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Behaviors in Highly Productive Continuous Improvement Teams: How to Change a Winning Team

Eck, T. van (2011) Behaviors in Highly Productive Continuous Improvement Teams: How to Change a Winning Team.

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Abstract:In our aim to identify the typical behaviors of highly productive Continuous Improvement (CI) teams, we characterized behaviors from specific CI literature first. Unfortunately, this could not provide us the essential insights into how such behaviors can support the effectiveness and productivity of these teams; furthermore, the ground for operationalization of these behaviors was missing - as we aimed to measure the behaviors in different ways. Therefore, for an important part of studying the behaviors, a team effectiveness angle was used: we selected behaviors that are typical for effective teams in general (from the team effectiveness literature) to indentify if such behaviors apply for high performing CI teams as well. Moreover, apart from looking for such correspondence, we were especially interested in behaviors that are different - CI specific or of other nature - as compared to the general effective team behaviors. We used case studies with an innovative mixed-method approach and an emphasis on qualitative measures, to provide insights into the key behaviors. We rigorously observed behaviors in real work situations, next to using questionnaires. Our findings suggest that several behaviors, both indentified for effective teams in general and other types of behavior, are typical for high performing CI teams: behaviors that have a positive influence on team climate, specific CI behaviors of innovative nature, backup behavior, adaptability, information sharing and (most likely) team monitoring. These findings especially contribute to current CI literature by including key behaviors and other insights from the team effectiveness literature, and setting an example for studying behaviors in much more detailed and qualitative way as compared to previous research
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:05 communication studies
Programme:Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/61300
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