Team Building Does Work, Review of 103 Studies Shows

An 2009 analysis of data from 103 studies conducted between 1950 and 2007 provided the strongest scientific evidence to date that team building can have measurable, positive effects on team performance.

Earlier results were weak or inconsistent, according to a research team from the Univ. of Central Florida and Army Research Institute. By looking at a larger number of studies and data, the team says it was "beginning to find some positive empirical support for the effectiveness of these commonly applied team-development strategies." The researchers specifically looked at activities "typically done in settings that do not approximate the actual performance environment." In other words, they are not practicing their job skills together. These activities range from "outdoor experiential activities" to "group process discussions."

The researchers ended up with 60 correlations between the different variables they looked at, including the goal of the each study and the size of the team. Team building had the weakest impact, if any, on how the team thought ("cognition"). It had moderate effects on how people felt about their teams, as the researchers expected, but the team was surprised to see an equally strong effect in improving processes. However, the authors point out, you can improve a process without improving the outcome or performance of the process. Indeed, the link between team building and performance was not as strong as it was for process, but it was positive. The researchers estimated the true correlations, after allowing from some statistical issues, to be 0.44 between team building and both processes and feelings, 0.26 for performance, and 0.13 for cognition.

The goal of the team building made a difference. Goal-setting and role-clarifying activities had the strongest impact, at an estimated 0.37 and 0.35 respectively, but the team also found positive results for interpersonal relations and problem-solving, at 0.26 and 0.24. Team size made a difference, with teams of 10 or more people gaining far greater benefit than smaller ones. The authors attribute this to larger teams having more problems and thus more room to improve. They suggest that managers pay attention to the specific problems their teams are facing, outcomes they desire, and team sizes in deciding whether to do team building and what type.

Source: Klein, C., et al. (09), "Does Team Building Work?" Small Group Research 40(2):181.