Key Findings
• The period between a project’s initiation and the project team’s first meeting is a crucial time that can significantly affect the team’s success
• Team leaders can use this time effectively to lay the groundwork for their team’s activities via a mobilization strategy, in which a leader researches the team’s objectives, proactively defines members’ roles, and staffs the team based on members’ knowledge, skills and abilities
• The amount of a team’s aggregate knowledge, skills and abilities, or human capital, is less important to team effectiveness than is the proper alignment of this human capital with project tasks

Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies

English

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CAHRS ResearchLink Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) 
3-2012 
Starting Off on the Right Foot: Take Proactive Measures to 
Enhance Project Teams' Performance 
Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies 
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Starting Off on the Right Foot: Take Proactive Measures to Enhance Project 
Teams' Performance 
Abstract 
Key Findings 
• The period between a project’s initiation and the project team’s first meeting is a crucial time that can 
significantly affect the team’s success 
• Team leaders can use this time effectively to lay the groundwork for their team’s activities via a 
mobilization strategy, in which a leader researches the team’s objectives, proactively defines members’ 
roles, and staffs the team based on members’ knowledge, skills and abilities 
• The amount of a team’s aggregate knowledge, skills and abilities, or human capital, is less important to 
team effectiveness than is the proper alignment of this human capital with project tasks. 
Keywords 
teams, performance, mobilization, strategies, leadership 
Comments 
Recommended Citation 
Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. (2012, March). Starting off on the right foot: Take 
proactive measures to enhance project teams' performance (CAHRS ResearchLink No. 19). Ithaca, NY: 
Cornell University, ILR School. 
This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs_researchlink/21 
 193 Ives Hall, Ithaca,  NY 14850 | 607.255.9358 | www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs
 STARTING OFF ON THE RIGHT 
 FOOT: TAKE PROACTIVE 
 MEASURES TO ENHANCE 
 PROJECT TEAMS’ 
 PERFORMANCE
 Key Findings
 •  The period between a project’s initiation and the 
 project team’s first meeting is a crucial time that can 
 significantly affect the team’s success
 •  Team leaders can use this time effectively to lay the 
 groundwork for their team’s activities via a 
 mobilization strategy, in which a leader researches the 
 team’s objectives, proactively defines members’ roles, 
 and staffs the team based on members’ knowledge, 
 skills and abilities
 •  The amount of  a team’s aggregate knowledge, skills 
 and abilities, or human capital, is less important to 
 team effectiveness than is the proper alignment of  this 
 human capital with project tasks.
 193 Ives Hall, Ithaca,  NY 14850
 607.255.9358
 www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs
 cahrs@cornell.edu
 A project team leader has the opportunity to actively develop his or her team 
 during the period between project initiation and the first team meeting 
 (Hackman & Katz, 2010). Many researchers have unfortunately overlooked 
 this early “mobilization” period, believing that the team’s life cycle begins at 
 the first meeting. Little research has been done on the effects that team 
 leaders’ mobilization efforts have on their teams’ success, or on the 
 mechanisms whereby these mobilization activities affect project-teams’ 
 outcomes.
 In a previous study (Ericksen & Dyer, 2004), the researchers of  the current study identified 
 four activities that team leaders can undertake during this mobilization period. Leaders 
 engaged in outreach contacted their project’s clients and other stakeholders to obtain 
 information about the project’s technical requirements and political context (content 
 clarification). They defined the tentative roles and responsibilities for members, and 
 identified the human capital needed to accomplish the project (competency-based staffing). 
 They engaged again in outreach to identify potential team members, and negotiated with 
 prospective members’ supervisors to ensure that members would have sufficient time to 
 work on the project team. Then, the leaders laid out the preliminary plans and timetables 
 for the project (process formation). The researchers labeled the aggregate of  these four 
 activities the leaders’ “mobilization strategy.”
 In that same study, the researchers found that some team leaders spent significant effort and 
 time on the four activities, or had a “comprehensive” mobilization strategy, while others did 
 much less, and had a “limited” mobilization strategy. 
 In the current study, the researchers explored how team leaders’ mobilization strategies 
 affected their teams’ success, measured by team performance and team-level satisfaction. 
 They also studied the formation of  social capital within teams, or the rise of  collaborative 
 and supportive work relationships among team members, to see how social capital is related 
 to mobilization strategy and team performance and satisfaction.
 Topic
 page 2
 For  an in-depth discussion of  this topic:
 Mobilization strategy and project-team effectiveness: the mediating role of  
 human capital alignment and social capital.
 193 Ives Hall, Ithaca,  NY 14850
 607.255.9358
 www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs
 cahrs@cornell.edu
 page 3
 Results
 •  How do team leaders’ mobilization strategies affect their team’s performance and 
 satisfaction levels? 
 •  When members’ knowledge, skills and abilities are aligned with the team task, how does 
 this affect team performance and satisfaction?
 •  Can team leaders’ mobilization strategies affect the development of  social capital 
 within teams?
 •  How does social capital affect a team’s performance and team-level satisfaction?  
 Study Questions
 •  In project teams, the comprehensiveness of  a team leader’s mobilization strategy 
 directly affects team performance and member satisfaction.
 •  The better the alignment of  human capital with the project task, in general, the better 
 the team’s performance and satisfaction will be.
 •  In general, the more comprehensive a team leader’s mobilization strategy, the 
 better will be the resulting social capital among team members.
 •  The social capital that forms in a team as a result of  the leader’s mobilization strategy 
 tends to affect the team’s performance and satisfaction levels.
 Size Doesn’t Matter; 
 Alignment Does
 Project teams are often described in terms of  three important attributes: team size (number 
 of  members or number of  labor hours available to the team); diversity; and members’ 
 knowledge, skills, and abilities (Wageman, 2005). In the current study, the researchers 
 sought to combat some implicit assumptions of  past studies, such as that a larger amount of  
 knowledge, skills and abilities, or “human capital,” is always better (Stewart, 2006). 
 The researchers posited, instead, that it is crucial to properly align available human capital 
 with project tasks, in two ways: application alignment, in which members perform essential 
 tasks rather than wasting their time; and effort alignment, in which team members are 
 collectively focused on accomplishing the team’s tasks. 
 In general, the comprehensiveness of  a team leader’s mobilization strategy is directly 
 related to human-capital alignment. A leader who engages in extensive mobilization 
 activities is well versed in the team’s workloads and human-capital requirements, knows 
 potential team members’ capabilities, and ensures members can devote sufficient time to 
 teamwork. The leader is able to flesh out goals and work requirements, formulate plans and 
 elucidate members’ roles. 
 193 Ives Hall, Ithaca,  NY 14850
 607.255.9358
 www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs
 cahrs@cornell.edu
 page 4
 A leader with a comprehensive mobilization strategy is well equipped to allocate the right 
 members to the right tasks at the right times (Mathieu & Rapp, 2009). The leader’s 
 understanding of  team interactions encourages team members to achieve team goals. 
 Ju mp-starting 
 social-capital formation
 The researchers also focused on the rise of  social capital within teams. Social capital can be 
 either deployed beyond team boundaries to access resources from outsiders to benefit the 
 team (“bridging”), or fostered and exploited within the team itself  (“bonding”) (Granovetter, 
 1992; Balkundi & Harrison, 2006; Lincoln & Miller, 1979). 
 Many researchers assume that social capital develops over time, often as a result of  team 
 members interacting for other purposes (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). In this study, the 
 researchers wished to determine whether team leaders’ mobilization efforts could expedite 
 the growth of  social capital. Leaders performing competency-based staffing pool their own 
 knowledge with that of  outsiders to select members for not only their own capabilities, but 
 their abilities to work with specific other individuals (Balkundi & Harrison 2006; Borgatti & 
 Foster 2003; Hansen 1999; Nahapiet & Ghoshal 1998; Reagans & Zuckerman 2001). They 
 provide members with clear goals, project specifications, and task expectations around 
 which to rally. 
 Social capital can enhance project-team effectiveness by improving resource flow and 
 knowledge sharing among team members, and can enhance collaboration, increase respect 
 and trust, and improve problem solving. Some literature points out the dangers of  engaging 
 in groupthink, in which case a team may prematurely curtail its search for information and 
 speed to a consensus on a suboptimal solution (Krackhardt 1999, Nahapiet & Ghoshal 
 1998; Sparrowe et al 2001). The researchers here argue, however, that because teams are 
 typically formed to conduct specific tasks under tight deadlines, and have a relatively short 
 lifespan, they do not experience much opportunity to develop high levels of  groupthink and 
 conformity. 
 A greater amount of  social capital resulting from a leader’s comprehensive mobilization 
 strategy also tends to lead to greater team-level satisfaction, as the team functions smoothly 
 and harmoniously, and members tend to communicate well with each other and be well 
 attuned to each other’s emotional states (Adler & Kwon 2002, Gittell, Weinberg, Pfefferle & 
 Bishop 2008). 
 193 Ives Hall, Ithaca,  NY 14850
 607.255.9358
 www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs
 cahrs@cornell.edu
 page 5
 Lim itations and directions
 for future research
 Researchers would do well to devote more attention to the formative phase of  team 
 development. Why do some leaders conduct comprehensive mobilization strategies while 
 others don’t? Does the deficiency stem from a lack of  personal ability or of  training and 
 awareness?
 Researchers should focus on human capital more with respect to alignment. Alignment can 
