The Effect Team Building Exercises Have On Participants

By Ian Harnett

Literature Review

This chapter is a review literature regarding team building effectiveness within the corporate sector. This review will assist in defining views of team building exercises while generating further research areas for investigation.

Some of the most prominent team building exercise theories will be discussed with relevance to company objectives and strategy.

Background

UK employers spend in excess of £10.5 billion a year on employee training (Department of Trade and Industry, 2003).

The number of employees receiving training has not fluctuated over the past decade with companies spending a mere 2% of their profits on training (Harrison, 2002).

Trent (2003) highlights the increased reliance on teams over the past 25 years contesting that not all observers agree that the use of teams will guarantee greater effectiveness.

Psychologist Likert (1961) raises the hypothesis that teams can do much that is good, or they can do great harm.