The factors affecting team performance and ability to innovate in a globalised world

Abstract

Research background: Industry 4.0 and globalisation phenomena are rapidly changing the organisational environment and exert transformation pressure on organisations to be more agile and to keep up with global competition. These challenges create problems that require effective teamwork solutions. Hence, the need to identify potential barriers of effective team performance to sustain the competitive advantages through innovation. Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to map the collaboration patterns and factors influencing teamwork and teams’ ability to innovate and to measure their current level in the Slovak work teams. Methods: The research of related studies and descriptive analysis of data from the TAS-II survey measures 8 key dimensions of team effectiveness (Context, Mission, Talent, Norms, Buy-in, Power, Morale, and Results) administered to the sample of 85 work teams from different economic sectors in the Slovak Republic between 12/2014 and 3/2021. Findings & Value added: Our research confirmed the importance of focusing on factors of team cooperation (e.g. right mix and quantity of talents, personally identify with mission, goals and metrics, empowerment, etc.). The so-called “Heartbeat analysis” of responses to 13 individual items from 3 TAS-II scales essential for effective team performance and ability to innovate (Mission, Talent, Power) indicated that 8 items had more “down” than “up” respondent votes. The most unfavourable were votes skewed in case of Mission-Metrics, Power-Budget, Talent-Number, Power-Authority and Power-Obstacles items in contrast to Mission-Purpose and Talent-Follower items. We discuss the possible causes, advantages of team-based learning, necessity of systemic approach and the holistic view on teamwork.