TEAM CONCEPTSAND

TEAM DEVELOPMENT

Why Have Teams Become So Popular• 80% of Fortune 500 companies have almost half or more of

their employees on teams.

• Teams typically outperform individuals when d tasks being done require multiple skills, judgement & experience.

• Teams use employee talents better.

• Teams are more flexible and responsive to changes in the environment than are traditional depts or groupings.

• Teams facilitate employee involvement in decisions.

• Teams are an effective way to increase employee motivation.

Group Vs. Team Work GroupA work group is a group that interacts(interacting & interdependent) primarily

to share information and to make decisions to help each group member perform within his or her area of responsibility to achieve certain objectives.

A work group:• supports the leader's goals and the leader-dominated approach to goal

attainment.• The group members are accountable to the leader individually rather than

shared accountability.• A work group have no need or opportunity to engage in collective work dat

requires joint effort.• So, a grp’s performance is merely the summation of each grp member’s

individual contribution. • Thus there is only a neutral & not a +ve synergy that would create an overall

level of performance that is greater than the sum of its inputs.

Concept of Team Vs Group?•Groups & teams are not the same thing.• "A team is a small group of people with complementary skills and

abilities who are committed to a common goal and approach for which they hold each other accountable."

• Teams identify and reach consensus on their common goal and approach, rather than looking to a leader to define the goal and approach.

• Most importantly, teams hold their members accountable.Work Team• A group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater

than the sum of the individual inputs.• Teams create +ve synergy through coordinated effort that increases

organizations performance. • Positive synergy means that teams have a high level of performance

that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs.

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Comparing Work Groups and Work Teams

Types of TeamsProblem-Solving Teams

Groups of 5 to 12 employees from the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss/suggest ways of improving quality, efficiency, and the work environment. Eg: A bank may create a problem solving team to specifically figure out ways to reduce the no. of days it takes to open a new account.

Self-Managed Work Teams

Groups of 10 to 15 people who perform highly related or interdependent jobs & take on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors like planning & scheduling of work, assigning tasks to members, making all operative decisions, taking action on problems, quality issues & working with suppliers, customers, etc.These teams set their own schedules, select their members, negotiate with suppliers, etc.

Types of Teams

•Task force-it is a temporary cross-functional team•Committees- a cross functional team used to coordinate complex projects like members from production, planning, design, quality, information systems, etc.to launch a new line of motorcycles at Harley Davidson.

Cross-Functional Teams

Employees from the same hierarchical level, but from different work departments, who come together, exchange information, develop new ideas & solve problems, co-ordinate complex projects, etc to accomplish a task.

Types of Teams

Team Characteristics(as different from face to face teams): 1. The absence of nonverbal cues like tone of voice, voice volume,

facial expressions, eye movements, hand gestures, etc since people collaborate online using communication links like WAN, Video conferencing or e-mail as they may be long distances away

2. A limited social rapport &less direct interaction among members.3. The ability to overcome time(separated by time zones) and space

(even if 1000’s of miles apart)constraints

Virtual Teams

Teams that use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal.

What is an effective team?Effective Teams• Effective teams have interdependent members• The productivity and efficiency of an entire unit is determined by the

coordinated, inter-active efforts of all its members• Effective teams help members be more efficient working together than

alone• Effective teams outperform even the best individuals performance• Effective teams function so well that they create their own magnetism• Team members desire to affiliate with a team because of the advantage

they receive from membership• Effective teams do not always have the same leader i.e. the leadership

responsibility rotates and is shared as team develop over time• In effective teams members care for and nurture one another• All are treated as an integral part of the team• Effective teams have members who cheer for and bolster the leader and

vice-versa• Mutual encouragement is given and received by each member

What is an effective team?

• Effective teams have high level of trust among members

• Members demonstrate integrity and are interested in other’s success as well as their own

How do we create effective teams?The answer lies in studying the team

effectiveness model

A Team-Effectiveness

Model

Team-Effectiveness ModelThe key components making up effective teams can be divided

into 4 categories:1. Context2. Team composition3. Work design4. Process

Creating Effective Teams

1. ContextFactors that determine the team effectiveness:• Adequate Resources: in terms of timely informatn, proper equipment, adequate

staffing, administrative assistance, etc within the budget, policies & practices set by the corporate office. A scarcity of resources directly reduces the team’s ability to perform its job effectively.

• Effective team Leadership and structure: Leader to direct all team members towards goal & he must ensure dat all members contribute equally in sharing d workload. Also team structure for functioning efficiency i.e. teams must determine how schedules wil be set, how they wil resolve conflicts, how they wil make decisions,etc.

