Team approach to IS developmentThe development of innovative solutions to complex problems has become increasingly challenging. The modern information systems (IS) development model includes the use of cross-functional teams, which comprise both users, such as accountants and salespeople, and IS professionals such as systems analysts and programmers. Team members must work together effectively to produce successful systems. In the past, IS departments perceived themselves as autonomous units that provided specific expertise to user departments. With the team approach, IS professionals are no longer autonomous but are equal members of a group of professionals, each with a specific contribution to make. Their responsibility is no longer independently to design an IS, but instead to carefully direct the users to design their own systems. Expected benefits of successful teams include increased motivation, greater task commitment, higher levels of performance, ability to withstand stress, more innovative solutions[1], and decreased development time [2]. Research is currently underway to find appropriate measures for these factors so team effectiveness can be accurately evaluated [3].One example of the use of teams in the IS development process is the steering committee, a team composed of the heads of major departments in the organization. In one study, 71 per cent of the respondents reported using a steering committee to determine which new systems would be developed. Almost 83 per cent of these were either satisfied (66.8 per cent) or very satisfied (16 per cent) with the steering committee's performance [4]. While these results suggest the popularity of the team approach to IS planning, the finding that only 16 per cent were very satisfied with the performance is not an overwhelmingly positive evaluation of their effectiveness. If the team approach is truly preferred, as the team-building literature proposes, then one would expect a higher level of satisfaction with team performance.Ineffective teams may be the product of inappropriate team composition. Deciding to use a team approach is only the first step. Great care must be exercised in building the team to ensure its ultimate effectiveness. There are a number of pitfalls involving group dynamics that can undermine a team's effectiveness [5]. This paper proposes a model of the impact of the personalitytype composition of a team on overall team performance. The model applies personality-type theory to the team-building process and then illustrates the importance of this theory by evaluating a case example of two software development teams. One of the teams was considered to be very productive by

"Think Aloud" was designed as a training program to improve self-control in 6- to 8-year-old boys. It involved modeling and verbalization of cognitive activity to foster use of verbal mediation skills in dealing with both cognitive and interpersonal problems. It was hypothesized that this training would lead to improvement in test performance and teacher ratings of classroom behavior in hyperaggressive boys. Twelve aggressive second grade boys participated in daily, 30-minute, individual sessions for 6 weeks. Normal and aggressive control subjects received no intervention. Teachers rated both trained and untrained aggressive boys as improving in aggressive behaviors but they rated the experimental group as showing improvement on a significantly larger number of prosocial behaviors. The pattern of performance on cognitive tests also changed significantly in the experimental group. On pretest, their pattern differed from normals and resembled the aggressive control group, while on posttest their pattern resembled normals and differed from agressive controls. Suggestions were made concerning additional refinements needed in the program, but overall results indicated potential value in the present approach for providing assistance to aggressive boys in the early grades.

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This study is an investigation of potential relationships between ethical judgments and both personal demographic and situational variables among a national sample of 602 managers. A significant positive relationship was found between education and ethical judgments of a scenario about an unethical situation. As formal education increased, managers tended to view unethical situations more favorably. Also, a significant negative relationship between size of a firm and ethical judgments of employees was confirmed in a regression analysis. Conclusions and suggestions for research are presented.