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1. Introduction
Nowadays, there is a great interest in studying organizational teams. This interest is concerned with the increasing use of teams in companies. The use of teams has expanded dramatically in response to competitive challenges and organizational needs of flexibility and adaptation. Moreover, literature recognizes that teams increase, at least, employee satisfaction and commitment to organization ([57] Stewart and Barrick, 2000) and move the firm closer to a set of objectives ([13] Doolen et al. , 2003; [59] Tata and Prasad, 2004).
Understanding effectiveness is a key issue in team research. In this sense, several models have been developed with an objective: to identify multiple factors of effectiveness and their relationships with success ([37] Kirkman et al. , 2001). Given this purpose, researchers have had problems in delineating the boundaries of team effectiveness and operationalizing this construct. Problems are related to distinguish between determinant factors and criteria of effectiveness.
The main purpose of this study is to clarify the team effectiveness construct and to find the best way for assessing it. With this objective, the study:
- tries to delineate the space construct of team effectiveness reviewing previous research and showing used variables and measures in them;
- analyses the problems in gathering data and measuring in this level of analysis; and
- assesses what variables and measures are more appropriate according to team type and offers a proposal of measurement issues for future research.
Therefore, the objective of this paper is to make a comprehensive review as a basis for researchers in the area of effective teams.
2. Delineating the construct space of team effectiveness
2.1. Dimensions
The purpose of this section is to identify dimensions or criteria of team effectiveness. Two types of models of team effectiveness can be distinguished. The first one is unidimensional and uses objective measures of team performance ([39] Kolodny and Kiggundu, 1980; [53] Shea and Guzzo, 1987) or of the degree of real productivity ([56] Steiner, 1972). The second one is multidimensional, since it supposes that team effectiveness depends on something else apart from performance or productivity ([26] Hackman, 1987; [27] Hackman and Morris, 1975; [28] Hackman and Walton, 1986; [42] Nieva et al. , 1978).
Several models have been developed under the multidimensional perspective. Thus, apart...