Team Dynamics McGraw-Hill/Irwin McShane/Von Glinow OB 5e Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

What Are Teams? Formal groups of two or more people with complimentary skills Exist to fulfill a specific purpose or goal Interdependent – they interact with and influence each other Mutually accountable for achieving common goals Perceive themselves as a social entity 8-2

Many Types of Teams Production/ Service/ Leadership Teams Virtual Teams Departmental teams Self-Directed Teams Skunkworks Advisory Teams Task Force (Project) Teams Communities of Practice 8-3

Advantages of Teams Make better decisions, products, and/or services Better information sharing Higher employee motivation and engagement Fulfills drive to bond Closer scrutiny by team members Team members are benchmarks of comparison 8-4

Disadvantages of Teams Individual effort may be better and/or faster on some tasks Process losses – Costs associated with developing and maintaining teams Social loafing 8-5

Social Loafing When individuals “hold back” in contributing to the team’s effort and performance As team size increases, social loafing tends to increase Interestingly enough, social loafing may actually improve performance on complex tasks! 8-6

How to Minimize Social Loafing Usually not an issue in highly cohesive teams (because of peer pressure) Make individual performance more visible Form smaller teams Specialize tasks Measure individual performance Increase employee motivation Increase job enrichment Select highly motivated employees 8-7

Team Effectiveness Model Task characteristics Team size Team composition Team Design Organizational and Team Environments Accomplish tasks Satisfy member needs Maintain team survival Team Effectiveness Reward systems Communication Structure Leadership Physical space Team development Team norms Team cohesiveness Team trust Team Processes 8-8

Task Characteristics Teams work better when tasks are clear and easy to implement Learn their roles faster Easier to become cohesive Ill-defined tasks require members with more diverse backgrounds and more time to coordinate Teams work better when task interdependence is higher That is, the extent to which employees need to share materials, information, and/or expertise to perform their jobs 8-9

Levels of Task Interdependence Reciprocal A B C High Sequential A B C Pooled Resource A B C Low 8-10

Team Size Smaller teams are often better because: They need less time to coordinate their roles and resolve differences or conflicts They require less time to develop more member involvement (and thus, higher commitment) But…a team must be large enough to accomplish a given task! Eddie Feigner 8-11

Team Composition Effective team members must be willing and able to work on the team, share information and resources, trust each other, and take risks Effective team members possess specific competencies (the 5 C’s) 8-12

Five Competencies of Team Members 8-13

Tuckman’s Stage Theory 1. Forming – Team comes together; some ambivalence; team look to leader for direction 2. Storming – Roles and responsibilities are defined and tested; conflicts and resistance may occur; leader guides, defines, and clarifies 3. Norming – Team understands task and each other’s roles; norms are established and energy and enthusiasm is displayed; sense of cohesiveness 4. Performing – Productive stage; team sees significant payoffs from communication, cooperation, and work norms 5. Adjourning – Transition from small team to larger network; share knowledge and experience with others 8-14

Group Decay Occurs when the team suddenly “shifts into reverse” and regresses back to an earlier stage of development This occurs through: De-norming (erosion of standards) De-storming (growing discontent and loss of cohesiveness) De-forming (fragmentation and break-up of the team) 8-15

Tuckman’s Stage Theory Existing teams might regress back to an earlier stage of development (group decay) Performing Adjourning Norming Storming Forming 8-16

Team Roles A set of specific, organized behaviors that team members are expected to perform Some are formally assigned; others are informally assigned Informal role assignment occurs during the process of team development and is often related to personal characteristics 8-17

Team Norms Informal rules and shared expectations a team establishes to regulate team member behaviors Norms develop through: Initial team experiences (primacy effect) Agreement upon those things deemed “important” to the team Critical events in team’s history Experience or values members bring to the team They may be spoken, written, or implicit They may not apply to all team members 8-18

Preventing Dysfunctional Team Norms Clarify and reiterate desired norms when initially forming teams Select team members with preferred values Discuss counterproductive norms Reward behaviors that are reflective of desired norms Remove team members with dysfunctional norms 8-19

Team Building Formal activities intended to improve the team’s development and functioning Why use team building? Clarify team’s performance goals Improve team’s problem-solving skills Clarify role definitions Improve relationships 8-20

Team Cohesion A “force” or degree of attraction or closeness people feel toward the team and their motivation to remain members It’s both cognitive and emotional Related closely to one’s social identity 8-21

