First, the concept of team cohesion
Team cohesion refers to the attraction of the team to members, the centripetal force of members to the team, and the mutual attraction between team members. Team cohesion is not only a necessary condition to maintain the existence of the team, but also plays an important role in bringing the team's potential into play. If a team loses its cohesion, it will not be able to complete the tasks entrusted by the organization, and it will also lose its conditions for existence. American social psychologist L Festinger believes that this kind of cohesion is the resultant force that keeps group members in the group, that is, a kind of interpersonal attraction. This attraction has some mechanical similarities. For example, if a person plays a "meteor ball", the meteor ball rotates around the center of the hand and will not be lost. The hand is the center point. What is the central point of cohesion? Is the attraction of a team to all members. This is mainly manifested in three aspects:
L, the attraction of the team itself to its members. If the goal direction, organizational form, industry spirit and social status of the team are suitable for the members, the attraction will be great, otherwise the attraction will be reduced, and even the members will feel bored and disgusted, thus leaving the team.
2. The attractiveness of meeting the diverse needs of all members. Meeting the material and psychological needs of individual members is the most important condition to enhance the attractiveness of the group.
3. Attraction among team members. Team members have similar interests, harmonious relationship, mutual care, love and help, which is attractive; On the contrary, the attraction is small, even exclusive and mutually exclusive.
Second, the basic principles of team cohesion
The formation of team cohesion has both internal and external factors. Internal factors come from members and the team itself, and external factors come from environmental pressure. Team cohesion can be a process in which team members' understanding and reaction to the situation tend to be consistent, or it can be a process in which members echo other people's behavior, or members * * * share a specific value. The main connotation of this kind of values is to follow four basic principles:
First, agree with the principle of * * * interests and discuss the interests of the team with you. Faced with the realistic income contrast in society, it is easy for everyone to form a consensus with the same interests. Considering the internal quality of tax personnel, this recognition will automatically be transformed into a conscious action to safeguard the overall situation. Comrades whose personal interests temporarily do not completely coincide with the fundamental interests of the collective should be given the opportunity to choose.
The second is to discuss the principle of fairness in exchanging contributions for remuneration. The friction, struggle and comparison left over from the planned economy era should go with that era. Everyone can accept that colleagues have different incomes, as long as the differences are generally reasonable. Abnormal reward/contribution curve is a cancer that destroys cohesion, so we should pay attention to prevention and correct it in time.
The third is to put an end to the principle of justice that harms the overall interests. No cliques, no favoritism, everyone is equal before labor discipline. It is forbidden to use public resources, occupy working hours and engage in personal business. This phenomenon especially affects the enthusiasm of colleagues, especially the image and prestige of the team, especially the collective image, which is immediately toxic to cohesion.
The fourth is to emphasize the incentive principle of development goals. A team should have * * * consistent development goals, whether there are * * * consistent goals, and the difference between * * * and goals directly affects the ethos, spirit and cohesion of the team. * * * The same goal should be achieved through personal goals, and personal goals should focus on personal development. The future vision and possible direction of a team should always be discussed and argued with team members, so that they can design themselves under the subconscious control. Individual members value the future and opportunities to create it. We should encourage them to pursue this realm and respect and cherish their entrepreneurial passion.
Third, the influencing factors of team cohesion
1. Composition of team members. (1) Team size. The bigger the team, the lower the cohesion of the team. With the increase of team size, the opportunities and possibilities of interaction among team members decrease, making it difficult to form cohesion; On the other hand, the smaller the team size (it is generally believed that 5 ~ 12 people are appropriate), the more opportunities there are for team members to interact, and the easier it is for team members to integrate, thus forming stronger cohesion (Kramer &; Brewer, 1984).
(2) Similarity of members. The so-called similarity of members refers to the obvious individual characteristics summarized from personal records, as well as the deep-seated factors that are difficult to observe and have a decisive influence on people's behavior patterns, such as personality, attitude, values and other psychological factors, as well as the overall characteristics produced by the dynamic collection of individual internal characteristics.
(3) the attractiveness of members. Newcomb (1960) pointed out that if A found some quality characteristics that he liked from B, such as reputation and social status, pleasure, support and other pleasant personality characteristics, A would praise and admire B, and this mutual attraction among members would make them willing to complete a certain task together.
2. Team tasks. (1) Consistency of mission objectives. Consistency of goals is the premise of cohesion. First of all, if the team goals are consistent with individual goals, then individuals will be attracted to the team. Secondly, the process of team building * * * the same goal often means the process of building competitors or "* * * the same enemy". Studies have shown that the emergence of "* * * and the enemy" will strengthen the sense of identity within the team and make the sense of identity of team members more important.
(2) The degree of interdependence between the goals and tasks. If the goal of the team needs the cooperation and close cooperation of each team member Qi Xin, the team members will be integrated with other members in behavior, emotion and psychology to form a joint force, so the process of achieving the goal of the team is also a process of forming cohesion; On the contrary, if the mutual trust necessary in the process of achieving the goal is low, it is not easy to form team cohesion.
(3) The attraction of team tasks to members. The content, form and frequency of activities to complete team tasks are suitable for members and attractive; On the other hand, if the activity is unpopular with members, the attraction will be reduced, and even members will feel bored and disgusted, thus leaving the team.
(4) the difficulty of the task. Repetition of tedious routine tasks will bring burnout and affect team cohesion, while the tasks that can be completed through hard work as a team will bring the whole team a stressful experience. To accomplish such a task, team members must maintain a high degree of consistency and Qi Xin should work together. Such a process of completing the task will promote the formation of higher cohesion.
