© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Team Dynamics McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Teams at Ergon Energy At Ergon Energy, teamwork is a critical operational practice for achieving excellent customer service. The Queensland company organises employees into teams who are led by team leaders. Teamwork is one of Ergon’s six core values. Teamwork is also reinforced through company rewards. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved What are Teams? Groups of two or more people Exist to fulfil a purpose Interdependent – interact and influence each other Mutually accountable for achieving common goals Perceive themselves as a social entity © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Many Types of Teams Departmental teams Production/service/ leadership teams Self-directed teams Advisory teams Task force (project) teams Skunkworks Virtual teams Communities of practice © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Informal Groups Groups that exist primarily for the benefit of their members Reasons why informal groups exist: Innate drive to bond Social identity – we define ourselves by group memberships Goal accomplishment Emotional support © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Advantages/Disadvantages of Teams Make better decisions, products/services Better information sharing Increase employee motivation/engagement Fulfils drive to bond Closer scrutiny by team members Team members are benchmarks of comparison Disadvantages Individuals better/faster on some tasks Process losses – cost of developing and maintaining teams Social loafing © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

How to Minimise Social Loafing Make individual performance more visible Form smaller teams Specialise tasks Measure individual performance Increase employee motivation Increase job enrichment Select motivated employees © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Team Effectiveness Model Task characteristics Team size Team composition Team Design Rewards Communication Org structure Org leadership Physical space Organisational and Team Environment Accomplish tasks Satisfy member needs Maintain team survival Team Effectiveness Team development Team norms Team cohesiveness Team trust Team Processes © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Organisation/Team Environment Reward systems Communication systems Organisational structure Organisational leadership Physical space © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Team’s Task Characteristics Teams work better when tasks are clear and easy to implement learn roles faster, easier to become cohesive ill-defined tasks require members with diverse backgrounds and more time to coordinate Teams preferred with higher task interdependence Extent that employees need to share materials, information, or expertise to perform their jobs. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Levels of Task Interdependence High Reciprocal A B C Sequential A B C Pooled Resource A B C Low © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Team Size Smaller teams are better because they: need less time to coordinate roles and resolve differences require less time to develop more member involvement, thus higher commitment But the team must be large enough to accomplish the task © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Shell Looks for Team Players Shell holds the 5-day Gourami Business Challenge in Europe, North America, and Asia (shown in photo) to observe how well the university students work in teams. One of the greatest challenges is for students from different cultures and educational specialisations to work together. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Team Composition Effective team members must be willing and able to work on the team Effective team members possess specific competencies (5 Cs) © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Five Cs of Team-member Competencies © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Team Composition: Diversity Team members have diverse knowledge, skills, perspectives, values, etc. Advantages view problems and possible solutions from different perspectives broader knowledge base better representation of team’s constituents Disadvantages take longer to become a high-performing team more susceptible to ‘fault lines’ increased risk of dysfunctional conflict © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Stages of Team Development Performing Adjourning Existing teams might regress back to an earlier stage of development Norming Storming Forming © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Team Development as Membership and Competence Two central processes in team development: Team membership formation Transition from ‘them’ to ‘us’ Team becomes part of person’s social identity Team competence development Forming routines with others Forming shared mental models © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Team Roles A set of behaviours that people are expected to perform Some formally assigned; others informally Informal role assignment occurs during team development and is related to personal characteristics © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Team Building Formal activities intended to improve the team’s development and functioning Types of team building Clarify team’s performance goals Improve team’s problem-solving skills Improve role definitions Improve relations © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Team Norms Informal rules and shared expectations team establishes to regulate member behaviours Norms develop through: Initial team experiences Critical events in team’s history Experience/values members bring to the team © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Preventing/Changing Dysfunctional Team Norms State desired norms when forming teams Select members with preferred values Discuss counter-productive norms Reward behaviours representing desired norms Disband teams with dysfunctional norms © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Team Cohesion The degree of attraction people feel toward the team and their motivation to remain members Both cognitive and emotional process Related to the team member’s social identity © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Influences on Team Cohesion Member similarity • Similarity-attraction effect • Some forms of diversity have less effect Team size • Smaller teams tend to be more cohesive Member interaction • Regular interaction increases cohesion • Calls for tasks with high interdependence © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Influences on Team Cohesion (cont.) Somewhat difficult entry • Team eliteness increases cohesion • But lower cohesion with severe initiation Team success • Successful teams fulfil member needs • Success increases social identity with team External challenges • Challenges increase cohesion when not overwhelming © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Team Cohesion Outcomes Motivated to remain members Willing to share information Strong interpersonal bonds Resolve conflict effectively Better interpersonal relationships Better performance (if norms aligned) © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Team Cohesion and Performance Moderately high task performance High task performance Team norms support company goals Moderately low task performance Low task performance Team norms oppose company goals Low team cohesion High team cohesion © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Trust Defined Positive expectations one person has of another person in situations involving risk © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Three Levels of Trust Identification-based trust Knowledge-based trust High Identification-based trust Knowledge-based trust Calculus-based trust Low © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Self-Directed Teams at Reckitt Benckiser Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare has become one of the most productive pharmaceutical operations in Europe due to lean management practices and reliance on self-directed teams. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Self-Directed Teams Defined Cross-functional work groups organised 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. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Self-Directed Team Success Factors Responsible for entire work process High interdependence within the team Low interdependence with other teams Autonomy to organise and coordinate work Work site and technology support team communication/coordination © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Virtual Teams Teams whose members operate across space, time, and organisational boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organisational tasks Increasingly possible because of: Information technologies Knowledge-based work Increasingly necessary because of: Organisational learning Globalisation © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Virtual Team Success Factors Member characteristics Technology savvy Self-leadership skills Emotional intelligence Flexible use of communication technologies Opportunities to meet face-to-face © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Team Decision Making Constraints Time constraints Time to organise/coordinate Production blocking Evaluation apprehension Belief that others are silently evaluating you Peer pressure to conform Suppressing opinions that oppose team norms Groupthink Tendency in highly cohesive teams to value consensus at the price of decision quality Concept losing favour – consider more specific features © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

General Guidelines for Team Decisions Team norms should encourage critical thinking Sufficient team diversity Ensure neither leader nor any member dominates Maintain optimal team size Introduce effective team structures © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Constructive Conflict Courtesy of Johnson Space Center/NASA People focus their discussion on the issue while maintaining respectfulness for others having different points of view Problem: constructive conflict easily slides into personal attacks © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Rules of Brainstorming Speak freely Don’t criticise Provide as many ideas as possible Build on others’ ideas © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Evaluating Brainstorming Strengths Produces more creative ideas Less evaluation apprehension when team supports a learning orientation Strengthens decision acceptance and team cohesiveness Sharing positive emotions encourages creativity Weaknesses Production blocking still exists Evaluation apprehension exists in many groups © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Electronic Brainstorming Relies on networked computers to submit and share creative ideas Strengths – more creative ideas, minimal production blocking, evaluation apprehension, or conformity problems Limitations – too structured and technology-bound © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

Nominal Group Technique Individual Activity Team Activity Individual Activity Describe problem Write down possible solutions Possible solutions described to others Vote on solutions presented © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Team Dynamics McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved