STRATEGIES AND TOOLS FOR MANAGERS AND TEAM MEMBERS
CreatingHighPerformanceTeams is an accessible and thorough new introduction to this key area of business education. Written by teams experts Ramon J. Aldag and Loren W. Kuzuhara, this book provides students with both a firm grounding in the key concepts of the field and the practical tools to become successful team managers and members. Built on a solid foundation of the most up-to-date research and theory, the chapters are packed with case studies, real-world examples, and tasks and discussion questions, while a companion website supports the book with a wealth of useful resources for students, team members, and instructors.
Centered around an original model for high performance teams, topics covered include the following:
• Building and developing effective teams
• Managing diversity
• Fostering effective communication
• Team processes—meetings, performance management
• Dealing with change and team problems
• Addressing current issues—virtual teams, globalization
With its combined emphasis on principles and application, interwoven with the tools, topics, and teams issues most relevant today, CreatingHigh PerformanceTeams is perfectly placed to equip upper-level undergraduate and MBA students with the knowledge and skills necessary to take on teams in any situation.
Ramon (Ray) J. Aldag is a professor in the Department of Management and Human Resources at the Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA. He holds the Glen A. Skillrud Family Chair in Business.
Loren W. Kuzuhara is a teaching professor in the Department of Management and Human Resources at the Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA.
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CREATING HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS
Applied Strategies and Tools for Managers and Team Members
RAMON J. ALDAG AND LOREN W. KUZUHARA
First published 2015 by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
The right of Ramon J. Aldag and Loren W. Kuzuhara to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Aldag, Ramon J., 1945–
Creating high performance teams : applied strategies and tools for managers and team members / Ramon J. Aldag and Loren W. Kuzuhara. pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Teams in the workplace. 2. Organizational behavior. I. Kuzuhara, Loren W. II. Title.
HD66.A43 2015
658.4′022—dc23 2014025765
ISBN: 978-0-415-53491-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-53841-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-10938-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon & Frutiger by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For my wife, Deborah Douglas; our children, Kat Aldag, Lizzie Aldag Carley, Drew Douglas, and Wyn Douglas; our daughter-in-law, Shahree Douglas; our son-in-law, Eli Carley Olson; our grandson, Anthony Fazzari; and our bichon frise, Lily.
RAMON J. ALDAG
For my wife, Lavina, my son, Daniel, and my daughter, Carolyn.
FIGURE 8-4 Individual Differences in Attitudes toward Change 197
FIGURE 8-5 Change Approaches 198
FIGURE 8-6 The Rhetorical Triangle 198
FIGURE 8-7 Deciding When to Use the Change Approaches 201
Chapter 9: Dealing with Team Problems
FIGURE 9-1 Groupthink Model 217
FIGURE 9-2 A Conflict Model 219
FIGURE 9-3 Team Conflict Types and Examples 221
FIGURE 9-4 Conflict Styles 224
FIGURE 9-5 Fitting Conflict Style to the Situation 226
FIGURE 9-6 Conflict-Intervention Approaches 227
FIGURE 9-7a Team Liaison Role 230
FIGURE 9-7b Cross-Team Group 230
FIGURE 9-7c Team Integrator Role 230
FIGURE 9-7d Dual Team Memberships 230
Chapter 10: Teams: Evaluating Team Effectiveness
FIGURE 10-1 Cycle of Dysfunctional Teams 246
FIGURE 10-2 Common Problems with Traditional Performance Evaluation Methods 247
FIGURE 10-3 Sources of Feedback for Team Evaluations 249
FIGURE 10-4 Key Areas and Critical Factors from the TEaM Model 250
FIGURE 10-5 Kline and McGrath Team Performance Criteria 250
FIGURE 10-6 Common Mistakes Associated with 360-Degree Feedback Process Systems 252
FIGURE 10-7 Typical Sources of Feedback for Elements of Team Systems 252
FIGURE 10-8 360-Degree Process for Evaluating Team Performance 253
FIGURE 10-9 Sample Self-Evaluation Questions for Team Evaluations 254
FIGURE 10-10 Summary of Suggested Team Feedback Systems for Different Types of Teams 255
FIGURE 12-8 The Forrester and Drexler Team-Based Organization Model 313
FIGURE 12-9 Keys and Off/Keys in the Team-Based Organizational Performance Model 314
FIGURE 12-10 Key Elements for Success of Team-Based Organizations 315
FIGURE 12-11 Best Practices for Team-Based Organizations 316
FIGURE 12-12 The Plan Phase of the Trent Model 317
FIGURE 12-13 The Perform Phase of the Trent Model 318
FIGURE 12-14 The Evaluate Phase of the Trent Model 318
FIGURE 12-15 The Maintain Phase of the Trent Model 319
Chapter 13: Teams Summary and Integration
FIGURE 13-1 The High Performance Teams Model 325
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A VISUAL TOUR OF CREATING HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS
Pedagogical Features
CreatingHighPerformanceTeams possesses a number of features that are designed to engage students, enhance understanding of key concepts, and facilitate the development of skills for effective team leadership and membership.
