Chapter 10 - understanding work teams

training

- create team players - train them!!

cultural differences

- interferes with team processes

leadership and structure

- need to know roles

Creating team players

1) selecting 2) training 3) rewarding

Team Processes

1. Common plan and purpose 2. Specific goals 3. Team efficacy 4. Mental models 5. Conflict levels 6. Social loafing 7. Team Identity 8. Team Cohesion

Types of teams

1. Problem-solving 2. Self-managed 3. Cross-functional 4. Virtual

task conflicts

Disagreements among group members about how a task should be accomplished (task content) - stimulate discussion and can lead to better team decisions - too much and too little task conflict can inhibit performance - when individual teams varied in their perceptions of organizational support given to team, there was an increase in task conflict and decrease in communication and team performance

Team Composition

How should teams be staffed? Abilities of members Personality Allocating roles Diversity Cultural differences Size of teams Member preferences

climate of trust

Members must trust each other and the leader - way trust is dispersed is important: asymmetrical and imbalanced can mitigate performance advantage of high levels of trust - trust is not equivocally desirable

abilities of members

Need technical expertise, problem-solving, decision-making, and good interpersonal skills - leaders need abilities too. - those with high abilities are more adaptable to change

team cohesion

a situation when team members are emotionally attached to one another and motivated toward the team because of their attachment - useful to predict team outcomes - strong predictor of team performance

slide 10

chart

slide 5

chart

cross-functional teams

employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task - not simple to manage

self-managed teams

groups of 10 to 15 people who take on responsibilities of their former supervisors - ex: planning/scheduling work, assigning tasks, etc. - implement solutions and take responsibility for outcomes

problem solving teams

groups of 5 to 12 employees from the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and the work environment - only make recommendations

allocating roles

put most able, experienced, and conscientious in central roles

action teams

teams with specialists engaged in intense, interdependent, and unpredictable tasks - likely to share mental models

common plan and purpose

Effective teams begin by analyzing the team's mission, developing goals to achieve that mission, and creating strategies for achieving the goals. - teams should agree on whether the purpose is to learn about and master a task or simply perform the task - reflexivity

Team context

What factors determine whether teams are successful? - Adequate Resources - Leadership and Structure - Climate of Trust - Performance - Evaluations and Rewards

Why are teams so popular?

- Teams can achieve feats an individual could never accomplish. - Teams are flexible and responsive to changing events. - They can quickly assemble, deploy, refocus, and disband. - They are an effective means to democratize organizations and increase employee involvement. - They introduce a collaborative mindset. - we believe they are effective

When not to use teams

- ask: Can the work be done better by one person? Does the work create a common goal or purpose? Are the members of the group interdependent? (yes, then use a team!)

diversity

- has negative affects on team performance

specific goals

- helps maintain focus - should be challenging

selecting

- hire team players - make sure they can fulfill the roles and consider personality

evaluations and rewards

- hybrid systems that recognize individual members for their exceptional contributions and reward the entire group for positive outcomes

rewarding

- incentives to be a good team player - encourage cooperative efforts over competitive efforts - rewards given to individuals who work effectively as team members - intrinsic reward: camaraderie

teams have...

- increased communication demands and conflicts - take more time and resources than individual work

conflict levels

- relationship conflicts - task conflicts

team effectiveness model

- teams differ in form and structure, and this model attempts to generalize across all varieties of teams (use as guide) - model assumes teamwork is preferable to individual work - not always. - slide 7 chart

multiteam systems

a collection of two or more interdependent teams that share a superordinate goal; a "team of teams" - best choice when a team has become too large to be effective, or when teams with distinct functions need to be highly considered - leadership is very important

Workgroup

a group that interacts primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each group member perform within his or her area of responsibility - no need or opportunity to engage in collective work with joint effort

workteam

a group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs - the extensive use of teams creates the potential for an organization to generate greater outputs with no increase in employee headcount

team identity

a team member's affinity for and sense of belongingness to his or her team - organizational identity is important too

organizational demography

attributes such as age/date of joining team should help predict turnover

slide 6

chart

size of teams

keep small for increased effectiveness - excess members lead to a decrease in cohesiveness and accountability and an increase in social loafing - ideal team has 7 members plus or minus 2

team effectiveness

objective measures of the team's productivity, manager's ratings of the team performance, and aggregate measures of member satisfaction

reflexivity

reflecting on and adjusting master plan when necessary

mental models

team members' knowledge and beliefs about how the work gets done by the team - the "how" - action teams - to maintain shared mental models, share conversation about what is happening while the team is in operation

virtual teams

teams that use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal - shared leadership may enhance team performance - to be effective, management should ensure... 1) trust is established among members 2) progress is monitored closely 3) efforts and products of the team are publicized throughout the organization - not always a good substitute for face-to-face teams

team efficacy

the collective belief among team members in the team's capability to successfully complete a task - build skills to increase this

relationship conflicts

those based on interpersonal incompatibility, tension, and animosity toward others - almost always dysfunctional

personality

want: - high conscientiousness - high openness to experience - high emotional stability - task conflict increases performance for teams with high openness to experience and high emotional stability

member preferences

when making teams, consider individual preferences - some people don't like to work on teams