Motivation to help others improves team performance

When team members are motivated towards helping others, they are higher-performing and can stay in their teams for a longer time, says a new study.

Greater the motivation to help others, "the higher the levels of cooperation and viability and the higher the subsequent team performance," said one of the researchers Jasmine Hu from University of Notre Dame in Indiana, US.

The researchers conducted a field study with 67 work teams from six companies in both US and China and a lab study with 124 student teams at Notre Dame."We discovered that the positive effects of team motivation to benefit others were stronger the more the tasks required close interaction and higher interdependence among its members," Hu said.

"In line with our results, management attention should be directed toward enhancing motivation to benefit others, as teamwork is a coordinated action and showing concern for others may bring about smoother interactions and more effective cooperation within the team," Hu explained.

"The highest level of team effectiveness was achieved when team motivation to benefit other and the interdependence of tasks among team members were both high," Hu pointed out.

The findings appeared in the Academy of Management Journal.