Research overview: 

A new study from the University of Iowa suggests managers can improve their work teams’ performances by focusing their motivation efforts on what they call an “extra miler” instead of trying to motivate everyone equally. 

Traditional research argues that a team’s success is normally a result of the collective efforts made by all team members. However, Ning Li, an assistant professor with the Henry B. Tippie College of Business, argues that team performance may be driven by only a few members who contribute to team success in more and better ways than others. Instead of motivating all the members equally, managers can and should rely on a few special “extra-milers” to boost team performance.

The Method: 

Li and his researchers studied 87 teams of laborers at a petroleum plant with an average number of eight workers per team. They identified the extra miler in each team through interviews with peers, and the top performing teams through interviews with managers.

They found that extra milers typically went the extra mile by showing two behaviors — helping and voice. Helping behavior means they physically assist other workers with their jobs, for instance, if they’re overwhelmed, or out sick. Voice behavior means they provide leadership by speaking up to make constructive changes that provide a better work flow, or work with management to make the job easier for the workers.

Taking these factors into consideration, the person who received the highest ratings on extra role behaviors was identified as the extra-miler. 

Researchers then looked at where the extra miler was located in each team’s workflow network — were they in a place that required they come in contact with many other team members, or were they relatively isolated and came in contact with fewer co-workers?

Results:

Li found when an extra-miler is placed in a more central position within a team, it is a key driving force to the team’s success because that individual had more frequent contact with other team members. In teams that rated lower, the extra miler was on the sidelines.

Research showed that a central extra-miler’s influence was more profound than the average influence of all the other team members. Extra-milers had more influence in central positions, he said, because they have more opportunities to interact with and influence others in a positive way. 

In the end, these same teams typically had a more balanced workload, more self-developed solutions to team challenges, and less direction from management, which resulted in better team performance.

Conclusion:

Study findings suggest managers may have some shortcuts available to them to motivate teams. 

Specifically, when managers have limited time and attention to motivate everyone in a team, they can actively work with some extra-milers who consistently demonstrate high levels of helping and voice behaviors by placing them in a more important, central position within the team. 

Companies can achieve this simply by changing the layout of their teams.

Resources:

Study results will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology. It is also available on the University of Iowa’s website and BusinessNewsDaily.com.