Lecture 5 (Chapter 9 & 10 Teams) - Student

Chapter 9 & 10

Groups/Teams

Learning objectives

• Compare and contrast teams (vs. group) and between different types of teams in organizations

• Groups versus teams

• Self-directed work teams, virtual teams

• Team decision making

• Strengths, weaknesses, techniques

• Team effectiveness model

• Team processes: development, norms, roles, cohesiveness

• Limitations of teams

Riki Takeuchi, Fall 2015

What are teams?

• Groups of two or more people

• Exist to fulfill a purpose

• Interdependent -- interact and influence each

other

• Mutually accountable for achieving common

goals

• Perceive themselves as a social entity


Groups versus teams

• All teams are groups (but not all groups are teams)

• Some groups are just people assembled together

• Teams have task interdependence whereas some groups do not

(e.g., group of employees enjoying lunch together)


Informal Groups

• Groups that exist primarily for the benefit of their members

• Reasons why informal groups exist:

1. Innate drive to bond

2. Social identity -- we define ourselves by group memberships

3. Goal accomplishment

4. Emotional support


Types of teams in organizations

• Departmental teams

• Production, service, and leadership teams

• Self-directed work teams

• Advisory teams

• Task force (project) teams

• Virtual teams

• Cross-functional teams


Self-directed work team (SDWT)

• Formal groups that complete an entire piece of work requiring

several interdependent tasks and have substantial autonomy

over the execution of these tasks

• Challenges

• Management resistance

• Cross-cultural issues


Virtual teams

• Teams whose members operate across space, time, and

organizational boundaries and are linked through information

technologies to achieve organizational tasks

• Why virtual teams

• Increasingly possible: information technologies,

knowledge-based work

• Increasingly necessary: knowledge management,

globalization


Team decision making constraints

• Time constraints

• Time to organize/coordinate

• Production blocking

• Evaluation apprehension

• Belief that other team members are silently evaluating you

• Conformity to peer pressure

• Suppressing opinions that oppose team norms

• Groupthink


Groupthink

• Tendency in highly cohesive teams to value consensus at the price of decision quality

• More common when the team…

• Is highly cohesive

• Is isolated from outsiders

• Team leader is opinionated

• Faces external threat

• Has recent failures

• Team lacks clear guidance


Improving team decision making

• Team norms should encourage critical thinking

• Sufficient team diversity

• Ensure neither leader nor any member dominates

• Maintain optimal team size

• Introduce effective team structures: constructive conflict, brainstorming, nominal group technique


Constructive conflict

• Team members debate their different perceptions about an issue in a way that keeps the conflict focused on the task rather than people

• Problem: constructive conflict easily slides into personal attacks


Brainstorming

• Rules

• Speak freely

• Don’t criticize

• Provide as many ideas as possible

• Build on others’ ideas

• Encourage divergent thinking while minimizing evaluation apprehension and other team dynamics problems


