Chapter 10

Teamwork assessing

- An indirect way to measure someone's preference for teamwork is to assess the person's degree of individualism or collectivism. Individualism-collectivism is the degree to which a person believes that people should be self-sufficient and that loyalty to one's self is more important than loyalty to one's team or company. - Individualists, who put their own welfare and interests first, generally prefer independent tasks in which they work alone. - In contrast, collectivists, who put group or team interests ahead of self-interests, generally prefer interdependent tasks in which they work with others. - Collectivists would also rather cooperate than compete and are fearful of disappointing team members or of being ostracized from teams. - Given these differences, it makes sense to select team members who are collectivists rather than individualists. After the right team has been put together in terms of individualism-collectivism, team level, and team diversity, it's important to keep the team together as long as practically possible.

The advantage of teams

- Companies are making greater use of teams because teams have been shown to improve customer satisfaction, product and service quality, speed and efficiency in product development, employee job satisfaction, and decision making.

The disadvantage of teams

- Despite all of their promise, teams and teamwork are also prone to these significant disadvantages: initially high turnover, social loafing, and the problems associated with group decision making. - Finally, team members may not feel accountable for the decisions and actions taken by the team.

Work Team characteristics

- Team Norms - Team cohesiveness - team size - team conflict - the stages of team development

Initially high turnover

- Teams aren't for everyone, and some workers balk at the responsibility, effort, and learning required in team settings.

Too small team size

- Teams with just a few people may lack the diversity of skills and knowledge found in larger teams. - Also, teams that are too small are unlikely to gain the advantages of team decision making (multiple perspectives, generating more ideas and alternative solutions, and stronger commitment) found in larger teams

Job Satisfaction

- Teamwork can be more satisfying than traditional work because it gives workers a chance to improve their skills. This is often accomplished through cross-training. Cross Training: in which team members are taught how to do all or most of the jobs performed by the other team members. - The advantage for the organization is that cross-training allows a team to function normally when one member is absent, quits, or is transferred. The advantage for workers is that cross-training broadens their skills and increases their capabilities while also making their work more varied and interesting. - Teamwork is also satisfying because work teams often receive proprietary business information that typically is available only to managers. - Team members also gain job satisfaction from unique leadership responsibilities that are not typically available in traditional organizations.

Project teams

- complete specific, one-time projects or tasks within a limited time. - Project teams are often used to develop new products, significantly improve existing products, roll out new information systems, or build new factories or offices. - The project team is typically led by a project manager who has the overall responsibility for planning, staffing, and managing the team, which usually includes employees from different functional areas. - Effective project teams demand both individual and collective responsibility. Advantages: 1) One advantage of project teams is that drawing employees from different functional areas can reduce or eliminate communication barriers. 2) as long as team members feel free to express their ideas, thoughts, and concerns, free-flowing communication encourages cooperation among separate departments and typically speeds up the design process 3) Another advantage of project teams is their flexibility. When projects are finished, project team members either move on to the next project or return to their functional units

Team norms

- informally agreed-on standards that regulate team behavior. - Norms are valuable because they let team members know what is expected of them. - Studies indicate that norms are one of the most powerful influences on work behavior because they regulate the everyday actions that allow teams to function effectively. - Team norms are often associated with positive outcomes such as stronger organizational commitment, more trust in management, and stronger job and organizational satisfaction. - Effective work teams develop norms about the quality and timeliness of job performance, absenteeism, safety, and honest expression of ideas and opinions. - Norms can also influence team behavior in negative ways. For example, most people would agree that damaging organizational property; saying or doing something to hurt someone at work; intentionally doing one's work badly, incorrectly, or slowly; griping about coworkers; deliberately bending or breaking rules; and doing something to harm the company or boss are negative behaviors.

Norming

- team members begin to settle into their roles as team members. - Positive team norms will have developed by this stage, and teammates should know what to expect from each other. - Petty differences should have been resolved, friendships will have developed, and group cohesion will be relatively strong.

Traditional work groups

- where two or more people work together to achieve a shared goal. - In these groups, workers are responsible for doing the work or executing the task, but they do not have direct responsibility or control over their work. - Workers report to managers, who are responsible for their performance and have the authority to hire and fire them, make job assignments, and control resources. - "I've done my time. Let the younger employees do the work."

When to use teams?

Use teams when: - there is a clear, engaging reason or purpose - the job can't be done unless people work together - rewards can be provided for teamwork and team performance - ample resources are available Don't use teams when: - there is not a clear, engaging reason or purpose - the job can be done unless people work together - rewards can be provided for individual effort and performance - necessary resources are not available

Cross Training:

in which team members are taught how to do all or most of the jobs performed by the other team members.

