Principales políticas contables:

The objective of this thesis is to explore the fundamental conditions that allow effective task processes to emerge and that cause members to engage with them wholeheartedly, in their fully situated context, with the aim of identifying the emerging themes seen to be the real source of a team’s great success and providing higher quality, context-specific guidance, specifically on the role of peer interaction in teams, to organisations that complements the extant theoretical models on team effectiveness.

This assumption of Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA) is that individuals closest to the phenomena are in the best position to report about the phenomenon. This current study appears to support this assumption as the leaders in the current study had very clear experiences of, and insights into the conditions that make peer interaction in leadership teams effective, as well as the dynamics of the system. They provided sound insight in describing the conditions of effective peer interaction and in indicating the relationships between these conditions. Ten fundamental conditions of effective peer interaction in teams, which were identified as the source of a team’s success and that provide context-specific guidance on where to focus first,

specifically on the role of peer interaction in teams, were identified. The cause-and-effect relationships between the conditions were identified to guide leaders on where to focus first with their training and development initiatives to enhance effective peer interaction in teams, as they engage in consciously shaping effective teams in their organisation.

It is clear that each individual leader in the team is deemed important in contributing to the effectiveness of peer interaction. The leader’s attitude, interpersonal style and personal

accountability for self were all seen as important conditions for peer interaction effectiveness and

as the primary drivers of the other conditions identified. A positive focus on developing self awareness, an internal locus of control and appropriate skills training in shaping an effective, assertive interpersonal leadership style would, therefore, be conducive to developing and shaping a positive leadership presence and contribution. This should be a starting point for leader’s looking to shape effective peer interaction in their team.

In addition to this, for peer interaction to be effective, leaders need to ensure that they shape the space and skills to encourage open interactions among team members, so that they can get to the heart of matters, have rigorous debates and make informed decisions. Consciously creating a culture that facilitates developing a climate of willingness to trust one another, understand one another and be comfortable with team members would be highly beneficial. Providing leaders with the opportunity to develop self and team awareness, assertive peer management skills and communication and conflict management skills may prove valuable in doing so. One might also consider creating discussion forums or conversation circles to allow the space that encourages open interactions.

Leaders also need to continuously be aware of the current skill and competence of each member of their team so that they can mindfully support, guide, coach and up-skill team members when required. Intra-team coaching may prove valuable as a support and developmental mechanism. Team members need to be consciously playing to their individual and collective strengths and mitigating their individual and collective weaknesses and at the same time they need to be consciously valuing and recognising the efforts and achievements of one another and celebrating their successes. Leaders may do well to have regular checks in meetings to connect and engage in examining how well it is doing or what may be interfering with its operation. This would facilitate open collaborative discussion until a solution is found.

Exploring and agreeing on team-based rewards and norms for interaction regarding recognising and valuing one another might assist in building and reinforcing the team recognition affinity. In encouraging a culture of creativity in the team, it may be beneficial to include more cross- functional thinking into brainstorming sessions, as well as spend time training leaders on how to proactively and mindfully develop their individual and group creativity and intellectance.

Lastly, leadership and the team need to ensure that they shape and align to a clear and common purpose, which is seen as the compass to what a team needs to work toward and represents the successful completion of the team’s goals. To ensure understanding and buy-in to where the team is heading, the objective and the goals need to be rigorously debated and agreed upon and then clearly communicated in a way that ensures that the risk of any ambiguity within the team and the rest of the business is mitigated.

The results of this current study indicate that in consciously shaping effective peer interaction in teams, leaders’ should focus first on developing the individuals in the team. The development initiatives should focus on an increased self awareness and stronger internal locus of control as well as on developing their skills in shaping an effective, assertive interpersonal leadership style. This would be conducive to helping leaders develop and shape a positive leadership presence and contribution to the team. In addition, the importance of shaping a culture that empowers their people, develops the skill level of their people, provides recognition to their people and their teams, and enables teamwork and creativity, as people rally around a common goal, was identified.