Effects of team member psychological proximity on teamwork performance

Abstract

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine whether team-members' psychological proximity affects the degree of teamwork quality and therefore affecting the team performance. Design/methodology/approach – A survey instrument was developed based on extant literature reviews, and administered among information technology professionals. Collected data were analysed using partial least square (PLS) method. Findings – Team-members' psychological proximity is found to be significantly related to teamwork quality. The magnitude of relational coefficients between sub-dimensions of psychological proximity and those of teamwork quality turned out to be different from each other. Research limitations/implications – Psychological proximity is found to critically influence teamwork and performance in IT teams. Also, the four-factor model developed from previous literature is validated for further use. Snowball sampling using IT professionals is the major limitation of this study. Originality/value – Studies on teamwork quality that employs psychological proximity are scarce. Socialising in workplaces is sometimes viewed as an unproductive activity, however, socialising decreases psychological proximity among team-members, increasing teamwork quality. In addition, examining the psychological proximity in team-members adds to the growing literature on teamwork quality.