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