Social: Social Cognition and Teamwork - Foundations for Designing User-Centered Systems - page 231

Table 8.1 Factors that influence team performance by defining the social context of the

members
Factor Brief definition

Team size The number of members in a team

Team competencies An abstraction of the number of unique qualities possessed by

the members of a team

Team structure and composition The way that the members of the team are structurally

organized, e.g., as a hierarchy, and how they relate to one
another

Social distance The perceived distance between the goals and motivations of

any two team members

Spatial distance The geophysical distance between any two members of a

team; this also has implications for temporal distance-that
is, differences in time zone

Mutual support and surveillance Mechanisms for maintaining shared norms and coherence by

minimizing the expression of the diverse characteristics of
team members

Presence or absence of
legitimate authority figures

A measure of the perception of a leader's authority and
legitimacy by a team member; authority can be leaders or
monitors

Task attractiveness A measure of the alignment of the leader's task with the team

members' internal motivations

Team processes and tasks The relationship between the teams and the tasks that they

have to perform

effectiveness of communication between group members (Cartwright 1968 ; Hare
1952 ) and its tendency towards hierarchy (Bales et al. 1951 ) but also the rela-
tionship dynamics existing within and between groups (Bales and Borgatta 1955 ;
Benenson et al. 2000 ; Shalit 1988 ).
As the size of the team grows, it changes the dynamics of interaction between
members, and may make it harder for individual members to participate in team
working. In such a situation you need to consider other factors that can be used to
facilitate member participation. If the team is too large for effective participation,
you may wish to encourage (or even mandate) the use of smaller teams.

8.3.3 Team Competencies

Good teams are usually made up of good team members. If the team members
have good levels of KSAs, this will usually be positively reflected in team per-
formance. It also helps if the goals of the team members are aligned with those of
the organization in general, and with the task goals in particular. A multidisci-
plinary team can benefit greatly from skill sharing between different team mem-
bers, and a team can also be made stronger through appropriate education and
training of the team and its members. It is worth noting that there are some tasks
where team performance is determined by the performance of the worst team