`The author′s analysis is very up to date, for he includes chapters on very recent analyses of teams, such as questions of diversity and teams communicating via computers…. The book′s key strength is its aim to help students and professionals better understand the groups to which they belong by reviewing key concepts′ -
Donelson R Forsyth, Virginia Commonwealth University Group Dynamics for Teams provides a clear and concise overview of group dynamics as it relates to work teams. The book is designed to be a bridge between psychological research on how groups operate and the applied study of the use of teams at work, with the ultimate goal of teaching people how to work effectively in teams.
The book begins with an overview of how teams are being used at work and the factors that relate to team success. The second section of the book examines basic group dynamics topics, such as goals, norms, cooperation, and communication. The third section reviews the main challenges that teams face, including conflict, decision-making, problem solving, creativity, and valuing diversity. The final section analyzes the use of teams in the workplace, including the impact of organizational culture, technological support for teams, differences among types of work teams, and team building. Each chapter contains learning objectives, summaries, and activities intended to help understand how teams operate. The book has an applied focus that is designed to help students and professionals improve their abilities to work in teams.
Daniel Levi is a professor in the Psychology and Child Development Department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, California. He has an MA and a PhD in environmental psychology from the University of Arizona. He teaches classes in teamwork and in environmental and organizational psychology. His teamwork class was designed primarily for engineering and business students at Cal Poly. He has conducted research and worked as a consultant with factory and engineering teams for companies such as Nortel Networks, TRW, Hewlett-Packard, and Philips Electronics. In addition, he has worked on international team research projects in Europe and Asia.Dr. Levi’s research and consulting with factory teams primarily has focused on the use of teams to support technological change and the adoption of just-in-time and quality programs. This work examined a variety of team issues, including job redesign, training, compensation, supervision, and change management approaches. His work with professional teams primarily has been done with engineering design teams. These projects examined the use of concurrent engineering, self-management, and the globalization of teams. The topics of this work included the impact of information technology on teams, facilitation and training needs for professional teams, and the impacts of organizational culture and leadership.
Early work on the present book was sponsored by an engineering education grant from NASA. This project focused on the development of teamwork skills in engineering students working on multidisciplinary projects. This project led to the development of cases and activities for learning teamwork skills and research on teamwork training and evaluating and rewarding student teams. Recent research on student teams examines gender and cross-cultural issues, social support within teams, and bullying and hijacking in student teams.
