CONTENTS
Team Learning in Global Organizations 2
I. The Concept of Team Learning 2
II. Why Team Learning is Important for Modern Organizations 3
III. Five Dimensions of Team Learning 4
A. Change Dimension 4
B. Permeability of Team Learning 4
C. Variance 4
D. The nature and type of knowledge 5
E. Process or outcome 5
IV. Unique features of team learning 5
A. Comparing individual and team learning 5
B. Comparing team learning and team performance 6
C. Comparing team learning and team development 6
V. Components of team learning 6
VI. Summary of the chapter 7
Team Learning in Global Organizations
The importance of teamwork can hardly be overestimated in today’s turbulent economy. The business practice shows that all most greatest projects were the product of collaborative efforts of many people. Microsoft, Inc. and Tesla Motors were not the products of Bill Gates or Elon Musk only, who were only the pinnacles of a large corporate iceberg. The more complicated and technologically sophisticated our economies become, the more importance teamwork and cooperation occupy (Bell, Kozlowski & Blawath, 2012).
However, the situations when all members of a team harmonically complement each other are very rare in today’s workplace. The situations when a team’s skillset is misbalanced or when members of the organization have different views about the organization and its mission are far more frequent. The idea of team learning aims at helping members of the organization to develop a single comprehension about purpose and mission of the organization, as well as about the methods, which this organization employs on its way to achieving performance excellence (Edmonson, Dillon & Roloff, 2006) .
This part of the book analyzes the concept of team learning from different perspectives. In particular, after providing a conceptual definition of this modern business phenomenon, it discusses why it is becoming important for the modern business organization. Additionally, this part of the book analyzes the main dimensions of team learning, speculates about unique nature of team learning and identifies the main components of this process.
The Concept of Team Learning
Although there is no unanimous agreement regarding a conceptual definition of ‘team learning’ in the academic circles nowadays, the definition of MIT’s Professor Peter Senge is prevalently in use (Kayes & Burnett, 2006). Thus, he defines that:
Team learning is a skill, which helps organizations to solve problems and acquire new skills for its members, which are necessary to respond to the organizational environment effectively
Whatever specific objective the process of team learning may have in different working scenarios, it is always a collaborative effort, which focuses on achieving a goal, which is common for the whole group. According to Professor Senge, the concept of learning team heavily correlates with the idea of a learning organization. The key rationale in the context of the both is that the process of learning for all members of a team is encouraged and facilitated by the managers, as it is seen as the only way to adapt the organization to the dynamic changes of the global society. The process of learning revolves around skills and knowledge acquisition by means of observing other people in action, solving problems collectively, conducting different experiments and analyzing outcomes of the group work (Edmonson, Dillon & Roloff, 2006).
Why Team Learning is Important for Modern Organizations
As discussed before, the most important achievement achievements of our civilization are the product of teamwork. Team learning is a pivotal part of this process, being an essential element of responsiveness of individual members of the organization, as well as fostering flexibility and adaptability of the entire organization (Bell, Kozlovski & Blawath, 2012).
Among the most important objectives of team learning are the following:
This process facilitates share of previously acquired individual skills between other members of the team, thus substantially improving overall performance of the team and improving total productiveness of the organization;
Team learning is the most effective method for presenting, discussing and negotiating different views and insights, which is a fundamental aspect of teambuilding;
This process enhances internal communication of the team, because the team members become aware of usefulness of sharing their professional insights and personal values with the colleagues.
This process establishes supportive atmosphere and trust among the team members, boosting their confidence and making more reliant on each other.
Finally, the process of team learning increases competition between the different teams of an organization and motivate the employees to work more diligently and contribute more to the overall success of the organization.