The High Performance Teams Model
The High Performance Teams Model provides a basic integrated conceptual framework that organizes the overall chapter topics covered in the text. It shows the sequence of phases in which a team is formed, developed, and enhanced through an ongoing process of evaluation and continuous refinement of the team system. This framework is useful in that it emphasizes that teams must be structured and managed as a system and that a systematic process is needed in order for team leaders and members to be effective.
Team Context: The Organization and The External Environment
Learning Objectives
Each chapter begins with a set of Learning Objectives, which note the things the student should be able to do after reading the chapter. These objectives provide both an introduction to the chapter’s content and a checklist to ensure that the student has subsequently focused on all key issues.
Teams in the News
This feature provides examples of news stories from major publications and websites that illustrate a wide variety of team issues from fields such as business, sports, and health care. These stories help students see the relevance of team concepts, strategies, and tools as they affect the functioning and effectiveness of teams in the workplace. Many of these news stories also illustrate useful strategies that team leaders use to develop their teams.
TEAMS IN THE NEWS: The Chilean Mine Disaster1
The Chilean Mine Disaster offers a dramatic example of the power of team leadership and teamwork under conditions of tremendous time pressure, threat, and stress. On the afternoon of August 5, 2010, more than 700,000 metric tons of rock collapsed, blocking the central passage to the tunnels in the San José copper-gold mine in Chile’s Altacama Desert. A second earthquake followed two days later. 33 men were trapped deep underground, their location and condition
Team Scholar
Team Scholar profiles present interviews with academicians who are experts on team management and discuss what these experts have learned through their research in the field. These profiles help students not only understand the empirical research that is the foundation for much of the existing knowledge on team functioning and effectiveness but also learn about scholars’ views on the status and future directions of team research.
TEAM SCHOLAR
Astrid C. Homan, University of Amsterdam
Astrid C. Homan (Ph.D., 2006, University of Amsterdam) is an assistant professor of work and organizational psychology at the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests include team diversity, team processes, team performance, subgroup salience, leadership, and diversity beliefs. She is particularly interested in determining how to harvest the potential value in diversity. Her work is published in outlets such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Academy of Management Journal.
1. What sparked your interest in diversity in work groups?
My first interest related to group processes, as I wondered why some groups are productive and efficient, whereas other groups are not. I quickly found that the composition of the group (on any dimension) was a strong predictor of the processes that occurred within the group. As our societies and organizations get more and more
Team Management Coach
This feature presents interviews with individuals who have experience with leading and/or working on various types of teams and describes what they have learned about team management as a result. Many interviewees offer specific guidance to students regarding the actions they can take to become more effective team leaders and members.
We all know that many college students dislike working in teams in class projects. What would you like to say to current students about the importance of learning how to work in a team?
Working in teams is an inevitable part of life. When you’re in the work force, you’d better be ready for it. Nearly every employer in a job interview will assess your teamwork skills and ask you questions like “Tell me about a time when you had to work with others towards a shared goal” or “Tell me about a time when you overcame a disagreement with a team member.” When interviewing, you are going to want as many examples as you can to demonstrate your team working abilities. You’ll be constantly working with people in your job, and employers want to know that you’ve learned how to handle different scenarios.
Which specific experiences did you have during your college years that were the most helpful in enabling you to learn how to develop and lead a team effectively?
In college, I was involved in various student organization leadership roles that really proved valuable for developing team leadership skills. I would say I learned more from these nonclassroom experiences than anything else in college. I was very active in Delta Sigma Pi professional business fraternity with roles of president, chancellor, and vice president of chapter development. Being in a role where I had to lead others helped me develop various skills such as public speaking, running meetings, motivating the unmotivated, and balancing everything else that a college student has going on.
What advice would you give current students about what they should do now to develop their skills in working and leading teams in preparation for working in a real-world job after graduation?
I highly recommend to anyone to jump at the opportunity of being president of a student organization. You’ll learn so much and really grow as a person. I think it’s also really important for student organization officers to add their own goals to the role rather than just doing what the officer before them did. Being able to say you’ve achieved “xyz” in a role—and that it wasn’t done before—shows great initiative and that goes a long way in job interviews (not to mention the skills you gained along the way). I’d also strongly recommend getting internship experience as soon as possible and more specifically one that will give you the opportunity to have ownership of your work and see direct results (as opposed to simply helping out in the office).
