Chapter 9- Work Teams and Groups

team creativity

finding creative solutions to workplace problems may require teamwork, collaboration, and a set of seven practices for reframing the problem - can overcome social loafing, conformity, and downward norm settings in teams and organizations

competence skills

first set of skills required for empowerment - should experience limited empowerment until they demonstrate the capacity to accept more responsibility

one method for countering social loafing is

member self-evaluation system - if members must formally review their contributions to the group, they are less less likely to loaf - identifying individual contributions to the group product also counters loafing

work team process

two of the important process issues in work teams are the managing of cooperative behaviors and the managing of competitive behaviors

when is teamwork the only solution?

when knowledge, talent and abilities dispersed across numerous workers require an integrated effort for task accomplishment

interpersonal diversity

which may be indicated by different needs for inclusion, control of people and events, and affirmation from others - made stronger when group members are emotionally intelligent

bicultural groups

which two or more members represent each of two distinct cultures

functional background is one way to look at dissimilarity

with cross-functional teams found that promoting social identification with functional background helps individuals perform better as team members - predicts team involvement

strong support for for soft influence tactics in managers communication with self directed teams

yielding more positive results

value dissimilarity

may be positively related to task and relationship conflict, it's negatively related to team involvement

characteristics of a mature group

- a clear purpose and mission - well-understood norms and standards of conduct - high level of group cohesion - flexible status structure

skills required for effective empowerment include

- competence skills - process skills - cooperative and helping behaviors - communication skills

alternative orientations to cooperation include

- competitive= motivated to maximize personal gains regardless of the expense of others - individualistic= motivated to act autonomously though not necessarily to maximize their personal gains - egalitarian= motived to equalize the outcomes for each team member, which may or may not be beneficial to the teams well being

Teams with few structural holes may have problems with ____, while teams with a high proportion of structural holes may have _____.

- creativity - difficulty coordinating

work-related tension and anxieties ____ in highly cohesive teams and _____ in low cohesive teams.

- decrease in high - increase in low

threats towards group cohesion include

- goal conflict - unpleasant experiences - domination of a subgroup - groups with low cohesion are more vulnerable to these threats

diversity in top management can

- help sustain high levels of organizational performance at the peak - help maintain the CEOs vitality - enhance the CEOs wellbeing - can influence the timing of performance peak, the degree of dysfunction during closing season of the CEOs tenure, and the rate of decline in organizational performance

group cohesion is influenced by

- most notably time (more time spent together means more cohesiveness) - size (tend to be more cohesive with smaller groups of 5-7 members compared to those with 25 members) - prestige of the team (more prestige= more cohesive, but can be highly cohesive with little prestige ) - external pressure (tend to enhance cohesiveness) - internal competition (decreases cohesion)

whereas psychological intimacy is based more in _____, integrated involvement is based in ______

- psychological intimacy= emotions - integrated involvement= behavior and activity

competitive rewards enhances ____ while cooperative rewards enhanced _____

- speed of performance - accuracy of performance

it is out of dissimilarity that _____ is developed and similarity that ____ are built

- strength - connections

factors that influence group effectivess

- work team structure - work team process

can contribute to diversity by 4 different styles

1. contributor 2. collaborator 3. communicator 4. challenger

after a group forms it addresses three issues

1. interpersonal issues 2. task issues 3. authority issues

social benefits to individuals include

1. psychological intimacy 2. integrated involvement

communication skills

final set of essential empowerment skills - include self expression and reflective listening - empowerment can't occur without team members expressing themselves in emotionally intelligent ways as well as listen carefully to one another

work team effectiveness requires

management's attention to both work team structure and work team process - diversity and creativity are emerging as two important impacts on team performances

self-managed teams

designed to take on responsibilities and address issues traditionally reserved for management - require a sense of empowerment in which they are implemented - empowered employees must be properly focused through careful planning and preparation before they strike

challenger

devils advocate who questions everything from the groups mission, purpose, and methods to its ethics

