Principles of Management
Module 8: Groups, Teams, and Teamwork
Common Group Behaviors
Understanding Common Group Behaviors
• Team: Involves two or more people, people on team share goal, and they
hold each other mutually accountable for performance of team
• Common behaviors: If team is successful, individuals may not be recognized
• Social Cohesion: Willingness of members of a society to cooperate with each
other to survive and prosper—social and emotional bonds
• Social Loafing: When one or more group members fail to do their fair share of
work within the group
• Collective Efficacy: Belief that it is capable of organizing and working
together to reach goals
Practice Question 1
The major difference between a group and a team is:
1. A group involves over 25+ members while a team usually has less than 10
persons.
2. A team is a more motivated collection of individuals than a group.
3. A team has both a common purpose and shared accountability.
4. A group is more diverse in culture and skill set.
Types of Teams
Advantages and Disadvantages of a Team
• Advantages:
• Teams can be trained to deal with specific customer needs
• Improve product and service quality
• Efficiency in product development
• Develop relationships to people from other business areas
• Disadvantages:
• When companies don’t make efforts to build and support strong teams, employees
may become discouraged and leave firm
• Ineffective when they lack leadership, members don’t feel accountable
Different Types of Teams
• Cross-functional
• Task force
• Virtual
• Working with other cultures can be
challenging due to different
leadership styles
• Self-Managing
• Responsible for all or most aspects of
producing a product or delivering a
service
Class Activity: Which Type of Team?
Given the four team type—cross-functional, virtual, task force, and self-
managing—which one would potentially be the best fit for these projects and
why?:
1. Political campaign
2. Non-profit effort to feed low-income children
3. New supply chain/logistics software application
4. New real estate and development project.
Building Effective Teams
Characteristics of Effective Teams
• Clarity of Purpose
• Good Communication
• Positive Role for Conflict
• Accountability and Commitment
• Shared Leadership
• Positive Group Dynamics
Common Techniques for Team Building
• Set team goals and priorities
• Team selection process
• With determination, anyone can
learn to function on a team
• Experience and ability levels of
members should be balanced
• Team diversity represents mix of skills
and experiences but also different
cultures, ethnicity, race, or gender
• Optimal team size: no correct size
(ideal is 5–9 people)
The Five Stages of Team Development
Understanding the Five Stages of Team
Development
• Forming stage: Period of orientation and getting acquainted
• Storming stage: Most difficult and critical stage to pass- period marked by
conflict and competition as individual personalities emerge
• Norming stage: If team gets through storming stage, conflict is resolved and
unity emerges- consensus develops around who leaders are and roles
• Performing stage: Consensus and cooperation are well-established and
team is mature, organized, and well-functioning
• Adjourning stage: Most of team’s goals have been accomplished
Team Norms and Cohesiveness
• Norms result from interaction of
team members during
development process
• Set standard for behavior, attitude,
and performance
• Team members implicitly understand
them
• Norms are only effective in
controlling behaviors when they are
accepted by team members
• Cohesiveness level determines
whether team members accept and
conform to norms
Conflict Within Teams
Common Types of Conflict Within Teams
• Substantive (task):
• Conflicts that arise over things such as goals, tasks, and allocation of resources- Will
arise if neither party is willing to compromise
• Emotional (relationship):
• Are over things such as jealousy, insecurity, annoyance, envy, or personality conflict-
When two people always find themselves with opposing views
Benefits of Conflict
• Eustress is positive reaction to stress that generates desire to achieve and
overcome challenges
• Conflicts spark new ideas and generate creativity
• If there is too much cooperation, best ideas may never get shared and team
effectiveness is sacrificed for sake of efficiency
Common Causes of Conflict
• Arises when team members focus
on personal issues rather than work
issues
• Competition over resources such as
information, money, supplies, or
access to technology
• Communication breakdowns and
misunderstandings
• External work conditions such as
downsizing rumors or fears of
competition
Common Approaches to Conflict Resolution
• Each approach combines degree
of cooperation and some might not
be effective
• Avoiding Approach (no way) - ignore
conflict
• Dominating (my way)- take charge of
conflict
• Compromising (half way) - when
arguments are equally rationale, when
people are equal in status, when both
sides or willing, factor of time
• Accommodating (your way) - when
you agree team member is, in fact,
right
• Collaborating (our way) - negotiation
and mediation
Quick Review
• Please describe common group behaviors that can help or hurt organization
goals.
• Can you describe the types of teams found in business organizations?
• Are you able to describe common techniques used to build effective teams?
• What are the five stages of team development?
• Please describe common types and causes of conflict that arise within teams
