chapter 11 - teams
action team
-Perform complex tasks that vary in duration and take place in highly visible or challenging circumstances -Varied life span -Varied member involvement -Specific examples: surgical team, musical group, expedition team, sports team
parallel team
-Provide recommendations and resolve issues -Varied life span -Low member involvement -Specific examples: Quality circle, Advisory council, Committee
management team
-integrate activities of subunits across business functions -long life span -moderate member involvement -specific examples: top management team
project team
-produce a one-time output (product, service, plan, design, etc.). -life span varies -member involvement varies -specific examples: product design team, research group, planning team
aspects of team effectiveness
1. Team Performance (how well they do) 2. Team Viability (team commitment)
Teams are special for two reasons:
1. the interactions among members within teams revolve around a deeper dependence on one another than the interactions within groups; 2. the interactions within teams occur with a specific task-related purpose in mind (although the members of a friendship group may engage in small talk or in-depth conversations on a frequent basis, the members of a team depend on one another for critical information, materials, and actions that are needed to accomplish goals related to their purpose for being together; HAVE A TASK AND PURPOSE AND THATS WHY THEY ARE GROUPED; RELY ON EACH OTHER
Similarity-attraction approach
A theory explaining that team diversity can be counterproductive because people tend to avoid interacting with others who are unlike them (people tend to be more attracted to others who are perceived as more similar);
Which of the following typically occurs with increasing levels of task interdependence?
Members spend increasing amounts of time coordinating their activities.
role
a pattern of behavior that a person is expected to display in a given context "specific sets of task-focused activities that define what the individual members are expected to do for their team" - example: on basketball team "forward, guard, etc."; top management teams also have different roles: they work together to implement a firm strategy but have unique functional responsibilities related to day-to-day operations of the firm.
we can also describe teams by talking about the interdependence that governs connections among team members
can think of interdependence as the way in which the members of a team are linked to one another; that linkage between members is most often thought of in terms of the interactions that take place as the team accomplishes its work. linkages among team members also exist, however, with respect to their goals and rewards.
As a general rule, as the extent of task interdependence ______, the time spent staying in touch with and coordinating with team members to finish tasks ______.
decreases, decreases
Which type of diversity encompasses differences in attitudes, values, and psychological characteristics of people?
deep-level diversity
During the team meeting, Mark spoke up. "I'd like to point out that our team met our deadline this week. Good job, team! We worked hard and we made it happen." What team-building role is Mark displaying?
encourager
many teams develop in a less linear fashion
forming and pattern creation, inertia, process revision, inertia
Behaviors that benefit the individual at the expense of the team are referred to as
individualistic roles
Even though the administrative staff at a law firm works together as a team, their output is rewarded on an individual basis. This practice fosters
low outcome interdependence.
team
more than a group - is a special type of group (where a group is just a collection of 2 or more people)!! consists of two or more people who work INTERDEPENDENTLY over some time period to accomplish **common goals** related to some **task-oriented purpose**
A way to measure team effectiveness regarding a particular task is to assess the team's
performance.
team task roles
refer to behaviors that directly facilitate the accomplishment of team tasks
Roles that seek to influence the quality of the team's social climate are known as ______ roles.
team-buildingq
Goal Interdependence
the degree to which team members have a shared goal and align their individual goals with that vision
team viability
the likelihood that the team can work together effectively into the future
The phenomenon in which people tend to interact with people who are similar to themselves and avoid interacting with those who are dissimilar is known as
the similarity-attraction approach.
!!**estimates are that between 65 percent and 95 percent of people employed in knowledge intensive jobs work in multiple teams - often three or four at a time**!!
true
general roles include team task roles, team-building roles, and individualistic roles
true
there's no one right way to design teams with respect to task interdependence. there are trade-offs with different types, however.
true
True or false: The negative effects of deep-level diversity on team functioning and effectiveness appears to increase over time.
true; Over time, as team members learn more about one another, differences relating to underlying values and goals become increasingly apparent.
logitech turned timezones between virtual employee members into a competitive advantage by letting the work "follow the sun"
true; work at Logitech is accomplished continuously because members of a team who have finished their workday in one country electronically hand off the work to team members in another country who have just arrived at the office (because of this, product development and other work needed to bring innovative products to the market can be completed much more quickly);
The likelihood that the members of a team can work together effectively into the future is referred to as team
viability.
