Team building and organizational effectiveness

A series of team buildings in a large state human services agency was studied for the impact upon production effectiveness, quantity and efficiency. The interventions used the Purpose-Centered Model for Team Building. Eight field units experienced the full team building intervention. The managers of fifteen other units experienced team building with their regional management team. Both groups of units were studied using a quasiexperimental design to compare on a unit by unit basis the quantity of production output (number of successful case closures) and efficiency of production (ratio of successful to total case closures) for eighteen months before and thirty-six to forty-eight months after the intervention. Similar comparisons were made within the two groups. The research questions explored the premise that such interventions had a positive impact upon the measures of production effectiveness. One unit that experienced the full team building significantly improved the quantity of production. Seven showed no statistically significant change in quantity of production. Three of the eight units that experienced the full team building significantly improved their efficiency of production. Four units showed no significant change and one unit saw a significant drop in production efficiency.;Two of the fifteen units where only the manger experienced team building significantly improved quantity of production. Eleven units showed no significant change and two units showed a significant drop in quantity of production. Six of the fifteen manager-only team building units showed a significant improvement in production efficiency. Seven manager-only team building units showed no significant change and two units experienced a significant drop in production efficiency. As a group, the manager-only team building units significantly improved production efficiency.;The study showed the Purpose-Centered Team Building Model to only possibly be an effective vehicle to improve work group performance for some time after the intervention. It suggests that manager training in team building might be more effective than full team training interventions.