3. Team internal management. (1) leadership style. The classic experiments of Lei Wen and others compared the cohesion and team atmosphere of each experimental group under the three leadership modes of "democracy", "autocracy" and "laissez faire". The results show that the democratic leadership style group is more friendly among its members, with more positive feelings, more active thoughts and stronger cohesion than other groups.
(2) Incentive mode. Different incentive factors and levels have different attractions for members (Liu, 2006). Incentive factors that can promote team cohesion mainly refer to various emotional factors that can strengthen the sense of belonging. Every team member has his own psychological needs, and everyone's psychological needs are different. Some individuals have the needs of belonging to a certain team, some individuals have high demands on rights, some individuals have the needs of communication and status, and some individuals have the needs of self-evaluation. Whether a team can continue to provide its expected incentives to its members will have an important impact on team cohesion, and team leaders can influence and control such factors that affect the needs of team members to a great extent.
(3) communication. The communication between members is conducive to understanding the team tasks, and immediately know each other's progress, so as to make appropriate adjustments to their own work in order to better complete the team tasks. On the basis of effective communication, individuals and teams can maintain mutual trust and enhance their sense of belonging to the team (Huang Yuqing, 2005).
(4) specification. Whether the team has certain norms will also affect the formation and development of team cohesion. If effective and appropriate team norms are formulated, the behavior of members will be restrained to a certain extent, so that the behavior of members can point to the team task to the greatest extent. In addition, highly cohesive teams are generally more likely to produce * * * identification norms; On the contrary, it is generally difficult for teams with low cohesion to form * * * recognition standards.
In addition, the external factors of the team will also affect the cohesion of the team. A team is always interacting with the external environment. A positive external environment will certainly play a positive role in promoting the cohesion of the team. On the contrary, the negative external environment will have a negative impact on team cohesion. For example, reasonable competition between teams will enhance the cohesion of the team. When teams compete, there will be pressure and threats within their respective groups, forcing all members to consciously unite and reduce internal differences. Be loyal to your team, safeguard the interests of the team, be consistent with the outside world, and avoid causing frustration and harm to your team. In this way, the relationship between team members has become closer, and everyone is in the same boat, going to the mission together, and the cohesion of the team has been improved and strengthened.
Fourth, measures to cultivate team cohesion
The above investigation on the influencing factors of team cohesion provides a basis for the cultivation of team cohesion, and accordingly puts forward the following specific measures for the cultivation of team cohesion.
1. Clear and consistent goals. Managers and team members * * * jointly establish goals, and integrate team goals with personal goals, so that personal goals are highly consistent with team goals, which can greatly improve the production efficiency of the team. The establishment of effective goals generally follows the following principles: (1) Goals are specific and measurable. (2) clearly determine the time limit. A good goal should be timely, which requires not only a clear time limit, but also a reasonable time limit for completing the task. (3) Use targets with moderate difficulty. In addition to the above three aspects, regularly check the progress of the target; Use the combination of process objectives, performance objectives and performance objectives; Achieve long-term goals with short-term goals; Setting team and individual performance goals and so on is conducive to the cultivation of team cohesion.
2. Good internal management of the team. (1) leader. In terms of leadership style, according to the classic experiment of Lei Wen mentioned above, in order to enhance team cohesion, we should adopt a more democratic leadership style, consult each other in team decision-making, and strive to reflect public opinion to the maximum extent, so as to make members more friendly, more positive, more active and more cohesive.
(2) communication. Communication between team members can not only enhance interpersonal cohesion, but also enhance task cohesion, so there should be enough communication time, suitable space or channels and good communication atmosphere within the team. (1) In terms of communication time, a fixed time or other appropriate time can be arranged every day or week according to the needs of the task, so that members can report the recent progress, new ideas and newly discovered problems of the task. , in order to adjust in time, to avoid unnecessary waste of manpower and material resources; (2) Ensure that there are communication spaces and channels, and the communication places can be selected in offices, conference rooms, lounges, restaurants, etc. Channels can be face-to-face communication, telephone, internet, etc. The diversity and quality of places and channels can facilitate rapid and effective communication among members, and ensure the smooth flow of information within the team and the enjoyment of knowledge and information; (3) To create a good communication atmosphere is to let all members dare to express, be willing to express, and be able to express their ideas to brainstorm. To create a good communication atmosphere, we should pay attention to mutual trust (four elements of trust, namely, achieving effectiveness, consistency, honesty and showing concern), respect each other's ideas, focus on tasks, focus on things rather than people, and avoid hurting others' feelings. Leaders or authoritative figures in the team should be cautious when evaluating members' speeches, so as not to hurt the enthusiasm of the speaker or those who want to speak. In order to open the minds of members, you can ask questions about their speeches and don't rush to evaluate their ideas.
(3) Formulate effective team norms. Team norms are rules and behavior patterns recognized and generally accepted by team members. They can be reflected in the recognition or opposition of team members to certain behaviors, and distinguish whether certain behaviors are beneficial or harmful, so as to standardize the behaviors of team members, encourage beneficial behaviors, correct harmful behaviors, help members understand what expected behaviors are, improve the ability of team self-management and self-control, and promote the growth of team cohesion.
In addition, according to the different needs of members, reasonable and appropriate application of incentive methods can enhance team cohesion; Carry out more active team competition activities and enhance team cohesion by participating in the competition; Conduct some team development training to make members realize the importance of team and team cohesion in team activities.