Chapter 10Managing Teams

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The Advantages of Teams

Teams improve…• Customer satisfaction• Product and service quality• Product development speed and efficiency• Employee job satisfaction

– Cross-training

• Decision making– Multiple perspectives– More alternate solutions– Commitment to decisions

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The Disadvantages of Teams

• Initially high turnover• Social loafing• Disadvantages of Group Decision

Making– Groupthink– Minority domination– Inefficient meetings– Lack of accountability

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When to Use and When Not to Use Teams

10-1© 2015 Cengage Learning

Autonomy

The degree to which workers have the discretion, freedom, and independence to decide how and when to accomplish their jobs.

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Team Autonomy Continuum

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Teams

• Traditional work groups– where two or more people work together to

achieve a shared goal. • Employee involvement teams

– which have somewhat more autonomy, meet on company time on a weekly or monthly basis to provide advice or make suggestions to management concerning specific issues, such as plant safety, customer relations, or product quality.

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Teams

• Semi-autonomous work groups – not only provide advice and suggestions to

management, but they also have the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks required to produce a product or service.

• Self-managing teams • are different from semi-autonomous work groups in

that team members manage and control all of the majors tasks directly related to production of a product or service without first getting approval from management.

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Teams

• Self-designing teams – have all the characteristics of self-managing

teams, but they can also control and change the design of the teams themselves, the tasks they do and how they do them, and who belongs to the teams.

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Special Kinds of Teams

• Cross-functional teams

• Virtual teams

• Project teams

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Cross-Functional Teams

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• Employees from different functional areas

• Attack problems from multiple perspectives

• Generate more ideas and alternative solutions

• Often used in conjunction with matrix and product organizational structures

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Tips for ManagingSuccessful Virtual Teams

Virtual Teams

• Select self-starters and strong communicators

• Keep the team focused on clear, specific goals

• Provide frequent feedback

• Keep team upbeat and action-oriented

• Periodically bring team members together

• Improve communications

• Ask team members for feedback on how well team is working

• Empower virtual teams

Project Teams

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• Created to complete specific, one-time projects within a limited time

• Often used to develop new products, improve existing products, roll out new information systems, or build new factories/offices

• Can reduce or eliminate communication barriers, and speed up the design process

• Promote flexibility

Work Team Characteristics

• Team norms

• Team cohesiveness

• Team size

• Team conflict

• Stages of team development© 2015 Cengage Learning 10-3

Team Norms

Informally agreed-on standards that regulate team behavior.

• Regulate the everyday actions that allow teams to function effectively

• Teams with negative norms influence team member to engage in negative behaviors

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Team CohesivenessThe extent to which team members are attracted

to a team and motivated to remain in it.

•Make sure that all team members are present at team activities.

•Create additional opportunities for teammates to work together.

•Engage in nonwork activities.

•Make employees feel they are part of a special organization.

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Team Size

• In very large teams, members find it difficult to get to know one another, and team can splinter into subgroups.

• Very small groups may lack diversity and knowledge found in large teams.

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Team Size

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Size

Per

form

ance

Team Conflict

• Cognitive conflict– members disagree because of different

experiences and expertise

• Affective conflict – results in hostility, anger, resentment,

distrust, cynicism, apathy

• Emphasizing c-type conflict is not enough

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Having a Good Fight

• Work with more, not less, information

• Develop multiple alternatives to enrich debate

• Establish common goals• Inject humor into the workplace• Maintain a balance of power• Resolve issues without forcing a

consensus© 2015 Cengage Learning 10-3

Stages of Team Development

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Stages of Team Development

• Forming– Getting acquainted, forming initial impressions, getting

a sense of what it will be like to be a team member.• Storming

– Conflict and disagreement arise, personalities clash, team members jockey for position and establish favorable roles.

• Norming– Members settle into their roles, team goals

established, differences resolved, friendship developed, members begin working together.

• Performing– Becomes an effective, functioning team. 23

Enhancing Work Team Effectiveness

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TeamTraining

TeamCompensation

SelectingTeam Members

SettingTeam Goals and

Priorities

Setting Team Goals and Priorities

• Increasing a team’s performance is inherently more complex than just increasing one person’s performance.

• Challenging team goals affect how hard team members work.

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Stretch Goals

Extremely ambitious goals that workers don’t know how to reach.

•Teams must have a high degree of autonomy•Teams must be empowered with control over resources•Structural accommodation•Bureaucratic immunity

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Selecting Team Members

• Individualists– put their own welfare and interests first

• Collectivists– put group interests ahead of self

• Team level– the average level of ability, experience,

personality, or any other factor on a team

• Team diversity– variances or differences in ability,

personality, or any other factor on a team

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Team Training

• Interpersonal skills

• Decision making skills

• Problem solving skills

• Conflict resolution skills

• Technical training© 2015 Cengage Learning 10-4

Team Compensation and Recognition

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• The level of reward must match the level of performance

• Three methods of compensating teamparticipants:

– skill-based pay– gainsharing– nonfinancial rewards

Team Compensation

• Skill-based pay– pay employees for learning additional

skills or knowledge

• Gainsharing – companies share the financial value of

performance gains with their workers

• Nonfinancial rewards– vacations, T-shirts, awards, certificates

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Team Compensation and Recognition

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According to one survey, only 37% of companies are satisfied with their team compensation plans.

Only 10% are extremely positive about their team compensation plans.

Evidence of the challenge presented by developing team-based compensation.