what are teams and how are they used in organizations? when is a team effective? what are the stages...

Chapter 7Teams in Organizations

Synergy is the goal

Chapter 7 Study Questions

What are teams and how are they used

in organizations?

When is a team effective?

What are the stages of team

development?

How can we understand teams at work?

7-2Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Why are teams important in organizations?

Team

Group of people brought together to use

complementary skills to achieve a common

purpose for which they are collectively

accountable.



Teamwork

Occurs when team

members accept and live

up to their collective

accountability by actively

working together so that

all their respective skills

are best used to achieve

team goals.



What Teams Do

Teams that recommend things

Established to study specific problems and

recommend solutions to them.

Teams that run things

Have formal responsibility for leading organizations

and their component parts.

Teams that make or do things

Work units that perform ongoing tasks.


Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.7-6


Formal teams

› Created and officially designated to

serve a specific organizational

purposes.

› May be permanent or temporary and

vary in size and composition.



Informal groups

› Emerge and coexist as a shadow to the

formal structure and without

any assigned purpose or

endorsement.

› Types of informal groups

Friendship groups

Interest groups


Social network analysis – identifies

the informal groups and networks of

relationships that are active in an

organization.




Cross-Functional and Problem-Solving Teams

› Cross-functional teams or task forces

Members brought together from different functional departments or

work units to achieve horizontal integration and better lateral

relations.

› Problem-solving teams

Created temporarily to serve a specific purpose by dealing with a

specific problem or opportunity.

› Employee involvement team

Meet regularly to collectively examine important workplace issues

Quality circles meet periodically to discuss and make proposals for

ways to improve quality.


Functional silos problem

Occurs when members of functional units

stay focused on matters internal to their

function and minimize their interactions

with members dealing with other

functions.



Employee involvement team

Teams whose members meet regularly to

collectively examine important workplace

issues.

Quality circle - small team that meets

periodically to discuss and develop solutions

relating to quality and productivity.



Self-managing teams

Teams are empowered to make the

decisions needed to manage themselves

on a day-to-day basis.

Duties often replace those that were

traditionally performed by the manager.


Figure 7.2 Organizational and Management Implications of Self-Managing Teams



Multiskilling

Team members are expected to perform

many different jobs – even all the of the

team’s jobs – as needed.



Advantages of self-managing teams

Productivity and quality improvements.

Production flexibility and faster response to

technological change.

Reduced absenteeism and turnover.

Improved work attitudes and quality of

work life.



Disadvantages of self-managing

teams

May be hard for some team members to

adjust to the “self-managing”

responsibilities.

Higher-level managers may have problems

dealing with the loss of the first-line

supervisors. 7-16Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Virtual Team Members convene and work

together through computer

mediation rather than

interacting face-to-face .

Can accomplish same tasks

as face-to-face teams, but are

free from geographic barriers.



Advantages of virtual teams

Brings together individuals who may be

located at great differences from one another.

Offers obvious cost and time efficiencies.

Focuses task accomplishment and decision

making by reducing the emotional

considerations that may surface in face-to-

face meetings.



Disadvantages of virtual teams

Members of virtual teams can have

difficulties establishing good working

relationships.

The lack of face-to- face interactions limits

the role of emotions and non verbal cues in

the communication process.




Effective Team

› One that achieves high levels of task

performance, member satisfaction,

and team viability.



Effective teams achieve high levels of:

› Task performance

Members attain performance goals regarding quantity,

quality, and timeliness of work results.

› Members satisfaction

Members believe that their participation and experiences are

positive and meet important personal needs.

› Team viability

Members are sufficiently satisfied to continue working

together on an ongoing basis.



Synergy

› The creation of a whole that is greater

than the sum of its parts.

› Individual can accomplish more

through teamwork than by working

alone.



Why teams are good for organizations

› Teams are beneficial as settings where people learn from one

another and share job skills and knowledge.

› The learning environment and the pool of experience within a

team can be used to solve difficult and unique problems.

› Opportunities for social interaction within a team can provide

individuals with a sense of security through work assistance

and technical advice.