Strengths of brainstorming

• Produces more innovative ideas

• Strengthens decision acceptance and team

cohesiveness

• Sharing positive emotions encourages creativity

• Higher customer satisfaction if clients

participate


Electronic brainstorming

• Participants share ideas using software

• Usually in the same room, but may be dispersed

• Question posted, then participants submit their ideas or comments on computer

• Comments/ideas appear anonymously on computer screens or at front of room


Nominal group technique

• Variation of traditional brainstorming


Describe problem

Individual Activity

Team Activity

Individual Activity

Write down possible solutions

Possible solutions described to others

Vote on solutions presented

Team effectiveness model


•Task characteristics

•Team size

•Team composition

Team Design

• Achieve organizational goals

• Satisfy member needs

• Maintain team survival

Team Effectiveness

•Team development

•Team norms

•Team roles

•Team cohesiveness

Team Processes

Organizational and Team Environment

• Reward systems

• Communication systems

• Physical space

• Organizational environment

• Organizational structure

• Organizational leadership

Task characteristics

• Better when tasks are clear, easy to implement

• Higher task interdependence increases need for

teams

• Share common inputs to their individual tasks

• Interact in the processes of executing their work

• Receive outcomes (such as rewards) that are partly

determined by the performance of others


Team size

• Smaller teams are better

• Need less time to coordinate roles and resolve differences

• Require less time to develop

• More member involvement, thus higher commitment

• But large enough to accomplish task


Team composition

• Motivation

• To perform task

• To work cooperatively the team

• Competencies

• Skills and knowledge to perform the task

• Ability to work effectively with each other

• Team diversity: homogeneous versus heterogeneous teams


Team diversity

• Less conflict

• Faster team

development

• Performs better on

cooperative tasks

• Better coordination

• High satisfaction of

team members


More conflict

Longer team development

Performs better on complex problems

More creative

Better representation outside the team

Homogeneous Teams Heterogeneous Teams

Team effectiveness model


•Task characteristics

•Team size

•Team composition

Team Design

• Achieve organizational goals

• Satisfy member needs

• Maintain team survival

Team Effectiveness

•Team development

•Team norms

•Team roles

•Team cohesiveness

Team Processes

Organizational and Team Environment • Reward systems

• Communication systems

• Physical space

• Organizational environment

• Organizational structure

• Organizational leadership

Stages of team development


Existing teams might

regress back to an

earlier stage of

development

Forming

Storming

Norming

Performing

Adjourning

An Alternative Model: Temporary Groups

with Deadlines


Sequence of actions:

1. Setting group direction

2. First phase of inertia

3. Half-way point transition

4. Major changes

5. Second phase of inertia

6. Accelerated activity

Punctuated-Equilibrium Model

Temporary groups go through transitions between inertia and activity.

The Punctuated-Equilibrium Model

R. Takeuchi, Fall 2013 Riki Takeuchi, Fall 2015

Team norms

• Informal rules and expectations team establishes to regulate member behaviors

• Norms develop through

• Initial team experiences

• Critical events in team’s history

• Experience/values members bring to the team


Changing team norms

• Introduce norms when forming teams

• Select members with preferred norms

• Discuss counter-productive norms

• Reward behaviors representing desired norms

• Disband teams with dysfunctional norms


Team cohesiveness

• The degree of attraction people feel toward

the team and their motivation to remain

members

• Calculative: members believe the team will

fulfill goals and needs

• Emotional: team is part of person’s social

identity


Influences on team cohesiveness


Increasing Team

Cohesiveness

Member Similarity

Team Size

Member Interaction

Somewhat Difficult Entry

Team Success

External Challenges

Truth or Lie Team Exercise?

• Think and Write Down TWO True Things and ONE Lie about yourself (in secret – do not reveal them to other team members)

• 15 minutes casual conversation with your team members and try to find out these information

• Gather with your team and each team member state their three things (without revealing which one is true or lie)

• The rest of the team members vote which statement is true and which one is a lie – write it down

• for each correct guess, you receive one point


Cohesiveness and performance

• Relationship between

team cohesiveness

and task performance

depends on the extent

that team norms are

consistent with

organizational goals


Group cohesiveness

Productivity

Why rely on teams?

• Compared with individuals working alone,

teams tend to

• Make better decisions

• Make better products and services due to

more knowledge and expertise

• Increase employee engagement


Troubles with teams

• Individuals better/ faster on some tasks

• Process losses: cost of developing and

maintaining teams

• Companies don’t support best work

environment for team dynamics

• Social loafing


How to minimize social loafing

• Make individual performance more visible

• Form smaller teams

• Specialize tasks

• Measure individual performance

• Increase employee motivation

• Increase job enrichment

• Select motivated employees


Teams aren’t always the answer

• Whether use of team fits the situation…

• Is the work complex and is there a need for different

perspectives?

• Does the work create a common purpose or set of

goals for the group that is larger than the aggregate of

the goals for individuals?

• Are members of the group involved in interdependent

tasks?


Documents

Lecture 5 (Chapter 9 & 10 Teams) - Student