For many years consultancy assignments on team-working have been growing in popularity as a means of building competitive advantage. However, this popularity has not been underpinned by rigorous, organisationally-based research (West and Slater, 1995), and the research which has been undertaken has not adequately addressed the issues (Lorsch, 1989, Higgs, 1999; Higgs et al., 2005). It is therefore important to support the rhetoric about teams with systematic research.
The relationship between top team performance and organisational performance was given a clear focus and a sense of direction as long ago as the 1980s by Hambrick and Mason's ‘Upper Echelon Theory’ (Hambrick and Mason, 1984). This promoted a stream of demographically-based research, but the results have been limited and sometimes contradictory (Pettigrew, 1992; Higgs et al., 2005), in part as a result of the absence of direct data relating to the impact of teams on performance (Pettigrew, 1992; Lawrence, 1991). Moreover, both team and group research have failed to analyse the importance of the mix of personalities and team processes in achieving high performance (Higgs, 1998; 1999).
This paper presents the results of a research programme involving 54 senior management teams using direct data. The research assesses the importance of the mix of personalities in a team, and the processes they employ in working together, in determining performance outcomes. It identifies the benefits of successful team processes, many of which relate also to Higgs and Dulewicz's parallel studies of board processes (Higgs and Dulewicz, 1997). Finally, the paper explores practical implications of the research findings, in particular in relation to developing senior management team performance.
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