Employee selection processes for team oriented work environments

Abstract

Teams have become the strategy of choice when the volume of work or task complexity exceeds the capacity of an individual. Therefore the ability for individuals to work in teams is vital in the modern workplace. Consequently a critical lever in facilitating performance of teams is the selection process used to set up teams or bring on board new team members. Teamwork and employee selection have been separately researched. No studies have examined why selection processes have not adapted to include a more formal approach to selection for teams. The information obtained from the literature served as the basis for construction of an a priori model for this study. This model shows the general approach used when selecting individuals through assessing alignment of skills and values, and it was used as a discussion framework during twenty expert interviews. The evaluation of the primary data allowed for validation and extension, for the creation of a more robust a posteriori model. The strategies and practices highlighted by this evaluation have been integrated into a model which can be used for assessing whether organisation specific selection processes are adequate for constructing teams that assist in building competitive advantage. Copyright