Teams Final
How can membership in groups be linked to one's sense of identity?
- Group identity: The extent to which people feel their group membership is an important part of who they are. Membership provides a sense of belonging. People who are strongly identified with their groups feel particularly stressed when their attitudes differ from those of their group. - Identity Fusion: A blurring of the self-other barrier in a group, and group membership is intensely personal. Fused people are more likely to endorse extreme behaviors for the group, help the group, and act speedily for the group. - Multiple Identities: By having membership in multiple groups, people may have several group identities. Affects policy choices. - Common Identity and Common Bonds: Common identity - bonds based on the group as a whole. Common bond - bonds felt for particular group members - Self-verification and Group-verification: Experiences may reinforce or fail to reinforce an individual's identity. > Self-verification - the process in which a person seeks confirmation of his or her personal self-views. > Group serving attributions: When a person's identity is fused with that of a group, experiences and outcomes that happen to the group affect the team member. Group-serving judgments offer a self-protective function for the team member, by enhancing the ego.
Where does trust come from?
- Incentive-based trust: designing incentives to minimize breaches of trust. (contracts) - Trust based on familiarity: people become more familiar with one another - Trust based on similarity: trust based on commonalities (alumni of same school) - Trust based on social networks: social embeddedness is idea that transactions and opportunities take place as a result of social relationships that exist between organizational actors - Implicit trust: putting our trust in someone in absence of any rational reasoning... because of Mood: positive moods tend to make people trust more Status: people with high status trust others more primarily Mere exposure: "he grew on me": seeing people more. Mere belonging: "minimal social connection (shared birthday) Mirroring: people involved in face-to-face interaction tend to mirror one another "Flattery can get you anywhere": we like people who appreciate and admire us Face-to-face contact: trust people in person more than online, etc
How would you counteract each?
-Cognitive-Goal Instructions: focus on how to change the mindset and accompanying cognitions of team members -Set High-Quantity Goals: providing brainstormers with high performance standards greatly increases the number of ideas generated. -Competition: people working on task perform better when they're paired with partner who is better -Focus on Categories: helpful to focus on same component categories at the same time. Paradoxical Frames: mental templates that encourage people to recognize and embrace contradictions are more creative than those who don't use frames -Explicit Set of Rules: Paulus has four additional brainstorming rules: -Stay focused on task -Do not tell stories of explain ideas -When no one is suggesting ideas, restate the problem and encourage each other to generate ideas -Encourage those who are not talking to make a contribution -Increase Individual Accountability: team members who feel individually accountable for their ideas are more productive than teams in which it is not possible to discern who contributed what. -Energizing States: energizing moods increase creativity -Analogical Reasoning: the act of applying one concept or idea from a particular domain to another domain. New ideas are often old ideas wrapped in new clothing; finding innovative solutions by analogy requires 1) in-depth understanding of problem and 2) searching for something else that ahs already solved the problem Analogical reasoning involves application of diverse categories to a company's present problem or challenge. -knowledge brokering: Hargadon calls this the use of analogy in companies and notes that the best innovators use old ideas as raw materials from new ideas. Hargadon and Sutton outline 4 critical steps in knowledge of brokering cycle: 1) capturing good ideas, 2) keeping ideas alive, 3) impinging new uses for old ideas, 4) putting promising concepts to the test
Exploration and exploitation
-Exploration refers to activities such as search, variation, risk taking, experimentation, play, flexibility, discovery, and innovations. -Autonomy and freedom are key for creativity. -Exploitation refers to refinement, choice, production, efficiency, selection, implementation, and execution of an idea -Teams that engage in exploration to the exclusion of exploitation are likely to find that they suffer the costs of experimentation without gaining many of its benefits and will exhibit too many underdeveloped new ideas and too little distinctive competence. -Teams that engage in exploitation to the exclusion of exploration may find themselves trapped in old ways of thinking.
Why is diversity valued in teams?
-improved team performance, expanded talent pool, multiple viewpoints -minority viewpoint is important and gives good feedback -decision making: diverse decision-making teams make better decisions than teams that lack diversity. (e.g. all male teams make overaggressive decisions) -competitive advantage: key reason why diversity if so advantageous is that by sampling from larger pool of potential team members, teams increase competitive advantage.
