GROUP COHESIVENESS – A KEY FACTOR IN DETERMINING EFFECTIVENESS
With workspaces becoming more diverse and dynamic, employers are increasingly searching for prospective employees who are cooperative in nature and can easily work collaboratively. Teams are becoming the building blocks of modern day organizations (Tekleab, Quigley, & Maryland, 2009) as they provide a huge pool of innovative ideas to choose from, which an independent individual might fail to do. Cohesiveness, trust, and conflict management are some of the factors that influence group efficiency and productivity. Cohesiveness is defined as the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of its instrumental objectives organizations (Tekleab, Quigley, & …show more content…
Karren (Peters & Karren, 2009) , trust does have a significant on the performance of virtual teams. In this highly globalised work culture, communication barriers are no longer a problem. Many organisations are indulging in increased team based work among geographically dispersed teams known as virtual teams. A virtual team is a group of individuals who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology (Guilloux, Kalika, & Laval, 2009). A team with all the members dispersed is considered a high degree virtual team, whereas one with some members collocated and the others dispersed is a lower degree virtual team. However, irrespective of the degree of virtual teams, communication between team members takes place only through electronic technology instead of face to face contact. The absence of face to face communication contributes to the complexity of virtual teams and also makes developing trust a difficult task. Even with the low level of shared expertise and differences in cultures, trust allows members to share and explain their innovative ideas openly, without any hesitation. Trust has been defined as a state involving positive expectations about another’s motives, with respect to one’s self in situations entailing risk (Boon & Holmes, 1991). Being a psychosocial trait, trust plays a significant role in determining members’ satisfaction levels, intentions to quit, and also the level of cohesiveness. Members of a conventional team are more likely to develop trust through face to face social interactions where they share their ideas on the given task as well as personal experiences, which enhances their emotional bond. In a virtual team, however, task based relationships and timely interaction through different sources of communication such as electronic mails, video conferences and voice calls are what build intergroup trust. The level to which team members
With workspaces becoming more diverse and dynamic, employers are increasingly searching for prospective employees who are cooperative in nature and can easily work collaboratively. Teams are becoming the building blocks of modern day organizations (Tekleab, Quigley, & Maryland, 2009) as they provide a huge pool of innovative ideas to choose from, which an independent individual might fail to do. Cohesiveness, trust, and conflict management are some of the factors that influence group efficiency and productivity. Cohesiveness is defined as the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of its instrumental objectives organizations (Tekleab, Quigley, & …show more content…
Karren (Peters & Karren, 2009) , trust does have a significant on the performance of virtual teams. In this highly globalised work culture, communication barriers are no longer a problem. Many organisations are indulging in increased team based work among geographically dispersed teams known as virtual teams. A virtual team is a group of individuals who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology (Guilloux, Kalika, & Laval, 2009). A team with all the members dispersed is considered a high degree virtual team, whereas one with some members collocated and the others dispersed is a lower degree virtual team. However, irrespective of the degree of virtual teams, communication between team members takes place only through electronic technology instead of face to face contact. The absence of face to face communication contributes to the complexity of virtual teams and also makes developing trust a difficult task. Even with the low level of shared expertise and differences in cultures, trust allows members to share and explain their innovative ideas openly, without any hesitation. Trust has been defined as a state involving positive expectations about another’s motives, with respect to one’s self in situations entailing risk (Boon & Holmes, 1991). Being a psychosocial trait, trust plays a significant role in determining members’ satisfaction levels, intentions to quit, and also the level of cohesiveness. Members of a conventional team are more likely to develop trust through face to face social interactions where they share their ideas on the given task as well as personal experiences, which enhances their emotional bond. In a virtual team, however, task based relationships and timely interaction through different sources of communication such as electronic mails, video conferences and voice calls are what build intergroup trust. The level to which team members