Treatment teams that work (and those that don't): an application of Hackman's group effectiveness model to interdisciplinary teams in psychiatric hospitals
Article Abstract:
Recent studies of small work groups emphasize comprehensive models of team effectiveness. A survey-based operationalization of one such model, Hackman's Model of Group Effectiveness (Hackman, 1987, 1990), is applied to 15 interdisciplinary treatment teams working in three public psychiatric hospitals. Mental health professionals answered a self-administered questionnaire I developed (N=98, response rate = 91%). Analysis was conducted at three levels: (a) by all respondents; (b) by team; and (c) by organizational characteristics and professional discipline, and their interaction. Through use of a structural equation model, particular initial and enabling conditions successfully predict teams' meeting standards of the required task, teams' cohesion, and members' personal well-being; standards met and cohesion of team also predict overall team effectiveness. These findings emphasize the importance of measuring the various types of organizational and group factors contributing to team effectiveness, as well as the specific aspects of team effectiveness. Implications for team training are discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-8863
Year: 1995
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Explaining changes to employees: the influence of justifications and change outcomes on employees' fairness judgments
Article Abstract:
Major changes are occurring in many organizations on an almost constant basis. Managers motivated by profit and by ethics seek to apply methods that help employees adapt to change. One method is Kotter and Schlesinger's "education," which includes giving explanations for a change to affected employees. This study looks at the efficacy of giving explanations from the perspective of a growing body of theory on fairness judgments. Employees from seven relocated organizations were surveyed. The study finds that, when employees are evaluating the fairness of change outcomes, they apparently expect explanations only when those outcomes are negative. However, employees apparently expect explanations as a means of evaluating decision procedures even when outcomes are favorable. The latter result is likely due to the long term, system-oriented nature of Thibaut and Walker's "procedural fairness" judgments. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-8863
Year: 1995
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