(what characteristics can be used to describe teams?; one way to describe teams is to take advantage of existing taxonomies that place teams into various types); TEAM TYPES: what are the five general team types and their defining characteristics (the most notable characteristics include the team's purpose, the length of the team's existence, and the amount of time involvement the team requires of its individual members)?
work team, management team, parallel team, project team, and action team
work team
-produce goods or provide services -long life span -high member involvement -specific examples: self-managed work team, production team, maintenance team, sales team
team characteristics
Task, unit and member qualities that can be used to describe teams and that combine to make some teams more effective than others; provide a means of categorizing and examining teams, which is important because teams come in so many shapes and sizes; team characteristics play an important role in determining what a team is capable of achieving and may influence the strategies and processes the team uses to reach its goals; team characteristics, such as diversity, however, have many meanings, and its effect on team functioning and effectiveness depends on what type of diversity you're concerned with as well as several additional complicating factors
punctuated equilibrium
a sequence of team development during which not much gets done until the halfway point of a project, after which teams make necessary changes to complete the project on time; at the initial team meeting, members make assumptions and establish a pattern of behavior that lasts for the first half of its life. that pattern of behavior becomes a matter of habit for members and creates inertia that continues until roughly the midway point of the project; then something remarkable happens: members realize that they have to change their approach to the task to complete it on time; teams that take this opportunity to plan a new approach during this transition period tend to do well, and the new framework dominates their behavior until task completion; teams that don't take the opportunity to change their approach tend to persist with their original pattern and may "go down with a sinking ship". the realization that things have to change at the midway point of task completion occurs regardless of the time frame of the project. ; PART IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PROJECT WHERE THEY REALIZE SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE CHANGED - EITHER DO IT OR THEY DON'T AND THIS CAN DETERMINE THEIR SUCCESS
Value in diversity problem-solving approach
a theory that supports team diversity because it provides a larger pool of knowledge and perspectives (a reason why diversity is beneficial)(these benefits are more likely to occur when team members try to understand each other); teams that engage in work that's relatively complex and requires creativity tend to benefit most from diversity;
individualistic roles
behaviors that benefit the individual at the expense of the team; can be damaging to the team; hinder team's ability to perform and function effectively
Research has demonstrated that team members are most pleased with a team in which there are ______ team members.
between four and five
parallel teams are
composed of members from various jobs, and other teams, who provide recommendations to managers about important issues that run "parallel" to the organization's production processes; require only PART-TIME commitment from members, and they can be PERMANENT OR TEMPORARY depending on their aim; quality circles, for example, consist of individuals who normally perform core production tasks, but who also meet regularly with individuals from other work groups to identify production-related problems and opportunities for improvement; a more temporary parallel team, committees often form to deal with unique issues or issues that arise only periodically; examples of issues that can spur the creation of committees include changes to work procedures, purchases of new equipment or services, and non-routine hiring.
four primary types of task interdependence (each requires a different degree of interaction and coordination)
comprehensive, reciprocal, sequential, pooled
In a relay race, if one runner fails to complete a leg of race, the entire team is disqualified. This is an example of a(n) ______ task.
conjunctive;
work teams are
designed to be relatively PERMANENT; purpose is to produce goods or provide services, and they generally require a FULL-TIME COMMITMENT from their members; example of a work team: how cars and trucks are manufactured at Toyota - teams are composed of four to eight members who do the physical work, and a leader who supports the team and coordinates with other teams. although the teams are responsible for the work involved in the assembly of the vehicles, they are also responsible for quality control and developing ideas for improvements in the production process. team members INSPECT EACH OTHER'S WORK, and when they see a problem, they stop the line until they are able to resolve the problem.
deep-level diversity
differences in attitudes, values, personality, and work preferences that become progressively more important for determining similarity as people get to know one another better *time increases these negative effects*
sequential interdependence
different tasks are done in a prescribed order, and the group is structured such that the members specialize in these tasks; members in the group interact to carry out their work, but the interaction occurs only between members who perform tasks that are next to each other in the sequence; the member performing the task after depends on the member performing the task earlier in the sequence.