Influences on Team Cohesion Member similarity • Similarity-attraction effect • But...some forms of diversity have less effect Team size • Smaller teams tend to be more cohesive Member interaction • Regular interaction increases cohesion • But...calls for tasks with high interdependence 8-22

Influences on Team Cohesion (con’t) Somewhat difficult entry • Team “eliteness” increases cohesion • But...lower cohesion with severe initiation Team success • Successful teams fulfill member needs • Success increases social identity with team External challenges • Challenges increase cohesion (when not overwhelming); that is, an “us vs. them” mindset 8-23

Trust Defined Positive expectations one person has of another person in situations involving some degree of risk (physical, emotional, legal, financial, etc.) 8-24

Three Levels of Trust Identification-Based Trust Knowledge-Based Trust High Knowledge-Based Trust Calculus-Based Trust Low 8-25

Self-Directed Teams Cross-functional work teams, organized around work processes, that complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks, and that have substantial autonomy over the execution of those tasks 8-26

Virtual Teams Teams whose members operate across space, time, and organizational boundaries, being linked through information technologies, to complete organizational tasks 8-27

Decision Making Constraints on Teams Time limits Evaluation apprehension Belief that others are silently evaluating you Peer pressure to conform Suppressing opinions that oppose team norms Groupthink A tendency in highly cohesive teams to value consensus at the price of decision quality Group polarization Diffusion of responsibility 8-28

A Minority of One? Asch (1951, 1956) tested whether individuals would conform in those situations in which the larger group’s judgments were obviously incorrect 8-29

Asch’s Conformity Study Which line matches the standard line? 8-30

Conformity Most individuals conformed to the (obviously) wrong answer initially given by the group! 8-31

Groupthink The deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment in the interest of group solidarity; a “subtle” conformity In a groupthink situation, each member of the group attempts to conform his or her opinions to what they believe to be the consensus of the group – even though each member might individually consider such action to be unwise 8-32

Examples of Groupthink Bay of Pigs Invasion Challenger explosion Thalidomide Watergate 8-33

Group Polarization Also called “risky shift” In some cases, groups tend to make riskier or more extreme decisions that those made by individuals acting alone (a “mob mentality”) Used to explain the decision-making of a jury, particularly when considering punitive damages in a civil trial – after deliberating together, mock jury members often decided on punitive damage awards that were much larger or much smaller than the amount any individual juror had favored prior to deliberation! 8-34

Diffusion of Responsibility When individuals know that many others are present, they feel less compelled to bear the full burden of responsibility, making the assumption that someone else must be taking care of the situation or that someone must have already done something about it! 8-35

Diffusion of Responsibility Kitty Genovese was attacked repeatedly just outside her New York home in 1964. No one came to her aid, despite her cries for help. Her murder took a full half hour, while at least 38 neighbors saw or heard the crime! 8-36

Stimulating Team Creativity Brainstorming Delphi Technique Nominal Group Technique (NGT) 8-37

Brainstorming Promotes creativity by encouraging idea generation through non-critical discussion Basic rules: Seniority is ignored – a status-free environment is created Speak freely – no idea is too ridiculous; no idea can be criticized Initially, quantity is more important than quality Each idea presented belongs to the team – not to the person stating it One idea can build on another 8-38

Delphi Technique A team-based process that anonymously generates ideas or judgments – often from physically dispersed experts who never meet: Leader identifies an issue to investigate Sequential questionnaires are sent to others and returned to the leader Leader summarizes responses and sends feedback to participants Participants then send their feedback and comments Cycle repeats until issue is resolved or all relevant information is gathered 8-39

Nominal Group Technique (NGT) Assists teams to both to generate ideas and to evaluate and select solutions: Approx. 7 to 10 people meet in person to discuss a problem Individuals generate ideas independently and in writing After about 5 minutes, each person shares an idea from his or her list and they are recorded on a chalkboard or flipchart – but not discussed This process continues until all ideas are listed Optional: There may be some discussion at this point Each person then ranks ideas in order of preference The final decision is the mathematically pooled outcome of all votes 8-40

Nominal Group Technique (NGT) Individual Activity Team Activity Individual Activity Describe problem Write down possible solutions Possible solutions presented to others Vote on solutions presented 8-41

Why Do Teams Fail? 8-42