Examining the Factors Behind the Success and Sustainability of China’s Creative Research Group: An Extension of the Teamwork Quality Model

Abstract

The Creative Research Group (CRG) is the special high-level scientific and innovation team funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China to promote basic research at the frontiers of science. In general, there are problems of “structure anomie” and “cooperation inefficiency” in the operations and teamwork dynamics within the nationwide CRG project. By extending and developing the two-stage teamwork quality model, this study aims to depict and analyze the impact factors behind the success and sustainability of the Creative Research Group (SSCRG), and reveal the relationships among them. Herein, rationality of team structure (ROTS) is used to describe the rationality of team formation and structure collocation, teamwork quality (TWQ) is used to describe the process of team members’ integration and cooperation, and SSCRG includes team performance, personal success and team comprehensive impacts. The results show that ROTS and TWQ have different influences on SSCRG, while TWQ is the key mediation factor between ROTS and SSCRG. In summary, the model built describes the complex phenomena and relationships in the teamwork of the CRG, and helps us to understand and solve the problems of structure and cooperation. Although the limitations lie in the specific samples and research methods, the extension and migration of classical models and theories would help to further deepen such research and contribute to the governance and development of such innovation teams.

Relationship between Perceived Teamwork Effectiveness and Team Performance in Banking Sector of Serbia

“…This study results showed similar relations to previous instances, namely that team synergy, innovation, and teamwork quality have positive relationships with team performance. The cohesion and synergy of team colleagues [36], teamwork quality [38], and innovative behavior [40] have positive relations with and lead to higher teamwork performance. This was an expected result, since team synergy brings greater cohesion and better cooperation between team members, which can lead to joint efforts to reach the proposed goals and achieve better results.…”

“…This was an expected result, since team synergy brings greater cohesion and better cooperation between team members, which can lead to joint efforts to reach the proposed goals and achieve better results. The innovation and quality of teams in terms of their processes and achievements, are seen as the leading factors for the competitiveness and sustainability of teams and their results [7,36,38]. Therefore, these three factors should be more carefully planned, monitored, controlled, and enhanced by team leaders and managers in order to keep teams effective and provide better results.…”

“…Some of the factors of team effectiveness that can influence teamwork performance were explored in previous research. Gao et al found that team quality, measured by communication, coordination, balance of member contributions, mutual support, effort and cohesion, was positively related to team performance, the personal success of team members, and project success [36][37][38]. Aryee et al found that the innovative behavior of employees was positively related to task performance [39], while team potency and team innovative behavior had a positive relation to team outcomes such as effort, performance, service quality, and member satisfaction [40].…”

Teamwork Quality and Team Success in Software Development

“…Hoegl & Gemunden [13] constructed an operationalization of TWQ using 38 response items, with different number of items per facet: Communication (10), Coordination (4), Balance of Member Contribution (3), Mutual Support (7), Effort (4), and Cohesion (10). The factorial structure of the TWQ construct was tested using principal component analysis.…”

“…Further, at least six other studies applied and extended TWQ in other context such as MBA student teams in USA [9], management teams in Indonesia [2], new product development in Germany [19] and Turkey [8], research teams in China [10], and electronics company in South Korea [3]. As these studies are no related to software development, they will not be discussed in this article.…”