The 13 Key Performance Indicators for Highly Effective Teams

Allam Ahmed, George Siantonas, Nicholas Siantonas

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351280020
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Ethics
• Index: Business

An organisation's most important asset is its people. And critical to an organisation's success is the extent to which its people interact effectively – both with each other as team members and with the wider organisation. This is why managing teams has become a key area for a growing number of organisations around the world. While many organisations are world-class at managing their materials and machinery, they fall short in managing the human side of their activities.This book outlines the challenges faced by both team leaders and team members in 21st-century workplaces. It proposes 13 key performance or "team health" indicators for highly effective teams based on research data collected from a large range of industry sectors, team sizes and organisations in the UK. It contributes to the understanding of the nature and functioning of team cohesiveness by describing teamwork as a multi-component variable and identifying the factors that impact on teams and the implications of teamwork for organisations.The book sets out to aid organisations by introducing a Team Performance Diagnostic (TPD) tool. The TPD enables organisations to gain an accurate and detailed insight into the real-time performance of their teams, helps team managers to understand the underlying 'people' issues within the team and how to reach higher levels of team performance quickly. The TPD has been widely used in major multinationals and the UK public sector to pinpoint hard-to-find opportunities to achieve rapid improvements.The research suggests that the use of TPD contributes to more free-flowing feedback both within the team and in the organisation as a whole, and that successful teams are indicative of a healthy organisational culture.This book is an essential guide for senior managers and policy-makers dealing with team effectiveness, and will be highly useful for students of business and management.

1
Aims and methodology

Introduction

While many organisations are great at managing the materials and machinery, they often fall very short in being able to manage the human side of their business. If members of the organisation don’t take personal responsibility for their own actions, decisions and results, then they won’t be able to build trust. Teams are defined by many scholars as a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable (see Huczynski and Buchanan 2006; Dixon 1991; Drucker 1998; Ghoshal et al. 2003; Hofstede 1991; Needle 2001; Kraft 1999; Michalski and King 1998; among others). These skills include being a team player, a propensity for participation, cooperative behaviour and leadership.

Essentially, there are two major issues to consider when people come together in a work group or team within an organisation.

• The first issue—and frequently this is the only one the group considers—is the task and the problems involved in getting the job done
• The second issue—and the one least often considered by the group/team—is the process of the group work itself: the mechanisms by which the group acts as a unit and not as a loose rabble

Without due attention to this latter process, the value of the group and human capital of the organisation can be diminished or even destroyed.

Effective explicit management of this process can enhance the worth of the group to a point where it is many times the sum of the worth of its individuals. This then leads to synergy, which in turn engenders a positive organisational culture and makes group work attractive in organisations despite the possible problems of (and time spent in) group formation.

The right degree of knowledge, skill and attitude are essential ingredients for high performance in all fields of human endeavour. However, if a goal can be reached only when people work together in a team, their individual talents alone are not enough. What matters most is the intangible element often referred to as chemistry or the extent to which people gel together.

SIA Group

SIA Group was established in 1982, since which time it has gained an international reputation for the design and delivery of programmes that equip people with the knowledge, experiences and skills they need to excel in the workplace and improve people performance. For many years, SIA Group has delivered its programmes and training for over 100 organisations worldwide ranging from multinational enterprises to smaller companies and government organisations.¹

SIA Group’s work has resulted in the creation of a unique, new and electronically administered Team Performance Diagnostic (TPD) tool. The tool enables functional heads and managers to quickly gain an accurate and detailed insight into the real-life functioning and ‘health’ of their current team. TPD helps managers to:

• Understand team dynamics
• Enhance team sprit
• Encourage communication
• Identify development activities
• Maximise team performance
• Allocate training budgets effectively
• Quickly reach higher levels of team performance

To date, the tool has been extensively used in major multinational and UK public sector organisations to pinpoint those hard-to-find opportunities to achieve rapid improvements. The key advantages of TPD are:

• Improve results and reach higher levels of team performance
• Quickly establish how to generate fast improvements in team effectiveness
• Undertake development activities that maximise team performance

Objectives

Based on SIA’s TPD tool, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of the nature and functioning of teamwork cohesiveness in organisations at different levels by describing teamwork as a multi-component variable and identifying the factors that operate in combination when teamwork is taking place, and examining the implications of teamwork for the effectiveness of the organisation. It also aims to expand the knowledge and understanding of sourcing team interaction and effectiveness.

The main objective is to identify the most current trends of team effectiveness across as wide a range of sectors as possible within the United Kingdom. The researchers have worked to capture a snapshot from data across a range of industry sectors to make it possible to pull out any trends that are running within a specific industry. This enabled the researchers to explore the aggregate analysis of survey results and an analysis of the sector as a whole.

Methodology

The research method used for this study is based on the work that has been undertaken by SIA Group over the last 26 years in helping clients to achieve more with and through their teams. This extensive work has now been captured to identify 13 Key Performance Indicators (see Appendix 1), which serve as drivers or ‘team health’ indicators.

