IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/grdene/v23y2014i2d10.1007_s10726-012-9314-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Developing Cooperative Teams to Support Individual Performance and Well-Being in a Call Center in China

Author

Listed:
  • Dean Tjosvold

    (Lingnan University)

  • Nancy Yifeng Chen

    (Lingnan University)

  • Xu Huang

    (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

  • Da Xu

    (China Mobile Group Shanghai Co., Ltd.)

Abstract

The theory of cooperation and competition, though developed in the West, may be useful to develop and analyze productive teamwork in China. Three hundred and sixty-eight employees from a call center participated in a cooperative teamwork 1-day workshop followed by daily practice. Results support the hypothesis that cooperative teams strengthen relationships, reduce turnover, and improve productivity of individual team members. During the 2-month period, team members increased the number of phones answered by nearly 40%, reduced customer complaints by over 55%, and lowered the turnover by over 20%, while the control call centers had either minor increases or decreases in these measures. These results support that the theory of cooperation and competition can guide the development of effective teams in China and that cooperative teams can improve the performance of individual employees.

Suggested Citation

  • Dean Tjosvold & Nancy Yifeng Chen & Xu Huang & Da Xu, 2014. "Developing Cooperative Teams to Support Individual Performance and Well-Being in a Call Center in China," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 325-348, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:grdene:v:23:y:2014:i:2:d:10.1007_s10726-012-9314-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10726-012-9314-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10726-012-9314-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10726-012-9314-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xiao-Ping Chen & Chao C. Chen, 2004. "On the Intricacies of the Chinese Guanxi: A Process Model of Guanxi Development," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 305-324, September.
    2. Jackson, Susan E. & Schuler, Randall S., 1985. "A meta-analysis and conceptual critique of research on role ambiguity and role conflict in work settings," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 16-78, August.
    3. Li, Jiatao & Xin, Katherine R. & Tsui, Anne & Hambrick, Donald C., 1999. "Building effective international joint venture leadership teams in China," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 52-68, April.
    4. Alper, Steve & Tjosvold, Dean & Law, Kenneth S., 1998. "Interdependence and Controversy in Group Decision Making: Antecedents to Effective Self-Managing Teams," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 33-52, April.
    5. Guoquan Chen & Dean Tjosvold & Chunhong Liu, 2006. "Cooperative Goals, Leader People and Productivity Values: Their Contribution to Top Management Teams in China," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 1177-1200, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chayanika Bhayana & Vishal Gupta & Kirti Sharda, 2021. "The Role of Shared Leadership in Managing Conflicts in Multigenerational Teams: A Research Framework," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 9(2), pages 252-268, May.
    2. Syed Muhammad Shoaib, 2017. "Inspiring, Exploring, Activating and Organizing: A Framework for Improving Communication Skills and Product Knowledge in Call Center," Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies, Asian Online Journal Publishing Group, vol. 4(2), pages 107-115.
    3. Han Zhang & Shiying Shi & Fangfang Zhao & Xiaosu Ye & Hanyue Qi, 2023. "A Study on the Impact of Team Interdependence on Cooperative Performance in Public–Private Partnership Projects: The Moderating Effect of Government Equity Participation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-22, August.
    4. Tahir Hameed & Peter von Staden & Ki-Seok Kwon, 2019. "Impediments to Sustaining South Korea’s Economic Development: Pathologies of Cooperation in Intra-Team Dynamics of Technology Commercialization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, May.
    5. Carlos Ferreira Peralta & Maria Francisca Saldanha & Paulo Nuno Lopes & Paulo Renato Lourenço & Leonor Pais, 2021. "Does Supervisor’s Moral Courage to Go Beyond Compliance Have a Role in the Relationships Between Teamwork Quality, Team Creativity, and Team Idea Implementation?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(4), pages 677-696, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dean Tjosvold & Ann Peng & Yi Chen & Fang Su, 2008. "Business and government interdependence in China: Cooperative goals to develop industries and the marketplace," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 225-249, June.
    2. Wu, Long-Zeng & Ferris, D. Lance & Kwan, Ho Kwong & Chiang, Flora & Snape, Ed & Liang, Lindie H., 2015. "Breaking (or making) the silence: How goal interdependence and social skill predict being ostracized," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 51-66.
    3. Wong, Alfred & Wei, Lu & Yang, Jie & Tjosvold, Dean, 2017. "Productivity and participation values for cooperative goals to limit free riding and promote performance in international joint ventures," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(6), pages 819-830.
    4. Nancy Chen Yifeng & Dean Tjosvold & Wu Peiguan, 2008. "Effects of warm-heartedness and reward distribution on negotiation," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 79-96, January.
    5. Alfred Wong & Sofia Fang & Dean Tjosvold, 2012. "Developing business trust in government through resource exchange in China," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 1027-1043, December.
    6. Chen, Yi Feng & Tjosvold, Dean, 2005. "Cross-cultural leadership: Goal interdependence and leader-member relations in foreign ventures in China," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 417-439, September.
    7. Guoquan Chen & Dean Tjosvold, 2008. "Organizational values and procedures as antecedents for goal interdependence and collaborative effectiveness," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 93-112, January.
    8. Guoquan Chen & Dean Tjosvold, 2012. "Shared rewards and goal interdependence for psychological safety among departments in China," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 433-452, June.
    9. Tan, Justin & Yang, Jun & Veliyath, Rajaram, 2009. "Particularistic and system trust among small and medium enterprises: A comparative study in China's transition economy," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 544-557, November.
    10. Beard, Fred, 1996. "Integrated marketing communications: New role expectations and performance issues in the client-ad agency relationship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 207-215, November.
    11. Viator, Ralph E., 2001. "The association of formal and informal public accounting mentoring with role stress and related job outcomes," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 73-93, January.
    12. Zhong Qin & Xin Deng, 2016. "Government and family Guanxi in Chinese private firms: perceptions and preference," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 35-60, January.
    13. Parker, Robert J. & Kyj, Larissa, 2006. "Vertical information sharing in the budgeting process," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 27-45, January.
    14. Long Zhang & Yulin Deng & Qun Wang, 2014. "An Exploratory Study of Chinese Motives for Building Supervisor–Subordinate Guanxi," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(4), pages 659-675, November.
    15. Lars van Tuin & Wilmar B. Schaufeli & Willem van Rhenen & Rebecca M. Kuiper, 2020. "Business Results and Well-Being: An Engaging Leadership Intervention Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-18, June.
    16. Ludwig Bstieler & Martin Hemmert, 2010. "Trust formation in Korean new product alliances: How important are pre-existing social ties?," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 299-319, June.
    17. Hall, Matthew, 2008. "The effect of comprehensive performance measurement systems on role clarity, psychological empowerment and managerial performance," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(2-3), pages 141-163.
    18. O'Connor, Neale G., 1995. "The influence of organizational culture on the usefulness of budget participation by Singaporean-Chinese managers," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 383-403, July.
    19. Schweisfurth, Tim G. & Raasch, Christina, 2015. "Embedded lead users—The benefits of employing users for corporate innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 168-180.
    20. Pearsall, Matthew J. & Ellis, Aleksander P.J. & Stein, Jordan H., 2009. "Coping with challenge and hindrance stressors in teams: Behavioral, cognitive, and affective outcomes," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 18-28, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:grdene:v:23:y:2014:i:2:d:10.1007_s10726-012-9314-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.