1. Chapter 9 Organizational Behavior: Foundations, Realities, & Challenges Nelson & Quick, 5th edition
Work Teams and Groups

2. Groups and Teams
Group – two or more people with common interests, objectives, and continuing interaction
Work Team – a group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common mission, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable 2

3. Characteristics of a Well-Functioning, Effective Group
Relaxed, comfortable, informal atmosphere
Task well understood and accepted
Members listen well and participate
People express feeling and ideas 3

4. Characteristics of a Well-Functioning, Effective Group
Conflict and disagreement center around ideas or methods
Group aware of its operation and function
Consensus decision making
Clear assignments made and accepted 3

5. Group Behavior
Norms of Behavior – the standards that a work group uses to evaluate the behavior of its members
Group Cohesion – the “interpersonal glue” that makes members of a group stick together 4

6. Group Behavior
Social Loafing – the failure of a group member to contribute personal time, effort, thoughts, or other resources to the group
Loss of Individuality – a social process in which individual group members lose self-awareness and its accompanying sense of accountability, inhibition, and responsibility for individual behavior 4

7. 3 Issues Addressed by Groups
Interpersonal issues (Matters of trust, personal comfort, and security)
Task issues (Mission or purpose, methods, expected outcomes)
Authority issues (Leadership, managing power and influence, communication flow)

8. Group Formation
Formal Groups – official or assigned groups gathered to perform various tasks
need ethnic, gender, cultural, and interpersonal diversity
need professional and geographical diversity
Informal Groups – unofficial or emergent groups that evolve in the work setting to gratify a variety of member needs not met by formal groups 5

9. Tuckman’s Five-Stage Model of Group Development
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning
Little agreement
Unclear purpose
Guidance and direction
Conflict increased clarity of purpose
Power struggles
Coaching
Agreement and consensus
Clear roles and responsibili-ties
Facilitation
Clear vision and purpose
Focus on goal achievement
Delegation
Task completion
Good feeling about achievements
Recognition
Copyright ©2006 by South-Western, a division of Thomson Learning. All rights reserved

10. Punctuated Equilibrium Model
– Groups do not progress linearly
– Alternate between periods of inertia and bursts of energy

11. Leadership/Teams
Often the first step toward leadership is when the manager begins to see his/her role as more of a coach then a boss.
This is done by helping the employee to achieve their potential, rather than simply telling them what to do.

12. Leadership/Teams
Logically, if we view ourselves as coaches, we should begin to view our subordinates as a team.
This involves a fundamentally different approach to the workplace.

13. Why Teams?
Good when performing complicated, complex, interrelated and/or more voluminous work than one person can handle
Good when knowledge, talent, skills, and abilities are dispersed across organizational members
Empowerment and collaboration; not power and competition
Basis for total quality efforts 12

14. Teams Plus Minus Equals Steiner, 1972 Process Gains Potential Group
Effectiveness
Process
Gains
Plus
Process
Losses
Actual
Group
Effectiveness
Minus
Equals
Steiner, 1972

15. Teams Factors affecting group performance: Members External influences
Roles
Norms
Status
Group size
Social loafing
Group shift

16. Ambiguous responsibility
Teams
Group decision making
Positives:
More info
More diversity
Higher quality
Acceptance
of outcome
Negatives:
Time
Conformance pressure
Dominance by
strong minority
Ambiguous responsibility

17. Teams What is a work team? The goal of a work team
is to function as a single entity with
the express purpose of achieving
the goals of the overall organization.

18. The challenge is that teams don't just happen:
They require a great deal of hard work
They require substantial training
They require proper direction
They require feedback on performance
They require proper rewards

19. Teamwork
Teamwork – joint action by a team of people in which individual interests are subordinated to team unity

20. New vs. Old Team Environments
New Team Environment
Old Work Environment
Person generates initiatives
Person follows orders
Team charts its own steps
Manager charts course
Right to think for oneself. People rock boat; work together
People conformed to manager’s direction. No one rocked the boat.
People cooperate using thoughts and feelings; direct talk
People cooperated by suppressing thoughts and feelings; wanted to get along
SOURCE: Managing in the New Team Environment, by Hirschhorn, © Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc.,Upper Saddle River, N. J.

21. Diversity in Teams Diversity
Focuses on effects of dissimilarity within the team
May have positive or negative effects
Value dissimilarity
Positively relates to task and relationship conflict
Negatively related to team involvement

22. Diversity in Teams Diversity Demographic dissimilarity influences
Absenteeism
Commitment
Turnover intentions
Beliefs
Workgroup relationships
Self-esteem
Organizational citizenship behavior

23. Creativity in Teams Creativity
Focuses on new and/or dissimilar ideas or ways of doing things in teams
Can team creativity be enhanced by greater team diversity? Can social loafing, conformity, and downward norm setting be overcome?

24. ? Self-Managed Teams Self-Managed Teams Self-Directed Teams
Autonomous Work Groups – teams that make decisions that were once reserved for managers
How does an organization capitalize on the advantages and avoid the risks of self managed teams? ? 21