Principles of Management Chapter 10: Managing Teams

When Tough Mudder is hosting an event, managers should assign event preparations to a _______________ . Preparations include trucking in different kinds of equipment and setting it up over several acres; installing sufficient security, first aid, and portable restrooms throughout the course; and having food and drink delivered, as well as marketing the event and enrolling participants. A: cross-functional team B: Functional Team

A: cross-functional team

Tough Mudder takes reservations from people wanting to enroll in its events by phone and online. The employees confirming these reservations, answering customers' questions, and ensuring that billing is processed correctly could be organized as a _______________ , because they can be trained to hire new staff and hold one another accountable for results. On the rare occasions an employee cannot meet a customer's needs, the employee can confer with colleagues to decide how best to proceed. A: self-managed team B: Special-purpose Team

A: self-managed team

The CEO of Tough Mudder believes that teams in his company are not working as effectively as they could, and he is asking you for advice. Provide the best answer to his question. "One of our longstanding cross-functional teams is being led by Ingrid. She is very knowledgeable and highly organized, so we would like to keep her in a leadership role. However, when there is disagreement on the team, she puts forward her ideas very emphatically and flatly rejects other team members' contributions. Everyone on the team needs to buy in to the final decision so they work hard to implement it. What guidance should I give Ingrid?" A: Ingrid should learn to avoid conflict because it is costly in terms of both time and wear and tear on relationships. B: Ingrid should learn to compromise and give other people on the team half of what they want. C: Ingrid should learn to collaborate, using a high degree of both her natural assertiveness and cooperation. D: Ingrid should learn to accommodate the other people on the team because she needs positive relationships with them over the long term.

B: Ingrid should learn to compromise and give other people on the team half of what they want.

The CEO of Tough Mudder believes that teams in his company are not working as effectively as they could, and he is asking you for advice. Provide the best answer to his question. "Our teams in different countries have learned a great deal, so I am putting together an international team to study and share the best practices that have been developed. This team will have people from each continent where we operate. How should I plan to manage this team?" A: To promote a sense of privacy, do not monitor online team communications. Keep information that may change frequently to yourself, as sharing it would be confusing. B: Understand that some people use online technology more than others and cannot be expected to participate as much. Accept that Internet culture often involves "trolling," or disrespectful disagreement, and do not interfere if this happens. C: Encourage team members to talk with everyone on the team, balancing talking with listening. D: Speak about everyone on the team as though they are the same to help team members feel they are being treated equally. Do not single people out for special recognition.

C: Encourage team members to talk with everyone on the team, balancing talking with listening.

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; and project teams.

When not to use teams

1: There isn't a clear, engaging reason or purpose. 2: The job can be done by people working independently. 3: Rewards are provided for individual effort and performance. 4: The necessary resources are not available.

A team made up of people of different nationalities will be _________ to the company due to its diversity. A: an asset B: a Liability

A: an asset

Managers should seek to maximize ____________ of skills on the team to enhance its effectiveness. A: diversity B: Individuality

A: diversity

The disadvantages of teams are:

Initially high turnover Social Loafing and the problems associated with group decision-making.

A group that has the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks of producing a product or service is

Semi-autonomous work group

Project team

a team created to complete specific, onetime projects or tasks within a limited time

Social Loafing is

behavior in which team members withhold their efforts and fail to perform their share of the work.

Tips for managing Virtual Teams

1. Establish clear expectations for communication, availability during offices hours, and frequency of check-ins. 2. Establish clear goals and milestones to help remote workers stay on track and accountable to the team. 3. Help team members set clear boundaries between work and family spaces. 4. Assign employees who have many outside obligations to teams whose members mostly have few nonwork obligations. 5. Ensure that team members have access to technology tools such as teleconferencing, file-sharing services, online meeting services, and collaboration portals. 6. Facilitate face-to-face communication with video conferencing or by requiring members of remote teams to work on-site several days each month. 7. Ensure the task is meaningful to the team and the company. 8. When building a virtual team, solicit volunteers as much as possible.

When to use teams

1: There is a clear, engaging reason or purpose 2: The job can't be done unless people work together 3: rewards can be provided for teamwork and team performance 4: Ample resources are available

Team Norms are

informally agreed-on standards that regulate team behavior

The advantages of teams are

Improve customer satisfaction Improve product quality Improve service quality Improve speed and efficiency in product development Increase employee job satisfaction Improve employee decision-making

Team autonomy, smallest to greatest autonomy

Traditional work groups, employee involvement groups, semi autonomous work groups, self-managing teams, self-designing teams.

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

A Traditional Work Group is

a group composed of two or more people who work together to achieve a shared goal.

De-forming

a reversal of the forming stage, in which team members position themselves to control pieces of the team, avoid each other, and isolate themselves from team leaders

De-norming

a reversal of the norming stage, in which team performance begins to decline as the size, scope, goal, or members of the team change

De-storming

a reversal of the storming phase, in which the team's comfort level decreases, team cohesion weakens, and angry emotions and conflict may flare

Cross-functional team

a team composed of employees from different functional areas of the organization

Virtual team

a team composed of geographically and/or organizationally dispersed coworkers who use telecommunication and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task

Self-designing team

a team that has the characteristics of self-managing teams but also controls team design, work tasks, and team membership

Self-managing team

a team that manages and controls all of the major tasks of producing a product or service

Skill-based pay

compensation system that pays employees for learning additional skills or knowledge

Interpersonal skills

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

An Employee Involvement Team is

team that provides advice or makes suggestions to management concerning specific issues.

Structural accommodation

the ability to change organizational structures, policies, and practices in order to meet stretch goals

Bureaucratic immunity

the ability to make changes without first getting approval from managers or other parts of an organization

Team level

the average level of ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team

Individualism-collectivism

the degree to which a person believes that people should be self-sufficient and that loyalty to one's self is more important than loyalty to team or company

Cohesiveness

the extent to which team members are attracted to a team and motivated to remain in it

Forming

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

Performing

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

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

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

Team diversity

the variances or differences in ability, experience, personality, or any other factor on a team

Cross-Training is

training team members to do all or most of the jobs performed by the other team members.