Other Chapter Features
Additional text materials, while not included in every chapter, are provided as appropriate. These include “Teams Videos,” “Teams Research” (highlighting recent research on chapter topics), and “That’s Interesting” (noting teams-related issues that may strike students as surprising and thought-provoking).
Summary and Integration
Each chapter ends with a useful set of key points and practical takeaways that help reinforce the points and connect the dots between different chapter concepts.
Student Companion Website
The Student Companion website offers a variety of additional resources to stimulate student interest in teams, deepen their understanding of key concepts and models, and develop targeted team management skills. First, there are interactive learning activities, including practice quizzes and Jeopardy-style game grids with questions organized in a fun and engaging format. Second, there are numerous links to
• news articles from popular business publications (e.g., the WallStreet Journal,Fortune, and BusinessWeek);
• practitioner-oriented books;
• videos profiling teams in the workplace and interviews with team managers and leaders;
• websites on team issues and opportunities for student involvement (e.g., case competitions, student organizations) that will develop teamwork skills;
• case studies that illustrate common challenges facing team leaders in the workplace;
• additional experiential and skill practice exercises;
• assessment tools for evaluating team effectiveness; and
• self-assessments for enhancing student understanding and awareness of personality factors and students’ roles in leading and managing teams effectively.
In addition, the website provides instructors with a full PowerPoint presentation for each chapter as well as an extensive test bank.
Visit the Student Companion website at www.routledge.com/cw/aldag
My Team Journal
This feature on the text website gives students an opportunity to document their thoughts and reflections on the material and exercises completed in each chapter. Doing so will enable students to relate what they are learning from each chapter to past and present experiences on teams as well as to their future job and career goals in an organization after graduation.
Key Words and Glossary
Throughout the text you will find key terms in bold. Those terms are included and defined in the Glossary. Other significant terms are in both bold and italics.
CHAPTER 1 Teams Opportunities and Challenges
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
1. Identify and discuss the reasons why team management skills are important for your job and career success after graduation.
2. Identify and discuss the differences between a work group and a team.
3. Compare and contrast different types of work teams that are used in organizations and their respective advantages and disadvantages.
4. Identify and describe the general characteristics of effective teams.
5. Identify and describe the common problems with teams.
6. Identify and describe the elements of a high performance team framework and discuss its practical implications for team management.
Team Management and Why It Matters
Most of us have participated in teams whether it was working at a summer job in college, on a painting crew, or as a server in a restaurant; doing volunteer work; or taking on summer internships while in college. And of course, most of us have been part of many group projects throughout our college careers. Some of these experiences may have been positive, but others may have been characterized by loafing on the part of some team members, leaving you to do a large part of the project on your own, personality conflicts in deciding how to complete a project, and challenges associated with trying to schedule meetings and coordinate project completion.
Because most of us have had at least some experience working in teams, there is a tendency to feel that we already know everything there is to know about working in and leading teams in a professional work environment. There is also a tendency to believe that obtaining a good GPA is all we need to do to prepare ourselves for a successful job and career after graduation. Further, we may fear that working in teams can put our GPA at risk since our grade depends on the contributions of others who may not be as motivated or as capable of contributing to the creation of a team project that will earn an “A.”
In reality, the ability to work in a team will be critical for your career success. Moreover, a lack of teamwork skills can potentially derail your career. Consider the case of Steve Sinofsky, the architect of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system, who abruptly left the company in November 2012 shortly after the product’s release. While many in the company
viewed Sinofsky as a brilliant technician, his reputation for being abrasive and noncollaborating undermined his chances of being considered as a candidate for CEO.1
Working in teams in organizations can vary in many ways. For example, consider the following team situations from individuals’ actual experiences and think about how you would handle them as a team leader:
I was the member of a team in which I had a very different perspective of how to get things done with another team member. This led to arguments between us about nearly [every] aspect of the project. Meanwhile, other members of the team were either apathetic or unwilling to speak up and take a side on issues because they did not want to rock the boat. The individual with whom I was having issues with sent e-mails to other members of the team alleging that I was pushy and not a team player.
I worked for a car dealership doing detail work and new vehicle prep and the teams were extremely ineffective. We would receive orders/ instruction from two owners, the service manager, and technicians, all of whom had different demands and expectations. Along with poor communication, there was also poor follow-up and evaluation of the team’s work.