psychological intimacy

emotional and psychological closeness to other team or group members - results in feelings of affection and warmth, unconditional positive regard, opportunity for expression, security and emotional support and nurturing - failure to achieve this may result in feelings of emotional isolation and loneliness - psychological intimacy isn't always achieved through work, sometimes is found with home life

wild turkey

Devil's advocate who challenges the thinking of the CEO and provides a counterpoint during debates - helps CEO and team sustain peak performance and push back dysfunction and decline

empowering leadership positively affects

employee psychological empowerment, thus reducing employee cynicism and time theft, when the quality of the relationship with the boss is a good one

demographic dissimilarity influences

employees' absenteeism, commitment, turnover intentions, beliefs, work group relationships, self-esteem, and OCB - can be either positive or negative

to be successful, teams require a culture of

empowerment in the organization in which they are implemented

self-managed teams (self directed teams)

a team that makes decisions that were once reserved for managers - have a positive impact on employee attitudes but not absenteeism or turnover

upper echelons

a top-level executive team in an organization

group cohesion in a mature group

enables a group to exercise effective control over its members in relation to its behavior norms and standards - mature teams have the capacity to share the deep acting strategies employed by individual team members resulting in members behaving more similarly when expressing emotions

coordinating activities task

expressing member feelings

task functions

activities directly related to the effective completion of the team's work - effective teams have members who fulfill various task functions as they are required

maintenance functions

activities essential to the effective, satisfying interpersonal relationships within a group or team - following another group member's lead may be as important as being a leader - enhance togetherness, cooperation, and teamwork, enabling members to achieve psychological intimacy while furthering the success of the team

virtual teams

advanced computer and telecommunications technology enable organizations to be more flexible - use these teams to access expertise and best employees around the world

norming

agreement and consensus are characteristics of this stage - during this period that roles and responsibilities become clear and are accepted - groups focus turns from interpersonal relations to decision making and task accomplishment - team concludes that leadership ought to be facilitative and that certain responsibilities are delegated to teams themselves

token groups

all but one member came from the same background

homogenous groups

all members share similar backgrounds

Racial Dissimilarity

also impacts the extent to which team members communicate with each other and develop a sense of group identity

performance norms

among the most important group norms from the organizations perspective

Norms that create awareness of emotions

and help regulate them are critical to groups effectiveness

quality action teams (QATs)

are the primary quality improvement process (QIP) technique used to engage management and hourly employees in problem solving teams - teams are empowered to act and solve problems

behavioral norms

are well-understood standards of behavior within a group - benchmarks against which team members are evaluated by other team members - may evolve around performance and productivity

upper echelon theory

argues that the background characteristics of the top management team can predict organizational characteristics and set standards for values, competence, ethics, and unique characteristics throughout the organization - distributed cognition and transactive memory systems in top teams affect the ability of the organization to be both explorative with regard to the future and exploitive of present opportunities

diversity is an important consideration in the formation of groups,

as it can enhance performance and lead to new ways of thinking. - ex: gender diversity study found that mean and women in gender-balanced groups had higher job satisfaction than those in homogenous groups - ethnic, gender, and cultural diversity

performing stage

becomes more strategically aware of its mission and purpose - group has successfuly worked through interpersonal, task, and authority issues and can stand on its own with little interference from the leader - disagreeements are resolved positively with necessary changes to structure and processes attended to by the team - members in this stage don't need to be instructed but may ask for assistance in regard to personal or interpersonal development

human capital diversity

can be a source of team social capital which has the potential to enhance the level of team creativity through increased access to a variety on individuals with varying knowledge and experiences

integrated involvement

closeness achieved through tasks and activities - results in enjoyment of work, social identity, self-definition, and being valued for ones skills and abilities, opportunities for power and influence, and conditional positive regard and support for one's beliefs and values - failure to achieve may result in social isolation

morality norms are important than

competence norms when it comes to making decisions about improving the status of one's work group