 be considered in terms of  composition, i.e., required number of  members, appropriate time 
 commitments, and essential personal attributes to be deployed in the service of  team goals. 
 It is important to consider the extent to which talent is properly allocated across assignments 
 and focused on essential activities. In addition, future efforts would do well to further 
 examine the effects of  social capital on project-team effectiveness. 
 A limitation of  this study is that it was conducted within a single organization. What 
 environmental factors affect the use of  mobilization strategies, and how do these translate to 
 team results? In organizations with a strong culture, would team leaders be able to spend 
 less effort on outreach, and focus their efforts on competency-based staffing and process 
 formation, since team members would already share similar purposes, norms and values? 
 A final limitation is that the researchers were unable to study team processes over a longer 
 period of  time. Does a leader’s tendency to engage in comprehensive mobilization activities 
 also predict his or her ability to effectively coach the team over time? Do team leaders’ 
 comprehensive or limited mobilization efforts reflect their abilities to manage longer-term 
 talent issues over time, and, if  so, do effective team leaders become more effective while 
 ineffective leaders lose their effectiveness? 
 Takeaway
 It is extremely important for organizations and team leaders to assure that teams are 
 carefully formed from the start
 Team leaders should make effective use of  the period between project initiation and team 
 launch
 Leaders would be well advised to use the time before the team’s first meeting to engage in 
 comprehensive mobilization strategies incorporating outreach, competency-based staffing, 
 and process formation.
 page 6
 This study was conducted by: 
 Lee Dyer,
 Professor of  Human Resource Studies and Chairperson 
 of  the Department of  Human Resource Studies,
 ILR School, Cornell University
 Jake Holwerda,
 ILR School, Cornell University
 Gerald A. (Jeff) Ericksen,
 Assistant Professor of  HRM,
 School of  Human Resources and Labor 
 Relations, Michigan State University
 Researchers
 Data  so urce
 The researchers studied project teams in the Global Application Services (GAS) unit of  a 
 large, U.S.-based multinational conglomerate. The unit, which comprises about 600 
 professionals and technicians, is responsible for developing and implementing information 
 technology solutions for the firm’s other units. Teams were studied in three waves, over a 
 one-year period between February 2007 and January 2008.  February 23, 2007; July 27, 
 2007; January 11, 2008. The 82 teams that entered in the first wave were surveyed three 
 times; the 14 teams that entered in the second wave were surveyed twice, and the 18 teams 
 that began in the third wave were surveyed only once. The average team comprised five 
 members representing 2.4 different GAS departments.
 The researchers measured the comprehensiveness of  leaders’ mobilization strategies with 
 specific questions on content clarification, staffing, and process formation. To measure 
 social capital, they asked team members to rate their working relationship with each other 
 team member on a five-item Likert-type scale. For team performance, project champions 
 were asked to rate their team’s: productivity; quality of  work done; ability to meet customer 
 needs, complete work on time and within the cost estimate; and overall performance. Team-
 level satisfaction was gauged by asking team members the extent to which they enjoyed 
 working and communicating with the rest of  the team. The researchers controlled for 
 project size, project experience, and team churn rates.
 Adler, P.S., & Kwon, S. 2002. Social capital: Prospects for a new concept.  Academy of  
 Management Review, 27 : 17-40.
 Balkundi, P., & Harrison, D.A. 2006. Ties, leaders, and time in teams: Strong inference 
 about network structure’s effects on team viability and performance.  Academy of  Management 
 Journal, 49 : 49-69
 Borgatti, S.P., & Foster, P.C. 2003. The network paradigm in organizational research: A 
 review and typology.  Journal of  Management, 37 : 1108-1136.
 References
 193 Ives Hall, Ithaca,  NY 14850
 607.255.9358
 www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs
 cahrs@cornell.edu
 Ericksen, J., & Dyer, L. 2004. Right from the start: Exploring the effects of  early team 
 events on subsequent project team development and performance.  Administrative Science 
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 Gittell, J.H., Weinberg, D., Pfefferle, S. & Bishop, C. 2008. Impact of  relational 
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 Gilbert, & G.Lindzey (Eds.),  Handbook of  Social Psychology, 5th Edition : 1208-1251. New York: 
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 page 7
 The Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) is an international center serving 
 corporate human resources leaders and their companies by providing critical tools for building and 
 leading high- performing HR organizations. CAHRS’ mission is to bring together partners and the 
 ILR School’s world-renowned HR Studies faculty to investigate, translate and apply the latest HR 
 research into practice excellence


Starting Off on the Right Foot: Take Proactive Measures to Enhance Project Teams\u27 Performance

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Starting Off on the Right Foot: Take Proactive Measures to Enhance Project Teams\u27 Performance

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