I was a part of a team when I worked at a YMCA summer camp in Minnesota. We were charged with the task of creating a skit for the whole camp. My group consisted of many people who were unlike each other, and our group lacked cohesiveness. The group had no icebreaking activities, and it was evident that group members felt awkward contributing in front of others.
I was on a team that was supposed to create a marketing plan for a company. The other members of the team did not care about the project so they did not respond to e-mails or voice mail messages to set up meetings, and they either did not complete their assigned work on time or they turned in work that was unacceptable. About a week before the deadline for the project, the other four members of the team basically bailed out on me and left the completion of the project for me to do on my own.
I was on the executive board for a student organization. Our team mostly communicated via e-mail. Roles and assigned duties were not established, so sometimes things weren’t addressed ahead of time. Deadlines that were set for team members were not properly enforced, and many protocols that seemed like common sense weren’t established, so the exec team wasn’t as efficient as it could have been.
These scenarios show there are no quick or easy solutions to the kinds of team problems you are likely to encounter in your job.
TEAMS IN THE NEWS: “Google
Management Award Winner Learns How to Keep a Team Together”
This article describes how Farzad “Fuzzy” Khosrowshahi, an award-winning project leader at Google, devotes a significant amount of time to the development of a strong team. Why does he do this? The reason is that engineers at Google can switch between projects at their discretion. This makes it critical for Farzad to develop and manage a project team that engages team members and motivates them to want to remain with the team in the future. Team development is also important in order for Farzad to recruit the best and brightest people to join his project team in the future. What does Farzad do to enhance his effectiveness as a team leader? First, he gives his team members 2 weeks a year to pursue any projects in which they are interested. He also has developed key skills that enable him to communicate effectively with his team members, including how to negotiate, how to give feedback, and how to deal with performance issues.
Source: J. Walker, “Google Management Award Winner Learns How to Keep a Team Together,” Wall Street Journal, July 4, 2012. http://professional.wsj.com/ article/SB10001424052702303410404577466881997151146.html.
Recent research shows that teamwork skills are critical for an individual’s future job success. The 2012 Job Outlook survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) identified the qualities that employers value most in college graduates. The ability to work in a team was ranked as the number one quality, with nearly 80% of employers indicating that they value this attribute when hiring. Figure 1-1 shows a partial listing of other highly rated qualities.
*5-point scale, where 1 = Not important; 2 = Not very important; 3 = Somewhat important; 4 = Very important; and 5 = Extremely important 1“Job Outlook: The Candidate Skills/Qualities Employers Want.” National Association of Colleges and Employers, October 26, 2011. http://www.naceweb.org/s10262011/candidate_skills_employer_qualities/
1-1 Qualities That Employers Seek on a Job Candidate’s Resume1
Figure
Another random document with no related content on Scribd:
which reference has just been made, there are unmistakable reminiscences of De Quincey in the iteration of emphasis on an important word, in the frequent use of inversions, in the rise and fall of the periods, and, indeed, in the subtle rhythmic effects throughout. The piece of writing, however, where the likeness to De Quincey and the imitation of his manner and music are most evident is the sermon on the Fitness of the Glories of Mary, —that piece of Newman’s prose, it should be noted, which is least defensible against the charge of artificiality and undue ornateness. A passage near the close of the sermon best illustrates the points in question: “And therefore she died in private. It became Him, who died for the world, to die in the world’s sight; it became the Great Sacrifice to be lifted up on high, as a light that could not be hid. But she, the Lily of Eden, who had always dwelt out of the sight of man, fittingly did she die in the garden’s shade, and amid the sweet flowers in which she had lived. Her departure made no noise in the world. The Church went about her common duties, preaching, converting, suffering. There were persecutions, there was fleeing from place to place, there were martyrs, there were triumphs. At length the rumour spread abroad that the Mother of God was no longer upon earth. Pilgrims went to and fro; they sought for her relics, but they found them not; did she die at Ephesus? or did she die at Jerusalem? reports varied; but her tomb could not be pointed out, or if it was found, it was open; and instead of her pure and fragrant body, there was a growth of lilies from the earth which she had touched. So inquirers went home marvelling, and waiting for further light.”[22]
Though the cadences of Newman’s prose are rarely as marked as here, a subtle musical beauty runs elusively through it all. Not that there is any of the sing-song of pseudo-poetic prose. The cadences are always wideranging and delicately shifting, with none of the halting iteration and feeble sameness of half-metrical work. Moreover, the rhythms, subtly pervasive as they are, and even symbolic of the mood of the passage as they often prove to be, never compel direct recognition, but act merely as a mass of undistinguished under-and over-tones like those which give to a human voice depth and tenderness and suggestiveness.
