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the time for the meeting (that is, a meeting should not be started until a time has been agreed on to conclude or adjourn), and the careful selection of those who should attend the meeting are all elements of this context. In addition, the third-party consultant must decide on an appropriate role to assume in resolving conflict. The specific tactic chosen will depend on the diagnosis of the situa- tion. For example, facilitating dialogue of interpersonal issues might include initiating the agenda for the meeting, acting as a referee during the meeting, reflecting and restating the issues and the differing perceptions of the individuals involved, giving feedback and receiving comments on the feedback, helping the individuals diagnose the issues in the conflict, providing suggestions or recommendations, and helping the parties do a better job of diagnosing the underlying problem. Third-party consultants must develop considerable skill at diagnosis, intervention, and follow-up, and be highly sensitive to their own feelings and to those of others. They must recognize that some tension and conflict are inevitable and that although there can be an optimum amount and degree of conflict, too much conflict can be dysfunctional for both the people involved and the larger organization. The third-party consultant must be sensi- tive to the situation and able to use a number of different intervention strategies and tac- tics when intervention appears to be useful. Finally, he or she must have professional expertise in third-party intervention and must be seen by the parties as neutral or unbiased regarding the issues and outcomes of the conflict resolution. Application 10.2 describes a third-party intervention at a law firm. The OD consul- tant was brought in by another consultant to help rescue a struggling strategic planning process. The OD consultant initially used structural interventions to simply help the partners get work done but eventually had to utilize more interpersonal process interven- tions to address the personality conflicts.^23
10-4 Team Building
Team building refers to a broad range of planned activities that help groups improve the way they accomplish tasks, help members enhance their interpersonal and problem- solving skills, and increase team performance.^24 Organizations comprise many different types of groups including permanent work groups, temporary project teams, and virtual teams. Team building is an effective approach to improving teamwork and task accom- plishment in such environments. It can help problem-solving groups make maximum use of members’ resources and contributions. It can help members develop a high level of motivation to implement group decisions. Team building also can help groups over- come specific problems, such as apathy and general lack of member interest; loss of pro- ductivity; increasing complaints within the group; confusion about assignments; low participation in meetings; lack of innovation and initiation; increasing complaints from those outside the group about the quality, timeliness, and effectiveness of services and products; and hostility or conflicts among members. Team building also can facilitate other OD interventions, such as employee involve- ment, work design, restructuring, and strategic change. Those change programs typically are designed by management teams, implemented through various committees and work groups, and result in new teams that need to operate at a high level of effectiveness quickly. Team building can help the groups design high-quality change programs and ensure that the programs are accepted and implemented by organization members. Indeed, most technostructural, human resource management, and strategic interventions depend on some form of team building for effective implementation.
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The importance of team building is well established, and its high use is expected to continue in the coming years. Management teams are encountering issues of greater complexity and uncertainty, especially in such fast-paced industries as software and hardware development, entertainment, and health and financial services. Team building can provide the kind of teamwork and problem-solving skills needed to tackle such issues. When the team represents the senior management of an organization, team build- ing can be an important part of establishing a coherent corporate strategy, and can pro- mote the kind of close cooperation needed to implement complex strategies and new forms of governance.^25 As manufacturing and service technologies continue to develop—for example, just-in-time inventory systems, lean manufacturing, and service quality concepts—there is increasing pressure on organizations to implement team- based work designs. Team building can assist in the development of group goals and norms that support high productivity and quality of work life. The globalization of work and organizations implies that people from different cul- tures and geographic locations will increasingly interact over complex management and operational tasks using a variety of information and communication technologies. Team- building activities for these “virtual” and cross-cultural teams have increased substan- tially over the past several years.^26 Most team-building processes are based on assump- tions of face-to-face interaction and relationships are built partially on the basis of visual cues. In virtual teams, research suggests that closeness between team members is created through proactive offers of help and support on task-related issues, and maintained through frequent, short, and task-focused communications (often technology mediated). Thus, team-building can help virtual teams to examine cross-cultural issues and their impact on decision making and problem solving, facilitate communication processes where tone and body language clues are absent, and build trust. Finally, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and strategic alliances continue to proliferate. The success of these endeavors depends partly on getting members from different organizations to work together effectively. Team building can facilitate the formation of a unified team with common goals and procedures. In the OD literature, team building is not clearly differentiated from process consul- tation and group facilitation. This confusion exists because most team building includes
The OD consultant proposed that the partners join him on a stand-up paddle-board outing on the ocean. They had not seen one another looking quite so foolish and despite a couple of mishaps getting out through the surf, they had never before shared much laughter. The freeing, shared experience created a very different tone for the meeting that followed and the most direct discussion of trust between them. Ron talked about Brad’s silence at the part- ners meeting and Brad talked about his feeling that Ron was less than completely forthcoming about all material facts related to contingency cases he brought into the firm. Brad’s concerns were about
the timing of the information and the level of detail. The comments from each of them came across as confronting, but rather than the usual defensive- ness or steering the conversation to Dan or some- thing else; they both owned up to what they could and should have done differently. The conflict res- olution intervention followed a traditional OD pro- cess. It began with diagnosis, working with the energy of the client, and initially focused on struc- tural and behavioral changes that helped the part- ners get work done. As trust was developed, the consultant was able to suggest other interventions that helped the two partners begin building trust at deeper levels of their relationship.
