Research About Research Supports Findings on Teams

This study performed team research on research teams. The authors looked at how four "longitudinal" studies were managed. These types of studies involve teams of researchers from different sciences observing or testing the same group of people over many years, sometimes decades. These study teams faced issues many business teams face, such as:

• loss of team members that had unique knowledge,
• meeting the work needs of different members, and
• creating cost-effective work processes for virtual teams.

Based on their review, the researchers came up with a number of actions these teams required to perform better. The following suggestions are outlined in the study:

• Take the time to clarify the research questions (project goals) in a way that satisfies each person's work needs.
• Select team members not only based on area of expertise but also on willingness to cooperate.
• Show members how project success can affect career success.
• Have the team set explicit "rules, policies, and work-process issues," but also stress the ability to change these when needed.
• Hold regular, mandatory meetings through the process.
• Regularly communicate about progress with stakeholders.
• Specify roles and responsibilities for each output.
• Reward team members who take on special team duties.
• Decide together how outputs will be delivered.
• Review the mix of team member skills on occasion to ensure current team needs are being met.
• When assigning subteams, make sure every member eventually works with every other member on a subteam.
• Store data where everyone can get to it easily.
• Use formal project management and meeting facilitation techniques.
• Discuss task outputs early and often to ensure alignment with the team's and members' goals.

Source: O'Connor, G., et al. (03), "Managing Interdisciplinary, Longitudinal Research Teams: Extending Grounded Theory-Building Methodologies," Organization Science 14(4):353.