Campion Et. Al. : Relation Between Work Team Characteristics and Effectiveness: A Replication and Extension

Relation between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension

Campion et al. (1996)

Introduction

This paper is a follow-up on earlier research that showed that team characteristics can positively influence effectiveness. This study uses a broader approach with different criteria and more complex jobs.

Prior research

[pic 1]

Figure 1. Themes and characteristics related to work team effectiveness

In prior research the framework in figure 1 was validated. The characteristics that are mentioned left are the key to effectiveness criteria on the right.

Present study

The focus of the present study is to generalize this framework on a new sample. The sample differs in the kind of job, the previous study was extended with different effectiveness criteria and the work units varied in the degree to which the members identified their unit as a single team.

Method

Sample

The sample groups in the present study consist of more knowledge jobs, such as programmers etc.  Some look like traditional work groups, while other are highly developed teams.

Measurement overview

Three objectives guided measurement in the study. They used multiple operationalism (data was collected from different sources, e.g. managers and employees), secondly they used methodological separation (e.g. different data sources or time frames), and finally they used the group as level of analysis (measure macro perceptions in the group, by having the measures to the level of the group and by analysing the interrater reliability and agreement before aggregating).

Measure of work team design characteristics

The questionnaire used in prior study was used again, but with some slight modifications. These modifications are not noteworthy.

[pic 2]

Figure 2. Measure of work team design characteristics

Measure of single-team identity

Single-team identity was measured with single-team membership (how much teams does the employee/manager work in), team member permanence and single team functioning (how close is the group working with each other?).

Measures of work team effectiveness

Six measures were collected to measure the work team effectiveness:

• Employee satisfaction.
• Employee judgements of effectiveness.
• Manager judgements at time 1.
• Manager judgements at time 2.
• Other managers’ judgement at time 2. (perspective from someone outside the project)
• Performance appraisals.

Results

Many positive relationships were found in the statistics e.g. teams with members who only belonged to one team, and teams with permanent members, tend to be more flexible and smaller in relative size. Those teams tend to less interdependence because they can easier divide the workload.