Newman understood perfectly the symbolic value of rhythm and the possibility of imposing upon a series of simple words, by delicately sensitive adjustment, a power over the feelings and the imagination like that of an incantation. Several of the passages already quoted or referred to
illustrate his instinctive adaptation of cadence to meaning and tone; another passage, in which this same adaptation is exemplified, occurs towards the close of the Apologia, where Newman describes the apparent moral chaos in human history. For subtlety of modulation, however, and symbolic suggestiveness, perhaps the tender leave-taking with which the Apologia concludes is the most beautiful piece of prose that Newman has written: “I have closed this history of myself with St. Philip’s name upon St. Philip’s feast-day; and having done so, to whom can I more suitably offer it, as a memorial of affection and gratitude, than to St. Philip’s sons, my dearest brothers of this House, the Priests of the Birmingham Oratory, Ambrose St. John, Henry Austin Mills, Henry Bittleston, Edward Caswall, William Paine Neville, and Henry Ignatius Dudley Rider, who have been so faithful to me; who have been so sensitive of my needs; who have been so indulgent to my failings; who have carried me through so many trials; who have grudged no sacrifice, if I have asked for it; who have been so cheerful under discouragements of my causing; who have done so many good works, and let me have the credit of them;—with whom I have lived so long, with whom I hope to die.
“And to you especially, dear Ambrose St. John, whom God gave me, when He took every one else away; who are the link between my old life and my new; who have now for twenty-one years been so devoted to me, so patient, so zealous, so tender; who have let me lean so hard upon you; who have watched me so narrowly; who have never thought of yourself, if I was in question.
“And in you I gather up and bear in memory those familiar, affectionate companions and counsellors, who, in Oxford, were given to me, one after another, to be my daily solace and relief; and all those others, of great name and high example, who were my thorough friends, and showed me true attachment in times long past; and also those many younger men, whether I knew them or not, who have never been disloyal to me by word or deed; and of all these, thus various in their relations to me, those more especially who have since joined the Catholic Church.
“And I earnestly pray for this whole company, with a hope against hope, that all of us, who once were so united, and so happy in our union, may even now be brought at length, by the Power of the Divine Will, into One Fold and under One Shepherd.”
VI
The careful gradation of values in Newman’s style and the far-reaching sweep of his periods connect themselves closely with another of his noteworthy characteristics—his breadth of handling. He manipulates with perfect ease and precision vast masses of facts, and makes them all contribute with unerring coöperation to the production of a single effect. However minute his detail,—and his liking for concreteness which will be presently illustrated often incites him to great minuteness,—he is careful not to confuse his composition, destroy the perspective, or lose sight of total effect. The largeness of his manner and the certainty of his handling place him at once among really great constructive artists.
Against this assertion it may be urged that in his fiction it is just this breadth of effect and constructive skill that are most noticeably lacking; that each of his novels, whatever its merits in places, is unsuccessful as a whole, and leaves a blurred impression. This must at once be granted. But, after all, it is in his theoretical, or moral, or historical work that the real Newman is to be found; in such work he is much more himself, much more thoroughly alive and efficient than in his stories, which, though cleverly turned out, were, after all, things by the way, were amateurish in execution, and never completely called forth his strength. Moreover, even in his novels, we find occasionally the integrating power of his imagination remarkably illustrated. The description in Callista of the invading and ravaging locusts is admirably sure in its treatment of detail and even and impressive in tone; the episode of Gurta’s madness is powerfully conceived, is swift and sure in its action, and is developed with admirable subordination and colouring of detail and regard to climax.
On the whole, however, it must be granted that in his fiction Newman’s sense of total effect and his constructive skill are least conspicuous. In his abstract discussions they never fail him. First and foremost, they show themselves in the plan of each work as a whole. The treatment is invariably symmetrical and exhaustive; part answers to part with the precision and the delicacy of adjustment of a work of art. Each part is conscious of the whole and has a vitally loyal relation to it, so that the needs and purposes of the whole organism seem present as controlling and centralizing instincts in every chapter, paragraph, and sentence.