Team Conflict

- Cognitive conflict - Affective conflict - Cognitive conflict is strongly associated with improvements in team performance, whereas affective conflict is strongly associated with decreases in team performance. - Sincere attempts to reach agreement on a difficult issue can quickly deteriorate from cognitive to affective conflict if the discussion turns personal, and tempers and emotions flare. While cognitive conflict is clearly the better approach to take, efforts to engage in cognitive conflict should be managed well and checked before they deteriorate causing the team to become unproductive

Team training

- To be successful, teams need significant training, particularly in interpersonal skills, decision-making and problem-solving skills, conflict resolution skills, and technical training.

Self-managing teams

- are different from semi-autonomous work groups in that 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. This includes managing and controlling the acquisition of materials, making a product or providing a service, and ensuring timely delivery.

Team Level

- average level of ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team.

Forming

- getting-acquainted stage in which team members first meet each other, form initial impressions, and try to get a sense of what it will be like to be part of the team. - Some of the first team norms will be established during this stage as team members begin to find out what behaviors will and won't be accepted by the team. - During this stage, team leaders should allow time for team members to get to know each other, set early ground rules, and begin to set up a preliminary team structure.

Autonomy

- the degree to which workers have the discretion, freedom, and independence to decide how and when to accomplish their jobs.

Cognitive conflict

- which focuses on problem-related differences of opinion

Product and service quality

- In contrast to traditional organizational structures, in which management is responsible for organizational outcomes and performance, teams take direct responsibility for the quality of the products and service they produce and sell

Self-designing teams

- have all the characteristics of self-managing teams, but they can also control and change the design of the teams themselves, the tasks they do and how and when they do them, and the membership of the teams.

Performing

- performance improves because the team has finally matured into an effective, fully functioning team. - At this point, members should be fully committed to the team and think of themselves as members of a team and not just employees.

Too large team size

- team members find it difficult to get to know one another, and the team may splinter into smaller subgroups. - there is also a greater chance of minority domination, where just a few team members dominate team discussions. - when team members feel that their contributions are unimportant or not needed, the result is less involvement, effort, and accountability to the team. - Large teams also face logistical problems such as finding an appropriate time or place to meet. - Finally, the incidence of social loafing, discussed earlier in the chapter, is much higher in large teams.

minority domination

- where just one or two people dominate team discussions, restricting consideration of different problem definitions and alternative solutions. Minority domination is especially likely to occur when the team leader talks so much during team discussions, effectively discouraging other team members from speaking up. - When that happens, team performance drops significantly.

Employee Involvement Teams

- which have somewhat more autonomy, meet on company time on a weekly or monthly basis to provide advice or make suggestions to management concerning specific issues such as plant safety, customer relations, or product quality.* - Though they offer advice and suggestions, they do not have the authority to make decisions. Membership on these teams is often voluntary, but members may be selected because of their expertise. - The idea behind employee involvement teams is that the people closest to the problem or situation are best able to recommend solutions.

Affective Conflict

- which refers to the emotional reactions that can occur when disagreements become personal rather than professional.

Kinds of team: in terms of autonomy

- Teams can be classified in a number of ways, such as permanent or temporary, or functional or cross-functional. However, studies indicate that the amount of autonomy possessed by a team is the key difference among teams. - Moving left to right across the autonomy continuum at the top of the exhibit, traditional work groups and employee involvement groups have the least autonomy, semi- autonomous work groups have more autonomy, and, finally, self-managing teams and self-designing teams have the most autonomy. Moving from bottom to top along the left side of the exhibit, note that the number of responsibilities given to each kind of team increases directly with its autonomy.

Team diversity

- Whereas team level represents the average level or capability on a team, team diversity represents the variances or differences in ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team.

Methods for effective team performance:

Stretch Goals: are extremely ambitious goals that workers don't know how to reach. Four things need to occur to attain a stretch goal: 1) teams must have a high degree of autonomy or control over how they achieve their goals. 2) teams must be empowered with control of resources, such as budgets, workspaces, computers, or whatever else they need to do their jobs. 3) teams need structural accommodation. 4) teams need bureaucratic immunity.

Kinds of team: not in terms of autonomy

- Companies are also increasingly using several other kinds of teams that can't easily be categorized in terms of autonomy: cross-functional teams, virtual teams, and project teams. Depending on how these teams are designed, they can be either low- or high-autonomy teams.

Stages of team development

- Forming - Storming - Norming - Performing - After a period of time, however, if a team is not managed well, its performance may start to deteriorate as the team begins a process of decline and progresses through the stages of de-norming, de-storming, and de-forming.

Virtual teams

- are groups of geographically and/or organizationally dispersed coworkers who use a combination of telecommunications and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task. - Members of virtual teams rarely meet face-to-face; instead, they use email, videoconferencing, and group communication software. - Virtual teams can be employee involvement teams, self-managing teams, or nearly any kind of team discussed in this chapter. - Virtual teams are often (but not necessarily) temporary teams that are set up to accomplish a specific task.

