Working In Teams

One in a series of guides offering expert advice for managers, this book looks at the subject of teamworking from the inside. It shows how to make a more positive and effective contribution to ensure teams work together and achieve together.

An engaging, relevant text, Working in Teams explores the major concepts related to team success and prepares students to lead and work in and lead collaborative, interdependent environments. Authors Brian A. Griffith, PhD, and Ethan B. Dunham EdM, MBA, teach readers to accomplish specific goals in teams, foster the development of individual members, and transform “high-potential” groups into “high performing” teams. Readers will develop a strong, practical foundation in topics essential to effective teamwork: team design and development, interpersonal dynamics, leadership, communication, decision making, creativity and innovation, diversity, project management, and performance evaluation.

Why do some teams thrive, while others struggle? In the modern workplace, employees collaborate. Managers are expected to be effective team leaders and employees are expected to be valued teammates. But many teams struggle. Being part of a struggling team can be unpleasant, but it can also hurt your career and waste company resources. In Teams That Work, Scott Tannenbaum and Eduardo Salas present the seven drivers of team effectiveness and the clearest recommendations on what really makes teams great. Applying the lessons they've learned from working with high-stakes, high-risk team situations to any kind of organization, they will dispel some of the most enduring myths (e.g., can you be both a star and a great team player?), feature the most useful psychological research, and share real-world illustrations of effective teams in action. Readers will find actionable, evidence-based tips for being an effective team leader, a great team member, a supportive senior leader, or an impactful consultant.

Working in Teams is an undergraduate textbook that prepares students to work in collaborative, interdependent environments. This class-tested text is written in an engaging style with illustrations and examples that are of interest to today's students. Interesting case studies at the beginning of each chapter draw readers in, provide accessible context for the material, and create a desire to know more. Also included with the book will be a 360° online team assessment tool that will help students to improve their team performance.

Offers a systematic program for developing managers and employees into teams that work together to increase productivity and achieve the organization's goals

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO license. This book comprehensively covers topics in knowledge management and competence in strategy development, management techniques, collaboration mechanisms, knowledge sharing and learning, as well as knowledge capture and storage. Presented in accessible “chunks,” it includes more than 120 topics that are essential to high-performance organizations. The extensive use of quotes by respected experts juxtaposed with relevant research to counterpoint or lend weight to key concepts; “cheat sheets” that simplify access and reference to individual articles; as well as the grouping of many of these topics under recurrent themes make this book unique. In addition, it provides scalable tried-and-tested tools, method and approaches for improved organizational effectiveness. The research included is particularly useful to knowledge workers engaged in executive leadership; research, analysis and advice; and corporate management and administration. It is a valuable resource for those working in the public, private and third sectors, both in industrialized and developing countries.

Most teams underperform. Yours can beat the odds. If you read nothing else on building better teams, read these 10 articles. We’ve combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you assemble and steer teams that get results. Leading experts such as Jon Katzenbach, Teresa Amabile, and Tamara Erickson provide the insights and advice you need to: Boost team performance through mutual accountability Motivate large, diverse groups to tackle complex projects Increase your teams’ emotional intelligence Prevent decision deadlock Extract results from a bunch of touchy superstars Fight constructively with top-management colleagues