High Performance Teams: Do Perceptions and Reality Match?

Literature Review: Teams And Performance

Several authors (e.g. Bragg, 1999; Ferreira, 2007) agree on a team being a small group of people (two or more persons) whose members: (a) interact socially (Mealiea & Baltazar, 2005); (b) are brought together to perform relevant tasks embedded in an organizational context; (c) have complementary skills and different roles and responsibilities (Kozlowski & Ilgen, 2006); and (d) are committed to a general purpose and goals to reach it, with both purpose and goals being settled by team members, by team members and their leader, or by the team leader (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993). Plus, a team is also characterized by its own: (a) direction, momentum, and commitment (e.g., pulling together in the same direction to achieve something); (b) common approach (e.g., particular organizational and motivation methods); and (c) mutual accountability (e.g., with each team member being accountable for his or her actions, as these add to the team as a whole) (Moura et al., 2014).