Chapter 1: "Understanding Teams"

Group Characteristics

- Communication is often viewed as a central process. - People in the group recognize and acknowledge their membership in a collective. - Formal & Informal rules, roles, and norms of the group control the interactions of group members. - A group satisfies members' physical and psychological needs such that individuals are motivated to continue participation. - People joining together for some purpose and to achieve some goal. SEE TABLE 1.1 in the textbook - list of characteristics: 1) Goal Orientation 2) Interdependent 3) Interpersonal Interaction 4) Perception of Membership 5) Structured Relations 6) Mutual Influence 7) Individual Motivation

Teams in Organizations

- Serve a variety of functions for organizations. - Can be formed to provide advice and deal with special problems. For instance, teams might be created to suggest improvements in work processes. - Help manage coordination problems by linking different parts of organizations. Budget or planning committees might be composed of members from several departments, for example. - Can be used to change organizations by planning for the future or managing transitions. - Are given some power and authority, so they are somewhat independent of the organization's hierarchy. - Their leaders are selected by management and given some managerial power. Team leaders can use a variety of techniques for making decisions, such as using the teams to provide advice about decisions (consultative) and having the teams vote to make decisions. - Team members' work activities are interdependent and coordinated by the leaders. TYPES: - Production - Service - Management (seniority/at the top of the organization) - Project - Action/Performing - Parallel

Current movements in psychology affecting the study of teamwork:

1) Diversity and Multiculturalism 2) Positive Psychology

Due to the changing nature of teams, THREE issues are increasingly important:

1) Dynamic composition, 2) Technology and distance, and 3) Empowerment and delayering.

Teamwork

Although the distinction between groups and teams is not completely clear, the term TEAMWORK typically is used to describe groups that are parts of sports or work organizations.

Self-Managing Teams

Are given significantly more power and authority than traditional work groups and are more independent of an organization's hierarchy. Team members typically select their leaders, so the leaders have limited power and must facilitate—rather than control—their teams' operations. The leaders must rely on democratic or consensus decision making because they have no authority to make teams accept decisions. The work of team members is highly interdependent, and all team members work together to coordinate activities.

Classifying Teams

Based on: - Types of activities they perform - Permanent or temporary - Internal specialization - Interdependence - Integration - Power

___________________ teams are often more temporary with changing membership.

Contemporary

1950's & 1960's

During this period, organizational and humanistic psychologists studied a special type of laboratory group called t-groups (also called encounter groups). Participation in these groups was supposed to increase self-awareness, interpersonal communication skills, and group process skills. Their popularity decreased as concerns with ethics and transfer of training issues raised questions about their value.

Teams now operate in a more ___________ and complex environment.

Dynamic

The search to find the best approach to manage a group has been replaced by the recognition of what is termed _____________ -- that there are many ways for groups to operate successfully.

Equifinality

Teamwork in U.S. companies ________________ rapidly during the 1990s and included more professional and managerial teams.

Expanded **Current studies suggest that 85% of companies with 100 or more employees use some type of work teams (Cohen & Bailey, 1997).

Markets are expanding, and competition is progressively more ______________.

Global

A __________ exists for a reason or purpose and has a goal shared by the group members.

Group

Today, ______________ dynamics is a scientific field that provides information useful in improving the operations of teams.

Group

When referring to research on group dynamics, especially laboratory research, the term ____________ is used.

Group **All teams are GROUPS, but not all groups are teams.

Group

Group is a MORE inclusive term than team. Groups range in size from two to thousands, whereas teams have a narrower range of sizes. A dating couple may be considered a group but not a team. Political parties and social organizations are groups but not teams.

From a psychological perspective, two processes define a group: social _______________ and social _______________.

Identification; Representation

Mutual Influence

Impact people have on one another because of their connections.

The rate of change in business and society is _____________.

Increasing

______________ is probably the most important characteristic of a group.

Interdependence

Routine & Nonroutine Jobs

Involve more complexity, interdependence, uncertainty, variety, and change than do ROUTINE jobs. Jobs of this type are difficult to manage in traditional work systems, but are well suited for teamwork. NONroutine jobs are found in a number of contemporary work settings.

