Chapter 7 Turning People into Team Players

Roadmap to Understanding Understanding Me Understanding Others Understanding Organizations Putting It All Together

Why Study Teams? Team skills are needed and valued by employers. To develop the interpersonal skills necessary in understanding teams. To capitalize on complementary skills leading to improvements in productivity and performance.

What is a team? A team is a group (two or more) whose individual efforts result in performance.

Teams and Synergy? ** Synergy is building a force that is greater than the sum of its parts. A team generates positive synergy through coordinated effort which results in a level of performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs.

Team Advantage Teams are appropriate when: are needed. Sundry specialized knowledge Varied experience Multiple skills Extended abilities Prudent judgment are needed.

Why Teams? Teams better utilize employee talents Teams are more flexible and responsive Teams are easy to assemble, deploy, refocus, and disband Teams facilitate employee participation Teams increase employee motivation

Turning People into Team Players Diversity within a team provides: Varied judgment Varied experiences Multiple skills When the above are required, diversity will improve performance.

Turning People into Team Players Why Teach Teams? Team skills are needed and valued by employers

Teams in Practice 100-499 1000- 2499 10,000+ Number of employees

Turning People into Team Players Why Teach Teams? Team skills are needed and valued by employers Teams require strong interpersonal skills Team members complement each other in their work Team members have multiple skills Improved problem solving and better judgment

Turning People into Team Players Types of teams Problem solving teams (10-12 people) Self-managed teams. These may also be termed Self-directed Work Teams. (10 -15) Cross Functional teams. Team members from the same hierarchical organizational level.

Turning People into Team Players Successful teams must have the following skills distributed among its members: Technical expertise skills Problem solving/decision making skills Communication skills

Turning People into Team Players – Team Roles Creator. .Initiates creative ideas Promoter. .Champions ideas Assessor. .Offers insightful analysis Organizer. .Provides structure Producer. .Provides direction Controller. . Enforces rules Maintainer. .Fights external battles Advisor. .Encourages others Linker. .Coordinates and integrates

Role Perspectives Role perception is how the individual believes he or she is to act in a given situation. Role expectation is what others believe or expect of us is our role. Role conflict may occur when the role perception and the role expectation are not congruent.

Turning People into Team Players Features of High Performance Teams: Specific goals Commitment to common purpose Leadership and structure Individual and joint accountability Appropriate evaluation and reward systems High mutual trust

Turning People into Team Players Social Loafing or Coasting - is the tendency for individuals to put forth just enough effort to get by when working with teams.

Turning People into Team Players What About Gender Differences in Teams? For a given task, the differences between men and women in team leadership roles and team performance are not that great.

Turning People into Team Players What About Culture Differences on Teams? The environmental differences between cultures can create, on average, fundamental differences between groups of people.

Turning People into Team Players When you interact with another culture, you must be conscious of all the possible differences. Some culture differences include: Time Body language Personal space

Summary Understanding the advantages of teams is critical to an organization’s success. There are three different type of teams: Problem solving teams, self-directed work teams, and cross-functional teams.

Summary Role perception is how the individual believes he or she is to act in a given situation. Role expectation is what others believe or expect of us is our role. Role conflict occurs when role perception and role expectation are not congruent.

Summary Social Loafing is the tendency for individuals to put forth just enough effort to get by when working with teams. Learning how to turn people into team players is critical for team success.