Issues in team building: A critical test of the Team Orientation and Behavior Inventory (TOBI).

摘要

Team building is an important strategy in organization development. The human resources field and the OD profession have lacked an updated theory based definition of team building. Recently the conceptual frameworks of Goodstein, Cooke & Goodstein (1983) and of Kormanski & Mozenter (1987) have offered new models for team building based on stage development theory and on maintenance and task orientation theories of Bales, Stodgill and Gibb, respectively. The Goodstein, et al., model offers a framework and an instrument, the Team Orientation and Behavior Inventory (TOBI), for assessing and building fully functioning work teams. The present study tests the validity of the Goodstein et al. model and that of the TOBI by matching factors identified by experienced managers against concepts inherent in the TOBI.; Thirty-four managers, employed by the subsidiaries of Joy Manufacturing Company, responded in writing and through interview to questions on the "Group Situation Form" and listed reasons for the outcomes of two specific group experiences, one associated with a successful team building experience and the other with an unsuccessful experience. Frequency counts for each of five categories of responses (termed group mediators) were computed and sorted by roles the executives played in the work team situations reported on. Two independent analysts categorized key words and phrases from individual statements into five classes of coded statements. Task oriented statements were further classified as values (V) or skills and maintenance oriented statements were similarly processed. UNK was assigned to categories of statements that didn't fit the task or maintenance orientation toward work team processes. Frequencies and the content of statements were matched between observers (who achieved a.85 alpha coefficient of reliability) and with fully functioning team membership profiles generated by researchers working with the TOBI Inventory. Discrepancies and comparability of findings were analyzed.; From the analysis, it is suggested that the TOBI should include: conceptual statements that factor in external/structural mediators; embedding circumstances in relationship to task; and certain initiating behaviors involving top management support; selection of team members with power and functional knowledge already intact; and prior experience in successful team situations. Disparities between the Goodstein et al. model for successful team building and the incipient model derived from the responses of the experienced managers were developed.