A team is a small group of people with a common goal, all of whom have a skill to offer on the quest to obtain the goal (Nelson, 2018). Teams are proving vital to organization success for several reasons. As society progresses and modernizes, the work that organizations perform is also progressing, and becoming more in-depth and complicated (Nelson, 2018). As a result, more individuals are needed to complete tasks that work together to achieve a common goal. Furthermore, as organizations expand, progress, and offer specialized products or output, workers with more specialized skills are also needed (Nelson, 2018).
As you can tell, teams are the pieces that really make the wheel go round. But what if some pieces were damaged? What if some pieces didn’t quite fit? The wheel might not go round, or if it did, it might not move as efficiently as it could. For this reason, team cohesion is greatly important.
Cohesion can be described through four unique elements. First, cohesion possesses multidimensionality, and consists of various factors that help to forge the bond in the team (Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts, 2012). Cohesion is also notably dynamic, and is witnessed to have a special element to it (Schneider et al., 2012). Affectivity within cohesion is also important to recognize, as members of the team have their own feelings about the team and the common goal (Schneider et al., 2012). Finally, cohesion is instrumental in the sense that just because a team member might not agree on all accounts with another team member, their common goal is still the same (Schneider et al., 2012).
Contributing to cohesion is accomplished through both individual and social factors. One’s personal attitude and performance is important to the team performance, and these factors can influence one another (Schneider et al., 2012). For example, imagine the team captain of the hockey team, charged with motivating his fellow teammates, as well as directing and guiding a lot of the action on the ice, shows up to practice and games always in a bad mood, and never putting in his best effort. His performance, and lack of effort, can spill off onto the teammates as well. Under the same scenario, the teammates are not affected by their captain’s poor attitude lately, but are instead picking up his slack. This in turn motivates the captain to put in more effort for his team.
On the topic of team and cohesion, and using this same scenario described above, the team epitomizes cohesion when they do indeed pick up the slack for another teammate, and still drive on to achieve their common goal. Roles are also relevant within a team. In fact, research has suggested the importance of role clarity, acceptance, and performance on cohesion (Schneider et al., 2012). When every member of the team knows their job, accepts it, and performs their job well, cohesion is better achieved.
Within an organization, teams are often formulated to achieve various goals throughout, which also later may even help to further larger goals, and those may help further even larger goals, and so on. Organizational goals can be plenty, although are usually concise. When a team is put in place to accomplish a task, it makes sense that a team that works well together would be the most effective. It is important to note that cohesion and success can still be acquire even when team members are not fully alike, or do not fully see eye to eye. As the saying goes, “it takes all kinds to make the world go round.” It also takes all kinds to make the team wheel go round.
Nelson, Anthony, PhD. (2018). Applied Social Psychology Course Commentary. Presented on PSYCH 424 Course Content site lecture at The Pennsylvania State University.
Schneider, Frank W., Gruman, Jamie A., & Coutts, Larry M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Tags: cohesion, goals, organization, team, team cohesion