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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBenefits of team building exercises jeopardized if not truly voluntary
A paper published this week by University of Sydney School of Project Management researchers in the Journal of Social Networks has found participants have mixed feelings about team-building interventions, with the research revealing ethical implications in forcing employees to take part.
"Since publishing our previous research on team-building exercises, many workers told us that they despise team building activities and see them as a waste of time, so we decided to look in more depth at what's behind this," said the paper's lead researcher, Dr Petr Matous, who in 2019 published research with Dr Julien Pollack that argued spending time developing relationships with people you aren't close to is more effective than general team-bonding exercises.
"Almost every day at work, workers are subjected to interventions that are implicitly or explicitly designed to change our networks of working relationships," said Dr Matous.
"Teams are formed, merged and restructured, staff are relocated and office spaces are redesigned. We are expected to participate in drinks after work and team building events. All this is done with the aim of improving workplace effectiveness, efficiency, collaboration and cohesion -- but does any of this work?" said Dr Matous.
The study found that team-building exercises which focused on the sharing of, and intervening into personal attitudes and relationships between team members may be considered too heavy-handed and intrusive, although the researchers say some degree of openness and vulnerability is often necessary to make deep, effective connections with colleagues.
"Among the participants we interviewed, some were against team building exercises because they felt they were implicitly compulsory and did not welcome management's interest in their lives beyond their direct work performance."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210225143709.htm
Just like mandatory social exercises, er, um, office holiday parties.
Hugin
(33,139 posts)The 'me' in team and the 'i' in the 'A' hole.
I've been through many and in the end it always seems like a rudderless slave galley. So, in that way, I suppose it is a reflection of the workplace.
Maybe, it's worth it after all.
SoCalNative
(4,613 posts)along with the whole business of "setting goals and performance development."
Whatever happened to "I get my job done, do it well and then I go home?"
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)Mass team building exercises typically run out of HR are needed only in the case of management failure.
JI7
(89,249 posts)tanyev
(42,553 posts)I think what generally happens is that the people who volunteer for the committee are overwhelmingly extroverts and they come up with ideas and activities that sound awesometo them. But then event day arrives and all the introverts like me see what were supposed to do and think, OMG, what fresh hell is this?
Hugin
(33,139 posts)I can't count the number of times I've heard, "We hear you."
Then, when push comes to shove, it becomes clear nobody was "listening".
Yeah, definitely the gadflies who dive into this are generally listening impaired.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Ewwwww. I'm just not like that.
On the other hand...free pizza...I'm there!
Amishman
(5,557 posts)I've seen countless managers try to plan elaborate team building activities, only to be surprised when employees resent it.
They failed to consider the impact on the employee's life. Taking a big block of time on evenings or a weekend takes them away from their personal life. Even doing it during the work week doesn't take away the work that they normally would be doing in that time period, and they end up having to work harder or extra hours to get it all done.
Some people, especially career driven manager types, end up using work as a surrogate social life. Others see it just as a necessary evil, to be tolerated and left out of mind as much as possible. This plays out like oil and water