Understanding Work Teams

Why Have Teams Become So Popular? Teams typically outperform individuals. Teams use employee talents better. Teams are more flexible and responsive to changes in the environment. Teams facilitate employee involvement. Teams are an effective way to democratize an organization and increase motivation.

Team Versus Group: What’s the Difference? Work Group A group that interacts primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each group member perform within his or her area of responsibility. Work Team A group whose individual efforts result in a performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs.

Comparing Work Groups and Work Teams

A team is a group which shares, and says it shares, a common purpose and recognises that it needs the efforts of every one of its members to achieve this. A team is a team when it sees itself as a team, is going in the team direction, and has worked out its own team ways.

Why Teams? “Given an impossible task team members will reinforce each other’s confidence as they seek to turn the impossibility into reality. The collective ability to innovate is stronger than that of the individual because the combined brainpower of a team, however small in number, exceeds that of any one person.

None of us is as smart as all of us Why Teams? None of us is as smart as all of us

Why Teams? Research shows that 70% of air disasters are caused by failures in team working rather than by individual or mechanical breakdown.

Why Teams? Teams are an effective way of: - identifying and solving work-related problems increasing product quality speeding up innovations improving performance achieving better industrial relations increasing employee participation.

Teams - two functions Task function Maintenance function achievement of goals, specific tasks, “production” activities, problem solving, exchange of ideas or information, innovation Maintenance function support, assistance, protection, building of relationships, encouragement, stimulus, reinforcement of beliefs, views etc.

2 Dimensions of Team Effectiveness Task accomplishment Satisfaction of team members outputs efficiency targets met personal success personal satisfaction sense of belonging

Critical Aspects of Team Management Achieve the Task Maintain the Team Develop the Individual

The high-performing synergy team Alignment of values, mission and process TASK GROUP INDIVIDUAL

Types of Teams Problem-Solving Teams Groups of 5 to 12 employees from the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and the work environment. Self-Managed Work Teams Groups of 10 to 15 people who take on the responsibilities of the work.

Cross-Functional Teams Employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task. Task forces Committees

Virtual Teams Teams that use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal. Characteristics of Virtual Teams The absence of paraverbal and nonverbal cues A limited social context The ability to overcome time and space constraints

A Team-Effectiveness Model

Key Roles of Teams

Turning Individuals Into Team Players The Challenges Overcoming individual resistance to team membership. Countering the influence of individualistic cultures. Introducing teams in an organization that has historically valued individual achievement. Shaping Team Players Selecting employees who can fulfill their team roles. Training employees to become team players. Reworking the reward system to encourage cooperative efforts while continuing to recognize individual contributions.

Chapter Check-Up: Teams You have a team for the case studies & presentation, list five members . Now that you have your list, consider what the composition of your team would look like. How much diversity would there be? Given what we learned in this chapter, what would the pros and cons of your composition be?