Team-based organizations: effectiveness, motivation, and recognition

Team-based organization, there is often conflict with respect to the best way to motivate within the organization. Managers must decide between team-based motivation and individual motivation, and they must decide what type of motivation works best. In some cases, financial rewards are a good method, while others appeal to a sense of intrinsic motivation. This paper will study the issue of motivation in team-based organization.

Research on team-based organizations

Pearsall, Christian and Ellis (2010) studied the use of hybrid rewards in teams. The authors hypothesized that hybrid rewards would be more effective than either individual rewards or shared rewards. They felt that this would be the case because of increased information allocation and reduced social loafing An approach that focused strictly on individual rewards would suffer because there would be no incentive to raise the level of the team, while team-based rewards only would lead to higher levels of social loafing. With both types of rewards, the authors found that their hypothesis was upheld.

Further research shows support for this idea, in particular the notion that there is a relationship between team and individual performance (Chen et al., 2009). While such theories have yet to be translated into coherent managerial recommendations, they do indicate support for the idea that managers in organization can make motivation tactics more powerful by applying them both at the team level and at the individual level. At the team level, social pressure can drive better performance, but there remains a role for individual-level motivation as well.

Recognition

For organization seeking to enhance their motivation on a budget, there is often a turn to appeals to intrinsic motivation. The costs are lower, and many companies seek out workers with a high level of intrinsic motivation because they believe that the work will be harder from such individuals, either at the team level or the individual level. Baldonado (2013) found that, using Herzberg's two-factor theory, both hygiene and motivator factors contributed to the motivation level of virtual Generation Y teams. This highlights that even in a virtual setting, team-based motivating factors are important but there remains a need to appeal to the individual, in particular with intrinsic motivation. People want to know that they have done a good job, and they want to know that they will be rewarded for that.

Thus, the research supports the idea that recognition can be a motivator. This is especially true in teams, because the individual receives clear recognition in the presence of teammates, something encourages further. When the team is doing well and an individual knows that they can be recognized as driving the team forward, he or she is more likely to perform to a higher level. There is the risk, however, when rewarding individuals that some individuals might find their performance has been devalued, if others are competing for, and winning, the rewards.

Recommendations

Motivating teams can be a difficult challenge. Managers are often faced with the dilemma of motivating the team to the individual, and using different types of motivation as well. It is recommended, based on the literature, that managers motivate using both individual and team motivation, and that there is room for rewards to help motivate. In most cases, individuals still need some motivating factors to avoid social loafing. While hygiene factors remain an important baseline, people do appreciate recognition as well. Thus, by recognizing the team for its success, there is room to enhance team performance. Beyond that, managers need to still have individual performance measures, and perhaps tie some rewards to that, as a means of reducing social loafing.

Conclusion

The research has shown that it is important for teams to have a variety of motivating factors, including both appeals to intrinsic motivation but also some external motivation as well. Research has shown that managers of teams will succeed with a combination of techniques, as people require different motivators in order to perform at a consistently high level over a long period of time.