| 摘要 | Faced with the realities of constant, rapid, and seemingly unprecedented change, organizations are discovering that today's business, economic, and management models are inadequate to create the environments and results necessary for survival. To persevere, organizations need the ability to routinely initiate and facilitate high performance work teams, adding value to both the organization and the individual. To achieve this goal, they must understand the complexities of the challenge: What creates a high performing team? What happens within an individual's lifeworld? What dynamics and behaviors enable exceptional achievement? Is the organization's success at the expense of the individual, and if so, what are the consequences of this tradeoff? In 1978, Peter Vaill began the dialogue into high performance systems, and others such as Katzenbach and Smith (1993), Collins (1995), Labich (1996), and De Vries (1999) have continued it with an increasingly humanistic focus. Similarly, I used the qualitative research framework of Mindful Inquiry that draws from three Western traditions: critical social science, phenomenology, hermeneutics and the Buddhist Eastern tradition. I examined organizational and management as well as related political and economic literature from Adam Smith's (1776) Wealth of Nations to the Economic Policy Institute's (2000) The State of Working America 1989–1999, placing my study within today's social forces and historical context. Furthermore, I conducted 22 one-on-one, in-depth interviews with high performance team members—exploring the individual's unique role and experience as well as the team's size; achievements; positive and negative dynamics; and high performance elements. In total, 38 teams were discussed: 26 team experiences were considered by the participant as positive, 12 negative. These interviews and their representation (summary tables, common themes, illustrative quotes, unique caricatures) are not simply the individual's memory, but reflect intersubjective dialogues that sought to discover the phenomenon's essence. Through complex spiraling of methodology, literature review, dialogue, study, and reflection, high performance teams were explored through 2 different, yet, complementary means: 15 high level themes and 6 ideal types based on Alfred Schutz (1964) puppet creation. Finally, I used personal journal excerpts to include a narrative thread, making explicit my place in the scholarly text. |
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