Chapter 10
Team Autonomy Continuum
(Low autonomy) traditional work groups Employee involvement groups Semi-autonomous work groups Self-managing teams Self-Designing Teams (High autonomy)
Team Conflict
- disagreement over team goals and priorities - disagreements over task-related issues - interpersonal incompatibilities - simple fatigue The key to conflict is not to avoid it, but make sure the team experiences the right kind of conflict
When to use teams
- there is a clear, engaging reason or purpose - the job cant be done unless people work together - rewards can be provided for teamwork and team performance - ample resources are available
Cross-Functional Teams
-employees from different functional areas , generate more ideas and alternative solutions, attack problems from multiple perspectives, often used in conjunction with matrix and product organizational structures
Stages of Team Development
1. Forming 2. Storming 3. Norming 4. Performing 5. Adjourning
Work Teams
Consist of a small number of people with complementary skills who hold themselves mutually accountable for pursuing a common purpose, achieving performance goals, and improving interdependent work processes
Special Kinds of Teams
Cross functional, virtual, project teams
Semi-Autonomous Work Groups
Have the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks required to product a product or service - have the ability to make decisions with management approval
Advantages of Teams
Improve customer satisfaction, product and service quality, speed and efficiency in product development, employee job satisfaction, and decision making. In decision making there are multiple perspective, more alternate solutions and commitment to decisions
Disadvantages of Teams
Initially high turnover, social loafing, Disadvantage of group decision making. Disadv of group decision making includes groupthink, inefficient meetings, minority domination, lack of accountability.
Promoting Team Cohesiveness
Make sure all members are present at team meetings and activities, create additional opportunities for teammates to work together, engaging in non work activities, and make employees feel that they are part of special organization
Storming
People are fighting a lot, tension. People regret making teams
Tips for Managing Successful Virtual Teams
Select self starters and strong communicators, keep the team focused on clear, specif goals, provide frequent feed back, keep team interactions upbeat and action orientated, periodically bring team members together, improve communicators, ask team members fro feedback on how well team is working, empower virtual teams
Enhancing Work Team Effectiveness
Settling team goals and priorities, team training, team compensation, selecting team members
Self-Managing Teams
Team Members manage and control all of the major tasks directly related to production of a product or service without first getting approval from management
Requirement for Stretch Goals to Motivate Team Performance
Teams have a high degree of autonomy, are empowered with control resources, need for structural accommodation, need bureaucratic immunity
Factors the Encourage People to Withhold Effort in Teams
The presence of someone with expertise, the presentation of a compelling argument, lacking confidence in ones ability to contribute, an unimportant or meaningless decision, a dysfunctional decision making climate.
Storming
The second stage of development characterized by conflict and disagreement, in which team members disagree over what the team should do and how it should do it
Team Size
Very large or very small teams may not perform as well as moderately sized teams. The right size is usually between 6-9 members - when teams get too large they may splinter into subgroups
Gainsharing
a compensation system in which companies share the financial value of performance gains, such as increased productivity, cost savings, or quality, with their workers (team compensation)
Skill based pay
compensation system that pays employees for learning additional skills or knowledge (team compensation)
Project Teams
created to complete specific, one-time projects or tasks within a limited time, often used to develop new products, significantly improve existing products, roll out new information systems, or build new factories or offices, can eliminate communication barriers and speed up design process, flexibility
C-type (Cognitive Conflict)
focuses on problem-related differences of opinion and issues - strongly associated with improvements in team performance
Virtual Teams
groups of geographically and/or organizationally dispersed coworkers who use a combination of telecommunications and information technologies to accomplish and organization task
Self-Designing Teams
have all the characteristics of self-managing teams, but they can also control team design, work tasks, and team membership
Team Norms
informally agreed-on standards that regulate team behavior, powerful influence on work behavior, regulate the everyday behaviors of teams. -positives: stronger organizational commitment, more trust in management, stronger job and organizational satisfaction - negatives: teams with negative norms strongly influenced their team members to engage in these negative behaviors
Team Training
interpersonal skills, decision making and problem solving, conflict, technical training, training for team leaders
Minority Domination
just a few members dominate team discussions
Employee Involvement Teams
meet on company time on a weekly or monthly basis to provide advice or make suggestions to management concerning specific issues - do not have authority to make decisions - the idea behind employee involvement teams is that the people closets to the problem or situation are best able to recommend solutions
Social Loafing
occurs when workers withhold their efforts and fail to perform their share of the work - more likely to occur in larger groups and know as slackers
A-type (Affective Conflict)
refers to the emotional, personal disagreements - strongly associated with decreases in team performance
Team diversity
represents the variances or differences in ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team (selecting team members)
Interpersonal Skills
skills, such as listening, communicating, questioning, and providing feedback, that enable people to have effective working relationships with others (team training)
Setting Team Goals and Priorities
team goals enhance team performance, goals clarify team priorities, challenging team goals help team members regulate effort
Structural Accommodation
the ability to change organizational structures, policies, and practices in order to meet stretch goals (Setting team goals and priorities)
Bureaucratic Immunity
the ability to make changes without first getting approval from managers or other parts of an organization (Setting team goals and priorities)
Team level
the average level of ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team (selecting team members)
Individualism-collectivism
the degree to which a person believes that people should be self-sufficient and that loyalty to ones self is more important than loyalty to team or company (selecting team members)
Autonomy
the degree to which workers have the discretion, freedom, and independence to decide how and when to accomplish their jobs
Cohesiveness Cohesive Teams
the extent to which team members are attracted to a team and motivated to remain in it. -retain their members, promote cooperation, have high levels of performance
Performing
the fourth and final stage of team development, in which performance improves bc the team has matured into an effective, fully functioning team
Forming
the initial stage of team development in which team members meet each other, form initial impressions, and begin establishing team norms
Team Compensation and Recognition 3 methods
the level of reward must match the level of performance. skill based pay, gainsharing, non financial rewards
Norming
the third stage of team development, in which team members begin to settle into their roles, group cohesion grows, and positive team norms develop
Don't use teams when
there is no clear purpose, the job can be done independently, individual based rewards exists, resources are scarce
Cross-Training
when team members are taught how to do all or most of the jobs performed by the other team members. If one member is absent team can still function without them.
Minority Domination
where just one or two people dominate team discussions, restricting consideration of different problem definitions and alternative situations
Traditional Work Groups
where two or more people work together to achieve a shared goal - are responsible for doing the work and executing the task, but do not have direct responsibility or control over their work