Mgt 4310 Teamwork

Teams? What if we: Select Train Compensate Promote Fire All at the team level?

Benefits of Work Teams Meet our social needs They enhance employee commitment They can be better problem solvers and make better decisions and They enhance quick adaptability (creativity and speed) of the organization to the environment and to customer demands

Benefits of Work Teams They are strong control systems of behaviour (norms) They create productivity gains due to worker flexibility They increase gains by reducing the need for managers

Boeing New Development Group 777 employees in cross-functional teams Would no longer think of developing a new airplane without the use of teams

Costs of Work Teams Can’t meet production demands and organizational goals due to: Difficulty of consensus Effort and time for coordination Effort and time for training Can create intergroup hostilities Don’t deal well with inconsistent performers

Saturn Car Company GM’s experiment in cutting costs and using teamwork (1990) Self-managed work teams assemble cars, maintain equipment, order supplies, set work schedules, select team members. Workers are salaried and have a profit sharing plan Although the company started to make a profit after the first three years the company has been unprofitable most years and is still not creating steady profits Last chance to make good

When would you use teams? When the work is more than one person can do When the tasks are highly interrelated When there is a high level of creativity required by the task Where a unique decision must be made that requires the knowledge or expertise of more than one person. Do not use teams just because everyone else is.

How do you compensate teams? Only as individuals, as group or as a combination of individual and group Issues: Types of teams – full-time, part-time, full-time temporary Complexity of the plan

How do you compensate teams? Positives of group level rewards: Sends the message that the team is important Reduces within group conflict Increases information sharing Reduces some problems of evaluation

How do you compensate teams? Negatives of group level rewards Less successful teams earn less – may not be able to hire members Higher level performers may not feel adequately compensated – resulting in their reduced performance Individual competencies are critical for team functioning Individuals still want their contributions recognized (individualistic)

How do you compensate teams? Issues: Team member control of conditions What proportion of team versus individual There is agreement that there must be team level compensation Disagreement comes over the degree of individual compensation.

Conditions that support teams Design of the groups Tasks must have autonomy use high level skills to perform meaningful tasks Have regular feedback Have norms that encourage strategy development Have the correct composition of talent Size Diversity Interpersonal skills

Conditions that support teams Organizational Context Have group goals (groups to set proximal goals) Reward at the group level Have in-house training and ensure required expertise Have adequate information systems from and to the group Have resource requirements available

Conditions that support teams Group Synergy Reduce process losses (coordination costs) Reduce social loafing Weight the contribution and importance of contribution appropriately Learn from each other (cross-training)

Selecting to Teams What qualities would you select for when creating teams??

Conflict Resolution Skills - Encouraging desirable conflict but discouraging undesirable conflict; and, employing integrative (win-win) negotiation strategies rather than distributive (win-lose) strategies. Collaborative Problem Solving Skills - identifying situations requiring participative group problem solving and utilizing the proper degree of participation. Selecting to Teams

Communication Skills - Utilizing decentralized networks where possible; recognizing open and supportive communication methods; Goal Setting Skills- Establishing specific, challenging, and accepted team goals; and monitoring, evaluating, and providing feedback on both overall team performance and individual team member performance. Selecting to Teams

Planning and Task Coordination Skills - Coordinating and synchronizing activities, information, and tasks between team members, establishing individual task and role assignments which ensure the proper balance of workload between team members. Collectivism Selecting to Teams

Group norms Unwritten rules that guide group behavior and define what is good behavior and what is bad behavior Norms of self-managed teams will control member behavior more than organizational rules Team norms have more impact on the ethical behavior of its members than does a supervisor Norms will determine whether the group is effective/ineffective and whether member behavior supports or does not support organizational goals

Creating the right norms Select individuals who hold organizationally consistent standards. Training to reinforce the organizational values should be considered at the inception of teams and updates should occur during the course of a team's life. Close monitoring of the early development period of the group - the time when norms develop - to ensure the inception of organizationally responsible norms.