What are teams and how are they used in organizations? When is a team effective? What are the stages of team development? How can we understand teams at work? 7-2 Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Team  Group of people brought together to use complementary skills to achieve a common purpose for which they are collectively accountable. 7-3 Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Teamwork  Occurs when team members accept and live up to their collective accountability by actively working together so that all their respective skills are best used to achieve team goals. 7-4 Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

What Teams Do  Teams that recommend things  Established to study specific problems and recommend solutions to them.  Teams that run things  Have formal responsibility for leading organizations and their component parts.  Teams that make or do things  Work units that perform ongoing tasks. 7-5 Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

7-6 Formal teams  Created and officially designated to serve a specific organizational purposes.  May be permanent or temporary and vary in size and composition.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 7-7 Informal groups  Emerge and coexist as a shadow to the formal structure and without any assigned purpose or endorsement.  Types of informal groups  Friendship groups  Interest groups

Social network analysis – identifies the informal groups and networks of relationships that are active in an organization. 7-8 Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

7-9 Cross-Functional and Problem-Solving Teams  Cross-functional teams or task forces  Members brought together from different functional departments or work units to achieve horizontal integration and better lateral relations.  Problem-solving teams  Created temporarily to serve a specific purpose by dealing with a specific problem or opportunity.  Employee involvement team  Meet regularly to collectively examine important workplace issues  Quality circles meet periodically to discuss and make proposals for ways to improve quality.

Functional silos problem  Occurs when members of functional units stay focused on matters internal to their function and minimize their interactions with members dealing with other functions Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Employee involvement team  Teams whose members meet regularly to collectively examine important workplace issues.  Quality circle - small team that meets periodically to discuss and develop solutions relating to quality and productivity Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Self-managing teams  Teams are empowered to make the decisions needed to manage themselves on a day-to-day basis.  Duties often replace those that were traditionally performed by the manager Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Multiskilling  Team members are expected to perform many different jobs – even all the of the team’s jobs – as needed Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Advantages of self-managing teams  Productivity and quality improvements.  Production flexibility and faster response to technological change.  Reduced absenteeism and turnover.  Improved work attitudes and quality of work life Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Disadvantages of self-managing teams  May be hard for some team members to adjust to the “self-managing” responsibilities.  Higher-level managers may have problems dealing with the loss of the first-line supervisors Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Virtual Team  Members convene and work together through computer mediation rather than interacting face-to-face.  Can accomplish same tasks as face-to-face teams, but are free from geographic barriers Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Advantages of virtual teams  Brings together individuals who may be located at great differences from one another.  Offers obvious cost and time efficiencies.  Focuses task accomplishment and decision making by reducing the emotional considerations that may surface in face-to-face meetings Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Disadvantages of virtual teams  Members of virtual teams can have difficulties establishing good working relationships.  The lack of face-to- face interactions limits the role of emotions and non verbal cues in the communication process Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

7-20 Effective Team  One that achieves high levels of task performance, member satisfaction, and team viability.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Effective teams achieve high levels of:  Task performance  Members attain performance goals regarding quantity, quality, and timeliness of work results.  Members satisfaction  Members believe that their participation and experiences are positive and meet important personal needs.  Team viability  Members are sufficiently satisfied to continue working together on an ongoing basis.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Synergy  The creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.  Individual can accomplish more through teamwork than by working alone.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Why teams are good for organizations  Teams are beneficial as settings where people learn from one another and share job skills and knowledge.  The learning environment and the pool of experience within a team can be used to solve difficult and unique problems.  Opportunities for social interaction within a team can provide individuals with a sense of security through work assistance and technical advice.  Team members provide emotional support for one another in times of special crisis or pressure.  Many contributions individuals make to teams can help members experience self-esteem and personal involvement.

Common team challenges  Social loafing  Personality conflicts  Uncertainty over tasks or competing goals  Poorly defined agendas  Lack of motivation  Perceptions that team lacks purpose 7-24 Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

7-25 Social loafing  The tendency of people to work less hard in a group than they would individually.  Reasons for social loafing  Individual contributions are less noticeable in the group context.  Some prefer to see others carry the workload.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Prevent social loafing  Keep group size small.  Redefine roles to make free riders more visible and peer pressures to perform more likely.  Increase accountability by making individuals performance expectations clear and specific.  Make rewards directly contingent on an individual’s performance contributions.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Social facilitation theory  Tendency for one’s behavior to be influenced by the presence of others in a group or social setting.  Positive result is extra effort when individual is proficient with the task at hand.  Negative result when the task is unfamiliar or a person lacks the necessary skills.

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Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Forming stage  Initial entry of members to a team.  Member challenges  Getting to know each other  Discovering what is considered acceptable behavior  Determining the group’s real task  Defining group rules

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Storming stage  A period of high emotionality and tension among group members.  Member challenges  Hostility and infighting  Formation of coalitions and cliques  Clarification of members’ expectations

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Norming stage  The point at which the members really begin to come together as a coordinated unit.  Member challenges  Holding team together may over supersede task accomplishment.  Sense of cohesiveness may discourage minority views.  Can result in false sense of team maturity.

Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Performing stage  Marks the emergence of a mature, organized, and well-functioning team motivated by group goals.  Member challenges  Continuing efforts to improve relationships and performance.

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Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Adjourning stage  A well-integrated team is able to  Disband when its work is finished.  Work together in the future.  Particularly important for temporary teams.

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7-37 Team effectiveness is affected by the nature of the task  Different tasks place different demands on teams.  Well defined tasks contribute to effectiveness.  Team effectiveness is harder to achieve with complex tasks. interaction. o Success at complex tasks is a source of high satisfaction for team.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Nature of task affects outcome Technical demands of a task  The degree to which a task is routine or not, the level of difficulty involved, and the information requirements. Social demands of a task  Involve the degree to which the issues of interpersonal relationships, ego, controversies, over ends and means, and the like that come into play.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Team size  Can have an impact on a team’s effectiveness.  As team size increases, performance and member satisfaction increase up to a point. Team composition  The mix of abilities, skills, personalities, and experiences that the members bring to the team.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Team composition  The mix of abilities, skills, personalities, and experiences that the members bring to the team.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc FIRO-B Theory (“fundamental interpersonal orientation”)  Identifies differences in how people relate to one another in groups.  Individual difference determine needs to express and receive feelings of inclusion, control, and affection.

Status  A person’s relative rank, prestige or social standing. Status congruence  Occurs when a person’s position within the team is equivalent in status to positions the individual holds outside of it Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Diversity and Team Performance  Team diversity – consists of different values, personalities, experiences, demographics, and cultures among members.  In homogeneous teams, members are very similar to one another.  In heterogeneous teams, members are very dissimilar, teamwork problems are more likely Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Diversity-Consensus Dilemma  The tendency for diversity to make it harder for team members to work together, even though the diversity itself expands the skills and perspectives available for problem solving. Collective Intelligence  The ability of a group or team to perform well across a range of tasks.

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7-46 Group or team dynamics  Forces operating in teams that affect the way members relate to and work with one another.