Understanding Work Teams

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 an organization and increase motivation.

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.

Comparing Work Groups and Work Teams

A team is a group which shares, and says it shares, a common purpose and recognises that it needs the efforts of every one of its members to achieve this.

A team is a team when it sees itself as a team, is going in the team direction, and has worked out its own team ways.

Why Teams?

“Given an impossible task team members will reinforce each other’s confidence as they seek to turn the impossibility into reality.

The collective ability to innovate is stronger than that of the individual because the combined brainpower of a team, however small in number, exceeds that of any one person.

Why Teams?

None of us is as smart as all of us

Why Teams?

Research shows that 70% of air disasters are caused by failures in

team working rather than by individual or mechanical

breakdown.

Why Teams?

identifying and solving work-related problems

increasing product quality speeding up innovations

improving performance

Teams are an effective way of: -

achieving better industrial relations increasing employee participation.

Teams - two functions

Task function

Maintenance function

achievement of goals, specific tasks, “production” activities, problem solving, exchange of ideas or information, innovation

support, assistance, protection, building of relationships, encouragement, stimulus, reinforcement of beliefs, views etc.

2 Dimensions of Team Effectiveness

outputs efficiency targets met

personal success personal

satisfaction sense of belonging

Task accomplishment Satisfaction of team members

Critical Aspects of Team Management

Achieve the Task

Maintain the Team

Develop the Individual

TASK

GROUP

INDIVIDUAL

Alignment of values, mission and process

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 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 the work.

•Task forces

•Committees

Cross-Functional Teams

Employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task.

Characteristics of Virtual Teams

1. The absence of paraverbal and nonverbal cues

2. A limited social context

3. The ability to overcome time and space constraints

Characteristics of Virtual Teams

1. The absence of paraverbal and nonverbal cues

2. A limited social context

3. The ability to overcome time and space constraints

Virtual Teams

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

A Team-Effectiveness Model

Key Roles of Teams

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.

You have a team You have a team for the case studies & presentation, list five members .

Chapter Check-Up: Teams

Now that you have your list, consider what the composition of your team would look like. How much diversity would there be? Given what we learned in this chapter, what would the pros and cons of your

composition be?