Faculty of air transport engineering the department of «air navigation systems»

Elements to create a successful team
At the managerial level, one may distinguish three different avenues to creating successful teams (Paris et al., 2000):
− Team Selection
− Task Design
− Team Training These three different avenues are depicted as elements of the pie-chart in Figure 1. Examples are given of important aspects to be taken into account when following each of these avenues.
Team selection
− Selecting the right team members For teamwork one should select team members with the appropriate traits, i.e. not only with the taskwork-related knowledge, skills and attitudes, but also individual traits that may facilitate team-processes, such as learning ability, initiative and leadership. When it is mainly individual performance, i.e. taskwork, that determines team output, then team processes are less important. Hence, in such a case it would not be overly important to select team members on the basis of traits that facilitate team processes.
− Defining the appropriate team-size If the team is too small, then team members will be overloaded, if the team is too large, resources are wasted. Team size is largely fixed by the nature of the tasks to be performed. Unfortunately, task-load in ATC is not always stable and can often be unpredictable. Larger teams tend to be detrimental to effectiveness, typically as a result of heightened co-ordination needs. As a general rule, teams should be staffed to the smallest number needed to do the work (Hackman, 1987, Sundstrom et al, 1990). Within an en-route environment teams will already be small, only existing of a PC and TC.
− Defining the appropriate team-composition In terms of differences in attributes, personal ability, skills, experience, age, etc, it is important to establish the mix of competencies and team characteristics that may be appropriate for the team.
− Team stability Team stability refers to the time-span during which a team has the same members. A team in an en-route centre may have a relatively low stability over time due to rostering-constraints and position-handover. However, it has been observed that team stability increases when ATCOs have flexibility in choosing a shift (‘personal roster’). In a somewhat wider team interpretation, team stability is also affected by the hiring of new staff, i.e. when ATCOs suddenly have to work with a new colleague.