Industrial and Management Systems Engineering
Date of this Version
8-2013
Abstract
The ever-increasing competitive pressure and sizes of the global markets have forced organizations from both manufacturing and healthcare sectors to rely more on teams. Therefore the success or the failure of an organization depends largely on the overall quality of the teams within that organization. This increased attention towards teams has forced many organizations to focus on improving the overall quality of their teams. This study has three main objectives. The first objective is to structure a comprehensive list of attributes affecting the overall quality of a team in manufacturing and healthcare sectors. The second objective is to use a survey tool to determine significant attributes affecting a team’s overall quality from an employee’s perspective. The third objective is to compare the manufacturing and healthcare sectors and to identify differences among the attributes affecting a team’s overall quality across the two sectors.
The data gathered were from employees working in teams and were primarily from two countries: The United States and China. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and stepwise regression analysis was performed on the responses that were gathered to find out the significant team quality attributes from an employee’s perspective and also to identify the relation between the final outcome measure “Team Quality” and their respective attributes.
The ANOVA results for attributes versus teams revealed team efficacy, team trust, personality and skills & knowledge as significant for teams. While the ANOVA results for attributes versus teams from United States showed training & support and performance feedback as significant, the ANOVA results for attributes versus teams from China revealed team leadership, team efficacy and team trust as significant.
The stepwise regression analysis for team quality versus other attributes (for all the teams combined) showed that job satisfaction and team trust were significantly affecting the overall team quality. However, the stepwise regression analysis for team quality versus other attributes for teams from China showed that job satisfaction and team efficacy were significantly affecting the overall team quality.
Advisor: Ram R. Bishu
Comments
A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science, Major: Industrial and Management System Engineering, Under the supervision of Professor Ram Bishu. Lincoln, Nebraska: August, 2013
Copyright 2013 Shiva Bhagavatula