Organizational support systems for team-based organizations: Employee collaboration through organizational structures

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between organizational support and Effectiveness, Empowerment, and team characteristics. Support was operationalized by nine systems: Executive Management, Direct Supervision, Group Design, Performance Definition, Performance Review, Training, Rewards, Information, and Integration. Support was rated in two ways: how important is support for performing work (Importance scales), and how does support describe work environments (Presence scales).; Correlations indicate low relationships between Importance and Effectiveness. A low relationship was found between important executive management behaviors and effectiveness. High correlations between Importance scales suggest that alignment between systems is an important component of supportive organizational contexts.; Importance and Presence scale comparisons suggest that organizations are providing less organizational support than ideal. Group Design and Defining Performance had the highest means for both Importance and Presence scales. Employees were least satisfied with Rewards and Executive Management support. Organizations may have the most difficulty implementing these systems.; Organizational support was directly related to perceived Empowerment and Effectiveness. To "empower" employees and increase effectiveness, organizations might implement supports studied in this research. Empowerment might be defined by organizational support. Highly empowered groups appear to require specific organizational supports.; Effectiveness analyses suggest that organizational contexts emphasize Customer Satisfaction and Resource Utilization and Development. This may decrease available support for Psychological Effectiveness and Team Effectiveness. Organizations might balance planned outcomes by meeting subtle and obvious types of Effectiveness. Further, the Group Design and Defining Performance scales best predict Effectiveness. Different organizational supports may be needed to reinforce different types of Effectiveness.; No differences were found between Importance scales as a function of team or nonteam membership. Systems measured by the Support Systems Survey may reflect important components of organizational contexts, even if organizations do not utilize teams. Support differences were found for distinct supervisor styles and different team durations. No support differences were found for different team tasks or single- or multi-functional teams. Suggestions for future research are provided.