The attributes and factors which lead teams within organizations

to high levels of performance

I. Introduction
Goods or services are provided by teams that are trustfully used by leaders in organizations.
High-performing teams are pursued by managers around the world. Provided by a variety of
articles and research, there is evidence that the members' characteristics can be one of the
factors deciding the performance of a team. However, leadership stands out as the main
element that affects critically the outcome of the team’s work. This essay begins by
representing stages of team forming, team development and the definition of a high-
performance team. It then explores the attributes and factors that create a more effective team
leading to a better performance of the group. Subsequently, it provide information and some
of the obstacle preventing teams to have a better outcome of the work.

II. Understanding team forming, high-performance team and attributes and factors
lead to higher performance

1. Team forming, development stages

Dr. Tuckman’s research show that a team is created though 4 stages which are forming,
stroming, norming and performing. This research is developed throughout many years by
other researchers and it still represents a useful framework for leaders, managers to have a
basic knowledge about the group dynamic and their innovation (Tuckman, 1964). The four
stages forming a team include :
1. Forming: The members will start to get to know each other and have a basic principles
when working as a team. Team members will also introduce themselves to the team leader
and HR, they now will learn about the leader’s expectation.
2. Storming: This stage will witness conficts between the members and team leader. This can
be solved by discussion between the HR team and the team leader.
3. Norming: The conficts between the team leader and members will be solved within this
stage. This stage goal is conficts’solutions.
4. Performing: At this final stage, team member will start working together fluently, have
understandings about their relationship and share the same goal. High-performance will
appears within this stage.
2. High-performance team and attributes and factors lead to higher performance.
High-performance teams is the final stage which pursued by all team leaders and
organizations. A high-performance team is defined as a group with shared goals’individuals
and group’s members have a good skills, relationships and they often consistently create good
results (Francis, D. and Young D,1979). The group relentlessly provide superior outcome
through shared goals, leadership, has good relationhips between individual and
acknowledgement of accountability.
Elements that create a higher performance team:
- Focus definition
- Perfomance Measurement
- Understandings of Members’ abilities
- Motivation
- Workplace norms and behaviours
2.1 Focus Definition
As discussed on the high-performance team definition. A high-performance group have
shared focused-goals, visions and it is defined by all of the members in the team. HPTs work
better as they share the same common goals. The members usually make a commitment to the
work as well as towards each other in the team. Based on the work of Adair (1986), Scholtes
et al. (1996) mentioned in his research: “teams must have clearly defined purposes and goals
that serve the organization” (Castka et al., 2001). Team’s indivuduals work more fluently
when they have acknowledged their roles. Understanding of team’s goal and taking
responsiblities towards the work will enhance team protentials.
2.2 Performance Measurement
Any improvements or protentials work in the team must be taken in to consideration with
appropriate measures. Measuring the performance is considered to be one of the reasons leads
to improvements in teams. Many teams didn’t show a good performance due to the lack of
appropriate performance measurements (Bamber et al,1999).
2.3 Understandings of members’ablities
In order to create a high-performance team, the employer or the team leader need to take
recuitment into consideration. Recuitments can be based on the person’s ablilities such as
talents, skill and work ethic. Team members need to commit to delivering quality
performance. Members who is lack of skills or training will definitely result in lower-
performances and it remains as one of the factors that prevent teams to achieve higher
performance. To solve this problem, the organization can give the members training
programs such as problems solving, dealing with conflict in work environment or decision
making,.. Moreover, team leaders can also inform members about the sources that they can
access to increase the work performance such as social network, documentaries,…
2.4 Motivation
It isn’t always monetary that motivates the members to provide quality work. A reseach show
that high level of intrinsic motivation is measured by individual’s interests as well as their
involvement in the activities to generate good outcome (Csikszentmihalyi 1975). After long
period working for a organization, personal satisfaction at work or working in challenging
projects stand out as effective motivations which can boost the team performance.
2.5 Workplace norms and behaviours
High-performance teams are required to have a strong team culture. It can be refered that a
team can have various of cultures, different believes, distinct visions,.. In additon to various
curtures, basic norms, behaviours in workplace environment are factors that can improve the
team performance. The behaviours in high performance teams include high-level of
communication, respect among member, willingness to evaluate each other, healthy
workplace environment, strong work ethic.
III. Summary

Nowadays, high-performance teams are pursuited by all leaders and organizations, yet there
are many obstacle to prevent members from providing outstanding work results. To enhance
the member’s working performance in order to archive better outcome results, this essay
represented five elements and attributes that teams and organization required to have : Focus
Definition, Performance Measurement, Members’ablities, Motivation, Workplace norms and
behaviours.

References
References
Tuckman, B. W. (1964). Personality structure, group composition, and group
functioning. Sociometry, 469-487.
Stott, K. and Walker, A. (1995), Teams, Teamwork & Teambuilding, Prentice-Hall, London.
Francis, D. and Young D. (1979), Improving Work Groups. A Practical Manual for
Teambuilding, University Associates, La Jolla, CA
Adair, J. (1986), Effective Teambuilding, Gower, Aldershot.
Scholtes, P., Joiner, B. and Streibel, B. (1996), The Team Handbook, Oriel Incorporated.

Bamber, C.J., Sharp, J.M. & Hides, M.T., 1999. Factors affecting successful implementation
of total productive maintenance. Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 5(3),
pp.162–181.

Castka, P. et al., 2001. Factors affecting successful implementation of high performance

teams. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 7(7/8), pp.123–134.

CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, M.I.H.A.L.Y., 1975. Purpose and mind. Contemporary Psychology:

A Journal of Reviews, 20(4), pp.352–353.