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Abstract
The present study seeks to extend our understanding of the effects of team charters by examining their impact on the process mechanism important to team performance. Using a sample of undergraduate students, in a team-based task requiring significant cooperative and coordinative behavior, we compare emergent team norms under a variety of team charter intervention conditions. Our results support the assertion that the introduction of team charters do, in fact, manifest in improved intermediary process outcomes, including communication, effort, mutual support and cohesion.
Introduction
Organizational and research attention to teambased structures suggests new patterns of behavioral interaction, pooling of expertise and effort toward task accomplishment that promises among other things, increased productivity, quality and worker satisfaction (Hackman, 1988). The result has been a growing interest in team research within the management and organizational behavior domains (Kerr & Tindale, 2004; Kozlowski & Bell, 2003). However, there is evidence that this confidence is misplaced- both anecdotally and empirically. Anecdotally, the incidence of team success, while documented and celebrated in the literature, mask the fact that 70% of organizations report that their team-based initiatives have either failed or fallen short of the expected benefits (Winston, 1999). The suggested reasons for these counter-intuitive findings include production blocking (Deihl & Stroebe, 1987), evaluation apprehension (Cooper, Gallupe, Pollard & Cadsby, 1998), group think (Janis, 1982) and various forms of social loafing that are shown to generalize across a wide variety of context (Karue & Williams, 1993). Similarly, empiric tests of the effects of team based structures on performance outcomes produce a mixed picture related to the performance benefits of team based organization (Kozlowski & Bell, 2003).
One reason offered for the disconnects between the promises and the realities of teams is the complexity of team formation and development. This has led to a general call for greater research attention to the process mechanism important to team functioning and performance. Clearly, the simple establishment of teams is not enough to deliver the promised performance benefits. One tool receiving recent attention is the use of "team charters" to guide the development of supportive team behaviors and processes. A team charter details the mutual expectations regarding behavior of the group, meeting management and the allocation of work. Recently, Mathieu and colleagues (2009) provided...