In his use of elaborate illustrations for the sake of securing concreteness and sensuous beauty, Newman shows this same integrating power of imagination. In the long illustrations, which often take almost the proportions of episodes in the epical progress of his argument or exposition, the reader has no sense of bewilderment or uncertainty of aim; the strength of Newman’s mind and purpose subdues his endlessly diverse material, and compels it into artistic coherence and vital unity; all details are coloured in harmony with the dominant tone of the piece, and reënforce a predetermined mood. When a reader commits himself to one of Newman’s discussions, he must resign himself to him body and soul, and be prepared to live and move and have his being in the medium of Newman’s thought, and, moreover, in the special range of thought, and the special mood, that this particular discussion provokes. Perhaps this omnipresence of Newman in the minutest details of each discussion becomes ultimately to the careful student of his writing the most convincing proof of the largeness of his mind, of the intensity of his conception, and of the vigour and vitality of his imagination.
It may be urged that the copiousness of Newman at times becomes wearisome; that he is over-liberal of both explanation and illustration; and that his style, though never exuberant in ornament, is sometimes annoyingly luminous, and blinds with excess of light. This is probably the point in which Newman’s style is most open to attack. It is a cloyingly explicit, rather than a stimulatingly suggestive, style; it does almost too much for the reader, and is almost inconsiderately generous. Yet these qualities of his style are so intimately connected with its peculiar personal charm that they can hardly be censured. And it may be noted that so strenuous an advocate of the austere style as Walter Pater has instanced Newman’s Idea of a University as an example of “the perfect handling of a theory.”
One characteristic of the purely suggestive style is certainly to be found in Newman’s writing,—great beauty and vigour of phrase. This fact is the more noteworthy because a writer who, like Newman, is impressive in the mass, and excels in securing breadth of effect, very often lacks the ability to strike out memorable epigrams. A few quotations, brought together at random, will show what point and terseness Newman could command when he chose. “Ten thousand difficulties do not make a doubt.” “Great things are done by devotion to one idea.” “Calculation never made a hero.” “All aberrations are founded on, and have their life in, some truth or other.”
“Great acts take time.” “A book after all cannot make a stand against the wild living intellect of man.” “To be converted in partnership.” “It is not at all easy (humanly speaking) to wind up an Englishman to a dogmatic level.” “Paper logic.” “One is not at all pleased when poetry, or eloquence, or devotion is considered as if chiefly intended to feed syllogisms.” “Here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.” In terseness and sententiousness these utterances could hardly be surpassed by the most acrimonious searcher after epigram, though of course they have not the glitter of paradox to which modern coiners of phrases aspire.
Of wit there is very little to be found in Newman’s writings; it is not the natural expression of his temperament. Wit is too dryly intellectual, too external and formal, too little vital, to suit Newman’s mental habit. To the appeal of humour he was distinctly more open. It is from the humorous incongruities of imaginary situations that his irony secures its most persuasive effects. Moreover, whenever he is not necessarily preoccupied with the tragically serious aspects of life and of history, or forced by his subject-matter, and audience, into a formally restrained manner and method, he has, in treating any topic, that urbanity and half-playful kindliness that come from a large-minded and almost tolerant recognition of the essential imperfections of life and human nature. The mood of the man of the world, sweetened and ennobled, and enriched by profound knowledge and deep feeling and spiritual seriousness, gives to much of Newman’s work its most distinctive note. When he is able to be thoroughly colloquial, this mood and this tone can assert themselves most freely, and the result is a style through which a gracious kindliness, which is never quite humour, and which yet possesses all its elements, diffuses itself pervasively and persuasively. Throughout the Rise and Progress of Universities this tone is traceable, and, to take a specific example, it is largely to its influence that the description of Athens, in the third chapter, owes its peculiar charm. What can be more deliciously incongruous than the agent of a London “mercantile firm” and the Acropolis? or more curiously ill-mated than his standards of valuation and the qualities of the Grecian landscape? Yet how little malicious is Newman’s use of this incongruity or disproportion, and how unsuspiciously the “agent of a London Company” ministers to the quiet amusement of the reader, and also helps to heighten, by contrast, the effect of beauty and romance and mystery that Newman is aiming at.