› Team members provide emotional support for one another in

times of special crisis or pressure.

› Many contributions individuals make to teams can help

members experience self-esteem and personal involvement.


Common team challenges

Social loafing

Personality conflicts

Uncertainty over tasks or competing goals

Poorly defined agendas

Lack of motivation

Perceptions that team lacks purpose




Social loafing

› The tendency of people to work less

hard in a group than they would

individually.

› Reasons for social loafing

Individual contributions are less noticeable in

the group context.

Some prefer to see others carry the

workload.



Prevent social loafing

› Keep group size small.

› Redefine roles to make free riders more visible

and peer pressures to perform more likely.

› Increase accountability by making individuals

performance expectations clear and specific.

› Make rewards directly contingent on an

individual’s performance contributions.



Social facilitation theory

› Tendency for one’s behavior to be

influenced by the presence of others in

a group or social setting.

Positive result is extra effort when individual

is proficient with the task at hand.

Negative result when the task is unfamiliar or

a person lacks the necessary skills.


Figure 7.3:Five Stages of Team Development


What are the stages of team development?

Forming stage

› Initial entry of members to a team.

› Member challenges

Getting to know each other

Discovering what is considered acceptable

behavior

Determining the group’s real task

Defining group rules


What are the stages of group development?

Storming stage

› A period of high emotionality and

tension among group members.


Hostility and infighting

Formation of coalitions and cliques

Clarification of members’ expectations



Norming stage

› The point at which the members really begin

to come together as a coordinated unit.


Holding team together may over supersede task

accomplishment.

Sense of cohesiveness may discourage minority

views.

Can result in false sense of team maturity.



Performing stage

› Marks the emergence of a mature,

organized, and well-functioning team

motivated by group goals.


Continuing efforts to improve relationships

and performance.


Figure 7.4Team Maturity Criteria



Adjourning stage

› A well-integrated team is able to

Disband when its work is finished.

Work together in the future.

› Particularly important for temporary

teams.


The quality of inputs determine the

eventual team effectiveness (TE).

TE =Quality of Inputs + (Process gains – Process

losses)


Open Systems Model of Team Effectiveness




Team effectiveness is affected

by the nature of the task

Different tasks place different

demands on teams.

Well defined tasks contribute

to effectiveness.

Team effectiveness is harder to

achieve with complex tasks.

interaction. Success at complex tasks is a

source of high satisfaction for

team.



Nature of task affects outcome

Technical demands of a task

The degree to which a task is routine or not, the level

of difficulty involved, and the information

requirements.

Social demands of a task

Involve the degree to which the issues of

interpersonal relationships, ego, controversies, over

ends and means, and the like that come into play.



Team size

› Can have an impact on a team’s

effectiveness.

› As team size increases, performance and

member satisfaction increase up to a

point.

Team composition

The mix of abilities, skills, personalities, and

experiences that the members bring to the

team.



Team composition

› The mix of abilities, skills,

personalities, and experiences that

the members bring to the team.



FIRO-B Theory (“fundamental interpersonal

orientation”)

› Identifies differences in how people

relate to one another in groups.

› Individual difference determine needs

to express and receive feelings of

inclusion, control, and affection.


Status

A person’s relative rank, prestige or social

standing.

Status congruence

Occurs when a person’s position within the

team is equivalent in status to positions

the individual holds outside of it.



Diversity and Team Performance Team diversity – consists of different values,

personalities, experiences, demographics, and cultures

among members.

In homogeneous teams, members are very similar to

one another.

In heterogeneous teams, members are very dissimilar,

teamwork problems are more likely.




Diversity-Consensus Dilemma

The tendency for diversity to make it harder

for team members to work together, even

though the diversity itself expands the skills

and perspectives available for problem

solving.

Collective Intelligence

The ability of a group or team to perform well

across a range of tasks.

Figure 7.6: Member Diversity, Stages of Team Development, and Team Performance




Group or team dynamics

› Forces operating in teams that affect

the way members relate to and work

with one another.

what are teams and how are they used in organizations? when is a team effective? what are the stages...

Documents