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10-4b Interventions Relevant to Individual Behavior
People come into groups and organizations with varying needs for achievement, inclu- sion, influence, and belonging. These needs can be supported and nurtured by the team’s structure and process or they can be discouraged. Diagnostic interviews and personal-style instruments can help members to better understand their motivations, preferences, or emotions in the group context. It results in one or more of the members gaining a better understanding of the way inclusion, emotions, control, and power affect problem solving and other group processes, and provide choices about their degree of involvement and commitment. Such activities provide information so that people have a clearer sense of how their needs and wants can or will be supported. Improvement activities that address an individual’s behavior in a group include coaching, 360-degree feedback, and assistance with conflict. These interventions attempt to alter the group’s ongoing processes by focusing on the behaviors and attitudes of individual members. For example, one team’s typical decision-making process included the leader having several agenda items for discussion. Each of the items, however, had a predetermined set of actions that she wanted the group to take. Most members were frustrated by their inability to influ- ence the conclusions. The team-building process consisted of coaching the team leader and group members about ways to change this process. The leader received feedback about specific examples of her not-so-subtle manipulation to arrive at preconceived decisions and how group members felt about it. At the next meeting, the leader acknowledged the feedback and indicated her willingness to be challenged about such preconceived decisions. Team members expressed their increased willingness to engage in problem-solving discussions, their trust in the leader, and their ability to make the challenge without fear of reprisal.
10-4c Interventions Relevant to the Group’s Behavior
The most common focus of team-building activities is behavior related to task perfor- mance and group process. In an effective team, task behavior and group process must be integrated with each other as well as with the needs and wants of the people making
TABLE 10.
Categories of Team-Building Interventions
Focus of Intervention Individual Behavior Group Behavior
Integration with Organization
Diagnosis Assessment instruments and interview data to understand personal style and motivation
Team surveys, interviews, and observations to understand group operations
Interviews and surveys from internal customers and other group stake- holders to understand group’s role and effectiveness
Improvement Individual coaching and feedback 360-degree feedback Third-party conflict resolution
Group vision, mission, purpose development Role clarification and decision rights
Strategic planning and stakeholder mapping Large group intervention Intergroup conflict resolution
SOURCE: Adapted from W.G. Dyer, Team Building: Issues and Alternatives, 1987.
Purpose of Intervention
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up the group. Diagnostic activities involve gathering data through the use of team sur- veys or, more commonly, through interviews. The nature of the data gathered will vary depending on the purpose of the team-building program, the consultant’s knowledge about the organization and its culture, and the people involved. The consultant already may have obtained a great deal of data by sitting in as a process observer at staff and other meetings. The data gathered also will depend on what other OD efforts have taken place in the organization. By whatever method obtained, however, the data usually include information on leadership styles and behavior; goals, objectives, and decision- making processes; organizational culture, communication patterns, and interpersonal relationships and processes; barriers to effective group functioning; and task and related technical problems. Diagnostic activities often establish a framework within which fur- ther work can be done. Improvement activities aim to improve the group’s process and functioning. A vari- ety of exercises have been described by different authors.^30 They include role clarifica- tion, improving goal clarity and member commitment, modifying or clarifying the decision-making or problem-solving process, changing norms, increasing risk taking and trust, and improving communication. Application 10.3 presents an example of a team-building meeting involving a top- management team.^31 Ask yourself the following questions as you read this case.
