Teamwork and associated psychological factors: A review

Abstract

Research results that have been reported indicate that the specific outcomes of teamwork vary and are in part context-dependant, while less is known about the interaction between teamwork and psychological factors. This paper reviews research results published in scientific journals in the period 2000 Á/2005, and assesses current knowledge of teams and associated psychological factors. Furthermore, the review process identified the importance of team constituent factors (interdependence and team autonomy), team type and team size, and contextual factors for the results that were reported, and assessed the design and research-methodological foundations of those results. The main inclusion criteria for papers were that they had been based on field studies of formally established teams and were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Furthermore they must have been based on the use of questionnaires, and the occupational sector must have been identified. Fifty-five papers were identified for inclusion in the review. An almost consistent pattern of positive associations between psychological variables and teamwork was found to be reported across team types, team sizes, and contextual factors. Furthermore, the reported psychological factors appear to be positively linked to team autonomy and team interdependence. This paper discusses the strength of the interactions between teamwork and various psychological variables, and suggests directions for future research.

The importance of employee participation and perceptions of changes in procedures in a teamworking intervention

“…This result is in contrast to previous research that suggests introducing teamwork may increase social support (Rasmussen & Jeppesen, 2006). This finding may be specific to our sample, as employees already worked in groups prior to team implementation: the emphasis in the intervention was on transferring responsibilities to employees that had formerly been the responsibility of the supervisor.…”

“…Team member autonomy may also increase as the team manager's role becomes that of a coach and a facilitator (Day, Gronn, & Salas, 2006) where team members take over managerial tasks (Rasmussen & Jeppesen, 2006; van Mierlo, Rutte, Kompier, & Dooreward, 2005). There is some evidence that the significant changes in existing procedures (e.g.…”

The impact of workplace relationships on engagement, well‐being, commitment and turnover for nurses in Australia and the USA

“…According to van Mierlo et al . (), teamwork positively promotes employees' perceptions of well‐being and Rasmussen and Jeppesen's () meta‐analysis found evidence linking teamwork with increased organizational commitment and lower turnover intentions. Li et al .…”

Working Together versus Working Autonomously: a New Power-Dependence Perspective on the Individual-Level of Analysis

“…We based our new perspective on recent developments in power-dependence theory and interdependence theory. Thus, we attempted to provide more than a simple response to scholars' calls for more research on this topic (e.g., Langfred, 2005;Molleman, 2009;Rasmussen & Jeppesen, 2006) by also providing an alternative theoretical perspective that can be used to gain a better understanding of this interaction at a new level of analysis. Our alternative perspective is based on powerdependence theory (Emerson, 1962), interdependence theory (Thibaut & Kelley, 1959), recent reviews of the power literature (e.g., Fiske & Berdahl, 2007), and recent studies on power that focused on asymmetries in task dependence (De Jong et al, 2007;Van der Vegt et al, 2010).…”