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Which external factors does the team's success depend on?
The team’s success may be influenced by some external factors or ‘givens’ which are not in our control. They are the following:
- Team composition: homogeneity vs eterogeneity. Teams that are homogeneous present less chance for internal conflict and a higher level of cohesion but the solutions reached might not be so effective and creative. An eterogeneous team might go through more conflicting situations because of the variety of ideas, competences and points of view, but it is more likely to come up with more effective solutions to open-end problems.
- Team size: it seems that the ideal size for a team is between five and seven members. When teams are bigger the tendency is to create sub-groups for people to work together more closely.
- External recognition: it is important for the team to receive a recognition within the company for what they do or what they have done. When efforts are recognised this is a kind of reward that is supposed to enhance team members’ motivation and satisfaction.
- Nature of task: the target of the team should be clear and realistic. When a target is ambiguous team members may feel disoriented and when the target is not realistic team members might feel demotivated, all of which might impact the team’s performance negatively.
- Resources: team members must be confident about the resources they have. If team members feel they lack resources this will be a problem in the sense that team members will feel frustrated and will give up on the tasks to carry out.
All in all, these are factors that are not in our control. Our top-managers may decide everything about our team and we may not even have the chance to choose our team members. However, it is advisable for us to keep each external factor mentioned above into consideration when analysing our team’s performance, as external variables may impact on it significantly and we must be ready to react promptly to any kind of critical situation.
