Ch. 9: Managing Groups and Teams

Group

A collection of individuals who interact with each other such that one person's actions have an impact on the others

Problem-solving tasks

Refers to coming up with plans for actions and making decisions

After-action review

a meeting conducted at the end of a project or event, where team members discuss what went right, what went wrong, and what could have been done differently; common used alternative names include "retrospective meeting," "debrief meeting," or post mortem

Production tasks

tasks that include actually making something such as a building, product, or a marketing plan

Ch. 9 Conclusion

Research shows that group formation is a beneficial but highly dynamic process. The life cycle of teams can often closely resemble various stages in individual development. In order to maintain group effectiveness, individuals should be aware of key stages as well as methods to avoid becoming stuck along the way. Good leadership skills combined with knowledge of group development will help any group perform at its peak level. Teams, though similar, are different from groups in both scope and composition. Groups are often small collections of individuals with various skill sets that combine to address a specific issue, whereas teams can be much larger and often consist of people with overlapping abilities working toward a common goal. Many issues that can plague groups can also hinder the efficacy of a team. Problems such as social loafing or groupthink can be avoided by paying careful attention to team member differences and providing clear definitions for roles, expectancy, measurement, and rewards. Because many tasks in today's world have become so complex, groups and teams have become an essential component of an organization's success. The success of the team/group rests within the successful management of its members and making sure all aspects of work are fair for each member.

Forming

Stage when the group comes together for the first time

Creator

deals more with changes in the team's task process structure Ex) reframing the team goals and looking at the context of goals

Norming

stage when participants find it easy to establish their own ground rules (or norms) and define their operating procedures and goals; often feel relief

Ch. 9 Learning Objectives

1) Recognize and understand group dynamics and development 2) Understand the difference between groups and teams 3) Compare and contrast different types of teams 4) Understand how to design effective teams 5) Explore ideas around teams and ethics 6) Understand cross-cultural influences on teams

Boundary-Spanning Roles

Consul, Coordinator • related to activities outside the team that help to connect the team to the larger organization • teams that engage in a greater level of boundary-spanning behaviors increase their team effectiveness

After the meeting

Follow up on action items!

Stages of Group Development

Forming Storming Norming Performing Adjourning

Product development team

a team in charge of designing a new product, which may be temporary or ongoing

Contributor

characterized by sharing knowledge and training with those who have less expertise to strengthen the team; important, because it brings information and expertise to the team

Challenges of Knowing Where to Begin

floundering often results from a lack of clear goals, so the remedy is to go back to the team's mission or plan and make sure that it is clear to everyone

Sequential interdependence

in a team, when one person's output becomes another person's input

Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing Model

proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965; involved a four-stage map of group evolution • linear process • ADD MORE DETAIL

Cooperator

role includes supporting those with expertise toward the team's goals; a proactive role

Reciprocal interdependence

team members working on each task simultaneously

Team Leadership and Autonomy

teams vary in terms of how they are led

Cohesion

the degree of camaraderie within the group • more cohesive --> more productive, more rewarding experience for members • characteristics: collective identity; experience a moral bond and desire to remain part of the group; share a sense of purpose, working together on a meaningful task or cause; establish a structured pattern of communication • advantage for team effectiveness, but not necessarily performance • more strongly related to performance behaviors rather than outcomes • tendency to share information and knowledge --> key component of innovativeness and creativity

Adjourning phase

the fifth and final stage later added to the Tuckman model

Social loafing

the tendency of individuals to put in less effort when in a group setting than individually; aka the Ringelmann effect • ADD MORE

Dominating Team Members

• some team members may have a dominating personality that encroaches on the participation or air time of others; this overbearing behavior may hurt the team morale or the momentum of the team • a good way to overcome this barrier is to design a team evaluation to include a "balance of participation" in meetings • knowing that fair and equitable participation by all will affect the team's' performance evaluation will help team members limit domination by one member and encourage participation from all members

