Chapter 7
Teams in Organizations
Synergy is the goal
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.
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
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.
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
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.
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
Formal teams
Created and officially designated to
serve a specific organizational
purposes.
May be permanent or temporary and
vary in size and composition.
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
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
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
Social network analysis – identifies
the informal groups and networks
of relationships that are active in
an organization.
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
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.
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
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.
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
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.
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
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.
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Figure 7.2 Organizational and Management
Implications of Self-Managing Teams
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
Multiskilling
Team members are expected to
perform many different jobs – even all
the of the team’s jobs – as needed.
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
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.
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
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.
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
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.
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
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.
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Why are teams important in
organizations?
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.
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When is a team effective?
Effective Team
One that achieves high levels of task
performance, member satisfaction,
and team viability.
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When is a team effective?
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.
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When is a team effective?
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.
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When is a team effective?
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.
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When is a team effective?
Common team challenges
Social loafing
Personality conflicts
Uncertainty over tasks or competing goals
Poorly defined agendas
Lack of motivation
Perceptions that team lacks purpose
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When is a team effective?
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.
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When is a team effective?
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.
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When is a team effective?
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.
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Figure 7.3:
Five Stages of Team
Development
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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
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What are the stages of group
development?
Storming stage
A period of high emotionality and
tension among group members.
Member challenges
Hostility and infighting
Formation of coalitions and cliques
Clarification of members’ expectations
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What are the stages of team
development?
Norming stage
The point at which the members really begin
to come together as a coordinated unit.
Member challenges
Holding team together may over supersede
task accomplishment.
Sense of cohesiveness may discourage minority
views.
Can result in false sense of team maturity.
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What are the stages of team
development?
Performing stage
Marks the emergence of a mature,
organized, and well-functioning team
motivated by group goals.
Member challenges
Continuing efforts to improve
relationships and performance.
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Figure 7.4
Team Maturity Criteria
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What are the stages of team
development?
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.
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How can we understand teams
at work?
The quality of inputs determine the
eventual team effectiveness (TE).
TE =Quality of Inputs + (Process gains – Process
losses)
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Open Systems Model of Team
Effectiveness
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How can we understand teams
at work?
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.
o Success at complex tasks is a
source of high satisfaction for
team.
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How can we understand teams
at work?
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.
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How can we understand teams
at work?
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.
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How can we understand teams
at work?
Team composition
The mix of abilities, skills,
personalities, and experiences that
the members bring to the team.
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How can we understand teams
at work?
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.
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How can we understand teams
at work?
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.
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How can we understand teams
at work?
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.
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How can we understand teams
at work?
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.
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Figure 7.6: Member Diversity, Stages of
Team Development, and Team
Performance
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How can we understand teams
at work?
Group or team dynamics
Forces operating in teams that affect
the way members relate to and work
with one another.
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