Page 132 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Cooperation Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 132
berships will perhaps be more flexible to reflect the needs of the po-
tential ESLer. The level of disturbance caused by these changes depends on
the relative task- and team-related competencies of the leavers and arriv-
ers and how they fit in with the team profile and which position they occu-
py (Mathieu et al., 2014). Thus, when replacing a team member, the strate-
gy should not focus only on ‘position requirements’, but also on the other
aspects described above. For example, if a ‘temporary member’ possess-
es an attribute relevant for team functioning and no other member can
take this role (e.g. good at managing conflicts), the team leader may de-
cide to keep the person in the team even though the professional may not
be directly linked to the potential ESLer or his/her situation. Considering
the two types of members in ESL multi-professional groups, it seems that
permanent members are more crucial in terms of team functioning and
this should guide the team composition and decisions regarding the neces-
sary professional development programmes (training), feedback and team
building. Some team members are likely to have already worked together
and this experience may positively or negatively influence working in ESL
teams.
The key message from team composition is that while the right mix of
people in a team sets the stage for team effectiveness – the ‘right mix’ is not
a static property. In addition, awareness of the described aspects/models in
team composition can make the decisions in this regard more transparent
(e.g. when assigning members to teams; when targeting human resource
efforts – e.g. training) or, perhaps more importantly, can help anticipate
problems and take preventive actions (Mathieu et al., 2014).
Team diversity
Team composition is linked with the concept of diversity; it refers to how
homogenous or heterogeneous is the composition of a team with regard to
different features. Multi-professional ESL teams are by definition diverse
in their demographics, i.e. functional background (e.g. teaching, adminis-
tration, counselling) and educational background (e.g. degree in psychol-
ogy). Theoretical classifications describe this as highly job-related (Weber
& Donahue, 2001) and surface-level diversity (Bell, 2007). Both attributes
reflect a team member’s type of knowledge, attitude and perspective that
the member brings to the task and both are expected to lead to a broader
task-relevant perspective, thus increasing the team’s success (e.g. teachers
are expected to contribute with their teaching and pedagogical experience
132
tential ESLer. The level of disturbance caused by these changes depends on
the relative task- and team-related competencies of the leavers and arriv-
ers and how they fit in with the team profile and which position they occu-
py (Mathieu et al., 2014). Thus, when replacing a team member, the strate-
gy should not focus only on ‘position requirements’, but also on the other
aspects described above. For example, if a ‘temporary member’ possess-
es an attribute relevant for team functioning and no other member can
take this role (e.g. good at managing conflicts), the team leader may de-
cide to keep the person in the team even though the professional may not
be directly linked to the potential ESLer or his/her situation. Considering
the two types of members in ESL multi-professional groups, it seems that
permanent members are more crucial in terms of team functioning and
this should guide the team composition and decisions regarding the neces-
sary professional development programmes (training), feedback and team
building. Some team members are likely to have already worked together
and this experience may positively or negatively influence working in ESL
teams.
The key message from team composition is that while the right mix of
people in a team sets the stage for team effectiveness – the ‘right mix’ is not
a static property. In addition, awareness of the described aspects/models in
team composition can make the decisions in this regard more transparent
(e.g. when assigning members to teams; when targeting human resource
efforts – e.g. training) or, perhaps more importantly, can help anticipate
problems and take preventive actions (Mathieu et al., 2014).
Team diversity
Team composition is linked with the concept of diversity; it refers to how
homogenous or heterogeneous is the composition of a team with regard to
different features. Multi-professional ESL teams are by definition diverse
in their demographics, i.e. functional background (e.g. teaching, adminis-
tration, counselling) and educational background (e.g. degree in psychol-
ogy). Theoretical classifications describe this as highly job-related (Weber
& Donahue, 2001) and surface-level diversity (Bell, 2007). Both attributes
reflect a team member’s type of knowledge, attitude and perspective that
the member brings to the task and both are expected to lead to a broader
task-relevant perspective, thus increasing the team’s success (e.g. teachers
are expected to contribute with their teaching and pedagogical experience
132