• Climate of Trust: Belief/trust on each other & trust in their leaders, that is belief on the honesty and reliability on each other. This interpersonal trust facilitates co-operation & bonds members

• Performance Evaluation and Reward System: there must be an objective way of evaluating the achievements and results and giving appropriate credit to the team members. This makes them both individually & jointly accountable. So, along with evaluating & rewarding them for their individual contributions, mgt shd consider group-based appraisals, profit-sharing, grp incentives & other rewards dat wil reinforce team effort & commitment.

Creating Effective Teams

2. Team Composition • i.e. how teams shd be staffed• Abilities of members: in terms of KSA’s(Knowledge, Skill, Abilities) of its members-a good

team must have people with technical expertise, problem solving & decision making skills, conflict resolution, interpersonal skills, functional skills, etc. Also, matching team ability to the task is imp such as high ability teams(composed of intelligent members) shd b “saved” to tackle the tough prob.

• Personality of team members: Big Five Personality Traits are also relevant to team effectiveness.

• Allocation of roles: Distributing specific tasks to members. Successful teams hav ppl to fill up all the 9 roles based on their skills & preferences.

• Diversity of members: Dissimilar experience and hence multiple views, approaches and alternatives

• Size of teams: Manageable 5 to 7(under 10 is preferable), for mutual accountability, co-ordination , cohesiveness and minimising social loafing.

• Member Flexibility: The quality of being adaptable and reduced rigidity. They shd b able to complete each others tasks.

• Member Preference for teamwork: Consider individual preferences and select team members accordingly as “not every employee is a team player”.High performing teams r composed of ppl who prefer working as part of a group.

Big Five Traits (OCEAN)• Openness to experience - appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual & novel

ideas, creativity, curiosity, and variety of experience. Open ppl better communicate with one another & throw out more ideas.

• Conscientiousness - a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, good at “backing up” fellow team members and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behavior. This dimension is a measure of reliability.

• Extraversion – active energy, positive emotions, outgoing and the tendency to stimulate, motivate the struggling team members and one’s comfort level in company of others, social relationships.

• Agreeableness - a tendency to be compassionate, good natured and cooperative, avoid conflict rather than suspicious and antagonistic/acting in opposition towards others.

• Emotional stability- this dimension taps a person’s ability to withstand unpleasant emotions/stress easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, i.e. Ppl with +ve emotional stability r better at adapting & helping others to adapt and r calm, self-confident & secure.

Big Five Traits (OCEAN)When an unforseen change happens, teams comprised of conscientious,

emotionally stable & open members cope & adapt better. Also extroverted & agreeable teams respond –vely to indl competitive

rewards because such individualistic incentives tend to run counter to d social nature of extroverted & agreeable teams.

9 Key Roles of Teams

Creating Effective Teams

3. Work Design• Art and science of arranging the work so that teams work together & tke

collective responsibility to complete significant tasks.• Autonomy: Providing some level of autonomy or freedom to employees in

their job leads to enthusiasm and less stress• Skill Variety: designing jobs that require variety of diff activities so d

worker can use a no. of different skills & talents. Skill variety breaks the monotony and makes the job enjoyable

• Task Identity: Task identity helps the employee to understand their tasks better and understanding of work completion of an identifiable piece of work.

• Task Significance: Task significance helps the employee to become an ‘engaged employee’ i.e. he likes working on a task or project dat has a substantial impact on others

The above characteristics thus enhance member motivation as they increase member’s sense of responsibility, ownership over d work & increase team effectiveness.

Creating Effective Teams

4. Process• Set of essential activities dat go on in d team dat influences effectiveness:• Common Purpose: Understanding of the common team objective by

members dat provides direction,guidance, momentum & commitment for members.

• Specific team Goals: The clarity of the goal and SMART goals(Specific, Measurable,Attainable,Realistic/Relevant,Time bound) energize team.

• Team Efficacy: Collective belief on team’s capability for achieving success, self confidence to deliver results. Eg: teams dat hav been successful in d past raise their beliefs about future successes, which inturn motivates them to work harder.

• Appropriate Conflict Levels: Need for an optimum level of conflict dat can actually improve team effectiveness by stimulating discussion on critical assessment of prob & can eventually lead to better team decisions.

• Minimizing Social Loafing: Tendency for individuals to spend less efforts when working collectively than working individually as in team tasks each member’s contribution is not clearly visible/identifiable. Thus, wen using teams, mgrs must take care dat social loafing doesn’t tke place as it illustrates a “process loss” & represents –ve synergy wheras +ve synergy indicates process gains. S.L. can b minimised by holding members accountable at both individual level & grp level.