Cross-functional teams

- are intentionally composed of employees from different functional areas of the organization. - Because their members have different functional backgrounds, education, and experience, cross-functional teams usually attack problems from multiple perspectives and generate more ideas and alternative solutions, all of which are especially important when trying to innovate or solve problems creatively. - Cross-functional teams can be used almost anywhere in an organization and are often used in conjunction with matrix and product organizational structures. - They can also be used either with part-time or temporary team assignments or with full-time, long-term teams

Team cohesivness

How to promote it? 1) make sure that all team members are present at team meetings and activities. 2) create additional opportunities for teammates to work together by rearranging work schedules and creating common workspaces. 3) engaging in non-work activities as a team can help build cohesion.

Signs that the team size needs to be changed.

- If decisions are taking too long, if the team has difficulty making decisions or taking action, if a few members dominate the team, or if the commitment or efforts of team members are weak, chances are the team is too big. - In contrast, if a team is having difficulty coming up with ideas or generating solutions, or if the team does not have the expertise to address a specific problem, chances are the team is too small.

Team compensation and recognition

- One basic requirement for team compensation to work is that the level of rewards (individual versus team) must match the level of performance (individual versus team). - Employees can be compensated for team participation and accomplishments in three ways: skill-based pay, gainsharing, and nonfinancial rewards. 1) Skill-based pay programs pay employees for learning additional skills or knowledge. These programs encourage employees to acquire the additional skills they will need to perform multiple jobs within a team and to share knowledge with others within their work groups. 2) n gainsharing programs, companies share the financial value of performance gains, such as productivity increases, cost savings, or quality improvements, with their workers. 3) Nonfinancial rewards are another way to reward teams for their performance. These rewards, which can range from vacations to T-shirts, plaques, and coffee mugs, are especially effective when coupled with management recognition, such as awards, certificates, and praise. In general, skill-based pay is most effective for self-managing and self-directing teams performing complex tasks. In these situations, the more each team member knows and can do, the better the whole team performs. By contrast, gainsharing works best in relatively stable environments where employees can focus on improving productivity, cost savings, or quality.

Decision making

- because team members possess different knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences, a team is able to view problems from multiple perspectives. - This diversity of viewpoints increases the odds that team decisions will solve the underlying causes of problems and not just address the symptoms. - The increased knowledge and information available to teams also make it easier for them to generate more alternative solutions, a critical part of improving the quality of decisions. Because team members are involved in decision-making processes, they are also likely to be more committed to making those decisions work. - In short, teams can do a much better job than individuals in two important steps of the decision-making process: defining the problem and generating alternative solutions.

Semi-autonomous work groups

- not only provide advice and suggestions to management but also have the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks required to produce a product or service. - Semi-autonomous groups regularly receive information about budgets, work quality and performance, and competitors' products. - Furthermore, members of semi-autonomous work groups are typically cross-trained in a number of different skills and tasks. - In short, semi-autonomous work groups give employees the authority to make decisions that are typically made by supervisors and managers. - That authority is not complete, however. Managers still play a role, though one that is much reduced compared with traditional work groups, in supporting the work of semi-autonomous work groups. The role a manager plays on a team usually evolves over time. - A lot of what managers of semi-autonomous work groups do is ask good questions, provide resources, and facilitate performance of group goals.

Social loafing

- occurs when workers withhold their efforts and fail to perform their share of the work. - In fact, social loafing is more likely to occur in larger groups where identifying and monitoring the efforts of individual team members can be difficult

Team size

- A team of this size is small enough for the team members to get to know each other and for each member to have an opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way to the success of the team. - At the same time, the team is large enough to take advantage of team members' diverse skills, knowledge, and perspectives. - It is also easier to instill a sense of responsibility and mutual accountability in teams of this size.

Storming

- As team members begin working together, different personalities and work styles may clash. - Team members become more assertive at this stage and more willing to state opinions. - Team performance is still relatively low, given that team cohesion is weak and team members are still reluctant to support each other.

Customer Satisfaction

- One way is to create work teams that are trained to meet the needs of specific customers.

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.

Cohesiveness

- is the extent to which team members are attracted to a team and motivated to remain in it.

Structural Accomodation

- means giving teams the ability to change organizational structures, policies, and practices if doing so helps them meet their stretch goals

Bureaucratic immunity

- means that teams no longer have to go through the frustratingly slow process of multilevel reviews and sign-offs to get management approval before making changes. - Once granted bureaucratic immunity, teams are immune from the influence of various organizational groups and are accountable only to top management.

Groupthink

- members of highly cohesive groups feel intense pressure not to disagree with each other so that the group can approve a proposed solution. - Because groupthink restricts discussion and leads to consideration of a limited number of alternative solutions, it usually results in poor decisions