Human resources

Table of Contents

1. Topic pack - introduction
2. 2.1 Human Resource Planning - Notes
3. 2.1 Human resource planning - questions
4. 2.2 Organisational structure - notes
5. 2.2 Organisational structure - questions
6. 2.3 Communication - notes
7. 2.3 Communication - questions
8. 2.4 Leadership and management - notes
9. 2.4 Leadership and management - questions
10. 2.5 Motivation - notes
    1. Motivation
    2. Motivational theories
    3. Content theories
    4. Mayo and McClelland
    5. Process theories of motivation
    6. Exam advice - motivation
    7. Motivation in practice
    8. Motivation in Practice: Financial motivation
    9. Motivation in practice: Non-financial motivation
    10. Team theory
    11. Additional forms of non-financial motivation
11. 2.5 Motivation - questions
12. 2.5 Motivation - simulations and activities
13. 2.6 Organisational and corporate cultures - notes (HL only)
14. 2.6 Organisational and corporate cultures - questions
15. 2.7 Employer and employee relations - notes (HL only)
16. 2.7 Employer and employee relations - questions
17. 2.8 Crisis management and contingency planning - notes
18. 2.8 Crisis management and contingency planning - questions
19. Printable version

Team theory

Characteristics of Effective Teams

A number of writers have studied teams, looking for the characteristics that make some successful. Larson and LaFasto looked at high-performance groups as diverse as a championship football team and a heart transplant team and found eight characteristics that are always present. They believe:

1. The team must have a clear goal.
2. The team must have a results-driven structure.
3. The team must have competent team members.
4. The team must have unified commitment.
5. The team must have a collaborative climate.
6. The team must have high standards that are understood by all.
7. The team must receive external support and encouragement.
8. The team must have principled leadership.

Larson and LaFasto in Teamwork: What Must Go Right/What Can Go Wrong (Sage Publications 1989).

There are some significant difference between an individual working as part of a group and an individual working as part of a team. Below is a list of the differences that exist between these categories.

Stages of Team Development

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• Stages of Team Development

R. Meredith Belbin is acknowledged as the father of team-role theory. He identified eight (later extended to nine) useful roles that are necessary for successful teams. His work gained in significance during the 1980s and 1990s with the widespread adoption of teamworking.

Teamworking is seen as a means of:

• Providing greater worker flexibility and co-operation
• Helping to achieve cultural shifts within an organisation
• Improving problem solving and project management
• Tapping the talents of everyone in the organisation.

There are many types of teams including cross-functional teams, top management teams, self-directed teams. Belbin's work concentrated on teams of managers. The essence of his theory developed in Team Roles at Work is that, given knowledge of the abilities and characteristics of individual team members, success or failure can be predicted within certain limits. As a result unsuccessful teams can be improved by training and changing roles.

A Team Role came to be defined as: