Can team building be a game changer for Startups?

Management and Industrial Engineering Department, University of Petroşani, Romania

^* Corresponding author: raluca.dovleac@yahoo.com

Abstract

The paper examines the possibility of using team building in order to address one of the main issues that lead to Start-up failure – lack of team cohesion and shared vision regarding goals. Team building refers to a set of activities that are supposed to help build and/or consolidate a team and facilitate the team’s ability to work together towards achieving clear, well defined goals. The research of the paper was conducted by first examining the existing literature in the field of team building and Start-ups in order to understand if the topic has been previously covered and if so, take note of the results. Secondly, it is based on the experience of the authors with implementing team building practices in the case of three Start-up businesses and continuing with applications in an educational context. The results suggest the existence of a link between the usage of team building activities and team cohesion, which in the case of Start-up businesses could prove to be the difference between their success or failure.