Before the meeting

6 key things you can do to ensure team members get the most out of their meeting: 1) Is a meeting needed? 2) Decide who should be at the meeting, and only invite those 3) Decide how long the meeting should be, and keep it short 4) Create and distribute an agenda 5) Determine how all members can attend 6) Send a reminder prior to the meeting

Team Role Typology

10 key team roles Task Roles: • Contractor • Creator • Contributor • Completer • Critic Social Roles: • Calibrator • Communicator • Cooperator Boundary-Spanning Roles: • Consul • Coordinator

9.5 Key Takeaway

Barriers to effective teams include the challenges of knowing where to begin, dominating team members, the poor performance of team members, and poorly managed team conflict.

Social Roles

Calibrator, Communicator, Cooperator • Serve to keep the team operating effectively • When these roles are filled, team members feel more cohesive, and the group is less prone to suffer process losses or biases such as social loafing, groupthink, or a lack of participation from all members

Task Roles

Contractor, Creator, Contributor, Completer, Critic

Idea-generation tasks

Creative tasks such as brainstorming a new direction or creating a new process Ex) coming up with a new marketing slogan

9.3 Key Takeaway

Groups and teams are not the same thing. Organizations have moved toward the extensive use of teams within organizations. The tasks a team is charged with accomplishing affect how they perform. In general, task interdependence works well for self-managing teams. Team roles consist of task, social, and boundary-spanning roles. Different types of teams include task forces, product development teams, cross-functional teams, and top management teams. Team leadership and autonomy vary, depending on whether the team is traditionally managed, self-managed, or self-directed. Teams are most effective when they comprise members with the right skills for the tasks at hand, are not too large, and contain diversity across team members.

9.4 Key Takeaway

Much like group development, team socialization takes place over the life of the team. The stages move from evaluation to commitment to role transition. Team norms are important for the team process and help to establish who is doing what for the team and how the team will function. Creating a team contract helps with this process. Keys to address in a team contract are team values and goals, team roles and leadership, team decision making, team communication expectations, and how team performance is characterized. Team meetings can help a team coordinate and share information. Effective meetings include preparation, management during the meeting, and follow-up on action items generated in the meeting. Psychological safety is a key ingredient when it comes to effective team management.

Factors affecting group cohesion

Similarity: the more similar group members are in terms of age, sex, education, skills, attitudes, values, and beliefs, the more likely the group will bond Stability: the longer a group stays together, the more cohesive it becomes Size: smaller groups tend to have higher levels of cohesion Support: when group members receive coaching and are encouraged to support their fellow team members, group identity strengthens Satisfaction: cohesion is correlated with how pleased group members are with each other's performance, behavior, and conformity to group norms

During the meeting

Things you can do to make sure the team starts and keeps on track: 1) Start the meeting on time 2) Getting on the same page 3) Follow the meeting agenda 4) Manage group dynamics for full participation 5) Summarize the meeting with action items 6) End the meeting on time

Informal work groups

Two or more individuals who are associated with one another in ways not prescribed by the formal organization Ex) a few people in the company who get together to play tennis on the weekend

Team

a cohesive coalition of people working together to achieve mutual goals • tend to be defined by their relatively smaller size: "a team is a SMALL number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable" • a collection of people is not a team, though they may learn to function that way • requires commitment to the vision and involves each individual working toward accomplishing the team's objective • members are focused on a joint goal or product, such as a presentation, discussing a topic, writing a report, creating a new design or prototype, or winning a team Olympic medal

Collective efficacy

a group's perception of its ability to successfully perform well

Task force

a type of temporary team which is asked to address a specific issue or problem until it is resolved

Team contract

agreements on established ground rules, goals, and roles • make teams better equipped to face challenges that may arise within the team • serves as a roadmap when the team veers off course

Process loss

any aspect of group interaction that inhibits group functioning

Team Roles

effective teams divide up tasks so the best people are in the best positions! • individuals who are more aware of team roles and the behavior required for each role perform better than individuals who do not