Psychological Perspective

Involves BOTH: - Social Identification - Social Representation

Social Representation

Is the shared values, ideas, and beliefs that people have about the world. Over time, belonging to a group changes the ways its members view the world. The group develops a shared worldview through member interactions.

____________ believed that it is easier to change a group than it is to change an individual.

Lewin

Kurt Lewin (1951)

Lewin created the term GROUP DYNAMICS to show his interest in the group as a unit of study. Lewin's innovations in research methods, applications, and focus still define much of the study of group dynamics today. Lewin developed a NEW APPROACH to research in psychology. He began with a belief that "There is nothing so practical as a good theory." His innovation was in refining how theories in psychology should be used. He developed an approach called ACTION RESEARCH, in which scientists develop theories about how groups operate, and then use their theories in practical applications to improve the operations of groups. One of his primary concerns was SOCIAL CHANGE. Lewin developed models of organizational change and group dynamics techniques that are still used today.

Many jobs are changing from routine to _______________ work.

Nonroutine **For Example, the individual factory worker operating a single machine all day is being replaced by a team of workers who monitor, troubleshoot, maintain, and manage a complex and integrated work system.

Contemporary Emphasis on Teamwork

Occurred during the 1970's. The rise of Japan as a manufacturing power resulted in the distribution of high quality inexpensive products in the global marketplace. When business experts visited Japan to see how Japanese goals had been achieved, they found that teamwork in the form of Quality Circles seemed to be the answer.

Design, manufacturing, marketing, and sales of the product require expertise from a variety of disciplines and support from many parts of an _________________.

Organization

In the past few decades ______________________ teamwork has expanded rapidly because of changes in the nature of jobs and the structure of organizations.

Organizational

Quality Circles

Parallel teams of production workers and supervisors who meet to analyze problems and develop solutions to quality problems in the manufacturing process. These are usually created voluntarily, and worked on during their time. Throughout the 1980s, companies in the United States and Europe experimented with Quality Circle teams (and later Total Quality Management).

Goal Orientation

People joining together for some purpose and to achieve some goal.

Interpersonal Interaction

People who communicate and interact with one another.

Interdependent

People who have some type of relationship, see connections among themselves, or believe they share a common fate.

One of the most important distinctions among types of teams is how much ____________ they are allocated.

Power **When an organization uses teams rather than individual workers to perform tasks, it is giving the teams some power and authority to control the operations of its members. This shifting of power affects leadership, decision making, and how team members' work activities are linked.

Perception of Membership

Recognition that there is a collective to which one belongs.

Social Identification

Refers to the recognition that a group exists separately from others. It is the creation of a belief in "us versus them." Identification is both a COGNITIVE process (classifying the world into categories) and and EMOTIONAL process (viewing one's group as better than other groups).

Hawthorne Studies (1920s-1930s)

Research projects designed to examine how environmental factors such as windows, lighting, ventilation, and work breaks affected work performance — inadvertently revealed that social factors had an important impact on performance. **The act of being cared about made a HUGE difference.

1990's

Researchers from sociology, anthropology, political science, communication, business, and education now study aspects of group dynamics. Although psychological research is still dominated by laboratory research on how groups operate, many other disciplines emphasize applied research and study groups in real-world settings. Theory on group dynamics is changing and becoming more sophisticated.

Structured Relations

Roles, rules, and norms that control people's interactions.

Sundstrom's Work Group Typology

SIX TYPES: 1. Production teams, such as factory teams, manufacture or assemble products on a repetitive basis. 2. Service teams, such as maintenance crews and food services, conduct repeated transactions with customers. 3. Management teams, composed of managers, work together, plan, develop policy, or coordinate the activities of an organization. 4. Project teams, such as research and engineering teams, bring experts together to perform a specific task within a defined period. 5. Action or performing teams, such as sports teams, entertainment groups, and surgery teams, engage in brief performances that are repeated under new conditions and that require specialized skills and extensive training or preparation. 6. Finally, parallel teams are temporary teams that operate outside normal work, such as employee involvement groups and advisory committees that provide suggestions or recommendations for changing an organization.

