Exploring Elements of Informality in Teams in Petroleum Industry

Various factors impact the effectiveness of teams. Literature on Teams lists a number of such factors. This Research Paper identifies a new factor ‘Informality', which is a measure of the formal hierarchical structure among members of a multi-disciplinary team. Qualitative research on this Formality identifies some interesting features of the correlation of this ‘Informality' with Team Effectiveness, in the context of teams in the information-intensive Indian upstream Petroleum Industry. The research methodology was primary data from senior team leads in public sector petroleum exploration companies Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC). The findings show that Informality depends on factors which can be clubbed under two main classes: Communication Pattern and Age Difference among Team members. The findings reveal that even in semi-formal teams, these two dimensions make the teams effective in two diverse aspects.