Generally, as long as the team learning practices are streamlined within the organizational environment, it is the most effective method for promoting camaraderie and mutual trust, which are the key determinant of a successful collaborative unit. The practice shows in the situations, when individual members of the team are accomplished professionals, but the team lack cohesion and coherence, even the most promising project can fail. For example, in 2015 Under Armor manufacturer of branded apparel designed T-shirts, showing the silhouettes of people, who are erecting a basketball net. The picture was an implied reference to the world-famous photograph depicting American soldiers holding flag of the United States after the Battle of Iwo Jima. Many former veterans and other patriotic Americans found this marketing approach utterly disrespectful. This example is a dogmatic example how the marketing team failed to harmonize its strategy with the ethical consultants of the Under Armor. If the team learning processes were well developed, such T-shirts would never been approved.
Thus, it is inferable that team learning is not a chimerical aspect of a company activity, which is relevant theoretically only. This issue may have serious ramifications in the practical dimension, and failure to heed it may have serious financial and reputational downsides.
Five Dimensions of Team Learning
Team learning is a multifaceted phenomenon, which has five main dimensions, which are change, permeability, scope of variance, nature of knowledge and process/outcome dichotomy (Kayes & Burnett, 2006)
Change Dimension
The theorists agree on the notion that team learning may have two main natures, i.e. it can be revolutionary (when the learning objectives and process are imposed willfully by an organization authority or by one of the team members) or evolutionary (when the team members acquire new skills in a natural course). The majority of today’s developmental models position the team learning process as gradual, but progressive. At the same time, the importance of a revolutionary team learning should not be undervalued, as it provides the best opportunity for introducing immediate changes into the organizational environment of the company.
Permeability of Team Learning
Permeability index helps to understand whether the process of team learning has a long-lasting impact on the organization, or whether it exercises minor and transitory impacts only (Edmonson, Dilon & Roloff, 2006). Thus, for a team learning to be effective, the index of permeability should be high. The team managers should ensure that their teams are susceptible to permeability by developing the culture of ‘openness” in an organization. In other words, the managers should ensure that their subordinates have necessary skills and traits for absorbing new experiences and knowledge. If their perception is not sufficient, the managers should identify the reasons of the team’s inability to absorb new knowledge, as well as they have to think over strategies, which can be implemented to strengthen permeability of their subordinates (Kayes & Burnett, 2006).
Variance
There is a strong theoretical assumption that the process of team learning correlates with team variance, connoting that the main components of team learning are personal experiences of the individual team members (Bell, Kozlovski & Blawath, 2012). The process of their sharing and absorbing by other members of the team constitute the process of team learning. Yet, there is some disagreement in the academic community in relating to the nature of this variance. Specifically, some scholars are strongly opined that team learning should be primarily viewed from individual perspective of team members, i.e. that the entire process is shaped by the interaction of a contributor and the team. At the same time, others are actively arguing that team learning is mainly the product of a so-called team agreement, i.e. a formal or implied agreement between different members of a team. Yet, in the both scenarios, the whole process is focused on achieving a set of mutually shared beliefs and behavioral patterns (Kayes & Burnett, 2006).
The nature and type of knowledge
Another important dimension of team learning is the nature of knowledge, shareable between members of the team (Kayes & Burnett, 2006). Nowadays, there are two main approaches to this dimension. Thus, some theorists contend that the process of team learning is cognitively subjective, while their opponents emphasize that as long as the results of a learning process are objective, the entire process remains objective as well. Thus, in order to understand the nature of a learning process, setting proper criteria is necessary. If the process prevails over the outcome, than the process is inherently subjective and vice versa.
Process or outcome
The last but not the least dimension in the context of team learning is the process-objective dichotomy. There is no unanimous agreement of this dilemma in the academia nowadays , though the majority of theoreticians agree on the idea that team learning, as well as other forms of learning, should be viewed as fusion of the both conceptualizations. In other words. It is the process, which should entail specific outcomes. This approach to understanding team learning is useful for differentiating this concept from a number of similar, yet distinct collaboration-related subjects, such as team performance or organizational development.
Unique features of team learning
In contrast to individual learning, organizational development and performance, team learning has several essentially unique characteristics.
Comparing individual and team learning
Although the practitioners often confuse these concepts, there is a fundamental difference between individual and team learning. In the first case the objective is transferring skills to the recipient of knowledge, while in the team learning all participants (two or more) are such recipients. In other words, the participants of team learning are the ‘communicating vessels’, and each of them should be filled with knowledge. The skills and knowledge of the participants interblend, resulting in emergence of the new skillset, possessed by the entire team (Edmonson, Dillon & Rolof, 2006).
Theoretically, the process of team learning differs from individual learning in the following main areas:
Members of the team work on achieving a mutually shared, common goal (as opposed to individual goal in individual learning);
Their cooperation and interaction are interdependent;
The process of team learning has specifically delineated limits;
There is a clearly identified membership criteria (e.g. employees of a particular department, members of a sport team, investigation squad in a police department);
The main outcome of the team learning process is improvement of the overall team performance;
Finally, while in the process of individual learning a participant relies mostly on his personal cognition, emotions and skills of his/her instructor, the process of team learning mainly rests on exposure of the team members to new educational paradigms and cross-exchange of the new idea and knowledge.
Comparing team learning and team performance
Together with other unique features of team learning, this process should be distinguished from the idea of team performance. Firstly, in contrast to the concept of performance, which is an outcome, learning is a process. Secondly, much of today’s research confirms the assumption that the process of team learning is a prerequisite for improving team performance. At the same time, the practice shows that poorly coordinated team learning rarely leads to improvement of the team performance. Furthermore, team learning focuses on improving long-term team performance (Bell, Kozlowski & Blawath, 2012).
The second essential discrepancy between the two issues is contextual. Thus, the process of team learning deals with development of the new strategies and approaches aimed at handling organizational challenges, while team performance focuses on supporting or, in some case, enhancing the existing ones. Furthermore, team learning is in no way dependent on previous learning strategies employed by the organization, while team performance strongly correlates with the past strategies and approaches.
The two concepts also differ in a number of goals. While team learning often attempts achieving multiple objectives at the same time, performance focuses on resolving one problem at a given time.
Ultimately, the importance of team learning is mainly used when the goals are vaguely defined, as well as when the need to adapt organization to the new realities is high. Contrary to this, team performance is more important when the goals are precise, and when there is no high need for getting the organization adapted to the new realities.
Comparing team learning and team development
In addition to other differences, team learning contrasts with team development. Although it is often overlooked by the academics, especially in the field of criminal justice, the distinction is present and important. Specifically, the process of development deals with moving though different stages. Each stage has specific milestones, which the organization should achieve, in order to move to the further stages. Team learning is what makes achieving these milestones possible, i.e. it the array of different solutions, which are used by the team to achieve these milestones, and progress to the new stages of development.
Components of team learning
Team learning has several main elements. It shares five elements with the concept of team learning, which are:
Team inputs – the factors that the team members contribute to the common pool of knowledge.
Team processes relate to interactions and communications between the team members, i.e. all processes, which are necessary for communicating and absorbing knowledge by members of the team. The two internal components of team processes are shared beliefs and shared behaviors.
Team outputs are the results, achieved by the team, i.e. it the new knowledge, created by the team and possessed by its members both collectively and individually.
Knowledge requirements – before the process of team learning may start, the managers (or, in self-managed teams, the team members) should define a scope of knowledge, that should be mastered by the participants.
Together combined, these components constitute the system of team learning (Kayes & Burnett, 2006).
Summary of the chapter
Team learning is one of the underlying elements of many successful organizations. Without effective team learning processes, organizational growth, development and other prospects become dubious. Though they have some similar features, team learning is different from team performance, individual learning and team development. Finally, team learning has four main components, which are team inputs, outputs, processes and knowledge requirements.
References
Bell, B.S., Kozlowski, S.W.J. & Blawath, S. (2012). Team Learning: A theoretical integration and review. Web. Retrieved from: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1939&context=articles
Edmonson, A.C., Dillon, J.R. & Roloff, K.S. (2006). Three perspectives on team learning: outcome improvement, task mastery, and group process. Harvard University Press. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/07-029.pdf
Kayes, C.D. & Burnett, G. (2006). Team learning in organizations: A review and Integration. Web. Retrieved from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/conf/olkc/archive/olkc1/papers/177_kayes.pdf