Several allusions have already been made to Newman’s liking for concreteness, and in an earlier paragraph his distrust of the abstract was described and illustrated at length. These predilections of his have left their unmistakable mark on his style in ways more technical than those that have thus far been noted. His vocabulary is, for a scholar, exceptionally idiomatic and unliterary; the most ordinary and unparsable turns of every-day speech are inwrought into the texture of his style. In the Apologia he speaks of himself in one place as having had “a lounging, free-and-easy way of carrying things on,” and the phrase both defines and illustrates one characteristic of his style. Idioms that have the crude force of popular speech, the vitality without the vulgarity of slang, abound in his writings. Of his increasingly clear recognition, in 1839, of the weakness of the Anglican position, he says: “The Via Media was an impossible idea; it was what I had called ‘standing on one leg.’ ” In describing his loss of control over his party in 1840 he declares: “I never had a strong wrist, but at the very time when it was most needed, the reins had broken in my hands.” Of the ineradicableness of evil in human nature, he exclaims: “You do but play a sort of ‘hunt the slipper,’ with the fault of our nature, till you go to Christianity.” Illustrations of this idiomatic and homely phrasing might be endlessly multiplied. Moreover, to the concreteness of colloquial phrasing, Newman adds the concreteness of the specific word. Other things being equal, he prefers the name of the species to that of the genus, and the name of the class to that of the species; he is always urged forward towards the individual and the actual; his mind does not lag in the region of abstractions and formulas, but presses past the general term, or abstraction, or law, to the image or the example, and into the tangible, glowing, sensible world of fact. His imagery, though never obtrusive, is almost lavishly present, and though never purely decorative, is often very beautiful. It is so inevitable, however, springs so organically from the thought and the mood of the moment, that the reader accepts it unmindfully, and is conscious only of grasping, easily and securely, the writer’s meaning. He must first look back through the sentences and study the style in detail before he will come to realize its continual, but decisive, divergence from the literal and commonplace, and its essential freshness and distinction.
On occasion, of course, Newman uses elaborate figures; but commonly for purposes of exposition or persuasion. In such cases the reader may well note the thoroughness with which the figure adjusts itself to every turn and
phase of the thought, and the surprising omnipresence and suggestiveness of the tropical phrasing. These qualities of Newman’s style are illustrated in the following passage from the Development of Christian Doctrine:
“Whatever be the risk of corruption from intercourse with the world around, such a risk must be encountered if a great idea is duly to be understood, and much more if it is to be fully exhibited. It is elicited and expanded by trial, and battles into perfection and supremacy. Nor does it escape the collision of opinion even in its earlier years, nor does it remain truer to itself, and with a better claim to be considered one and the same, though externally protected from vicissitude and change. It is indeed sometimes said that the stream is clearest near the spring. Whatever use may fairly be made of this image, it does not apply to the history of a philosophy or belief, which, on the contrary, is more equable, and purer, and stronger, when its bed has become deep, and broad, and full. It necessarily rises out of an existing state of things, and for a time savours of the soil. Its vital element needs disengaging from what is foreign and temporary, and is employed in efforts after freedom which become more vigorous and hopeful as its years increase. Its beginnings are no measure of its capabilities, nor of its scope. At first no one knows what it is, or what it is worth. It remains perhaps for a time quiescent; it tries, as it were, its limbs, and proves the ground under it, and feels its way. From time to time, it makes essays which fail, and are in consequence abandoned. It seems in suspense which way to go; it wavers, and at length strikes out in one definite direction. In time it enters upon strange territory; points of controversy alter their bearing; parties rise and fall around it; dangers and hopes appear in new relations; and old principles reappear under new forms. It changes with them in order to remain the same. In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”[23] The image of the river pervades this passage throughout, and yet is never obtrusive and never determines or even constrains the progress of the thought. The imagery simply seems to insinuate the ideas into the reader’s mind with a certain novelty of appeal and half-sensuous persuasiveness. Another passage of much this kind has already been quoted, where Newman describes the adventurous investigator scaling the crags of truth.[24]
Closely akin to this use of figures is Newman’s generous use of examples and illustrations. Whatever be the principle he is discussing, he is not content till he has realized it for the reader in tangible, visible form, until he has given it the cogency and intensity of appeal that only sensations or images possess. In all these ways, then, by his idiomatic and colloquial phrasing, by his specific vocabulary, by his delicately adroit use of metaphors, by his carefully elaborated imagery, and by his wealth of examples and illustrations, Newman keeps resolutely close to the concrete, and imparts everywhere to his style warmth, vividness, colour, convincing actuality.
VII
It remains to suggest briefly Newman’s relation to what was most characteristic in the thought and feeling of his times. Without any attempt at a technical analysis of his doctrine or at a special study of his theorizing in religion and philosophy, it will be possible to connect him, by virtue of certain temperamental characteristics, and certain prevailing modes of conceiving life, with what was most distinctive in the literature of the early part of the century. Interpreted most searchingly, his early Anglicanism and his later Catholicism were peculiar expressions of that Romantic spirit which realized itself with such splendour and power in the best and most vital literature of his day and generation.
