Exploring what makes peer interaction effective In leadership teams

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY : This study focuses on the fundamental conditions that allow effective task processes within teams in their natural and fully situated context to emerge and that cause members to engage in them wholeheartedly, with the aim of identifying the emerging themes seen to be the real source of a team's great success and providing higher quality, context-specific guidance, specifically on the role of peer interaction in teams, to organisations that complements the extant theoretical models on team effectiveness.As business becomes more defined by complexity, diversity, uncertainty and continuous cycles of change, leaders are increasingly relying on the diverse strengths and effectiveness of individuals working together in teams to tackle the challenges of driving business effectiveness and performance. This increasing reliance on teams, together with the observation that individuals working consistently and effectively together in a team is not an easily predictable phenomenon, makes understanding the conditions that support effective peer interaction in teams a salient need. In an attempt to understand these conditions, specifically among leaders currently working in teams in the workplace, an Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA) approach was used to explore the conditions as experienced by these leaders. The central assumption in IQA is that people closest to the phenomenon are in the best position to report about the phenomenon. This IQA approach to research postulates that the ideal of qualitative research is to create a process that invites participants to produce data while minimising the effect of the research process on the content. Participants in this type of research are empowered to generate and analyse their own data. Twenty three leaders were engaged in the current research project.The results of this study indicate that the individual leaders play an important role in the effectiveness of peer interaction in teams. A positive focus on developing self-awareness, an internal locus of control and appropriate skills training in shaping an effective, assertive interpersonal leadership style would be conducive to developing and shaping a positive leadership presence and contribution. In addition, the importance of shaping a culture that develops the skill level of their people, provides recognition to their people and their teams, and enables teamwork and creativity, as people rally around a common goal, was identified. A total of ten conditions for shaping effective peer interaction, with cause-and-effect relationships between the conditions, were identified to guide leaders on where to focus first as they engage in consciously shaping effective teams in their organisation.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University