Neethling's thinking style preferences instrument to enhance team performance in an organisation in South Africa

Abstract

Teams play a key role in organisational success and it is imperative to proactively manage team performance needs in order to influence team effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of a group of employees in a sales-driven organisation on how the application of Neethling’s thinking style preferences influenced team performance following their participation in Neethling’s thinking style preferences training. The qualitative exploratory study was conducted with 19 employees in the Finance and Insurance department of a sales-driven organisation. The data were collected by means of in-depth individual interviews and focus group interviews. A nonprobability purposive sample technique was used to identify participants for the two focus group interviews and six individual interviews. Evidence provided in the findings concluded that Neethling's thinking style preferences can be used as a viable tool to enhance team performance in an organisation as the participants’ perceptions and experiences of the advantages of these preferences and the findings in the literature on effective teams, concurred. There were also strong indications that the team performed better in terms of their internal team processes, leading to team outputs such as better communication, cooperation, understanding and relationships between team members. Participants also recognised that the team’s performance led to the achievement of organisational results or outcome goals such as improved productivity, profitability, organisational image and customer satisfaction. The study represents original research, extending the current body of knowledge on the perceptions of employees’ team performance related to Neethling’s thinking style preferences. Neethling’s thinking style preferences could have a high influence on identified elements of team performance and could be viewed by employees as a viable tool for enhancing team performance.