Building on a comprehensive review of the relevant literature, the secondary data collection focused on the derivation of appropriate testable hypotheses linked to the research objectives above. A number of key databases were used to extract published and comparative data focusing on organisational culture, motivation and group dynamics, among others.

The primary data was collected from different industry sectors in the UK in the period 15 May to 20 July 2006. During the study, time was allocated for checking and clarifying the completed questionnaires, correcting any information or descriptions while the details could still be clearly remembered, as well as gathering all relevant literature. After incorporating corrections, six researchers were interviewed for pre-testing of the questionnaire.

The final version of the questionnaire, which consists of 156 questions across the 13 key team performance indicators, was then produced accordingly and data was gathered from the different sectors as designated.

Data collection

An email invitation was sent out to a selection of human resources (HR), training/learning professionals and managers on the SIA prospects database comprising 693 contacts from which a total of 81 responses were received.

The email invitation contains information about the aims of the national team performance perception survey, an incentive to complete the survey (win a bottle of champagne and free copy of the final report) and a link to our online survey/questionnaire (see Appendix 2).

The online questionnaire was designed by selecting the 13 key team performance indicators as featured in the TPD tool to focus on personal perception only across these 13 team performance indicators. The other advantages of the online questionnaire are that it allowed us to collate all responses in electronic format to populate our sector, and provided indicator spreadsheets for quick reporting—and consequently providing data for the output of aggregated graphs and stats for each sector and team performance indicator.

The questionnaire was completed on a fully anonymous basis, enabling participants to be entirely honest in their responses, expressing their own views and opinions confidentially.

All contacts in the database represent nine sectors/industries, encompassing small, medium and large organisations: education; electronics and technology; finance and insurance; healthcare; local government; professional services; retail; telecommunications; and travel and leisure. The sector ‘professional services’ includes companies in the fields of recruitment, consultancy, business solutions and website construction.

Finally, the results of the diagnosis are incorporated in a comprehensive colour report with up to 25 pages of in-depth analysis presented in the form of coloured bar charts, data tables and narrative (see Appendix 3 for a sample TPD report). This data is presented by an SIA Group consultant, to advise on individual and team development plans and decision-making.

Note

1 More information about SIA Group is available at www.siagroup.co.uk.

2
Concept and theory

Introduction

Researchers have long been interested in the study of team-work in organisations, as fostering teamwork is a top priority for many leaders (Nelson 1995). The benefits are clear: increased productivity, improved customer service, a more flexible system and employee empowerment.

For the purpose of this study, several sources have been consulted, including refereed journals, online databases and governmental reports and statistics. However, it is clear from the outset that there are limitations on the availability of literature specifically focusing on UK team effectiveness. The literature on teamwork has been dominated by issues relating to interpersonal work relationship, governance structures or even societies as a whole. It is therefore important at the start of this chapter to explore several conceptual issues relating to organisational culture, motivation and group dynamics.

Organisation and culture

There are several definitions of an organisation but, in simple terms, an organisation is defined by Haberberg and Reiple (2001) as a social system with an economic purpose. This social system includes a group of people, an economic actor, an accumulation of knowledge and learning as well as a bundle of resources. Therefore, no analysis is complete unless it takes account of all these aspects at once.

Organisations have to be managed to provide a cohesive structure for their daily operations. An organisation’s most important asset is its people. Everyone is seeking to achieve many different things from the collective purposes of the organisation rather than the goods and services it provides. The employees look to their organisation not only as a source of money but also as a source of meaning, stability, security, support, protection, self-esteem, self-confidence, power and control, among other things (Huczynski and Buchanan 2006). People at work are motivated by more than just pay and conditions; their need for recognition and a sense of belonging are very important (Bozeman and Straussman 1990). Human beings have reasons for the things that they do and our behaviour is actually purposive (Maslow 1970). Everything may be more productive if your people are sufficiently motivated, trained, informed, managed, utilised and empowered (McLagan 1989).

The human experience is one of cultures. Culture and cultural differences have been at the heart of human behaviour throughout history. Indeed, at the end of the 20th century, the significance of culture was highlighted in the rethinking of world politics that stemmed from the end of the Cold War and the increasing pace of globalisation. The shrinking of the globe brought different cultures into closer contact and represented a challenge to traditional patterns of culture and social order.

People faced the dilemma of what in their cultures could be maintained and what would be lost. Cultural change created friction. When people of one culture perceive those of another not just as alien, but also as threatening, conflict is likely. Long-suppressed cultural conflicts reignited following the Cold War. Peopl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Aims and methodology
• 2 Concept and theory
• 3 Industry aggregate analysis
• 4 Industry sector analysis
• 5 The roadmap to team effectiveness
• Bibliography
• Appendix 1: The 13 Key Performance Indicators
• Appendix 2: Team performance survey
• Appendix 3: A sample TPD report
• About the authors