Chapter 10

Team Autonomy Continuum

(Low autonomy) traditional work groups Employee involvement groups Semi-autonomous work groups Self-managing teams Self-Designing Teams (High autonomy)

Team Conflict

- disagreement over team goals and priorities - disagreements over task-related issues - interpersonal incompatibilities - simple fatigue The key to conflict is not to avoid it, but make sure the team experiences the right kind of conflict

When to use teams

- there is a clear, engaging reason or purpose - the job cant be done unless people work together - rewards can be provided for teamwork and team performance - ample resources are available

Cross-Functional Teams

-employees from different functional areas , generate more ideas and alternative solutions, attack problems from multiple perspectives, often used in conjunction with matrix and product organizational structures

Stages of Team Development

1. Forming 2. Storming 3. Norming 4. Performing 5. Adjourning

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

Special Kinds of Teams

Cross functional, virtual, project teams

Semi-Autonomous Work Groups

Have the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks required to product a product or service - have the ability to make decisions with management approval

Advantages of Teams

Improve customer satisfaction, product and service quality, speed and efficiency in product development, employee job satisfaction, and decision making. In decision making there are multiple perspective, more alternate solutions and commitment to decisions

Disadvantages of Teams

Initially high turnover, social loafing, Disadvantage of group decision making. Disadv of group decision making includes groupthink, inefficient meetings, minority domination, lack of accountability.

Promoting Team Cohesiveness

Make sure all members are present at team meetings and activities, create additional opportunities for teammates to work together, engaging in non work activities, and make employees feel that they are part of special organization

Storming

People are fighting a lot, tension. People regret making teams

Tips for Managing Successful Virtual Teams

Select self starters and strong communicators, keep the team focused on clear, specif goals, provide frequent feed back, keep team interactions upbeat and action orientated, periodically bring team members together, improve communicators, ask team members fro feedback on how well team is working, empower virtual teams

Enhancing Work Team Effectiveness

Settling team goals and priorities, team training, team compensation, selecting team members

Self-Managing Teams

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

Requirement for Stretch Goals to Motivate Team Performance

Teams have a high degree of autonomy, are empowered with control resources, need for structural accommodation, need bureaucratic immunity

Factors the Encourage People to Withhold Effort in Teams

The presence of someone with expertise, the presentation of a compelling argument, lacking confidence in ones ability to contribute, an unimportant or meaningless decision, a dysfunctional decision making climate.

Storming

The second stage of development characterized by conflict and disagreement, in which team members disagree over what the team should do and how it should do it

Team Size

Very large or very small teams may not perform as well as moderately sized teams. The right size is usually between 6-9 members - when teams get too large they may splinter into subgroups

Gainsharing

a compensation system in which companies share the financial value of performance gains, such as increased productivity, cost savings, or quality, with their workers (team compensation)

Skill based pay

compensation system that pays employees for learning additional skills or knowledge (team compensation)

Project Teams

created to complete specific, one-time projects or tasks within a limited time, often used to develop new products, significantly improve existing products, roll out new information systems, or build new factories or offices, can eliminate communication barriers and speed up design process, flexibility

C-type (Cognitive Conflict)

focuses on problem-related differences of opinion and issues - strongly associated with improvements in team performance

Virtual Teams

groups of geographically and/or organizationally dispersed coworkers who use a combination of telecommunications and information technologies to accomplish and organization task

Self-Designing Teams

have all the characteristics of self-managing teams, but they can also control team design, work tasks, and team membership

Team Norms

informally agreed-on standards that regulate team behavior, powerful influence on work behavior, regulate the everyday behaviors of teams. -positives: stronger organizational commitment, more trust in management, stronger job and organizational satisfaction - negatives: teams with negative norms strongly influenced their team members to engage in these negative behaviors

Team Training

interpersonal skills, decision making and problem solving, conflict, technical training, training for team leaders

Minority Domination

just a few members dominate team discussions

Employee Involvement Teams

meet on company time on a weekly or monthly basis to provide advice or make suggestions to management concerning specific issues - do not have authority to make decisions - the idea behind employee involvement teams is that the people closets to the problem or situation are best able to recommend solutions

Social Loafing

occurs when workers withhold their efforts and fail to perform their share of the work - more likely to occur in larger groups and know as slackers

A-type (Affective Conflict)

refers to the emotional, personal disagreements - strongly associated with decreases in team performance

Team diversity

represents the variances or differences in ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team (selecting team members)

Interpersonal Skills

skills, such as listening, communicating, questioning, and providing feedback, that enable people to have effective working relationships with others (team training)

Setting Team Goals and Priorities

team goals enhance team performance, goals clarify team priorities, challenging team goals help team members regulate effort

Structural Accommodation

the ability to change organizational structures, policies, and practices in order to meet stretch goals (Setting team goals and priorities)

Bureaucratic Immunity

the ability to make changes without first getting approval from managers or other parts of an organization (Setting team goals and priorities)

Team level

the average level of ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team (selecting team members)

Individualism-collectivism

the degree to which a person believes that people should be self-sufficient and that loyalty to ones self is more important than loyalty to team or company (selecting team members)

Autonomy

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

Cohesiveness Cohesive Teams

the extent to which team members are attracted to a team and motivated to remain in it. -retain their members, promote cooperation, have high levels of performance

Performing

the fourth and final stage of team development, in which performance improves bc the team has matured into an effective, fully functioning team

Forming

the initial stage of team development in which team members meet each other, form initial impressions, and begin establishing team norms

Team Compensation and Recognition 3 methods

the level of reward must match the level of performance. skill based pay, gainsharing, non financial rewards

Norming

the third stage of team development, in which team members begin to settle into their roles, group cohesion grows, and positive team norms develop

Don't use teams when

there is no clear purpose, the job can be done independently, individual based rewards exists, resources are scarce

Cross-Training

when team members are taught how to do all or most of the jobs performed by the other team members. If one member is absent team can still function without them.

Minority Domination

where just one or two people dominate team discussions, restricting consideration of different problem definitions and alternative situations

Traditional Work Groups

where two or more people work together to achieve a shared goal - are responsible for doing the work and executing the task, but do not have direct responsibility or control over their work