How to create the perfect business team? Part 3

Data Collection And Analysis            

This was not an easy search. It uncovered that most of the research in this area had been done about sports teams or the purely performance oriented aspects of teamwork. One of the goals of the search, or maybe more a hope, was to find a seminal article that served as the foundation or the center from which other researchers and authors would conduct their searches. At the same time it was the goal of the search to be exhaustive and saturate the findings by referencing the articles that fit the criteria above. To achieve this goal articles were identified and then their reference lists searched for matches. In addition, to see where they originated from, the references were then searched in a “back-tracking” approach. This means that the references were analyzed for search terminology of new searches. These new searches frequently resulted in the same findings as the original searches, thereby showing that the search attempts had reached a suitable level of saturation and the vast majority of material pertaining to this subject had been found.

Even though non-empirical articles should have been excluded based on the criteria that were used for the individual attempts using the search databases described; this literary search uncovered a total of 35 articles. Twenty-three articles fulfilled all the criteria for empirical research articles that were peer reviewed, as required for this review. Two of these 23 articles were related to sports research but focused on the aspects that this review is concerned about and not the typical sports research or team performance studies often found in articles about team work or team selection in sports teams. They were therefore left in the original selection set.

One particular article (Morgenson, Reider, and Campion, 2005) was found that has been referenced in dissertations and other articles and appeared to be an anchor point for current research. This article, titled “Selecting individuals in team settings: the importance of social skills, personality characteristics, and teamwork knowledge” came closest to the idea of a seminal piece of work regarding the topic of this review. It is based on the research reviewed here and has been referenced in dissertations and several books as well as a number of non-empirical articles. Due to this fact references that were found based on Morgensen and colleagues work were not further displayed in this review. The table below shows the list of articles that was chosen from the list of 23 to be analyzed further. The goal of this selection process was to show the main aspects of the team selection process in its different facets as well as the different methods researchers used in their investigations. Articles that applied the same methods for the same research topic or in any other way would be duplicate to one of the articles that was chosen for further description were eliminated from the original list. Originally this list included 10 articles for closer review. When the articles were analyzed for methodology and research details, it was found that two articles written by Kichuk and Wiesner under different titles and in different peer-reviewed journals actually referenced the exact same study of the big five personality factors regarding team performance. It was therefore decided to review the more recent of the two articles and eliminate the older one from the list.

When looking at the two main forms of research methodology, one can find this distinction: Qualitative research is one of the two major approaches to research methodology in social sciences. Qualitative research involves an in depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern human behavior. Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research relies on reasons behind various aspects of behavior. Simply put, it investigates the why and how of decision making, as compared to what, where, and when of quantitative research. Hence, the need is for smaller but focused samples rather than large random samples. The mixing of these two approaches is known as a mixed-method approach. There were no studies of this kind found during inquiry for this review.

As the table below shows, two out of the nine articles in this review are qualitative. In one interviews were conducted, transcribed and analyzed based on a questionnaire that had been developed by the researchers. In the other a company was observed in the process of selecting a new President from amidst the executive team. These two qualitative studies are the exception to the norm in this field. The vast majority of articles found through this inquiry process were quantitative.  

Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC