CHAPTER 8

TEAM DYNAMICS

 OUTLINE 

I.                    TYPES OF TEAMS AND OTHER GROUPS IN ORGANIZATIONS

A.      Self-directed work teams

1.       Fairly autonomous, so there is less need for direct supervision.

2.       Cross-functional.

3.       Rely on people with diverse and complementary skills, knowledge, and experience.

B.      Quality circles

1.       Small teams who meet for a few hours each week to identify quality and productivity problems propose solutions to management, and monitor the implementation and consequences of these solutions.

2.       Usually permanent, and typically include coworkers in the same work unit.

 C.      Task forces 

1.       Temporary teams

2.       Investigate a particular problem and disband when the decision is made.

D.      Skunkworks

1.       Usually temporary teams.

2.       Formed to develop products or solve complex problems.

3.       Some are isolated from the rest of the organization.

E.       Virtual Teams

1.       Cross-functional groups.

2.       Operate across space, time, and organizational boundaries.

3.       Communicate mainly through information technologies.

4.       Leverage the law of telecosm.

 F.       Informal Groups 

1.       Exist primarily for the benefit of their members.

2.       Not specifically formed by organizational decision makers.

3.       Form out of convenience and the need for affiliation.

4.       A coalition attempts to influence people outside the group by pooling the resources of its members.

5.       Communities of practice are bound together by shared expertise and passion for a particular activity or interest.

6.       People join informal groups to fulfill their relatedness needs.

 

II.                  A MODEL OF TEAM EFFECTIVENESS

 A.    Team effectiveness refers to how the team affects the organization, individual team members, and the team’s existence. 

1.       Most teams exist to serve some purpose relating to the organization or other system in which the group operates.

2.       Considers the satisfaction and well-being of its members.

III.               OGRANIZATIONAL AND TEAM ENVIRONMENT

A.    Six of the most important elements in the organizational and team environment that influence team effectiveness are:

1.       Reward systems.

2.       Communications systems.

3.       Physical space.

4.       Organizational environment.

5.       Organizational structure.

6.       Organizational leadership.

IV.                TEAM DESIGN FEATURES

A.      Task Characteristics

1.       Teams are generally more effective when tasks are clear and easy to implement.

2.       High task interdependence exists when team members must share common inputs to their individual tasks, need to interact in the process of executing their work, or receive outcomes that are partly determined by the performance of others.

B.      Team Size

1.       Optimal team size depends on the number of people required to complete the work and the amount of coordination needed to work together.

2.       Larger teams are typically less effective because members consume more time and effort coordinating their roles and resolving differences.

C.      Team Composition

1.       Effective teams require individual team members with the motivation and ability to work in a team environment.

2.       Employees must possess the skills and knowledge necessary to accomplish the team’s objective.

3.       Team members need to be able to work effectively with others.

4.       Team members must have sufficient emotional intelligence to manage emotions.

D.      Team Diversity

1.       Homogeneous teams include members with common technical expertise, demographic, ethnicity, experiences, or values.

a.       Experience higher satisfaction, less conflict, and better interpersonal relations.

b.       More effective on tasks requiring a high degree of cooperation and coordination.

2.       Heterogeneous teams have members with diverse personal characteristics and backgrounds.

a.       Experience more conflict and take longer to develop

b.       Susceptible to “faultlines”

V.                  TEAM DEVELOPMENT

A.    The five-stage model of team development provides a general outline of how team evolve by:

 

1.       Forming is a period of testing and orientation.

2.       Storming is marked by interpersonal conflict.

3.       Norming is the team developing its first real sense of cohesion as roles are established.

4.       Performing is the team becoming more task-oriented.

5.       Adjourning is when several members leave the organization or are reassigned elsewhere.

VI.                TEAM NORMS

 The informal rules and expectations that groups establish to regulate the behavior of their members.   A.      Conformity to Team Norms 1.       Team members may enforce their norms by temporarily ostracizing deviant coworkers or threatening to terminate their membership.2.       Directly reinforced through praise fro high-status members, more access to valued resources, or other rewards available to them.

B.      How Team Norms Develop

1.       Members learn that certain behaviors help them function more effectively.

2.       Members or outsiders make explicit statements that seem to aid the team’s success or survival.

3.       Team norms are most strongly influenced by events soon after the team is formed.

C.      Troubleshooting Dysfunctional Team Norms

1.       Introduce performance-oriented norms as soon as the team is created.

2.       Select members who will bring desirable norms to the group.

3.       Selecting people with positive norms may be effective in new teams, but not when adding new members to existing teams with counterproductive norms.

4.       Team-based reward systems can sometimes weaken counterproductive norms.

5.       A dysfunctional norm may be so deeply ingrained that the best strategy is to disband the group and replace it with people having more favorable norms.

VII.             TEAM ROLES

A.    A role is the set of behaviors that people are expected to perform because they hold certain positions in a team and organization.

1.       Helps focus the team on its objectives.

2.       Tries to maintain good working relations among team members.

3.       Formally assigned to specific people.

VIII.           TEAM COHESIVENESS

A.    Team cohesiveness is the degree of attraction people feel toward the team and their motivation to remain members and is usually an important factor in a team’s success.

B.      Causes of Team Cohesiveness

1.       Member similarity

2.       Team size

3.       Member interaction

4.       Somewhat difficult entry

5.       Team success

6.       External competition and challenges

C.      Consequences of Team Cohesiveness

1.     Every team must have some minimal level of cohesiveness to maintain its existence.

2.     Cohesiveness and team performance.

a.       High cohesion teams usually perform better with cooperation and more conformity to norms.

b.       Lower task performance when norms conflict with organizational objectives.

IX.          THE TROUBLE WITH TEAMS

A.    Teams can be a competitive advantage, but are not always needed.

B.    Teams take time to develop and maintain.

C.    Teams require the right environment to flourish.

D.    Social Loafing

                                     1.      Occurs when people exert less effort when working in groups than when working alone.

                                     2.      Occurs in large teams when individual output is difficult to identify.

                                     3.      Less likely to occur when the task in interesting, when the group’s objective is important and among members with a strong collectivist value.

 E.    Ways to minimize social loafing: 

1.       Form smaller teams.

2.       Specialize tasks.

3.       Measure individual performance.

4.       Increase job enrichment.

5.       Select motivated employees.

X.            TEAM BUILDING

A.    Team building is any formal activity intended to improve the development and functioning of a work team.

B.    Types of Team Building

1.       Role definition

2.       Goal setting

3.       Problem solving

4.       Interpersonal processes

             C.    Is Team Building Effective 1.       Activities have become more popular as companies increasing rely on teams to get the work done.

2.       Organizations experimenting with offbeat team building activities in the hope that these sessions will improve team dynamics.

3.       One problem is corporate leaders assume team-building activities are general solutions to general team problems.

4.       Corporate leaders tend to view team building as a one-shot medical inoculation that every team should receive when it is formed.

5.       Team building occurs on the job, not just on an obstacle course or in a national park.