Contractor

includes behaviors that serve to organize the team's work, including creating new timelines, production schedules, and task sequencing

Establish Psychological Safety

psychological safety: refers to the perception that the consequences of taking interpersonal risk in workplace contexts are worth the risk • establishing psychological safety within teams is critical because it fosters the sharing of ideas, open communication, healthy levels of risk-taking, and increased creativity • trust is also important for team performance • psychological safety separates teams that are doing OK from those that are thriving/successful

Coordinator

role include interfacing with others within the organization so that the team's efforts are in line with other individuals and teams within the organization

Communicator

role includes behaviors that are targeted at collaboration, such as practicing good listening skills and appropriately using humor to diffuse tense situations; having a good person in this role helps the team feel more open to sharing ideas

Consul

role includes gathering information from the larger organization and informing those within the organization about the teams activities, goals, and successes; often this role is filled by team managers or leaders

Calibrator

role is important and serves to keep the team on track in terms of suggesting any needed changes to the team's process; includes initiating discussion about potential team problems such as power struggles or other tensions • may involve settling disagreements or pointing out what is working and what is not in terms of team process

Performing

stage when participants are not only getting the work done, but they also pay greater attention to how they are doing it (group is galvanized by a sense of shared vision and feeling of unity; read to go into high gear)

Storming

stage when participants focus less on keeping their guard up as they shed social facades, becoming more authentic and more argumentative (once group members feel sufficiently safe and included)

Poor Performance of Some Team Member

team deal with poor performers in different ways, depending on members' perceptions of the reasons for poor performance • in situations where the poor performer is perceived as lacking ability, teams are more likely to train the member • when members perceive the individual as simply being low on motivation, they are more likely to try to motivate or reject the poor performer • be sure that poor performers are dealt with in a way that is deemed fair by all the team members!

Critic

this role includes "devil's advocate" behaviors that go against the assumptions made by the team

Completer

transforms ideas into action; behaviors associated with this role include following up on tasks, such as gathering needed background information or summarizing the team's ideas into reports

Pooled interdependence

when team members may work independently and simply combine their efforts to create the team's output

outcome interdependence

when the rewards that an individual receives depend on the performance of others

Traditionally managed teams

• Leader resides outside the team • Potential for low autonomy

Designing Effective Teams: Team Composition

• Team size (the optimal number of people on the team) • Team diversity (should team members be of similar background or of different backgrounds) Answering these questions will depend on the type of task that the team will be performing

Self-directed team

• The team makes all decisions internally about leadership and how work is done • Potential for high autonomy

Self-managed teams

• The team manages itself but still has a team leader • Potential for low, medium, or high autonomy

Team Leadership is a Major Determinant of How Autonomous a Team Can Be

• Traditionally managed teams • Self-managed teams • Self-directed teams

GROUP DYNAMICS

9.2 Learning Objectives: 1) Understand the difference between informal and formal groups 2) Learn the stages of group development 3) Identify examples of the punctuated equilibrium model 4) Learn how group cohesion affects groups 5) Learn how social loafing affects groups 6) Learn how collective efficacy affects groups

UNDERSTANDING TEAM DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS

9.3 Learning Objectives: 1) Understand the difference between groups and teams 2) Understand the factors leading to the rise in the use of teams 3) Understand how tasks and roles affect teams 4) Identify different types of teams 5) Identify team design considerations

MANAGEMENT OF TEAMS

9.4 Learning Objectives: 1) Understand how to create team norms, roles, and expectations 2) Identify keys to running effective team meetings

BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE TEAMS

9.5 Learning Objectives: 1) Recognize common barriers to effective teams 2) Learn how to address some of the most common barriers and maintain group effectiveness

9.2 Key Takeaway

Groups may be either formal or informal. Groups go through developmental stages much like individuals do. The forming-storming-norming-performing-adjourning model is useful in prescribing stages that groups should pay attention to as they develop. The punctuated-equilibrium model of group development argues that groups often move forward during bursts of change after long periods without change. Groups that are similar, stable, small, supportive, and satisfied tend to be more cohesive than groups that are not. Cohesion can help support group performance if the group values task completion. Too much cohesion can also be a concern for groups. Social loafing increases as groups become larger. When collective efficacy is high, groups tend to perform better.

