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Greg Ododa
Dr. Griffin
English 1102-097
15 March 2014
Annotated Bibliography
"10 Academic Insights on Building, Motivating and Managing an Exceptional Team."
Helpscout.net. Help Scout, 28 Aug. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
In this article, team building is the main focus and a list of ten studies is provided. The
author stresses the importance of teams and ensuring they run smoothly. The studies
focus on the importance of diversity within a group, establishing a relationship between
members, and team building activities. The goal of this source is to make the reader
interested in team building and open minded to teamwork. This article will be useful for
my research because it is unique and focuses on the members rather than organization
skills.

Bodwell, Donald. "A Historical Perspective of High Performing
Teams."Highperformanceteams.org. N.p., 2006. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
This article is a timeline of high performance teamwork throughout the history of
humanity. The author discusses different groups of people throughout history and how
they were successful by using teamwork. The purpose of this source is to inform the
reader on past events that humans are successful through teamwork. This article is
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objective because the author is simply restating history. I found that teamwork is
universal and has been around since the beginning of time which will be useful for my
research. I also learned teamwork has always been in human nature. This article will be
beneficial to my paper because I now have background information on teamwork.

"Building a Positive Team." Mindtools.com. Mind Tools, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
This article stresses the importance of maintaining a positive attitude in a team. It uses
research to show the effects of a positive team such as an increase in creativity and
productivity. Positive leaders are a vital part of whether the group stays positive or not.
This article made me think about how important the teams mood is to its success. I think
that the mood of each team member can make or break a team. This article might be
slightly repetitive but it definitely beings up good points and evidence to support it.

"Chapter 14: Team Building." UCSF.edu. University of California San Francisco, n.d. Web. 14
Mar. 2014.
This article is a guide to team building. The author focuses on the importance of
organization and respect for other members. I was able to gather information arguing the
benefits of teamwork and trust within group members. Communication and trust between
team members is essential information that will allow my research to expand. The
information in this article explains the process of team building which is vital for my
research.
Hackman, Richard. "Six Common Misperceptions about Teamwork." Web log post. Harvard
Business Review. Harvard Business, 07 June 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
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In this article Richard Hackman uses his research in the U.S. intelligence community to
point out six common misperceptions about teamwork. The first misperception he
pointed out was the belief that harmony helps, however he states that research shows that
conflict, when well managed can lead to new creative ideas. The second Misperception
was that mixing up the team would help improve productivity, when in reality it is best to
keep the group intact. Third is that the bigger the group the better but research showed
that larger groups are harder to organize and control. The fourth misperception is that the
use of technology to replace things like mandatory face-to-face meetings is the future and
it should be embraced. In reality the personal contact improves communication within the
group. It all depends on the leader is the fifth misperception. The leaders job is to help
members manage themselves rather than the leader walking the team through each step.
His final misperception is that teamwork is the best way to go about the decisions made,
when in actually the more productive route is for the leader to provide a clear statement
of what the team is to accomplish and to ensure the team has the proper resources and
supports needed to succeed.
Hackman, Richard. "Why Teams Dont Work." Interview by Diane Coutu. Harvard Business
Review. Harvard Business, May 2009. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
This article uses an interview and the research of J. Richard Hackman, a professor of
Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University. It walks the reader through
a series of questions to answer the question, Why Teams Dont Work. The author uses
statistics from research to make certain conclusions to show how factors like poison team
members and lack of leadership causes teams to become inefficient.

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The article gave me interesting facts about how different factors affect the efficiency of a
team. The author stated facts such as how teams that have worked together consistently
have a way less statistical chance of making mistakes. Then he takes it further by
explaining why problems like that have to be weighed out in order to make sound and
well rounded decisions as a leader. This article will help in my search by giving me
factors that affect the productivity of groups and examples that better explain the cause of
the given problem.

Mcnamara, Carter. "All About Team Building." Managementhelp.org. Authenticity Consulting,
n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
In this article, the author, Carter Mcnamara, provides a list of steps to teach the reader
how to build highly effective teams. Each step builds from the previous one allowing a
clear flow for the reader to follow. It provides necessary information on how to organize
a team and how to ensure the team works well together as a unit.

The first steps deal with setting goals and objectives for the team and the last step is
ensuring praise whenever the team accomplishes these goals. This article also discusses
the importance of communication throughout the entire team, as well as, leadership roles.
After reading this article, I knew it would be beneficial in my research because it
establishes the major steps necessary for a well organized team.

Pentland, Alex. "The Hard Science of Teamwork." Web log post. Harvard Business Review.
Harvard Business, 20 Mar. 2012. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
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Alex Pentland describes how he led a team at MIT with a goal of finding a science
behind teamwork. By using sociometric badges, they captured how people communicate
and characteristics that make up great teams. The results were broken down into four
points: Communicate frequently, Talk and listen in equal measure, equally among
members, Engage in frequent informal communication and lastly, Explore for ideas and
information outside the group. He states how none of these talk about the substance of the
communication and that other factors such as tone of voice, gesticulation, how one faces
others in the group, and how much people talk and listen are the important points in
communication.
These points all involve communication, which tells me how important communication is
to creating a great team, which gives me another strong focus point in my research.

Sataloff, Robert T. "Teamwork." ENT: Ear, Nose & Throat Journal May 2010: 206. MasterFILE
Complete. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
In this article Robert Sataloff writes about a statement on high-performance teams that
were developed by the American College of Surgeons. The first part of the article is all
about the medical focus of the statement. The second half is where the main points about
teamwork are made. It gives a list of attributes that a high-performing team should have
such as the recognition and constructive resolution of conflicts. It also lists characteristics
of a good leader and examples of actions that properly executes the given characteristics.
Even with the focus on medicine in this article, the attributes given in order to create a
high-performing team are still applicable to other communities. Looking at the same goal
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of having an efficient team in a different community helps me look at the issue in a
different setting, which expands my view of what a good team looks like.

Williams, Ray B. "Wired for Success." Weblog post. How Teamwork Can Damage Productivity.
Ray Williams, 31 Mar. 2012. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
This is an informative article on the negative aspects of teamwork. The author provides
other research done in the past that proved teams usually have a worse outcome than
individual work. Social loafing is discussed because it has been found to lower
productivity.

By reading this article, I was able to discover new knowledge about the productivity of
teamwork. The author describes the how people tend to fall under the radar in groups and
become more reliant on the other group members to complete the task. However, the
article also taught me that group work provides to social needs. This article will help my
research by providing me with information on the negative outlook of the productivity of
teams.