Sociotechnical Systems Theory (STS)

STS during the 1960s presented a way to analyze work and identify the need for teams. However, it was the rise of Japanese manufacturing teams during the 1980s that led to the increased use of teamwork in the United States. Sociotechnical systems theory (STS) provided a way to analyze what people do at work and to determine the best way of organizing them. According to STS, teams should be used when jobs are technically uncertain rather than routine, when jobs are interdependent and require coordination to perform, and when the environment is turbulent and requires flexibility. ie; Volvo

Individual Motivation

Satisfaction of personal needs through membership in the group.

Industrial Revolution

Shifted most work organizations to a hierarchical approach that used scientific management to design jobs. Scientific management worked well, but also alienated workers, who then became increasingly difficult to motivate. This complexity created an atmosphere of inflexibility and workers that were difficult to change. It was also challenging to successfully incorporate new goals (such as quality) other than efficiency.

Working in ______________ groups was common before the Industrial Revolution, but scientific management simplified jobs and created hierarchical work systems.

Small

T-Groups

Small, unstructured groups that were encouraged to engage in open and personal discussions, often over a series of days.

The Hawthorne studies of the 1930s demonstrated the importance of understanding the aspects of work related to ____________ relations.

Social

Team

Special type of group in which people work interdependently to accomplish a goal.

The increased use of information technology, the downsizing of layers of management, contemporary demands, business process reengineering, and globalization have all contributed to the use of _____________.

Teams

To a certain extent, ____________ have replaced managers, and often carry out traditional management functions.

Teams

When the goal is to improve the way a product is made or a service is provided, when the job is complex, when customer service and quality are important, or when rapid change is necessary.....these are all conditions that create the need for ____________.

Teams

Teams

Teams typically are engaged in sports or work activities. They have applied functions, and the roles of team members are related to their functions and assigned. For example, members of sports teams have specific assigned roles, such as pitcher or shortstop. Teams usually are parts of larger organizations. Their members have specialized knowledge, skills, and abilities related to their tasks. They are complementary. A team typically is composed of 3 to 12 people who interact with one another DIRECTLY (although this interaction may occur through communication technology). A team is not simply people who belong to the same group or who are coacting in the same place.

Complexity

The complexity of a problem or task often requires multiple forms of expertise. No one person may have all the skills or knowledge to complete a task or solve a problem, but a team may have sufficient expertise to deal with the task or problem. Complexity also implies problems that are confusing or difficult to understand and solve.

Empowerment

The expansion of employees' knowledge, tasks, and decision-making responsibilities. When a worker feels more empowered to make decisions and influence others, as well as, be influenced by others.

Scientific Managemet

The traditional approach to orgranizing people to perform a task. In this approach, managers or technical experts analyze a task and divide it into small activity units that are performed by individuals. The system is designed so each activity unit is linked to other activity units, and individuals work separately to complete the entire task. It is the role of management to design the system and control the operations of the workers. It is the role of the workers to perform a specific activity. **In other words, managers think and control and workers act. CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS: 1) The task remains the same for some time. 2) The process can NOT be too complex or easily disrupted. 3) A focus on productivity (no focus on quality or customer service). 4) Assumption that there are workers willing to perform routine activities under controlled situaitons.

Work Groups

They are part of the organization's hierarchical system. Supervisors or managers who control the decision making processes lead these work groups. Group members typically work on independent tasks that are linked by the supervisors or work system.

Norman Triplett (1898) SOCIAL FACILiTATION

Triplett's research showed the effects of working alone versus working in a group. For example, he observed that bicycle racers who pedaled around a racetrack in groups were faster than those who pedaled around alone. This effect has been called social facilitation because the presence of other people facilitates (or increases) performance. (Later research showed that performance increased for well-learned skills but declined for less-well-developed skills.)

Following World War II, researchers began to experiment with ___________ teams.

Work

There are three options for organizing people into ___________ groups: a work group, a team, or a self-managing team.

Work