medium-sized effects were found for teamwork interventions on both teamwork and team performance. Moderator analyses were also conducted, which generally revealed positive and significant effects with respect to several sample, intervention, and measurement characteristics. Implications for effective teamwork interventions as well as considerations for future research are discussed.

Thought self-leadership and effectiveness in self-management teams

This study empirically examines the multilevel nature of thought self-leadership at work. Furthermore, this study tests the relationship between team level thought self-leadership and team effectiveness (i.e. performance and viability) through collective efficacy. A total of 103 self-management teams (453 individuals), enrolled in a five-week management competition participated in the study. The results from multilevel confirmatory factor analysis suggest that thought self-leadership is functionally equivalent across levels of analysis (i.e. individuals and teams). In addition, we found an indirect effect of team level thought self-leadership on team effectiveness criteria, through collective efficacy. These findings extend previous work on thought self-leadership and team effectiveness, and open new roads for research in self-managing work teams. Finally, this study also provides guidelines for organizations in case they wish to foster team performance and viability in their work force.

The mediating effects of team and self-efficacy on the relationship between transformational leadership, and job satisfaction and psychological well-being in healthcare professionals: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey

BACKGROUND

The importance of transformational leadership for the health and well-being of staff in the healthcare sector is increasingly acknowledged, however, there is less knowledge about the mechanisms that may explain the links between transformational leaders and employee health and well-being.

OBJECTIVES

To examine two possible psychological mechanisms that link transformational leadership behaviours to employee job satisfaction and well-being.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study design.

SETTINGS

The study took place in two elderly care centers in large Danish local government. Staff were predominantly healthcare assistants but also nurses and other healthcare-related professions participated in the study.

PARTICIPANTS

274 elderly care employees completed the questionnaire. Surveys were sent to all employees working at the centers. 91% were female, the average age was 45 years.

METHODS

A questionnaire was distributed to all members of staff in the elderly care centers and where employees were asked to rate their line manager's leadership style and were asked to evaluate their own level of self-efficacy as well as the level of efficacy in their team (team efficacy) and their job satisfaction and psychological well-being.

RESULTS

Both team and self-efficacy were found to act as mediators, however, their effects differed. Self-efficacy was found to fully mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and well-being and team efficacy was found to partially mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction and fully mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and well-being.

CONCLUSIONS

Within the pressurised environment faced by employees in the healthcare sector today transformational leaders may help ensure employees' job satisfaction and psychological well-being. They do so through the establishment of a sense of being in control as individuals but also as being part of a competent group.

Does team training improve team performance? A meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

This research effort leveraged the science of training to guide a taxonomic integration and a series of meta-analyses to gauge the effectiveness and boundary conditions of team training interventions for enhancing team outcomes.

BACKGROUND

Disparate effect sizes across primary studies have made it difficult to determine the true strength of the relationships between team training techniques and team outcomes.

METHOD

Several meta-analytic integrations were conducted to examine the relationships between team training interventions and team functioning. Specifically, we assessed the relative effectiveness of these interventions on team cognitive, affective, process, and performance outcomes. Training content, team membership stability, and team size were investigated as potential moderators of the relationship between team training and outcomes. In total, the database consisted of 93 effect sizes representing 2650 teams.

RESULTS

The results suggested that moderate, positive relationships exist between team training interventions and each of the outcome types. The findings of moderator analyses indicated that training content, team membership stability, and team size moderate the effectiveness of these interventions.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that team training interventions are a viable approach organizations can take in order to enhance team outcomes. They are useful for improving cognitive outcomes, affective outcomes, teamwork processes, and performance outcomes. Moreover, results suggest that training content, team membership stability, and team size moderate the effectiveness of team training interventions.

APPLICATION

Applications of the results from this research are numerous. Those who design and administer training can benefit from these findings in order to improve the effectiveness of their team training interventions.

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Work Groups and Teams

Teams of people working together for a common purpose have been a centerpiece of human social organization ever since our ancient ancestors first banded together to hunt game, raise families, and defend their communities. Human history is largely a story of people working together in groups to explore, achieve, and conquer. Yet, the modern concept of work in large organizations that developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is largely a tale of work as a collection of individual jobs. A variety of global forces unfolding over the last two decades, however, has pushed organizations worldwide to restructure work around teams, to enable more rapid, flexible, and adaptive responses to the unexpected. This shift in the structure of work has made team effectiveness a salient organizational concern. Teams touch our lives everyday and their effectiveness is important to well-being across a wide range of societal functions. There is over 50 years of psychological research-literally thousands of studies-focused on understanding and influencing the processes that underlie team effectiveness. Our goal in this monograph is to sift through this voluminous literature to identify what we know, what we think we know, and what we need to know to improve the effectiveness of work groups and teams. We begin by defining team effectiveness and establishing the conceptual underpinnings of our approach to understanding it. We then turn to our review, which concentrates primarily on topics that have well-developed theoretical and empirical foundations, to ensure that our conclusions and recommendations are on firm footing. Our review begins by focusing on cognitive, motivational/affective, and behavioral team processes-processes that enable team members to combine their resources to resolve task demands and, in so doing, be effective. We then turn our attention to identifying interventions, or "levers," that can shape or align team processes and thereby provide tools and applications that can improve team effectiveness. Topic-specific conclusions and recommendations are given throughout the review. There is a solid foundation for concluding that there is an emerging science of team effectiveness and that findings from this research foundation provide several means to improve team effectiveness. In the concluding section, we summarize our primary findings to highlight specific research, application, and policy recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness of work groups and teams.