Perhaps the most general formula for the work of English literature during the first quarter of the present century is the rediscovery and vindication of the concrete. The special task of the eighteenth century had been to order, and to systematize, and to name; its favourite methods had been analysis and generalization. It asked for no new experience; it sought only to master and reduce to formulas, and to find convenient labels for what experience it already possessed. It was perpetually in search of standards and canons; it was conventional through and through; and its men felt secure from the ills of time only when sheltered under some ingenious artificial construction of rule and precedent. Whatever lay beyond the scope of their analysis and defied their laws, they disliked and dreaded. The outlying regions of mystery which hem life in on every side, are inaccessible to the intellect and irreducible in terms of its laws, were strangely repellent to them, and from such shadowy vistas they resolutely
turned their eyes and fastened them on the solid ground at their feet. The familiar bustle of the town, the thronging streets of the city, the gay life of the drawing-room, and coffee-house, and play-house; or the more exalted life of Parliament and Court, the intrigues of State-chambers, the manœuvres of the battle-field; the aspects of human activity, wherever collective man in his social capacity goes through the orderly and comprehensible changes of his ceaseless pursuit of worldly happiness and worldly success; these were the subjects that for the men of the eighteenth century had absorbing charm: in seeking to master this intricate play of forces, to fathom the motives below it, to tabulate its experiences, to set up standards to guide the individual successfully through the intricacies of this commonplace, every-day world, they spent their utmost energy, and to these tasks they instinctively limited themselves. In poetry, it was a generalized view of life that they aimed at, a semi-philosophical representation of man’s nature and actions. Pope, the typical poet of the century, “stooped to truth and moralized his song.” Dr. Johnson, the most authoritative critic of the century, taught that the poet should “remark general properties and large appearances ... and must neglect the minuter discriminations, which one may have remarked, and another have neglected, or those characteristics which are alike obvious to vigilance and carelessness.” In prose, the same moralizing and generalizing tendencies prevailed, and found their most adequate and thorough-going expression in the abstract and pretentiously latinized style of Dr. Johnson.
Everywhere thought gave the law; the senses and the imagination were kept jealously in subordination. The abstract, the typical, the general—these were everywhere exalted at the expense of the image, the specific experience, the vital fact. In religion, the same tendencies showed themselves. Orthodoxy and Deism alike were mechanical in their conception of Nature and of God. Both Free-thinkers and Apologists tried to systematize religious experience, and to rationalize theology. In the pursuit of historical evidences and of logical demonstrations of the truth or falsity of religion, genuine religious emotion was almost neglected, or was actually condemned. Enthusiasm was distrusted or abhorred; an enthusiast was a madman. Intense feeling of all kinds was regarded askance, and avoided as irrational, unsettling, prone to disarrange systems, and to overturn standards, and burst the bonds of formulas.
It was to this limited manner of living life and of conceiving of life that the great movement which, for lack of a better name, may be called the Romantic Movement, was to put an end. The Romanticists sought to enrich life with new emotions, to conquer new fields of experience, to come into imaginative touch with far distant times, to give its due to the encompassing world of darkness and mystery, and even to pierce through the darkness in the hope of finding, at the heart of the mystery, a transcendental world of infinite beauty and eternal truth. A keener sense of the value of life penetrated them and stirred them into imaginative sympathy with much that had left the men of the eighteenth century unmoved. They found in the naïve life of Nature and animals and children picturesqueness and grace that were wanting in the sophisticated life of the “town”; they delighted in the mysterious chiaroscuro of the Middle Ages, in its rich blazonry of passion, and its ever-changing spectacular magnificence; they looked forward with ardour into the future, and dreamed dreams of the progress of man; they opened their hearts to the influences of the spiritual world, and religion became to them something more than respectability and morality. In every way they endeavoured to give some new zest to life, to impart to it some fine novel flavour, to attain to some exquisite new experience. They sought this new experience imaginatively in the past, with Scott and Southey; they sought it with fierce insistence in foreign lands, following Byron, and in the wild exploitation of individual fancy and caprice; they sought it with Coleridge and Wordsworth through the revived sensitiveness of the spirit and its intuitions of a transcendental world of absolute reality; they sought it with Shelley in the regions of the vast inane.
Now it was in the midst of these restless conditions and under the influence of all this new striving and aspiration that Newman’s youth and most impressionable years of development were spent, and he took colour and tone from his epoch to a degree that has often been overlooked. His work, despite its reactionary character, indeed, partly because of it, is a genuine expression of the Romantic spirit, and can be understood only when thus interpreted and brought into relation with the great tendencies of thought and feeling of the early part of our century. Of his direct indebtedness to Scott, Wordsworth, and Coleridge, he has himself made record in the Apologia[25]and in his Autobiographical Sketch. [26] But far more important than the influence of any single man was the penetrating and determining action upon him of the Romantic atmosphere, overcharged
