Working in teams: selected resources

You will often find yourself working as a part of a team in order to complete a class project, presentation, or research paper. The skills that you learn from successful teamwork in class will be invaluable for thriving in the workplace, where tasks and projects are often accomplished by teams. Listed below are pointers to online guides -- from a diverse range of corporations, academic institutions, and other organizations -- that offer insight on successful teamwork. These will help you understand the general requirements for forming teams that work well, and for understanding how your individual behavior contributes to the success of the entire team.

Also listed below are articles and books, available through the TCNJ Library, that offer more in-depth information about the successes (and failures) of teamwork. If you need assistance in finding these books and articles, or if you would like to find additional resources related to teams and teamwork, be sure to contact the library reference desk.

 

Why do we use teams? [Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology]

See end of article for links to guides on five team-related topics

 

Building blocks for teams (overview) [Penn State, Information Technology Services]

Building blocks for teams (tips for students [Penn State, Information Technology Services]

Navigate through the series of web pages linked from the above sites for guidance on successful teamwork, including effective communication among team members, and dealing with conflicts within teams.

 

Teaching Teamwork [from the MIT Teaching and Learning Laboratory]

This is a website created to help educators (college professors) who would like to design successful team projects for their classes. The insights offered here can be very helpful to students who need to function successfully in teams. Among the documents linked at the end of this page, "Teamwork Basics" and "Setting Ground Rules" are especially useful.

 

Designing successful business teams [Iowa State Ag Marketing Resource Center]

Lists seven elements of a successful team, and describes three different types of teams.

 

Building Teamwork and the Importance of Trust in a Business Environment [University of Florida Extension Service]

Includes five tips for team building

 

Effective Problem-solving Techniques for Groups [University of Nevada, Reno Cooperative Extension]

Describes a 7-step method for solving problems that arise within groups.

 

Articles from popular business sources

Business Week online has a selection of articles about teams in the workplace

bNET has a series of articles and white papers on teamwork (free registration is required to view some content).

Buzzle.com also has a series of articles about effective teamwork.

 

Listed below is a small selection of articles on teams and teamwork from Harvard Working Knowledge (Harvard Business School):

An interview with J. Richard Hackman [author of Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances]

 

Tapping into Your Team's Emotional Intelligence [an excerpt from Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyzatsis, and Annie McKee]

 

From Lone Star to Team Player [an interview with Harvard Business School professor Morten T. Hansen]

 

Sharpening Your Skills: Managing Teams [a compilation of four articles for Harvard Working Knowledge]

 

Articles from scholarly journals

Numerous articles have been written about effective teamwork. These can be found in journals for business practitioners, business scholars, psychologists, administrators and educators. A very small sample of representative titles is listed below. To find additional articles related to teams and teamwork, be sure to contact the library reference desk.

 

Campion, M.A., Medsker, G.J., & Higgs, C. (1993). Relations between work group characteristics and efficiency: Implications for designing effective work groups. Personnel Psychology, 46, 823-850.

 

Chen, G., Donahue, L.M., & Klimoski, R.J. (2004). Training undergraduates to work in organizational teams. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 3, 27-40.

 

Ellis, A.P.J., Hollenbeck, J.R., Ilgen, D.R., Porter, C.O.L.H., West, B.J., & Moon, H.K. (2003). Team learning: Collectively connecting the dots. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 821- 835.

 

Hollenbeck, J.R., DeRue, D.S., & Guzzo, R. (2004) Bridging the gap between I/O Research and HR practice: Improving team Composition, team training and team task design. Human Resource Management, 43, 353-366.

 

Stevens, M.J., & Campion, M.A. (1994). The knowledge, skill, and ability requirements for teamwork: Implications for human resource management. Journal of Management, 20, 503- 530.

 

Books about teamwork

The Library has many books that address workplace teams. A small sample of these is listed below. To find more books related to teams and teamwork, try searching relevant subject terms such as "teams in the workplace" or "organizational effectiveness". Contact the library reference desk for additional suggestions.

 

122 ways to build teams, by Carol Scearce: http://libcat.tcnj.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=635826

 

Developing superior work teams: building quality and the competitive edge, by Dennis C. Kinlaw: http://libcat.tcnj.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=291210

 

Virtuoso teams: lessons from teams that changed their worlds, by Andy Boynton: http://libcat.tcnj.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=598622

 

Virtual teams: reaching across space, time, and organizations with technology, by Jessica Lipnack: http://libcat.tcnj.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=396764