structural diversity

concerns the number of structural holes, or disconnections between members, within a work team - race nor gender was demographic that influenced structural holes - age diversity improved structural integrity and greater variance in age within a team leads to more member to member connections and fewer disconnections

testing ideas task

consensus testing

cooperative and helping behaviors

cooperative people engage in encouraging, helpful behavior to maximize the gains for everyone on the team

contributor

data driven, supplies necessary information and adheres to high performance standards

forming stage

dependence on guidance and direction is the defining characteristic of this stage - at this point team members are unclear about individual roles and responsibilities and tend to rely heavily on the leader to answer questions about teams purpose, objectives, and external relationships - moving from this stage requires team members feel they are apart of a team - encourage members to get to know one another

work team structure requires a clearly specified set of roles for the executives and managers who oversee the work of the team,

for the work team leaders who exercise influence over team members, and for team members - role specifications should include information about role behaviors, such as decision-making and task performance as well as restrictions or limits on role behaviors such as the limitations on managerial intervention

group

formed when two or more people have common interests, objectives, and continuing interaction

Tuckman's 5 stage model of group development

forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning

giving information task

gatekeeping communication within a group ensures balanced contributions from all members (maintenance function)

Highly cohesive groups experience

greater member satisfaction, commitment, and communication

analogy for work teams is

groundskeeping crew in that all members work synergistically toward a common goal 2

work team

group of people with complimentary skills who are committed to a common mission - are task-oriented

punctuated equilibrium model

groups do not progress linearly from one step to another in a predetermined sequence but alternate between periods of inertia with little visible progress toward goal achievement. Progress is punctuated by bursts of energy as work groups develop - majority of work is accomplished in those bursts

evaluating effectiveness task

harmonizing conflict

teams and total quality management (TQM) programs does not have _____

higher economic performance

authority issues

include decisions about who is in charge, how power and influence are managed, and who has the right to tell whom to do what

work team structure issues

include goals and objectives, operating guidelines, performance measures, and role specification - goals and objectives= must be achieved - operating guidelines= set the organizational boundaries and decision-making limits within which the team must function - work team needs to know what performance measures are being used to assess its task accomplishment

interpersonal issues

include matters of trust, personal comfort, and security - trust is key issue for any company in its working relationships

cooperative teamwork skills

include open communication, trust, personal integrity, positive interdependence, and mutual support

competitive teamwork skills

include the ability to enjoy competition, play fair, and be a good winner or loser; to have access to information for monitoring where the team and members are in competition; and not to overgeneralize or exaggerate the results of any specific competition

task issues

include the mission or purpose of the group, the methods the group employs, and the outcomes expected of the group

groups emphasize-

individual leadership, personal accountability, and exclusive work products

seeking information task

involves asking for ideas, suggestions, information or facts - quality of colleagues work helped to improve and maintain the quality of individual member performance - following others' leads

initiating activities task function

involves suggesting ideas, defining problems, and proposing approaches and solutions to problems - supporting others

loss of individuality

is a social process through which group members lose self-awareness and its accompanying senses of accountability, inhibition, and responsibility for individual behavior - may engage in morally reprehensible acts and even violent behavior is individuality is lost - can also lead to prosocial behavior and even heroic acts in a dangerous situation

status structure

is the set of authority and task relations among a group's members - shared leadership is very feasible in teams - effective status structure results in role interrelatedness among group members

teamwork

joint action by a team of people in which individual interests are subordinated to team unity

the team member who need the help most often get the ____ help

least - because helping often targets the most expert team members - dynamic that compromises overall team performance

actual productivity was found to vary significantly ___ in highly cohesive teams making them more predictable

less - actual productivity levels were primarily determined by productivity norms within each group meaning if a highly cohesive group with high performance are productive, but highly cohesive group with low productivity norms will be unproductive

communicator

listens well, facilitates the group's process and humanizes the collective effort

