management skills understanding work teams

Inconsistencies in the findings of self managed work teams suggests that the effectiveness of these team depends on what three things?

-strength and make up of team norms -type of tasks the team undertakes -reward structure of team

cons of teams

-takes more time -takes more resources -some work is truly done better by individuals

3 things necessary for virtual teams to be effective

-trust is established -team progress monitored closely -efforts and products publicized throughout the organization.

4 key components of work teams

GOAL: Collective performance SYNERGY: Positive ACCOUNTABILITY: Individual or Mutual SKILLS: Complementary

4 key components of work groups

GOAL: Share info SYNERGY: Neutral (sometimes negative) ACCOUNTABILITY: Individual SKILLS: Random or Varied

Problem Solving Teams

discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and work environment. Focus mainly on how work processes and methods can be improved. Don't usually have the authority to unilaterally implement any of their suggested actions. (Only make recommendations)

Diversity of members

diversity is bad. but it could be good if each member focused on their differences and who was uniquely good at what because when people feel like others know more on a team, they will work to support that person.

size of teams

excess members leads to a decrease if accountability and cohesiveness, social loafing increases, and people do less talking relative to others. also, coordination decreases. a rule of thumb, 9 or fewer members.

Work team

generates positive synergy through a coordinated effort. sum of individual efforts results in a level of performance that is greater than the sum of those individual inputs.

Personality of members

if a team member is not agreeable it decreases performance. conscientious increase it. open team members make a team more innovative and creative.

Self Managed Work Teams have higher (blank) and but also have higher (blank)

job satisfaction. Absenteeism and turnover rates.

Social Loafing

members hide themselves within the team sometimes. They also coast on the group's efforts and contribute less. In order to prevent this, make individual and joint accountability and reward system.

Common plan and purpose

must have a plan that provides direction, momentum, and commitment for members. The purpose is vision or master plan. The purpose is the navigation to a ship captain: it provides direction and guidance under all conditions. Reflexivity: reflecting on and adjusting the master plan when necessary. - A needed tool for effectiveness set goals

Performance evaluation and reward system

need to have both individual and team rewards

does going from a group to a team automatically increase performance?

no it just gives it a greater potential.

Are work groups more of a joint effort or the summation of each individual?

summation. sum of individual efforts DOES NOT result in a level of performance that is greater than the sum of those individual inputs. sum is equal to sum

Work Design

task identity, skill variety, task significance are all components of work design.

abilities of members

teams need to have: -technical expertixe -problem solving and decision making skills -interpersonal skills high vs low ability teams high ability teams consist of all very intelligent members and solve complex problems better than low ability teams. However, low ability teams solve simply tasks better because high ability teams get bored or whatever. So match the right tasks with the right teams. Need a leader

group

two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives.

Cross Functional Teams

Teams made of employees from about the same hierarchical level but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task. -builds new ideas to solve problems and coordinate complex projects. -early stages are very time consuming because it takes a while to learn to work in the diversity and complex nature of the team as well as to build trust with each other.

Composition elements

-Abilities of members -Personality -Allocating Roles -Diversity -Size of Teams -Member Flexibility -Member Preferences

Work Design Elements

-Autonomy -Skills Variety -Task Identity -Task Significance

Process elements

-Common Purpose -Specific Goals -Team Efficacy -Conflict Levels -Social Loafing

4 aspects of team effectiveness

-Context -Composition -Work Design -Process

3 things worth mentioning on teamwork

-Extent of teamwork: not as important in U.S as in other countries such as Asia and Canada -Self-Managed Teams: if country is high in power distance, self managed teams don't always work because leadership roles need to be spelled out. -Team cultural diversity and team performance: After trust is established, teams become effective. Usually takes 3 months. Note: Power Distance- roles of leaders and followers are clearly delineated.

Options for trying to turn individuals into team players

-Selection: Hire Team Players. Make sure they possess skills to be a team player. Disagreeable and un-conscientious people wont be good. -Training: Creating Team Players. Coach team players and send to workshops Rewarding:Providing incentives to be a good team player. reward system should be cooperative instead of competitive.

Virtual Teams

-Use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal. may suffer due to less social rapport and less direct interaction. especially if members havent ever personally met. report less satisfaction and are more task oriented.

4 common characteristics of effective teams

-adequate resources -effective leadership -climate of trust -performance evaluation and reward system that reflects team contribution.

Context elements

-adequate resources -leadership and structure -climate of trust -performance evaluation and reward system

3 tests to show whether or not the task at hand would be handled better by a team or individual

1. can work be handled better by more than one person? good indicator is complexity of work. 2. Does the work create a common purpose or set of goals for the people in the group that is more than the aggregate of individual goals? 3. determine if members of the team are interdependent.

Two assumptions of the 4 part model of effectiveness

1. teams differ in form and structure. Model is a generalized one. So it should be used as a guide, not a 100% accurate rulebook. 2. assumes its already been determined that teamwork is preferable to individual work.

if you have to create 20 teams and you have 40 conscientious people and 40 non-conscientious people, would it be better to make 10 teams of all conscientious and ten of not conscientious or mix them?

10 and 10 with no mixing because if you mix them, the conscientious people will have to do their own tasks and then redo the non conscientious peoples tasks as well thereby taking away from their own potential.

Mental Models

Knowledge and beliefs about how the work gets done. If team has different mental models, they will fight and decrease effectiveness

Actual group effectiveness =

Potential group effectiveness+Process gains-process losses

4 most common types of teams

Problem solving teams self managed work teams cross functional teams virtual teams

adequate resources

Scarcity and lack of support -support includes timely info, proper equipment, adequate staffing, encouragement, and administrative assistance.

Self Managed Work Teams

Solve problems, Implement solutions, and take responsibility for outcome. -groups of employees who perform highly related or interdependent jobs and take on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors. Tasks involve planning and scheduling work, assigning tasks to members, making operation decisions, taking action on problems, and working with suppliers and customers. -Select own members and evaluate each others performance. -As a result, supervisory positions take on decreased importance, and may even be eliminated.

Team Efficacy

When the team believes they can succeed and have confidence. Succeed breeds success: the more a team succeeds the more it builds a collective confidence in itself.

Work group

a group that acts primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each member perform within his or her area of responsibility.

why did management go from group to team

because they want positive synergy that increases performances.

Climate of trust

bonds members. reduces need to monitor. allows each member to commit and accept leader's goals and decisions.

Conflict Levels

complete absence of conflict is not necessarily good. -in this case, team will become apathetic and stagnant. However, not all conflict is good. -Relationship conflict:Those based on interpersonal incompatibilities, tension, and animosity towards others: are almost always dysfunctional. -task conflicts: disagreement among members about task content is often beneficial b/c it reduces likelihood of groupthink. tasks conflict stimulates discussion, promotes critical thinking and assessment of problem and options.

Members preferences

when selecting a team, individual preferences should be considered along with abilities, personalities, and skills because if person doesnt like working in a team, it will decrease performance.

leadership and structure

who is doing what. Equally distributed or fairly distributed work load. agreement on specifics of work and how how they fit together to integrate individual skills required. multi-team systems: different teams need to coordinate their efforts to produce a desired outcome. delegation