A group of algebra students is working collaboratively on an in-class assignment. Oliver is considered an algebra "whiz," so he's quick to solve the problems, and the rest of the group is happy to go along with his answers. The assignment is an example of a(n) ______ task.
disjunctive - disjunctive is based on person who is best at it
The value in diversity problem-solving approach suggests that
diverse teams have larger sets of information and points of view that the team can use.
surface-level diversity
diversity regarding observable attributes such as race, ethnicity, sex, and age (these negative effects tend to disappear as members become more knowledgeable about each other);
A quality-improvement team consists of 8 members—3 women and 5 men. They range in age from 27 to 60 and represent a variety of ethnic and racial groups. These differences are a reflection of the team's
diversity.
how do you create high levels of goal interdependence?
ensure that the team has a formalized mission statement that members buy into.
project teams are
formed to take on "ONE-TIME" tasks that are generally complex and require a lot of input from members with different types of training and expertise; EXIST ONLY AS LONG AS IT TAKES TO FINISH A PROJECT, but, some projects are quite complex and can take years to complete; members of some project teams work full-time, whereas other teams demand only a part-time commitment; a planning team compromised of engineers, architects, designers, and builders, charged with designed a suburban town center, might work together full-time for a year or more; in contrast, the engineers and artists who constitute a design team responsible for creating an electric toothbrush might work together for a month on the project while also serving on other project teams;
teams go through a progression of five stages
forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning - these are teams that are developed in a PREDICTABLE sequence; this sequence does NOT apply to all teams.
pooled interdependence
group members complete their work assignments independently, and then this work is simply "piled up" to represent the group's output
A harmonizer
helps resolve personal conflicts among team members
With ______, team members receive rewards that are dependent on both their team's performance and how well they perform as individuals.
hybrid outcome interdependence
Which of the following types of teams benefits the least from having a relatively large number of members?
management teams -> Reason: Management teams can benefit from relatively more members because they engage in work that's complex and knowledge intensive.
five aspects of team composition are crucial
member roles, member ability, member personality, team diversity, and team size <-- team composition
performing
members are comfortable working within their roles, and the team makes progress toward goals
reciprocal interdependence
members are specialized to perform specific tasks. However, instead of a strict sequence of activities, members interact with a subset of other members to complete the team's work.
adjourning
members experience anxiety and other emotions as they disengage and ultimately separate from the team (happens because the life span of many teams is limited);
forming
members orient themselves by trying to understand their boundaries in the team; members try to get a feel of what is expected of them, what types of behaviors are out of bounds, and who's in charge;
norming
members realize that they need to work together to accomplish team goals, and consequently, they begin to cooperate with one another; feelings of solidarity develop as members work toward team goals. over time, norms and expectations develop regarding what different members are responsible for doing
hybrid outcome interdependence
members receive rewards that are dependent on both their team's performance and how well they perform as individuals (problem is uncertainty about exactly what behaviors will be rewarded)
storming
members remain COMMITTED to ideas they bring with them to the team; this initial willingness to accommodate others' ideas triggers conflict that negatively affects some interpersonal relationships and harms the team's progress;
why have teams becomes widespread?
most obvious reason: the nature of today's work requires them; as work has become more complex, interactions among multiple team members have become more vital. this is because interactions allow the team to POOL complementary KNOWLEDGE and SKILLS; "example: surgical team - surgeon who received training for the procedure in question, an anesthesiologist who received training necessary to manage patient pain, and an operating room nurse who was trained to provide overall care for the patient"; teams may also be useful to organizations in ways beyond just accomplishing the work itself. for example, one study revealed that problem-solving teams composed primarily of rank-and-file workers could boost productivity in steel mills by devising ways to increase the efficiency of production lines and quality control. processes; teams vary a great deal from one another in terms of their effectiveness - understand factors that influence team effectiveness; specialized members who depend on one another to accomplish tasks that are both complex and important - surgical teams. DIFFERENT THAN A GROUP/FUNCTION DIFFERENT THAN A GROUP
multiple team membership is not necessarily conducive to organizational effectiveness, especially in complex work contexts where it is critical that members of teams develop tight interpersonal bonds and specialized work routines that can deal with the unique challenges they face; even though employees might like being a part of a lot of teams, it takes a great deal of time and effort to coordinate meeting times with different teams and to switch between teams and tasks when the time comes; researchers have begun to consider actions that managers could take to enhance how employees feel about the various teams in which they work, particularly those teams that are most crucial to organizational success
one recent study found that leaders who share authority, encourage self-management, and bolster confidence tend to inspire positive team behavior from members, and that, remarkably, these positive team behaviors carry over to benefit other teams in which the team members also work;
the type of task interdependence with the lowest degree of required coordination is
pooled interdependence
team-building roles
refer to behaviors that influence the quality of the team's social climate
task interdependence
refers to the degree to which team members interact with and rely on other team members for the information, materials, and resources needed to accomplish work for the team
comprehensive interdependence
requires the highest level of interaction and coordination among members. Each member has a great deal of discretion in terms of what they do and with whom they interact in the course of the collaboration involved in accomplishing the team's work.
