Team Dynamics

Team Member Roles on an Online Team

United States Army soldiers pulling convoy duty in Iraq, if just one member of this team does not understand his or her role and perform it to the utmost of their ability it could spell disaster. From the lands these soldiers defend to workplaces around the world, teams exist in many facets of today’s society, and establishing good team dynamics is important to overall success. When discussing team dynamics as they apply to an online learning environment, there are many factors to consider. From conflict management to effective communication, one could argue as to which factor is the most important. Though, if a member understands his or her role and how that role is important to team success, one of the most important factors in a team dynamic is satisfied. “Working with others on projects increases your understanding of how your and others’ roles and responsibilities fit into the whole” (DeJanasz-Dowd-Schneider, 2001, 352). Working in an online team can be both challenging and rewarding, and as long as the roles of leader, scribe and mediator are satisfied, the team will succeed in any venture it sets out on.

The determining factor behind overall team success is the direction is sets out in. Just as the United States Air Force teaches its leadership, “leaders set the direction, envision the future and decide where the organization should be” (AFMAN36-2241V2, 2005, 208) the same holds true for a leadership role in an online team. However, unlike the military, assumption of this role in an online environment is usually not predetermined. Rather, the member with the most confidence and/or experience with the assignment will take up the task of leader. They assume ultimate responsibility for the team and will be a point of contact with the instructor to speak on the team’s behalf. Team leaders are responsible for moving the team to accomplish the task (NYS Governor’s Office of Employee Relations Online Website, 2003) and in an online learning environment that means coordination via email or the World Wide Web with team members to ensure completion. Another principle the military teaches its leadership is, “A good leader knows his people and will assign tasks to team members based on skills and experience levels” (AFMAN36-2241V2, 2005, 189). While in an online learning team, the leader will not usually have the same amount of time allotted as his or her military counterpart to figure out the skill levels of team members, he or she should make every effort to ensure the right people get assigned to the right tasks and ensure team success.

The team members responsible for most of the assigned tasks go by many names, but on an online learning team they are commonly referred to as scribes. Scribe, as the name suggests, hold the responsibility for most of the actual composition and documentation of the assignment. They will conduct most of the research and perform the other mundane tasks associated with the job. Because of this fact, and depending on the number of members assigned to an online team, there will usually be more than one person performing the duties of a scribe. While the leader is ultimately responsible for the team, the product turned out by the scribes determines how the team is rated as a whole and therefore, they are often considered the most important members on a team. Scribes usually take on secondary or combined roles which enhance team efforts just by the nature of these added roles. These include but are not limited to an Initiator or someone who suggests new ideas, a Devil’s Advocate/Skeptic or someone whose responsibility is to look for flaws in an idea, and an Optimist or someone who tries to maintain a positive frame of mind and laud the team effort when merited (Pyatt, 2005). These roles, though opposing, enable the ideas or team’s final product to be viewed from different angles, criticized and improved upon, thus contributing to overall team success.

“Just because people are members of the same team at work does not mean they will get along with one another or that they will agree with one another in specific situations. Conflict in teams can be caused by several different reasons such as differences in values, attitudes, needs, expectations, perceptions, resources and personalities” (Capozzoli, 1995). When such conflicts arise in an online team, a mediator will emerge. The mediator has the main responsibility to resolve these or any dispute that may arise between team members and steer them back to the task at hand. This task is often critical based on the schedule and/or deadlines assigned to the team, so the mediator must be quick to identify any issue, whether real or