Does Team Building Work?

Abstract

This research reports the results of a comprehensive investigation into the effectiveness of team building. The article serves to update and extend Salas, Rozell, Mullen, and Driskell's (1999) team-building meta-analysis by assessing a larger database and examining a broader set of outcomes. Our study considers the impact of four specific team-building components (goal setting, interpersonal relations, problem solving, and role clarification) on cognitive, affective, process, and performance outcomes. Results (based on 60 correlations) suggest that team building has a positive moderate effect across all team outcomes. In terms of specific outcomes, team building was most strongly related to affective and process outcomes. Results are also presented on the differential effectiveness of team building based upon the team size.

The effects of team training on team outcomes: A meta-analysis

“…Because the largest effect was found for cognitive outcomes, it seems that for practitioners in organizations, choosing team training as an intervention when they desire to enhance cognitive outcomes will be especially beneficial. Furthermore, comparisons between cognitive results in the team training meta-analysis and the recent team-building meta-analysis (Klein et al, 2009) indicate that team training has a larger effect on cognitive outcomes than team building, suggesting that team training is a more appropriate intervention choice for modifying that type of effectiveness.…”

“…In contrast, team-building interventions do not target skills related specifically to the immediate team task. Rather, they focus on problem solving and interpersonal issues (Klein et al, 2009) such as conflict management, trust building, or decision-making skills.…”

“…In addition, a distinction should be drawn between team training, which includes systematic, formal, planned efforts to increase task-relevant task and teamwork skills, and team building, which is not systematic and focuses on problem solving and interpersonal issues rather than on specific task-related skills (Klein et al, 2009). A comparison of the results of the Klein et al meta-analysis of the effects of team building on team outcomes with the results of this study indicates that overall and for most of the training outcome categories (affective, teamwork skill/ process, and skill-based outcomes/performance), there was little difference between the sizes of the effects of team training and team building.…”

Swim or Sink Together

“…(Postmes et al, 2005). Second, team building measures might be an important instrument for fostering collective team identification as they have been shown to be most strongly related to affective team outcomes (Klein et al, 2009). …”

The Effect of Teambuilding on Team Development: A Quasi-Experiment within a Swedish State Authority

“…From a historical perspective, organization within groups has contributed uniquely to human development and success leading to present-day achievements [2]. Current working life conditions are almost exclusively dependent upon team-based work whereby individuals collaborate in order to carry out ever-increasingly complex assignments [2]. Within group research, several definitions of the group and team concepts are applied.…”