Formal work groups

Is made up of managers, subordinates, or both with close associations among group members that influence the behavior of individuals in the group

Helpful questions for creating a meaningful team contract

Team Values and Goals: • What are our shared team values? • What is our team goal? Team Roles and Leadership: • Who does what within this team? • Does the team have a formal leader? • If so, what are his or her roles? Team Decision Making: • How are minor decisions made? • How are major decisions made? Team Communication: • Who do you contact if you cannot make a meeting? • Who communicates with whom? • How often will the team meet? Team Performance: • What constitutes good team performance? • What if a team member tries hard but does not seem to be producing quality work? • How will poor attendance/work quality be dealt with?

Virtual teams

Teams where members are not located in the same physical place • some are formed by necessity, such as to take advantage of lower labor costs in different companies • often, these teams are formed to take advantage of distributed expertise or time--the needed experts may be living in different cities • present special management challenges! • managers often think that they have to see team members working in order to believe that work is being done; it is important to devise evaluation schemes that focus on deliverables • another special challenge is building trust; in manager-led virtual teams, managers should be held accountable for their team's results and evaluated on their ability as a team leader • communication is especially important! be it through email, phone calls, conference calls, or project management tools that help organize work • team performance can suffer if individuals in a virtual team are not fully engaged and tend to avoid conflict

Can a Group Have Too Much Cohesion?

YES • ADD MORE

Group (differences between groups and teams)

a collection of individuals • within an organization, groups might consist of project-related collectives such as a product group or division, or they can encompass an entire store or branch of a company • the performance of a group consists of the inputs of the group minus and process losses

Groupthink

a tendency to avoid a critical evaluation of ideas the group favors

Team norms

shared expectations about how things operate within a group or team • helps teams be more cohesive and perform better • ensure coordination within a team • these are shaped early during the life of a team and affect whether the team is productive, cohesive, and successful

Adjourning

many groups or teams formed in a business context are project-oriented and therefore are temporary in nature; a working group may also dissolve due to an organizational restructuring

Team Meetings

serve an important function in terms of information sharing and decision making; also serve an important social function and can help build team cohesion and a task function in terms of coordination • to run effective meetings, it helps to think of what should happen before, during, and after meetings

Top management teams

teams appointed by the chief executive officer (CEO) and, ideally, reflect the skills and areas that the CEO considers vital for the company • typical team member titles include chief operating officer (COO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief marketing officer (CMO), or chief technology officer (CTO) • In most American companies, the CEO also serves as chairman of the board and can have the additional title of president • top teams help set the company's vision and strategic direction + make decisions on new markets, expansions, acquisitions, or divestitures • the top team is also important for its symbolic role: How the top team behaves dictates the organization's culture and priorities by allocating resources and by modeling behaviors that will likely be emulated lower down in the organization • the top team is most effective when team composition is diverse (functionally and demographically) and when it can truly operate as a team, not just as a group of individual executives

Team Tasks

teams differ in terms of the tasks they are trying to accomplish: 1) Production tasks 2) Idea-generation tasks 3) Problem-solving tasks

Empowered teams

teams that have the responsibility as well as the authority to achieve their goals (includes self-managed teams!) • team members have the power to control tasks and processes and to make decisions • can more effectively meet deadlines

Cross-functional team

teams that involve individuals from different parts of the organization, which may be temporary or long-standing in nature

Self-managed teams

teams that manage themselves and do not report directly to a supervisor; instead, team members select their own leader, and they may even take turns in the leadership role • also have the power to select new team members • the team shares responsibility for a significant task; the task is ongoing rather than temporary Benefits: • can be used to reduce hierarchy by allowing team members to complete tasks and solve problems on their own • Employees: higher job satisfaction, increased self-esteem, and more growth on the job • Organization: increased productivity, increased flexibility, lower turnover • bring particular benefits to lower-level employees by giving them a sense of ownership • increased satisfaction --> reduced absenteeism, because employees don't want to let their team members down

