Team Performance Assessment

What to Measure

A team usually operates in some larger organizational context. Just as team members have personal assignments within the team, so the team as a whole has a function within this larger system. Accordingly, many writers make use of the Input-Process-Output rubric to organize thinking about the features of a team that will influence performance and therefore affect the ways that one goes about defining and assessing performance.

Inputs include such things as the type of people involved (number and skills of members), team resources available (money and equipment), the nature of the “raw” materials to be used, team structure (communication channels, distribution of authority), team history (levels of past performance, past relationships among members), and team mission (time urgency, novelty, and difficulty). Processes [Page 905]involve patterns and sequences of individual-level thinking and feelings, on one hand, and team-related activities associated with such things as managing relationships, coordinating work flow and communications, and using influence tactics, on the other. Outcomes usually refer to levels of individual performance within the team, degree of mission accomplishment by the team, positive or negative changes in capacity (over time) to function well as a team, and levels of stakeholder satisfaction. Degree of satisfaction with outcomes is usually related to the needs, goals, and expectations of the stakeholder. Stakeholders interested in team performance can include the team members themselves, the team leader, clients, customers, and (in the case of a sports team) an audience.

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