Team Relationships

Team Relationships

The work team is a group with a specific goal, which cannot be achieved without the contributions of every individual member of the team.  Two members of a six-member team, for example, cannot help produce an end product and take credit for it at the expense of the other members of the team.  While it is possible that they may produce the end product on their own, work teams have been composed in such a way as to bring together a specific number of individuals with specific competencies and skills to ensure a quality end product in the best efficient manner.

Often times when one talks “team”, it is all about reaching goals and targets, and we forget that the team would not be able to function if it wasn’t for the relations that existed within the team.  And perhaps in your opinion your team is not really into spending much social time together, including the back slapping and the jokes, the cup of coffee or the quick gossip together – but this is not necessarily what we’re referring to here.

Relations does not only exist around the coffee table, it exist around the execution of the job – while working on the machines, while on the road, even where team members are in different geographical areas and as such, deemed “virtual” teams, only communicating via email, Skype and social media.

Where there are interpersonal relationships, people make choices – where to sit or stand; choices about who is perceived as friendly and who not, who is central to the group, who is rejected, who is isolated, who can be trusted and who shouldn’t be trusted, etc.

Moreno says, “Choices are fundamental facts in all ongoing human relations, choices of people and choices of things.  It is immaterial whether the motivations are known to the chooser or not; it is immaterial whether [the choices] are inarticulate or highly expressive, whether rational or irrational.  They do not require any special justification as long as they are spontaneous and true to the self of the chooser.  They are facts of the first existential order.” (Moreno, 1953, p. 720).

The relational choices team members make has quite an impact on the functioning of the team.  For instance, if some of the team members do not trust another team member, this has a major impact on how decisions are made by team members and how they react to information; in other words, it has a huge impact on the dynamics within the team, and it will show in the performance of this team.

How do you determine then what the relational patterns are within a team, especially a team that you know has problems: they aren’t meeting deadlines, there seems to be friction in the team, there seems to be cliques within the team, some members are excluded from communications, etc? The answer is:  sociometric assessment.

For those unfamiliar with sociometry, here is a more formal definition:

Sociometry is a method used to present complex individual relationships and network data in a graph form.  It attempts to measure and understand the social world [of the team].  To the sociometrist, the individual and his / her forged relationships are very much part of this social world.  The flexible nature of sociometry as a method of analysis is clearly observant from this in that it treats each social situation as unique.  In being able to do this, the value of sociometry is emphasised (Moreno, 1953:1xxx).

When a sociometric assessment is conducted, the results are depicted on a sociogram.  This sociogram provides evidence of real social structures existing in the specific team.  It immediately gives information about the nature and the status of the specific relational network in the group, and immediate steps can be taken for intervention.

So what does the sociogram tell you?

• It helps identify the structural components of the team: roles, norms, values and communication patterns,
• It tells you about group status relations i.e. power or authority statuses within the team
• It provides information about intra-group relations, referring to rejection and attraction patterns between team members

How does the above information help you in understanding and leading your team more effectively?

• It gives you a means for the identification of the current and real sociometric relational structure of your team – how relations are now, not how it was some months ago.

• It assists in the identification of current and real relational problems within a group.
• It provides an opportunity to deal with the identified problems immediately as well as to assess the outcome of interventions on a continuous basis.
• It allows for an analysis of a group’s relational structure as a single unit of analysis thus enabling the application of the scientific principles of objectivity, validity and reliability.

• It does not claim to be the only method for the analysis of social structure, but it allows for the opportunity for the application of other methods of analysis.  In other words, whether used on its own or in conjunction with other methods, its aim is to provide data as it exists i.e. in the form that those that provide it have presented it.
• It enables the generating of subjective data (as embedded in the personal response choices obtained by means of the sociometric test) without the need for research manipulation.

OK, this is all quite a mouthful and hopefully a bit of food for thought. Bottom line: you have a team with problems? This is where Trigon Consulting comes in and does a sociometric team assessment. Based on this assessment, a team intervention is designed to bring about positive change within the team.

Sources:

1. Laubscher, A. 2004. The influence of sociometric status and temperament style on the relational patterns in work teams: an exploratory study. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Magister Artium Sociology, University of Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
2. Moreno, J. L. 1953. Who shall Survive? Beacon, New York: Beacon House.

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