Exploring teamwork, empowerment, communication and job satisfaction in agile teams: An empirical study investigating the current state in these areas as well as the connections between these areas

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of agile teams in the areas of teamwork, empowerment, communication and job satisfaction as well as the connections within and between these four areas. Furthermore, this study provides an insight into how the perceptions regarding these four areas differ between different groups of employees. These insights provide new theoretical knowledge relevant for future research, as the connections between those four areas have not been studied together in one study. Additionally, this study gives managerial implications on how to better support agile teams in the future.

To fulfil the purpose of this study, I conducted an empirical study with 118 participants from a wide variety of industries and agile teams. The responses to the questionnaire are analysed statistically to identify patters, correlations as well as differences between different groups of employees. Furthermore, the responses to the questionnaire are enriched by deeper insights gained through open questions.

For each of the four areas, several strengths and weaknesses are identified and discussed in the study. The findings of the study highlight how interconnected teamwork, empowerment, communication and job satisfaction are in terms of the correlation coefficients between the areas as well as the discovered strengths and weaknesses. The findings regarding different groups of employees accentuate the importance of motivation, trust, feedback, cohesive teams, feeling that one’s work is valued and taking well-being seriously, since these factors are associated with better performance in all four areas.