management teams are
similar to work teams in that they are designed to be relatively PERMANENT; however, they are also distinct in a number of important ways. whereas work teams focus on the accomplishment of core operational-level production and service tasks, management teams participate in managerial-level tasks that affect the ENTIRE organization. specifically, management teams are responsible for COORDINATING THE ACTIVITIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL SUBUNITS - typically departments or functional areas - to help the organization achieve its long-term goals. top management teams, for example, consist of senior-level executives who meet to make decisions about the strategic direction of the organization; because members of management teams are typically heads of departments, their commitment to the management team is offset somewhat by the responsibilities they have in leading THEIR UNIT or TEAMS in their unit;
a compromiser
someone who finds middle ground on positions in order to move forward with a task.
action teams perform
tasks that are normally limited in duration; however, those tasks are quite complex and take place in contexts that are either highly visible to an audience or of a highly challenging nature; some types of action teams work together for an extended period of time (for example, sports teams remain in tact for at least one season, and musical groups like the Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Kiss, and AC/DC sometimes stick together for decades; other types of action teams stay together only as long as the task takes to complete. surgical teams and aircraft flight crews may only work together as a unit for a single two-hour surgery or flight;
disjunctive tasks
tasks with an objectively verifiable best solution for which the member with the highest level of ability has the most influence on team effectiveness (PERSON WITH HIGHEST LEVEL OF ABILITY IN WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT HAS INFLUENCE ON IT)
a high degree of outcome interdependence exists when
team members share in the rewards that the team earns, with reward examples including pay, bonuses, formal feedback and recognition, pats on the back, extra time off, and continued team survival.
virtual teams
teams in which the members are geographically dispersed, and interdependent activity occurs through electronic communications - primarily e-mail, instant messaging, group calendars, web conferencing, social media, and other meeting tools; teams do at least some of their work virtually even if the members are colocated (800 percent increase in the number of virtual employees over the last decade or so, and it's likely that there are tens of millions of virtual teams operating today);
Whole Foods believes that
teams result in the type of collective learning and intelligence that promotes incremental progress, but also that teams reinforce a sense of community and dedication to the company, customers, and other stakeholders in society; team members not only work together to carry out responsibilities of their department, but they also meet regularly to discuss issues, make decisions, and solve problems. team members are also given feedback about how well their team is performing relative to historical standards and to other teams, and their compensation is tired to the performance of their team as well (fate of team members is shared - so this motivates employees to work cooperatively, and this maximizes the chance that the interests of everyone are satisfied)
outcome interdependence
the degree to which team members share equally in the feedback and rewards that result from the team achieving its goals "THE SHARED OUTCOMES - RESULTS FROM WORKING AS A TEAM"
leader-staff teams
the leader makes decisions for the team and provides direction and control over members who perform assigned tasks, so responsibilities of leader and rest of team are distinct.
team composition
the mix of people who make up the team
faultlines
the perceived divisions that split groups into two or more subgroups based on individual differences such as sex, race, age, work experience, and education
The saying "Birds of a feather flock together" would best describe which of the following?
the similarity-attraction approach
team processes and communication
the specific actions and behaviors that teams engage in to achieve synergy (this will help explain why some teams are more or less effective than their characteristics would suggest they should be "how they do things makes a difference - processes + communication")
A disjunctive team task is one in which a member with the highest level of ability will have the most influence on the effectiveness of the team.
