Page 143 - E2 Integrated Workbook STUDENT 2018

Building, leading and managing teams

Successful teams

4.1 Vaill’s high performing teams

Vaill claimed that high-performance teams had the following characteristics.

 Clarification of broad purposes and near term objectives.

 Commitment to purposes.

 Teamwork focused on the task at hand.

 Strong and clear leadership.

 Generation of inventions and new methods.

4.2 Peters and Waterman’s successful teams

Peters and Waterman identified five key aspects of successful teams as:

 the numbers should be small. Larger teams would be slower and harder to
manage

 the team should be of limited duration, and exist only to achieve a particular
task

 membership should be voluntary. Where members do not want to be part of
the group, they are unlikely to participate fully

 communication should be informal and unstructured, with little
documentation and no status barriers

 it should be action-oriented. The team should create a plan for action not 'just
a form of words'.

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