1. Understanding Work Teams
Chapter 9
Understanding Work Teams

2. 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 and organization and increase motivation.

3. As a team leader put it in Fortune magazine:
“A team is like having a baby tiger given to you at Christmas. It does a wonderful job of keeping the mice away for about 12 months, and then it starts to eat your kids” (Ferguson, 1999)

4. 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.

5. 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 their former supervisors.

6. Self-Managing Teams
Percentage of Companies Saying Their Self-Managing Teams Perform These Traditional Management Functions by Themselves
(Krietner & Kinicki, 2001).
Schedule work assignments 67% Work with outside customers Conduct training Set production goals/quotas Work with suppliers/vendors Purchase equipment/services Develop budgets Do performance appraisals Hire co-workers Fire co-workers

7. Types of Teams (cont’d)
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

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

9. Creating Effective Teams: Diversity
Group Demography
The degree to which members of a group share a common demographic attribute, such as age, sex, race, educational level, or length of service in the organization, and the impact of this attribute on turnover.
Cohorts
Individuals who, as part of a group, hold a common attribute.

10. 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.

11. Teams and Quality Management
Team Effectiveness and Quality Management Requires That Teams:
Are small enough to be efficient and effective.
Are properly trained in required skills.
Allocated enough time to work on problems.
Are given authority to resolve problems and take corrective action.
Have a designated “champion” to call on when needed.

12. Beware: Teams Aren’t Always the Answer
Three tests to see if a team fits the situation:
Is the work complex and is there a need for different perspectives?
Does the work create a common purpose or set of goals for the group that is larger than the aggregate of the goals for individuals?
Are members of the group involved in interdependent tasks?

13. Dysfunctional Teams (Parker, 2006)
You cannot easily describe the team’s mission
The meetings are formal, stuffy, or tense
There is much participation but little accomplishment
There is talk but not much communication
Disagreements are aired in private after the meeting
Decisions are made by the formal leader with little meaningful involvement by others

14. Dysfunctional Teams (Parker, 2006)
Members are not open with each other because trust is low
There is confusion or disagreement about roles or work assignments
People in other parts of the organisation who are critical to the team’s success are uncooperative
The team is overloaded with people who have the same team-player style
The team has been in existence for at least 3 months and has never assessed its functioning

15. Building great teams (out of terrible teams) at Continental Airlines (Bethune, 1998)
Bad teams don’t play together
Good teams win together
Running plays the team believes in: buy-in
Everything is relative – even winning
If the coach wins, the team wins
You gotta be a leader
The psychology of horses and the psychology of humans

16. Leadership – a key factor for team success
Group dynamics are partly a product of leader style
Empowerment is a key issue in leadership (eg. self-managed teams)
Leaders need:
“people skills” – versatility, pyramid learning, feedback
“character skills” – charisma,
integrity, altruism
“action skills” – decision-making,
initiating activities
“thinking skills” – problem-solving,
fostering linkages, assisting in
evolution and change

17. Creating and maintaining effective team processes (Schein, 2006)
In particular, choose the group decision-making method carefully. Options include:
Decision by lack of response (“plop”)
Decision by formal authority
Decision by self-authorisation or minority
Decision by majority rule
Decision by consensus
Decision by unanimous consent

18. Teams - Conclusions
Sometimes individuals are preferable to teams, but teams are preferable when the combined expertise and skill of a team is greater than that of an individual.
Nonetheless, teams are subject to problems such as social loafing, process losses, and do not work well where systems and culture are not aligned with the team environment.