Ch 8
Tough Battler
Acts aggressive Seeks authority
Friendly Helper
Acts insecure Tries to be helpful
Objective Thinker
Acts reflective Wants clear goals
Decision by unanimity
All group members agree totally on the course of action to be taken.
Proxemics involves use of space as people interact.
Architects and consultants that specialize in office design help executives create spaces conducive to intense communication and teamwork needed in today's work environment. Design of office space, and the size and availability of meeting rooms can positively impact the effectiveness of team communication.
Disruptive behaviors:
Bullying and being overly aggressive toward other members. Withdrawing and refusing to cooperate with others. Using the group as a forum for self-confession. Talking too much about irrelevant matters. Trying to compete for attention and recognition.
Team Building
Collaborative way to gather and analyze data about the team's work. The goal is improved teamwork and increased team effectiveness.
Decision by consensus
Discussion leads to one alternative being favored by most members and the other members agree to support it.
Maintenance Contributions
Encouraging others Reconciling differences Expressing standards Offering agreement Inviting participation
in nominal group technique
Everyone is encouraged to list as many alternatives or ideas as they can
Decision by majority rule
Formal voting usually takes place, or members may be polled, publicly or confidentially, to find the majority viewpoint.
Disadvantages:
Imperfect decisions may result from social pressures to conform to group, or undue influence of team leader. Team decisions take more time than individual decisions.
Forms of role conflict
Intrasender, Intersender, Person-role, Inter-role.
Delphi technique
Involves generating decision-making alternatives through a series of survey questionnaires.
Nominal group technique
Members are asked to respond individually and in writing to a "nominal" question.
Decentralized communication network
Members communicate directly, as needed, and share information with one another. - also called all channel or star communication networks - work best for groups trying to accomplish complex and non-routine tasks.
Outdoor experience approach
Members engage in a variety of physically challenging situations that require teamwork.
Assets and Liabilities of Consensus and Unanimity advantages
More information, knowledge and expertise is applied to solve problem. Discussion leads to broader understanding of final decision. Increases acceptance and strengthens commitment of members to follow through and support decision.
Role conflict
Occurs when a person is unable to respond to role expectations that conflict with one another.
Role ambiguity
Occurs when a person is uncertain about his or her role and what is expected.
Role underload
Occurs when too little is expected of the individual.
Role overload
Occurs when too much is expected of the individual.
Task Contributions
Offering ideas Clarifying suggestions Giving information Seeking information Summarizing discussion
Decision by lack of response
One idea after another is suggested without any discussion-taking place.
New members may worry about:
Participation Goals Control Relationships Processes
Key norms that can have positive or negative implications.
Performance norms. Ethics norms. Organizational and personal pride norms. High-achievement norms. Support and helpfulness norms. Improvement and change norms.
Role negotiation
Process for discussing and agreeing upon what team members expect of one another. Team members meet to discuss, clarify, and agree on their individual role expectations each holds for the other.
Ways to achieve positive inter-team dynamics
Refocusing members on a common enemy or goal. Negotiating directly. Engaging members, of different teams, in activities learning how to work cooperatively together. Refocusing reward systems to emphasize contributions to overall organizational performance and on how much teams help one another.
Norms
Represent ideas or beliefs about how members are expected to behave. Considered rules or standards of conduct that are supposed to guide members. Help members to guide their own behavior and predict what others will do.
Characteristics of High Performance Teams
Set a clear and challenging direction. Believe in the goals and motivated to work hard to accomplish them. Turn a general sense of purpose into specific objectives. Set standards for measuring results and obtain feedback. Members have the right mix of technical, problem-solving and interpersonal skills.
Role
Set of expectations associated with a job or position on a team.
Distributed leadership
Sharing of responsibility for meeting group task and maintenance needs.
Restricted communication network
Subgroups disagree with one another's positions. Poor communication is characteristic of this type of situation.
Maintenance activities
Support the social and interpersonal relationships among team members.
Formal retreat approach
Team building occurs during an offsite "retreat."
Centralized communication network
Team leader acts as a central control point. Team leader collects and distributes information among members. Members work independently. Results are passed to the team leader and pooled to create finished product. - sometimes called wheel or chain communication networks - work best in teams when tasks are routine and or easily subdivided
Virtual communication networks
Technology provide numerous resources for real time communication. Empowers team members to be in constant electronic contact with one another or a central database. Online team building activities are critically important to high quality results.
Decision by authority rule
The chairperson, manager, or leader makes a decision for the team.
Cohesiveness
The degree to which members are attracted to a group and motivated to remain a part of it. There is a strong relationship between cohesiveness, conformity to group norms, and performance.
Continuous improvement approach
The manager, team leader, or group members take responsibility for ongoing team building.
Inter-team dynamics
The relationships between groups cooperating and competing with one another.
Groupthink
The tendency of members in highly cohesive groups to lose their critical evaluative capabilities.
Decision by minority rule
Two or three people are able to dominate or "railroad" the group into making a decision to which they agree.
Brainstorming
Used in teams to actively generate as many ideas and alternatives as possible. All criticism is ruled out All ideas are welcomed Emphasis on creativity and imagination Quantity is wanted Building on others' ideas or "piggy-backing" is encouraged
Task activities
Various things members and leaders do that directly contribute to the performance of important group tasks.
in the delphi technique,
a series of questionnaires are distributed to a panel of decision makers, who submit initial responses to a decision coordinator.
In addition to helping meet a group's task and maintenance needs, team members share additional responsibility for
avoiding disruptive behaviors that harm the group process.
Teams must address the insecurities by discussions that include
clarifying the team goals and expectations and clarifying each member's role.
the recorder writes
each response on large newsprint as it is offered, no criticism allowed
The defense mechanisms of insecure new members may
hinder team performance.
To assure high performance, team interaction patterns and communication networks must be aligned with
interaction patterns and team tasks.
next...
participants are asked to read aloud their responses to the nominal question in round-robin fashion.
Panel members again
send in their responses, and the process is repeated until a consensus is reached and a clear decision emerges.
The coordinator
summarizes the solutions and sends the summary back to the panel members, along with a follow-up questionnaire
coping mechanisms used by new team members
tough battler friendly helper objective thinker
