Making The Team: A Guide For Managers

Drawing upon research from leading scholars in the fields of social psychology, organization behavior, sociology, and cognitive psychology, this invaluable resource for both young managers and seasoned executives alike covers both basic and cutting-edge team building and management principles as it outlines in a clear, step-by-step fashion how to improve the functioning of teams within an organization. It introduces the basic building blocks for analyzing and perfecting teamwork; addresses the assessment of a team's performance and productivity; and discusses when and how to reward teamwork in organizations. It focuses on internal dynamics, such as structuring tasks, selecting people, and fostering team relationships; how teams communicate, process information, and create collective team intelligence; and ways to bring out a team's maximum creativity. It also covers external dynamics, including team boundaries, inter-team relations, networking, and boundary-spanning; dual-tasks of effective leadership; issues of conflict and competition between teams in the organization; and the impact of information technology on both global and local teamwork. Each chapter begins with a case study of a real team and company and includes practical appendices with tips on how to run meetings, build effective study groups, and examples of 360-degree evaluations.