MGMT 313 Chapter 8

Groups

Two or more freely interacting individuals who share norms and goals and have a common identity

Work Teams

Well-defined purpose, typically permanent, and usually require full commitment from members

How are Teams different from Groups?

A group becomes a team when leadership becomes a shared activity, accountability shifts from strictly individual to both individual and collective, the group develops its own purpose or mission, problem solving becomes a way of life, not a part-time activity, effectiveness is measured by the group's collective outcomes and products

What is trust?

A reciprocal belief that another person will consider how their intentions and behaviors will affect you. When we feel or observe others trust us, we are more likely to trust them

What is a Team?

A small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable

Group developing stage 4: Performing

Activity focused on problem solving, work done without hampering others, climate of open communication and cooperation, great deal of helping behavior

Virtual Team management: Best Practices

Adapt comm., share love, develop productive relationships with key people on team, partner, availability, pace, updates, select right people, comm. skills are essential

Formal Groups

Are assigned by organization to fulfill organizational and individual functions

Project Teams

Assembled to address specific problem, task, or project, usually exist for duration to compete purpose, members usually divide time between primary job and various project teams

Creation of norms

Can emerge on their own, can be purposefully created

The 3 C's of Effective Teams

Charters and Strategies, Team Composition, Capacity

Team Players

Committed, collaborative and competent. They contribute to work, constructively interact with team members, keep team on track, expect quality work, possess relevant knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) for team's responsibilities

Michael's manager told him that if he finished his project before Friday he would not have to work on the weekend. Michael finished the project on time and was still required to work on the weekend. Which type of trust did Michael's manager betray?

Contractual trust

Trust comes in three forms:

Contractual trust, communication trust, competence trust

Kierra is trying to quickly establish a team to find the root cause of a quality issue involving defective air bags in her company, which also involves suppliers and dealers. Which of these should she NOT do?

Decide against using a cross-functional team because she assumes the problem can be solved by one department

Effective Team Size

Depends on the purpose of the team but usually ten or fewer

Team Composition

Describes the collection of jobs, personalities, knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience of team members

Team Types

Differentiated by purpose, duration and level of member commitment

Cons of Virtual Teams

Difficult to establish cohesion, work satisfaction, trust, cooperative behavior, and commitment to team goals, cultural differences, differences in local laws and customs, lack of nonverbal cues and collegiality

Franco is part of a group which must resolve a quality control issue at his company. Franco is worried about what the group expects from him, and is not sure who is in charge. What stage of group development is the group likely in at this time?

Forming

Group developing stage 3: Norming

Group more cohesive, less conflict with increasing team member interactions and interdependence of work tasks

Purposes of reinforcing norms

Group or organizational survival, clarification of behavioral expectations, avoiding embarrassment and clarification of central values or unique identity

Group Roles and Norms

Group roles are expected behaviors for members of the group as a whole. While people often play multiple roles, two types of roles are especially noteworthy

Self-managed Teams

Groups of workers who are given administrative oversight for their task domains such as planning, scheduling, monitoring, and staffing, involves a revolutionary change in management philosophy, structure, staffing and training practices as well as reward systems

Group developing stage 1: Forming

Ice breaking stage, group members uncertain about their role, mutual trust is low, good deal of holding back to see who is in charge, conflict is beneficial and leads to increased creativity

Task Roles

Keep the group on track. Are composed of initiator, orient-er, information seaker/giver, evaluator, opinion seeker/giver, energizer, elaborator, procedural technician, coordinator and recorder

Maintenance Roles

Keep the group together. Are composed of encourager, standard setter, harmonizer, commentator, compromiser, follower and gate keeper

Cross-functional Teams

Occur when specialists from different areas are put on the same team

Characteristics of High-Performing Teams

Participative leadership, shared responsibility, aligned on purpose, high communication, future focused, focused on task, creative talents, rapid response

Roles

Pertain to a specific job or situation at the individual level

Informal Groups

Purpose of meeting is friendship or common interest

Pros of Virtual Teams

Reduce real estate costs, leverage diverse KSAs over geography and time, ability to share knowledge of diverse markets, reduce travel expenses and work-life conflicts, can attract and retain talent

Free Riders

Social loafing leads to: lower quality of work, others being forced to work harder, disruption for the team. Counter social loafing by limiting group size, assuring equity of effort, holding people accountable

Capacity

Team adaptive capacity crucial to meet changing demands and to effectively transition members in and out

Rewards

Team based rather than individual to foster collaboration

Charters and Strategies

Team charters: how the team will operate. Team performance strategies: deliberate plans that outline what exactly the team is to do

Norms

The attitudes, opinions, feelings, or actions shared by two or more people that guide behavior. Apply to group, team or organization. Shared phenomena

Group developing stage 2: Storming

Time of testing, testing leader's policies and assumptions and how they fit into the power structure, subgroups take shape, subtle forms of rebellion occur

Group developing stage 5: Adjourning

Work completed, group moves on to other activities, opportunity for leaders to emphasize valuable lessons learned

Virtual teams

Work together over time and distance via electronic media to combine effort and achieve common goals