Industrial and Organizational PsychologyWork Groups and Work Teams

Copyright Paul E. Spector, All rights reserved, March 15, 2005

Working Together

• Most people do not work in isolation but work with other employees with whom they interact

• Work Group: Collection of people who interact and share common or interrelated task goals.

• Work Team: Work group with– Common task goals and objectives– Coordinated effort– Specified roles

•  Work group members may or may not work on the same tasks.– Sales groups may work completely independently, each person

with his or her own territory.

• Work team members work together to accomplish the common tasks.

Group/Team Concepts

• Roles: Specialization of function within positions– Formal: position title and description define with job analysis

– Informal: Emergent behavior in group

•  Status– Power & influence, prestige, respect

– Partially inherent in role

• Norms– Expected & accepted behavioral standards

– Productivity norms

– Dress norms

Group/Team Concepts 2

• Group Cohesiveness: Attraction of group members toward staying in group

– High cohesive groups– Lower turnover– Stronger adherence to norms (homogenizer of behavior)– Greater satisfaction– Greater group influence

• Team Commitment– Strength of an individual’s involvement in team and acceptance of team

goals

• Team Mental Model– Shared understanding of task by team members

• Process Loss– Effort/time spent by team members on non-task activities

Group Performance

• Individual tasks in work groups: co-acting effects– Social facilitation

• Competition and arousal (audience)

– Social inhibition• Distraction

• Group processes

• Arousal

• Group tasks: interdependence of group effort– Assembly line: Performance = f(poorest individual)

– Additive: Performance = f(sum of individuals)

How Does Group Compare To Individuals?

• Social Loafing– Identifiability reduces social loafing

• Brainstorming (creative task)– Group inhibits individual performance

Additive task (Kravitz and Martin, 1986) rope pull

Number of people Predicted force of pull Actual force of pull

1 1 12 2 1.864 4 3.088 8 3.92

 

Group Diversity

• Differences among people in a group– Cognitive diversity

• Knowledge, skill and values

– Demographic diversity• Age, ethnicity, gender, nationality

• Effects on– Job performance– Job satisfaction– Organizational commitment

• Positive effects when tasks require cooperation• Negative effects when tasks don’t require cooperation

Group Interventions• How should we work with groups?

– to increase productivity– to increase satisfaction– to make work more meaningful

•  • Increase cohesiveness

– Encourage formation of work groups– Allow socialization, on & off the job– Assign group tasks– Give group rewards– Allow employees to select coworkers

•  • Make group and organizational goals compatible

– Group rewards– Profit sharing– Participation

Autonomous Work Teams

• In factory setting self‑managed work team has broad control– Makes entire product – Job rotation frequent and controlled by group– Groups can design, develop and purchase own tools– No quality inspectors (done by group)– Few direct supervisors– Supervisors as coaches– Participative

• Effectiveness– Performance similar to traditional factory– Greater job satisfaction– Needs fewer managers/supervisors

Team Building

• Planned activities designed to improve team functioning– Better communication

– Better task performance

– Less conflict

• Three characteristics– Planned

– Conducted by a facilitator or consultant

– Existing work team

• Effects inconsistent– Sometimes positive and sometimes no effects