emotional competencies are beneficial for

maintaining group relationships - empathy is an example

multicultural groups

members represent three or more ethnic backgrounds - negative side= diversity may increase uncertainty, complexity, and inherent confusion in group making it more difficult to reach full productivity - positive side= benefits like long-term success to its leadership model that promotes diversity and generating more and better ideas while limiting the risk of groupthink

group norms of cooperative behavior within a team can lead to

members working for mutual benefit which in turn facilitates team performance

relationship between team familiarity and occurrence of TCEs is

moderated by leader experience

process skills

most critical process skills include negotiating skills with allies, opponents, and adversaries -allies are the easiest to negotiate with as you can trust them - opponents require different strategy as you can predict their actions, but they don't agree with you - adversaries are dangerous, difficult people to negotiate with because you cannot predict their actions or behaviors and they do not agree with your concept of the team's missions

integrator

must be in addition for an effective group, especially when group is cross-functional teams where different perspectives carry the seeds of conflict; however, they are not necessarily a problem

best tasks to be used during engineering phase

needs members who focus on testing the practical applications of suggestions and those who diagnose problems and suggest solutions

social loafing

occurs when one group member comes to rely on the efforts of other group members and fails to contribute their own time, efforts, thoughts, or other resources to a group - also known as free riding is a rational response to feelings of inequity or situations in which individual efforts are hard to observe - team members with high levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness tend to offset social loafers

teams are useful in-

performing work that is complicated, fragmented and more voluminous than one person can handle

diagnosing problems task

reducing tension - task activities build tension within teams or groups, tension-reduction activities are important to drain off negative or destructive feelings - humor and joking were found to enhance social relationships in groups

collaborator

sees the big picture and is able to keep a constant focus on the mission and urge other members to join efforts for mission accomplishment

elaborating concepts task

setting standards

work teams empahsize-

shared leadership, mutual accountability, and collective work products

formal groups

sometimes called official or assigned groups - ex: project task forces, boards of directors, and temporary committees coming together for specific tasks

informal groups

sometimes called unofficial or emergent groups - evolve in the work setting to gratify a member needs not met by formal groups - ex: organizational members needs of inclusion and affirmation might be achieved through informal athletic group

effect on dissimilarity in a team

studied with social identity theory and self-categorization theory as some amount of dissimilarity is necessary within a team in order for creativity, novelty, and innovation to blossom

adjourning satge

task is completed, everyone on the team can move to new and different things - retain a sense of accomplishment and feel good knowing that their purpose was fulfilled - leaders role is to recognize groups achievements

storming

team members compete for a position - period of considerable conflict as power struggles, cliques, and factions within the group surface - clarity of purpose increases, but uncertainties still exist - stage in which members assess one another with regard to trustworthiness, emotional comfort and evaluative acceptance - group leaders coaching style is key in this stage as team members may challenge them and must be able to control own emotions if this occurs

team member familiarity increases

team performance up to a point by reducing team coordination errors (TCEs) - too much familiarity may lead to increased TCEs as teams begin to rely on habitual routines and implicit coordination rather than explicit coordination methods

"the new team environment"

teams with experience working together may produce valuable innovations and individuals contributions within teams are valuable - founded on a more empowered workforce through collaboration rather than self-reliance and competition

summarizing ideas task

testing group decisions

teams with moderate structural diversity achieve

the best performance - points that overall structure and network of relationships within teams in addition to individual characteristics should all be looked at to achieve best performance

when there is a fit between the groups values and those of the organization

the group will report more cohesion and exhibit higher levels of organizational citizenship behavior

purpose and mission

the group's purpose and mission may be assigned or emerge from within the group - with an assigned mission, the group may embrace it as stated or reexamine, revise, or question it - stating purpose and mission in the form of specific goals enhances productivity and performance far more effectively than individual goal setting

group cohesion

the interpersonal glue that makes members of a group stick together - can enhance job satisfaction for members and improve organizational productivity - high cohesive groups can manage membership better than low cohesive groups

norms of behavior

the standards that a work group uses to evaluate the behavior of its members - may be written or unwritten, verbalized or not, implicit or explicit - may specify what members should do or not do