true
although the adjourning stage only happens once for each type of team, the implications are likely to be more significant for team types with longer life spans that require high member involvement (would be more sad to move on from the team after investing so much time in it and getting close to people etc.);
true
another way that teams can vary relates how the members typically communicate with each other
true
diversity can be different looks, beliefs, and even differences in how they do things
true
each perspective on diversity being good or bad has been supported with research
true
effective teams have the right mix of knowledge, skills, abilities, and personalities
true
face-to-face team meetings that involve comprehensive interdependence can consume a lot of time, yet these meetings are an important part of accomplishing work that requires collaboration;
true
it's possible that employees find themselves working in a variety of teams and team types; this situation arises naturally with parallel teams, however, it occurs often with project, management, and action teams as well;
true
management and project teams do better with more people while people in production teams do better with less
true
members may be linked by their goals
true
teams of any type can also vary in the amount of experience they have working together;
true
the way a team is designed with respect to outcome interdependence has important implications for the level of cooperation and motivation in the team
true
there are important variations within the team categories (work teams, parallel teams, etc.) that are needed to understand a team's functioning. For example, teams can vary with respect to the degree to which they have autonomy and are self-managed; if you've ever been on a team where members have a great deal of freedom to work together to establish their own goals, procedures, roles, and membership, you're worked on a team where the level of autonomy and self-management is high; you may have also worked on a team where the level of autonomy and self-management is low. in these teams, there are strict rules regarding goals, procedures, and roles, and team leaders or managers make most of the decisions regarding management of the team with respect to membership; research has shown that although people generally prefer working in teams where the level of autonomy and self-management is high, the appropriate level of self-management in regard to overall team effectiveness may depend on a variety of factors. for example, researchers have concluded that high levels of self-management may be most advantageous for teams where team members have high levels of team-relevant knowledge obtained from outside experts and others in their social networks;
true
when work is more complex, interdependence is necessary
true
there are factors in work organizations that can significantly alter what occurs during a team's life
true (for example, one situation in which this developmental sequence is less applicable is when teams are formed with clear expectations regarding what's expected from the team and its members. with many action teams, for example, there are established rules and standard operating procedures that guide team members' behaviors and their interactions with one another. an aircraft flight crew does not have to go through forming, storming, norming, etc. to figure out that the pilot flies the plane and the flight attendant serves the beverages - they already know their role).
mission statements can take variety of forms, but good ones clearly describe what the team is trying to accomplish in a way that creates a sense of commitment and urgency among team members.
true. mission statements can come directly from the organization, or leaders, but in many circumstances, it makes more sense for teams to go through the process of developing their OWN mission statements. this process not only helps members identify important team goals and the actions the team needs to take to achieve these goals, but it also increases feelings of ownership toward the mission statement itself. - wanna make sure everyone is on the same page, cause even student projects people have different goals. some want to just get by, some want really amazing grades, etc.
A high degree of goal interdependence exists when team members have a shared vision of the team's goal.
true; (example people on boat need to paddle same way in order to get there); in most team contexts, there are asymmetries in the goals of individual team members that interfere with the pursuit of team goals, and what makes managing this situation difficult is that team members often don't become aware of incompatibilities until it's too late.
teams often fit into more than one category
true; for example, Pixar has produced many films - on one hand, because the key members of Pixar teams have mostly remained together for each film the company has produced, it might seem like Pixar uses work teams; on the other hand, because the creation of each film can be viewed as a project, and because members are likely involved in multiple ongoing projects, it might be reasonable to say that Pixar uses project teams. it's probably most appropriate to say that at Pixar, teams have characteristics of both work teams and project teams;
the use of teams in today's organizations is widespread
true; national surveys indicate that teams are used in the majority of organizations in the United States, regardless of whether the organization is large or small; some researchers suggest that almost all major U.S. companies are currently using teams or planning to implement them, and that up to 50 percent of all employees in the U.S. work in a team as part of their job; teams are currently used in all types of industries to accomplish all types of work necessary to make organizations run effectively;
multiple team membership
working in multiple teams (often three or four at a time); research on this type of arrangement indicates that employees do NOT identify with each team equally, and that these differences have important implications as to how much effort and commitment employees bring to each of their teams; might give more to one team than another and vice versa
