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Getty Images Leader’s Self-Insight 10.1

Think of a specific team of which you are or were 7. Members feel there is not
recently a part, either at work or school, and answer the much to be gained by sticking
following questions about your perception of the team. with this team’s project. _______ _______
Indicate whether each item below is Mostly False or 8. Members of this team
Mostly True for you. really like spending time
Mostly Mostly together. _______ _______
False True
1. Members are proud to tell oth-
Scoring and Interpretation
ers they are part of the team. _______ _______
Give yourself 1 point for each Mostly False answer to
2. Members are willing to put
questions 3, 5, and 7 and 1 point for each Mostly True
a great deal of effort into
answer to questions 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8. Sum your points
their work for the team to be
for the 8 questions: _____. These questions pertain to
successful. _______ _______
team cohesion—the extent to which team members like,
3. Members sometimes try to trust, and respect one another and are united toward a
make other team members common goal. These questions were originally designed
look bad. _______ _______ to assess the commitment of hospital upper manage-
4. Members are willing to “talk ment teams to joint strategic decisions. If your score
up” the team’s work with is 6 or higher, your team would be considered high in
other employees as being cohesion—members are committed to one another and
good for the organization. _______ _______ the team’s goal. A score of 0–2 indicates below-average
5. Members seem to take team cohesion.
personal advantage of each
Source: Adapted from Robert S. Dooley and Gerald E. Fryxell,
other’s mistakes. _______ _______
“Attaining Decision Quality and Commitment from Dissent: The
6. Members really care about Moderating Effects of Loyalty and Competence in Strategic Decision-
Making Teams,” Academy of Management Journal 42, no. 4 (1999),
the success of the team. _______ _______ pp. 389–402.

a general rule, employee morale is much higher in cohesive teams because of in-
creased communication, a friendly atmosphere, loyalty, and member participation
in decisions and activities. High team cohesiveness has almost uniformly positive
effects on the satisfaction and morale of team members. 40
With respect to team performance, it seems that cohesiveness
Action Memo
and performance are generally positively related, although research
results are mixed. Cohesive teams can sometimes unleash enormous
As a leader, you can facilitate team
amounts of employee energy and creativity. One explanation for this
cohesiveness by providing members with
is the research finding that working in a team increases individual

opportunities to interact and know one
motivation and performance. Social facilitation refers to the tendency
another. You can use friendly competition
for the presence of other people to enhance an individual’s motivation
with other teams to increase cohesion,
and performance. Simply interacting with others has an energizing ef-
and work with top leaders to develop high
41
fect. In relation to this, one study found that cohesiveness is more
performance norms for the team.
closely related to high performance when team interdependence is high,
requiring frequent interaction, coordination, and communication, as
discussed earlier in this chapter. 42
Another factor influencing performance is the relationship between teams and

top leadership. One study surveyed more than 200 work teams and correlated job
43
performance with cohesiveness. Highly cohesive teams were more productive
304