Team effectiveness: contributors and hindrances

Abstract

This study asked members of teams to identify the factors that most contributed and most hindered the effectiveness of their team. Seventy-five team members from 13 different work teams in different organizations participated in the study. The results showed that the factors that most hinder a team's performance are external to the team and those that most contribute to its effectiveness are internal to the team. Thus, support via organizational contextual variables are necessary but not sufficient conditions to promote team effectiveness. The factors that put teams into the ‘effective’ category are those variables that are specific to the team members themselves.