A variety of factors influence the performance of a team in any given workplace. Such factors include cohesiveness, communication, empowerment, and leadership. Each of these factors plays an important role in team performance; together they form a unique dynamic that can, in a manner of speaking, make or break the success of a team. The purpose of this paper is to examine two of these factors, cohesiveness and communication, closely.
In terms of team dynamics, cohesiveness refers to “the affinity between group members and their identification as a group” (Woerkom & Sanders 2010, p. 140). That is to say, cohesiveness has to do with how the group members get along with one another and how they assess how well they work as a group. If members of the group respect one another and feel strong bonds, they feel more positive about being members of a group together. If they feel positive about being members of a group together, the group’s identity is more firmly established. However, if the members of the group feel negatively about one another and do not have strong bonds, they feel negative about being members of a group together. If they feel negative about being members of a group together, the group’s identity is not firmly established. A group with a weak identity will struggle to work together. Woerkom & Sanders (2010) indicate that “when team members undertake activities together, such as having lunch together” they experience opportunities to get better acquainted, which leads to strong relationships (p. 141).
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"Factors Influencing Team Performance: Cohesiveness and Communication".
Furthermore, research shows that the benefits of cohesiveness include increased energy for team members, “less inter-member friction, higher member trust, and greater interpersonal coordination” and are more “motivated to achieve” (Woerkom & Sanders 2010, p. 141). Research also demonstrates positive relationships between cohesiveness and employee satisfaction and cooperative behavior, while negative relationships exist between cohesiveness and absenteeism (Woerkom & Sanders 2010, p. 141). In short, when cohesiveness is strong in a team, they are more likely to be successful on the whole and benefit in many ways. On the other hand, when cohesiveness is not strong, they are less likely to be successful and will experience disadvantages. Therefore, it is important to engender cohesiveness through team-building experiences, especially those that are more social and less work-oriented in nature.
Needless to say, teams which experience strong cohesiveness communicate well with one another and as a group. This underlines the importance of another influential factor in team performance, communication. Communication is essential in order to “collaborate to problem solve, to continue the work process, and to produce a product or service” (Berry 2011, pp. 188-189). Communication is the only way any work can be done. Communication is how labor is divided, ideas and problems are expressed and discussed, problems are solved, and feedback is acquired, both within and from outside of the group. As Berry (2011) observes, this is crucial for both kinds of teams – teams which are located within the same office and virtual teams. It may even be more crucial for virtual teams (Berry 2011). Regardless of how teams communicate – either through face-to-face meetings or through technology-mediate methods such as email or video conferencing – good communication is essential to the success of a team. If a team cannot effectively communicate, they cannot effectively divide labor, discuss ideas and problems, devise solutions, or acquire meaningful feedback, all of which are crucial to team performance.
Therefore, meaningful channels of communication must be established. Anything which is a barrier to communication should be mitigated or eliminated. Environments which encourage open communication and constructive criticism of ideas ensure that the members of a team will feel comfortable expressing themselves and responding to their colleagues’ ideas and comments. Berry (2011) observes that “making sense of another’s beliefs or actions is a constant struggle
in any team environment” (p. 189), so it is important to communicate, in order to understand team members’ thoughts, beliefs, actions, and opinions/perspectives. This demonstrates how important and influential communication is in team dynamics and how crucial it is to the success of the team overall. Just as cohesiveness is facilitated by communication, communication is also facilitated by cohesiveness. The more comfortable team members are communicating with one another, the more effective their communication becomes.
While there are many factors which can affect a team’s performance, some of the most important are cohesiveness, communication, empowerment, and leadership. This paper has demonstrated the roles which cohesiveness and communication play in the context of team performance.
- Berry, GR 2011, ‘Enhancing effectiveness on virtual teams’, Journal Of Business Communication, 48, 2, pp. 186-206, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 April 2014.
- Woerkom, M, & Sanders, K 2010, ‘The romance of learning from disagreement: the effect of cohesiveness and disagreement on knowledge sharing behavior and individual performance within teams’, Journal Of Business & Psychology, 25, 1, pp. 139-149, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 April 2014.