- Do you agree with Ted’s and the executive committee’s decision to make the work- shop’s focus task-oriented vs. more interpersonally oriented on the relationships? What do you think of Ted’s choices during the workshop?
- Could an external consultant have followed Ted’s approach and gotten a similar result? What other choices, as an internal consultant, did Ted have?
- What were the benefits and risks associated with Ted’s decision to start working with the directors before engaging the executive committee first?
10-4d Interventions Affecting the Group’s Integration with the
Rest of the Organization
As a team gains a better understanding of itself and becomes better able to diagnose and solve its own problems, it focuses on its role within the organization. A group’s relation- ship to the larger organizational context is an important aspect of group effectiveness.^32 Diagnostic activities usually focus on understanding the group’s organizational role, how its goals support the larger organization, or how the group interacts with other groups by interviewing internal customers and other stakeholders. Improvement activities involve strategic planning and stakeholder mapping interventions to modify the group’s contribution to the organization, how it acquires resources, or alters its outputs in terms of cost, quality, and quantity. Sometimes, the team may recognize a need for more collaboration with other parts of the organization and may try to establish a project team that crosses the boundaries of existing teams. As the team becomes more cohesive, it usually exerts a stronger influence on other groups within the organization. This can lead to intergroup conflict and the need for large group interventions or intergroup conflict resolution interventions (Chapter 11). Because that is one area in which team building can have negative effects, the process consultant must help the group understand its role within the larger organization, develop its own diagnostic skills, and examine alternative action plans so that intergroup tensions and conflicts do not expand.
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Basically, the role of the OD consultant is to work closely with the manager (and members of the team) to a point at which the manager is capable of engaging in team development activities as a regular and ongoing part of overall managerial responsibili- ties. Assuming that the manager wants and needs a consultant, the two should work together in developing the initial program, keeping in mind that (1) the manager ulti- mately is responsible for all team-building activities, even though the consultant’s resources are available; and (2) the goal of the consultant’s presence is to help the man- ager learn to continue team development processes with minimum consultant help or without the ongoing help of the consultant. Thus, in the first stages, the consultant might be much more active in data gather- ing, diagnosis, and action planning, particularly if a one- to three-day off-site workshop is considered. In later stages, the consultant takes a much less active role, with the manager becoming more active and serving as both manager and team developer.
10-4f The Results of Team Building
The early research on team building’s effectiveness produced inconsistent, but generally positive, results. Several studies reported positive results across a range of variables including feelings, attitudes, and measures of performance.^35 Other studies produced less positive outcomes.^36 Less powerful research designs, short time frames, and the confounding impact of other interventions occurring in conjunction with team building were the most important explanation for the lack of consistent results.^37 For example, one review of 30 studies found that only ten tried to measure changes in performance. Buller and Bell attempted to differ- entiate the effects of team building from the effects of other interventions that occur along with team building.^38 Specifically, they tried to separate the effects of team building from the effects of goal setting, an intervention aimed at setting realistic performance goals and developing action plans for achieving them. In a rigorous field experiment, Buller and Bell examined the differential effects of team building and goal setting on productivity measures of underground miners. Their results showed that team building affected the quality of per- formance and goal setting affected the quantity of performance. This differential impact was explained in terms of the nature of the mining task. The task of improving the quality of performance was more complex, unstructured, and interdependent than was the task of achieving quantity. This suggests that team building can improve group performance, par- ticularly on tasks that are complex, unstructured, and interdependent. More recently, a 2009 meta-analysis of 20 studies representing 579 teams found positive and moderate overall effect sizes; there was a significant tendency for team building to posi- tively influence team outcomes.^39 Four team-building activities—goal setting, interpersonal relations, problem solving, and role clarification—and four team outcomes—cognitive, affective, process, and performance—were examined more closely. Goal-setting and role clarification interventions were the most powerful, while affective and process outcomes registered the largest improvements. Team building, like OD at the organization level, is a process over time, and OD practitioners need to be aware of the full range of reasons teams are effective. Research by Hackman and his colleagues have suggested that too much time may be spent trying to help teams that were designed and launched incorrectly. They argue that one of the most important tasks of the OD practitioner is to be sure that any team gets chartered and started correctly.^40 In a related study where the teams’ launching was held
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