1. Commerce 2BA3 Organizational Behaviour
Class 5
Groups and Teamwork
Dr. Christa Wilkin

2. Brain Teasers
LANG4UAGE
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3. Last Class Content and process theories of motivation
Money and job design as a motivator
THIS CLASS
Groups and teamwork

4. Agenda Team development Team structure Team decision-making
Types of teams
Ultimate Student Chair task

5. CH 7: groups and teamwork

6. Question What is your best/worst team experience?
Describe the behaviours of team members/ team as a whole and what made it so good/bad?

7. Teams vs. Groups Teams are generally distinguished from groups by:
Team goals: groups don’t need to have goals
Shared leadership
Shared accountability
Self-developed mission
Continuous problem-solving
Formal vs. Informal
Established by organizations vs. emerging naturally
E.g., work on project vs. play on softball team

8. Typical Stages of Team Development
Teams develop through a series of stages over time
Each stage presents the members with a series of challenges they must master in order to achieve the next stage
Not all teams go through these stages

9. Individual Task: Put the Stages in Order
Storming: Conflict often emerges; sorting out roles and responsibilities is often at issue
Adjourning: Group disperses after achieving goals
Forming: What are we doing here?, what are others like?, what is our purpose?
Performing: The group devotes its energies toward task accomplishment
Norming: Norms are agreed on and the group becomes more cohesive

10. Punctuated Equilibrium Model
How teams with deadlines are affected by first meetings and crucial midpoint transitions
Phase 1: first meeting to midpoint of existence, little progress is made
Midpoint Transition: need to move forward is apparent
Phase 2: decisions and approaches are played out

11. Comparing Both Models

12. Team Structure What is the ultimate team size? Additive Task
Team performance is dependent on the sum of the performance of individual members
Disjunctive Task
Team performance is dependent on the performance of the best member
Conjunctive Task
Team performance is limited by the performance of the poorest member

13. Team Size As groups become larger, they suffer process losses
Performance difficulties that result from the problems of motivating and coordinating larger groups

14. Diversity in Teams
Diverse teams might take longer to do their forming, storming and norming
Diverse teams sometimes perform better when the task requires cognitive, creativity-demanding tasks and problem solving rather than routine work

15. Question
When will teams perform better than individuals?

16. Teams vs. Individuals Group members differ in skills and abilities
Some division of labour can occur

17. Quiz Question
One reason for members reporting less satisfaction in larger groups is
A) individual members can identify less easily with the success of the group.
B) opportunities for participation increase in larger groups.
C) people are less inhibited about participating in larger groups.
D) conflict and dissension are less likely in larger groups.
E) they have more time to develop friendships with other group members.

18. Team Norms Acceptable standards of behaviour within a team
Agreed upon by members
Relate to
Performance
e.g., how hard to work
Appearance
Social interaction
Allocation of resources
e.g., assignments

19. Team Roles
Positions in a group that have a set of expected behaviours attached to them
Role ambiguity
Lack of clarity of job goals or methods
Role Conflict
Exists when faced with incompatible role expectations
Something unethical, demands in other roles at home
Both can result in job disatisfaction, stress reactions, lower commitment, and turnover

20. Team Cohesiveness
The degree to which a group is especially attractive to its members.
Increase cohesiveness:
Threat: External threat to the survival of a group
Success: Groups become more cohesive when they successfully accomplish an important goal
Size: Larger groups have a more difficult time becoming and staying cohesive
Toughness of initiation: Groups that are tough to get into tend to be more attractive than those easy to join

21. Team Cohesiveness Consequences of Cohesiveness
More participation in group activities
More conformity
More success
In more cohesive groups, individual performance is similar

22. Question
What is social loafing?

23. Social Loafing
Members exert less effort when working in teams than working alone
Factors that affect:
Team size (+)
Team produces single output (e.g., report) (+)
Interestingness of the task (-)
Importance of objective (-)
Value team membership and objectives (-)

24. How to Manage Social Loafing
Discuss expectations
Make individual performance more visible
Specialize tasks
Feeling that inputs are necessary for team success
Increase performance feedback
Might not be aware of poor performance
Make tasks more interesting and important
Divide tasks based on expertise and preference
Punishment warnings in advance (deter)

25. Question
Why would you want to use groups to make decisions rather than individuals?

26. Group Decision Making
Groups or teams can make higher-quality decisions than individuals
Generate more ideas and evaluate them better
Increases decision acceptance and commitment

27. Disadvantages
Time
Conflict
Domination
Groupthink

28. Groupthink (Teamthink)
The capacity for group pressure to damage the mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment of decision making groups
Develops because of too much cohesiveness, concern for approval and isolation of the group
E.g., video of Asch experiment

29. Video Clip
Challenger Disaster

30. Question
Take a moment to think about three concepts from the lecture that you can apply to your groups

31. Types of Teams Process-improvement teams Self-managed teams
e.g., Team to improve efficiency of manufacturing a product
Self-managed teams
e.g., Teams in class
Cross-functional
e.g., Team with people from HR, marketing, accounting
Virtual Teams
e.g., Team that spans the globe

32. Ultimate Student Chair
Team Simulation Exercise
Simulating a virtual, cross-functional team with a very big challenge
Form teams of 5 people
Representing two separate offices of a full-service consulting company

33. Ultimate Student Chair
Client briefing details on handout
20 minutes to prepare
Each team will have half of its members located on one side of the room and can only communicate with them via .
Five minutes (max) to present your ideas
One or two people per team will present to class

34. Ultimate Student Chair
How was the coordination among team members?
and across offices, specifically?
How did you make decisions?
What did you do well / not so well?

35. Questions?

36. Summary Team progress will depend on which stage team is in
Teams are not necessarily more effective than individuals
Require management: Establish norms (expectations), divide up labour/assign roles, build cohesiveness, manage social loafing
Hopefully Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM)

37. For Next Class
Read chapter 8 on influence, socialization, and culture, and chapter 9 on leadership