ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship social intelligence and team cohesiveness insocial intelligence and team cohesiveness of deposit money banks in Port Harcourt. The study adopted a cross sectional survey design to solicit responses from our target population which comprised of fourteen (14) Banks in the South –South Zone of Nigeria of which 14 licensed and Quoted Banks have regional Head Quarters in Port Harcourt, the respective regional offices represented our accessible population. After data cleaning, only data of 227 respondents were finally used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank correlation were used for data analysis and hypothesis testing. Empirical findings revealed that there is a positive significant relationship between social intelligence and team cohesiveness of deposit money banks in Port Harcourt. Findings further revealed that social information processing and social awareness have significant relationship with mutual trust, interdependence and communication measures of team cohesiveness. Organizational culture moderated the relationship between social intelligence and team cohesiveness. The study thus concluded that social intelligence bears a positive and significant influence on team cohesiveness and all the dimensions and measures show significant positive relationships. We recommended that Deposit money banks in Port Harcourt should adopt social intelligence dimensions of social information processingand social awareness as strategies to enable them increase their level of team cohesiveness.The study also recommended thatManagers should build upon their social intelligence skills if they aim at motivating their team members towards more commitment or even towards thinking and acting entrepreneurially and achieve better organizational performance. Furthermore, we recommended that management of banks should frequently organize training sessions for managers, employees and team leaders to inculcate in them social skills relevant for achieving better performance.INTRODUCTION
The current recession in Nigeria economy is changing business dynamics and operational models. Teams are the basic structure through which projects, activities as well as tasks are being organized, managed and succeed within companies worldwide. Global businesses striving for competitive advantage are increasingly inculcating the use of high performance teams to channel complex business strategies (Druskat and Wolff, 200l). Projects carried by teams provide many advantages and benefits. Major significant advantages are the diversity of knowledge, ideas and skills contributed by team members, and the comradeshipor friendliness among members. A feature commonly seen among high performance teams is cohesiveness, which is a measure of the attraction of the group to its members Employees in highly cohesive teams will be more cooperative and effective in achieving the goals they set for themselves (Oxford Brookes University, Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development, 2013).
Employees, of cohesive teams develop shared values, culture and loyalty in the business environment. The understanding of team members creates smooth and more effective and efficient communication. When working toward a common purpose, individual members of a team bring different skills and ideas to the project. Team members can stand in for one another inefficiency or lack of skill. Highly cohesive team members focus on the objective, not the individual; they respect everyone else in the team, taking good motives; and they are fully committed to decisions, strategies, creating transparency among team members. There is high morale in cohesive teams as a result of increased team member communications, esprit de corps team environment, integrity and team member participation in the decision making process (Daft and Marcic, 2009).
Successful business strategies are usually earned out by effective team with high level of team cohesiveness. Highly cohesive teams are more committed to the goals and activities, they become happy when they succeed and feel as part of the success of the organization. High performance teams are what make companies that arc making wave around the world successful. Whether the Job is to create an innovative pro1uct, service or innovation teams rather than individual are taking more responsibility than ever before. Team that is ideal combined individual talents, skills and knowledge into one synergy with capabilities that surpass individual. High functioning teams are not the result of coincidence.
Ross (2006) elucidated that teams achieve greater levels of participation and collaboration because their members trust one another, share ‘a strong sense of team identity, and have confidence in their abilities and effectiveness. This implies that such teams possess a high level of team social intelligence.
Nevertheless, studies on team cohesiveness have been carried out by several at different sectors, countries and cultures using different variables. Steinbardt, et.al (2003) found the relationship between hardiness supervisor support and group cohesion. They tested conceptual model based on research supporting the relationship between the predictors of hardiness, supervisor support and group cohesion and the criterions of job stress and job satisfaction and between the predictor of job stress and the criterion of job satisfaction. The findings of the study show that there is a direct relationship between social intelligence and team cohesiveness.
Wender, et.al (2004) revealed that there is no relationship between individualism and team cohesiveness. Furthermore, Chansler, et al studied the determinants of group cohesiveness in self-managing work1teams. The’ found that there is evidence that support a link between group cohesion and performance. Hongyan (2008) identified the consequence of group cohesiveness and the performance is very difficult, but one thing is certain, the higher organization cohesiveness and the higher achievements have the close relation.
Xie and Johns (2000) examined the interactive effects of group cohesiveness and absence culture salience, and found that aggregate measures of salience and cohesiveness each had a negative relationship with work-group absenteeism. Group absence norms mediated the effort of cohesiveness, culture salience and their interaction on self-reported absenteeism Wented, et at (2009) examined the relationship between leadership and team cohesiveness in difference social cultures According to them directive leadership and Supportive leadership are negatively and positively related with team cohesiveness, respectively and these relations are stronger in individualistic societies.
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Reference code: MG027
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Reference code: MG027
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