Traditional manager-led teams

teams where the manager serves as the team leader • manager assigns work to other team members • most natural to form, with managers having the power to hire and fire team members and being held accountable for the team's results

Task interdependence

the degree that team members are dependent upon one another to get information, support, or materials from other members to be effective • high task interdependence: as the team's task requires communication, collaboration, and coordination, team performance will be highly dependent on how cohesive the team is • low task interdependence: cohesion does not make much different in teams

The Punctuated Equilibrium Model

the theory that change within group occurs in rapid, radical spurts rather than gradually over time; Eldredge and Gould's model where the life of a group is more dynamic and cyclical in nature • ADD MORE

Types of Teams

there are several types of temporary and ongoing teams

Effective teams

• collaborative action in which, along with a common goal, teams have collaborative tasks • share the rewards of strong team performance with their compensation based on shared outcomes • members willing to sacrifice for the common good

Who are the best individuals for the team?

• ensure that all the team members are qualified for the roles they will fill for the team • entails understanding the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) of team members as well as the personality traits needed before starting the selection process • communicate job requirements and norms of the team; train the team members as much as possible to help ensure success

Poorly Managed Team Conflict

• healthy teams raise issues and discuss differing points of view, because that will ultimately help the team reach stronger, more well-reasoned decisions • unfortunately, sometimes disagreements arise owing to personality issues or feuds that predated a team's formation; ideally, teams should be designed to avoid bringing adversaries together on the same team • the next best solution is to have adversaries discuss their issues privately, so the team's progress is not disrupted; the team leader or other team members can offer to facilitate the discussion • one way to make a discussion between conflicting parties meaningful is to form a behavioral contract between the two parties • an important factor of how teams deal with conflict is how safe the team members feel in expressing their concerns (regarding team trust and perceptions of psychological safety)

Benefits of teams

• purpose = accomplish larger, more complex goals than would be possible for an individual working alone or even the sum of several individuals working independently • can, but do not always, provide improved performance • working together to further a team agenda seems to increase mutual cooperation between what are often competing factions • aim = perform, get results, and achieve victory in the workplace

How diverse should my team be?

• teams whose members have complementary skills are often more successful, because members can see each other's blind spots; one team member's strengths can compensate for another's weaknesses • Ex) forecasters have the analytic skills needed for forecasting the future sales of a given product, but often lack critical information about customers; salespeople, in contrast, regularly communicate with customers, but often lack the analytic skills, discipline, or desire to enter this knowledge into spreadsheets and software that will help a company forecast future sales; putting forecasters and salespeople together on a team task with determining the most accurate product forecast each quarter makes the best use of each member's skills and expertise • diversity in team composition can help teams come up with more creative and effective solutions • teams that believe in the value of diversity perform better than teams that do not! • the more diverse a team is in terms of expertise, gender, age, and background, the more ability the group has to avoid the problems of groupthink • diversity of team members in their individual value orientations is related to conflict within the group and lower levels of cohesion

How large should my team be?

• the ideal size for a team depends on the task • groups larger than 10 members tend to be harder to coordinate and often break into subteams to accomplish the work • a good rule of thumb is a size of two to 20 members; research shows that groups with more than 20 members have less cooperation • the majority of teams have 10 members or less • with fewer individuals, team members are more able to work through differences and agree on a common plan of action; they have a clearer understanding of others' roles and greater accountability to fulfill their roles • as teams get bigger, they experience more problems, such as aggressive behaviors, social loafing, taking credit for the group's success, and the misuse of resources • some tasks require larger team sizes; in those cases, the best solution is to create subteams in which one member from each subteam is a member of a larger coordinating team • the relationship between size and performance seems to greatly depend on the level of task interdependence • team size should be matched to the goals of the team!