Relationship between Perceived Teamwork Effectiveness and Team Performance in Banking Sector of Serbia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper is logically structured and fits all the basic criteria for scientific papers. However, the impression after reading could be explained with the question "and so what?" The topic was very-well discussed before. There is always a space for contribution within the local context; thus, if there are no similar reserach works in Serbia or in a region, the authors are recommended to point to this fact.

The authors are strongly recommended to change the title of the paper in order to reflect the general idea. Proposed draft of the title is "Relationship between teamwork perceived effectiveness and perceived performance". In other case, the reader is waiting for quantitative measures of performance and effectiveness. 

 

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

Point 1: The paper is logically structured and fits all the basic criteria for scientific papers. However, the impression after reading could be explained with the question "and so what?" The topic was very-well discussed before. There is always a space for contribution within the local context; thus, if there are no similar research works in Serbia or in a region, the authors are recommended to point to this fact.

• Response 1: Thank you for your comments. We added a part of the text in the conclusion section regarding local context, line 370-379 with additional sources of literature: Also, this research is one of the first that deal with the issues of a teamwork effectiveness and teamwork performances in the banking sector in Serbia. The results offer important insight and contribution in the local context, where many banks organize their work through teams, but there is not enough information yet on how to create effective teams and increase their performances. Until now, many researchers investigated topics such as satisfaction and loyalty of the employees in the banking sector [52, 53], leadership [54] and top management involvement and knowledge sharing [55, 56], and change management and sustainability [57]. Therefore, the results of this paper can serve as starting point for creating strategies and actions for team development and training with the aim of reaching higher level of team members’ effectiveness and performances.

Point 2: The authors are strongly recommended to change the title of the paper in order to reflect the general idea. Proposed draft of the title is "Relationship between teamwork perceived effectiveness and perceived performance". In other case, the reader is waiting for quantitative measures of performance and effectiveness.

• Response 2: Thank you for this suggestion. We changed the title of the paper: Relationship between perceived teamwork effectiveness and team performance in banking sector of Serbia

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

I propose to add to the Abstract all methods used in the article, the originality and value of the paper and even the research limitations (in short).

Please check the sentence on the rows 18-19; 261-262; 264 (one bracket is missing).

Authors list characteristics and factors that "affect team’s success and effectiveness" on page 4, but the references are presented wrongly (they should be before the colon). Later I found that authors indicate references in the entire text not before the colon, but after the last phrase. I would suggest correcting in the entire text.

iThenticate shows that this article matched another article (Grubor Aleksandar, Berber Nemanja , Aleksić Marko, Bjekić Radmila. (2020) “Uticaj korporativne društvene odgovornosti na organizacione performanse - istraživanje u AP Vojvodini”) 367 words or 6 %, including the beginning of chapter 4.1, description of Table 4, etc.

Authors present an overview of a number of previous researches but I miss their own assumptions in the theoretical part.

It is necessary to provide the plausibility of the research (is the analyzed sample reflects the entire population).

Author Response

Point 1: I propose to add to the Abstract all methods used in the article, the originality and value of the paper and even the research limitations (in short).


• Response 1: Thank you for your comments. We added a part of the text in the abstract – in red.

 

Point 2: Please check the sentence on the rows 18-19; 261-262; 264 (one bracket is missing).

• Response 2: Thank you for this suggestion. We checked those lines.

 

Point 3: Authors list characteristics and factors that "affect team’s success and effectiveness" on page 4, but the references are presented wrongly (they should be before the colon). Later I found that authors indicate references in the entire text not before the colon, but after the last phrase. I would suggest correcting in the entire text.

• Response 3: Thank you for this suggestion. We made necessary changes.

 

Point 4: iThenticate shows that this article matched another article (Grubor Aleksandar, Berber Nemanja , Aleksić Marko, Bjekić Radmila. (2020) “Uticaj korporativne društvene odgovornosti na organizacione performanse - istraživanje u AP Vojvodini”) 367 words or 6 %, including the beginning of chapter 4.1, description of Table 4, etc.

• Response 4: Thank you for this suggestion. We made necessary changes through the whole part of Results section. Changes are given in red letters in the text.

 

Point 5: Authors present an overview of a number of previous researches but I miss their own assumptions in the theoretical part.

• Response 5: We added a part of the text in the literature section in lines 212-226: The present authors derive their initial assumptions from previous researches, especially regarding factors like innovation, quality, goal clarity and team synergy. Innovation is a vital factor of success in modern business. Organizations that do not innovate cannot handle the growing customer needs and cannot deliver appropriate results. It is important for each organization to enhance innovative behavior of their employees in order to improve their business processes, products and services. The following must be mentioned: team members’ dedication to quality, whether high levels of standards are incorporate in teamwork, and whether team members work in accordance with those standards. This is especially important in teamwork, where it is necessary to deliver high performances by working in group, with other members. In this sense it is important to emphasize the team synergy, as the interaction of members that when working together produce better total effects than the sum of the individual efforts of each member. It is expected that team synergy will increase teamwork performances. Also, for reaching high-level performances, it is essential that team members have clearly stated goals that are specific, measurable, agreed, real, and timely bounded, and that there is established performance management system which will enable monitoring, control, and feedback on goal achievement and results.

 

Point 6: It is necessary to provide the plausibility of the research (is the analyzed sample reflects the entire population).

• Response 6: We added a part of the text in the literature section in lines 268-275: The sample consists of 401 banking employees, in 43 teams, from 16 banks, out of 26 in total that operate in the Republic of Serbia [45]. The sample size used in this research is acceptable according to Hair et al. [58] and the rule “ten times”, i.e. “sample size should be equal to the larger of ten times the largest number of formative indicators used to measure a single construct, or ten times the largest number of structural paths directed at a particular construct in the structural model” (p. 448). Also, the fact that these 16 banks which represents 61.5% of all banks in Serbia was taken into consideration. All banks in the sample are in private ownership and they have been doing business for more than 10 years in Serbia.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf