Levi, D. (2017).Group dynamics for teams (5th Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Chapter 4 Understanding the Basic Team Processes

Chapter 5 Cooperation and Competition

Chapter 6 Communication

Part 1: Identifying Critical Factors

Levi outlined factors that have critical impacts in producing successful teams, such as goal identification, cohesion, role definition, and trust. Examine the convoy commander in the Army, in your opinion, who was not successful, and identify what critical factors were missing in this team and comment on what the team could have done differently.

Part 2: High Performing Teams

Trust is the cornerstone for high-performing teams. Without a foundation of trust, all other team dynamics become problematic. Communication is likely to be compromised because team members cannot be open and provide honest feedback to one another. Collaboration is unlikely to occur as team members may question the motives of others. Conflict and disagreement are likely to go unresolved and thus build. Team members are unlikely to take undue risks (which undermines innovation) for fear of criticism and finger-pointing. Clearly, this is all detrimental to team performance.

Describe how you would build trust in a team. What type of initiatives and behaviors would you use to build trust? What are the potential obstacles? How would you address these? Consider these questions from the perspectives of a team member, the team leader, and the organization.