What are the challenges to diversity? Be prepared to discuss them.
-unconscious homogeneity: most leaders opt for homogeneity, not diversity. -surface vs. deep-level diversity: surface level is based on social categories like race, age. deep-level is based on attitudes, opinions, information, and values. surface-level may benefit stimulating thoughtful discussions and analysis. deep-level are more likely to use information -perceived vs,. actual diversity: if teams value diversity more, they are likely to construe their diversity. conflict can also increase if they perceive the team as diverse but it increases information sharing. when actual dissimilarity controlled, perceived deep-level = negativity -faultlines: e.g. young hispanic women and old caucasian men. fault lines may split a group into subgroups and provide informal structure and intragroup conflict. less effective -how much diversity? interpersonal congruence: degree to which we see ourselves as others see us. also relates to how conservative someone is -conflict: conflict is more common in diverse teams -solos and tokens: solo status = when they're the only member of their social category (gender or race). tokens are people in groups who are typically underrepresented or part of a minority, often historically disadvantaged.
What are the four basic types of team pay? Describe each. What are the pros and cons of each?
1) Incentive Pay: base pay is how companies determine an individual's base salary. integration of internal equity and external equity. variable pay is incentive pay. *cutthroat cooperation effect refers to fact that it is more difficult for teams to move from competitive to cooperative reward structures than vice versa. (they normally performed worse too). for ex: bonus pool for members of a team or two reward systems, one provides bonuses to teams based on performance, second to individuals based on how well they have performed. -incentives may also create unintended behavior. use of team-based rewards may also create potential for motivational loss (social loafing). team rewards may also not foster cooperation in teams. they may foster competition leading to sub optimization of goals 2) Recognition: Define: One time award for a limited number of employees or groups for well beyond expectations or for completing a project, program, or product. Advantages: easy to implement, distributed at the local level, introduced easily, inexpensive, comparatively simple Disadvantages: employees concerned they won't be recognized for own contributions, risky if base pay is reduced, carry less front end motivation. -cash and noncash: spot awards can be either cash or noncash. nearly 86% of organizations used recognition programs as part of their rewards toolkit. sometimes rewards from managers can be taken the wrong way so many believe teams should be given role in distributing recognition awards (self-managing teams; autonomy). 3) Profit sharing Define: a share of corporate profits is distributed in cash on a current basis to all employees (driven by financial factors) Advantages: served communication purpose by signaling that rewards are in balance across the organization. Disadvantages: may be too removed from workers control to affect performance. 4) Gain Sharing define: a percentage of the value of increased productivity is given to workers under a prearranged formula (driven by operational factor [eg. quality, productivity, customer satisfaction] advantages: geared toward production oriented workers, add-on compensation, so easily accepted by employees. disadvantages: may be too far removed from worker's control to affect performance.
Your book discusses five types of team relationships to the environment. What are they? What are the key focus and activities of each? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
1) Insulating teams - team is isolated from other parts of organization or its customers; team concentrates solely on internal functioning and is usually highly goal driven. This may be the nature of the team because of security reasons or intellectual reasons. Advantages include less likely to compromise ideals and objectives and especially conducive for creative teams. Disadvantages include disconnection from rest of organization and may develop groupthink or over confidence 2) Broadcasting teams - Broadcasting teams concentrate on their internal processes and simply inform others what they are doing. The broadcasting team has little outside contact and make decisions about how to serve its customers from within. The team members let others outside the team know what they are doing after they have already made decisions. Advantages include control over negative information and broadcasting is relatively inexpensive. Disadvantages include that these teams may fail to sense true needs of customers and may fail to develop customer support. 3) Marketing teams - Marketing teams promote their objectives, products, services, and culture actively within their organization. They concentrates on diagnosing needs of customers, experimenting with solutions, reising their knowledge, initiating programs and collecting data. Their objective is to garner support from organizational authorities and receive recognition. They differ from broadcasting teams in that they actively tailor their communication to suit the needs, interests, and objectives of the organization. Advantages - greatest potential customer satisfaction, understand outsiders' demands, rated by outsiders as high performers. Disadvantages often extremely costly and time consuming and may surface latent conflict within the organization; possible low cohesion due to divergent views created by surveying 4) X-teams - Highly externally oriented and their members reach out across the organization to forge dense networks. They enable rapid execution using a three-phase process: exploration, exploitation and exportation. During exploration, X-team members try to understand their task from a novel vantage point, generating as many insights and ideas as possible. During exploitation, X-teams settle upon one product they wish to create, using rapid prototyping to move from possibilities to relaties. During exportation, they find ways to move their product and their knowledge into the broader organization and market. Advantages - rapid execution and prototyping. Disadvantages - need top mgmt support, setting appropriate milestones so that exploitation does not dwarf exploration. 5) Surveying Teams: Team concentrates on diagnosing needs of customers, experimenting with solutions, revising their knowledge, initiating programs, and collecting data. Advantages include greater potential customer satisfaction, understand outsiders' demands, rated by outsiders as higher performers. Disadvantages include extremely costly and time consuming, may surface latent conflict within the organization, possible low cohesion (due to divergent views created by surveying) and possible dissatisfaction.
Your book describes 11 different rater biases and 5 ratee biases. Be able to discuss two of each.
1) Rater Bias: > Inflation Bias: Raters positively distort performance ratings when they anticipate giving feedback to ratees. Inflation stems from empathic buffering and fear of conflict. > Homogeneity Bias: appraisers rate appraisees who are similar to themselves than those that are different. 2) Ratee Bias: > Egocentric Bias: People give themselves more credit than others would give them > Social Comparison: comparing their ratings and feedback with others (no value if everyone gets an A)
What are the four major threats to team creativity?
1) Social Loafing: Tendency for people to slack off and not work as hard in a group as they would alone. 2) Conformity: people identify with groups and will engage in bizarre behaviors to gain acceptance by group. people on team may be apprehensive about expressing ideas because they are concerned about others judging and evaluating them. the need to be liked. Conformity can occur when group members are concerned that others in group will be critical of suggestions, despite instructions designed to minimize such concerns. 3) Product Blocking: occurs when group members cannot express their ideas because others are presenting their ideas. trying to do two or more things makes people less productive. It's an ex. of coordination problem. It interferes with idea generation in two distinct ways: 1. disrupts the organization of idea generation when delays are relatively long 2. reduces the flexibility of idea generation when delays are unpredictable 4) Performance Matching: There is pervasive tendency for lowest performers in group to dampen the team average. downward norm setting: People working in brainstorming groups tend to match their performance to that of the least productive members. Most likely to happen when there is no strong internal or external incentives for high performance in teams.
This chapter discusses three particular types of work that teams do. Name each type. For each type list: i. Its broad objective ii. Its dominant feature iii. Its process emphasis iv. And threats to its success and functioning
1) Tactical teams execute a well-defined plan. A dominant feature is that they are tightly organized. Their process focus is on directive, highly focused tasks, role clarity, well-defined operation and accuracy. Threats include role ambiguity, lack of training standards and communication barriers 2) Problem solving teams are those that attempt to resolve problems usually on an ongoing basis. To be effective, each member of the team must expect and believe that interactions among members will be truthful and of high integrity. Examples include Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The process focus is on issues of the team, the members are separated from the problem, consider facts, not opinions, conduct thorough investigations and suspend judgment. Threats include failure to stick to facts, fixate on solutions, succumb to political pressures and confirmatory information searches. 3)Creative teams are those in which the key objective is to create something out of the box, and question assumptions. The process focus of creative teams is that of exploring possibilities and alternatives. Threats include production blocking and uneven participation.
Affective, Task, and Process Conflict What are they? What causes them? What kind of questions would you ask to assess them?
1. Affective (Relationship) Conflict Involves disagreements based on personal and social issues that are not related to social work. It is personal, defensive, and resentful. It is caused from anger, personal-friction, personality clashes, ego, and tension. To assess relationship conflict, you can ask how often do people get angry while working in your team. Also, you can ask how much relationship tension is there in your team. 2. Task Conflict Involves disagreements about the work that is being done in a group and is depersonalized. It is caused by the argumentation about the merits of ideas, plans, and projects. To assess task conflict, you can ask to what extent are there differences of opinion in your team. Also, you can ask how much conflict about the work you do is there in your team. 3. Process Conflict This centers on disagreements that team members have about htow to approach a task and specifically, who should do what. This is caused by disagreements among team members as to how to achieve a goal. To assess process conflict, you can ask how often do members of your team disagree about who should do what. Also, you can ask how frequently do members of your team disagree about the way to complete a team task.
What are the three factors that form the basic internal system of a team, and what are the key questions you would ask concerning each factor if you were asked to put together a team?
1. Building the team Questions: -The Task: What work needs to be done? -Is the goal clearly defined? -How much authority does the team have? -What is the focus of the work the team will do? -What is the degree of task interdependence among team members? -Is there a correct solution that can be readily demonstrated and communicated to members? -Are team member's interests perfectly aligned (cooperative), opposing (competitive), or mixed-motive in nature? -How big should the team be? -Time pressure: Good or bad? 2. The People: Who is ideally suited to do the work? Questions: How much diversity? 3. Processes: How to Work Together Questions: Team Coaching?
There are three essential conditions that must be met in order for a team to be high performing. What are these conditions? What are some of the major points that contribute to or threaten each condition? (you should be able to describe at least two limiting factors
1. Knowledge and Skill a. Cognitive/Intellectual - Must have expertise in field and know how to do tasks b. Task-Specific - Experience with the tasks and process c. Interpersonal - Subordinates reporting "good relationships"with their superiors are better performers d. Organizational/Decision-making - Strategic thinking: awareness of integration Threats: a. Slow learning curves Learning Curves: The presence of other people enhances performance for well-learned behaviors b. Lack of expertise Expertise: - Presence of other people triggers one of two responses: challenge (if someone is an expert) or threat (if someone is not an expert) - Choking under pressure - Person's performance declines despite incentives for optimal performance 2. Effort and Motivation a. Motivational gains - Circumstances that increase the effort expanded by group members in a collective task b. Kohler effect - The less capable member works harder (social comparison, and the feeling that one's effort is indispensable to the group) Threats: - Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation - Social loafing - Addition of new members have diminishing returns on productivity (People in groups often do not work as hard as they do when alone) - Free Riders - Benefit from the work performed by others, while contributing little to nothing. Causes: - Diffusion of responsibility - Deindividuation: people do not feel individual responsibility a psychological state in which a person does not feel individual responsibility → likely to perform and contribute less - Dispensability of effort - Contribution will not be sufficient to justify the effort, contribution not as worthwhile or valuable. reduced sense of self-efficacy: The feeling that our contributions will not be as valuable, efficacious, or worthwhile as they might be in a smaller group 3. Coordination Combined synchronization of the activities of all members. Threats: - Communication problems Language - Direct: Saying what you mean. Indirect: Hinting around, being passive aggressive. Assumptions - - Minimizing coordination loss
What four measures are used to appraise team performance? Be able to explain each.
1. Results/Productivity (most important measure of success) Did the team achieve its goal? - Clear goal and able to adjust goal when new information is available Does teams' output meet the standards of those who have to use it? - Output must meet standards of those who use it, does not matter if team is happy with results, the user must be happy also. There are many dimensions to productivity: What was the team's output? How quickly results were achieved? How effective the outcome? etc. Productivity of a team is highly correlated with its goals, as well as the ability of the team to adapt to the goals in face of new info, changing organizational priorities, and changing marketplace 2. Cohesion Do the team members enjoy working together? - may be able to complete tasks, but inability to work together results in poor performance Is the team better able to work together as a result of this experience? - Effectively functioning teams are able to maintain and strengthen their relationship Positively related to task performance 3. Learning Do team members have the opportunity to develop themselves? - Teams should represent growth and development opportunities for individual members Try new roles and skills? - Teams should be sensitive to members and provide opportunities for members to develop new skills Successful organizations create opportunities that challenge individual members. Although teams are not made to serve individual needs, successful orgs create opportunities that challenge individual members → don't become so self-serving that the organization loses sight of its larger goals 4. Integration Does the team benefit the larger organization? Need to have goals that coincide with the organization Need to integrate with other units in organization, must disseminate information, results, status reports, failures, expertise, and ideas in a timely and efficient manner. It is important for teams to understand the organization's goals to work effectively towards them. Achieving integration requires solid planning and coordination with the rest of the company.
4/7 myths about teams
1. Teams are always the best way to organize (teams only answer if constructed correctly, have right goals, skills and training to do job) 2. The people on the team or outside circumstances out of the leader's control are the causes of team failure (culprit is poor team design) 3. If you manage the individual team members well, the team will succeed (team processes need to be managed, should be trained in team dynamics, not require one-on-one management 4. Conflict is bad (conflict is necessary) 5. A strong, controlling leader makes for a great team (depends on type of team, leader can be designer, coach, dictator) 6. Once you have set up a good successful team, it will continue to succeed (still can fail, teams need ongoing resources and clear goals 7. Team building retreats will fix your problems (based on feeling the team problems come from team members, retreat cannot fix structural problems)
Explain brainstorming to someone. Tell them Osborne's four rules. ? What are the benefits and drawbacks of brainstorming
Alex Osborn's four rules to brainstorming: 1. criticism is ruled out 2. freewheeling is welcome 3. quantity is desired 4. combination and improvement of ideas are encouraged -Goal of brainstorming is to maximize the quantity and quality of ideas -Cognitive stimulation: ideas generated by one person in a team could stimulate ideas in other people in a synergistic fashion -priming effect: members would make mutual associations upon hearing the ideas presented by others Brainstorming on Trial -individual brainstorming: group members work independently -nominal group: control group because they are a group in numbers only -Found that group brainstorming is less efficient than solitary brainstorming in both lab and organizational settings.
What are clique and boundary spanning networks? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
Clique network - network (or communication) structure of a manager who has a network of relatively close colleagues - most likely from the same functional unit. It is reminiscent of the traditional family unit. In this network, groups of people, all of whom who know one another quite well, share largely redundant communication structures. At the extreme, members of clique networks are only aware of others with whom they have direct contact. This type of network is tightly constructed and dense. Members of clique networks consider one another to be their closest contacts and because they focus their efforts at primarily internal communications, they are often sequestered from the larger organization. The loyalty and cohesiveness of inner circles can be both comforting to those situated securely in them and intimidating to those who stumble into them without a real ally. This is a highly cohesive group, which can be advantageous when it comes to managing the internal team environment. Another positive is that there is increased efficiency of decision making. A con is that because members don't have access to different social networks that are independent of their individual knowledge and skills. They may also experience redundant communication, biased communication, groupthink, and dispensable members. Boundary spanning networks - Individuals and teams who span organizational divides and integrate the knowledge of best practices from different areas of the organizations who otherwise have little incentive to do so are extremely valuable for the organization. This type of network is much less dense, more unique, and more varied. These people, known as boundary spanners, bridge the functional gaps (structural holes) that exist in organization. Structural holes separate nonredundant social contacts in the organization network: bringing in people, knowledge, and information that would not otherwise be connected. Managers who are boundary spanners are more likely to have earlier promotions and higher salaries. This is critical for maximizing diversity of ideas and setting the stage for creative thinking in the organization. Cons include greater conflict, both task and relationship, and also power struggles.
Explain the importance of and how you would use the following: Convergent and divergent thinking:
Convergent and Divergent Thinking: convergent thinking is thinking that proceeds toward a single answer. Divergent thinking does not require a single, correct answer; rather, divergent thinking moves outward from the problem in many directions and involves thinking without boundaries. -Task conflict stimulates divergent thinking in teams and people working independently excel at divergent thinking because there are no cognitive or social pressures to constrain their thought. -Teams are much less proficient at divergent thinking. -Janusian thinking refers to the Roman deity, Janus, who had two faces looking in opposite directions. Janusian thinking refers to the ability to cope with conflicting ideas, paradoxes, ambiguity, and doubts. Some ways to stimulate divergent thinking is asking open-ended questions. -Teams are better than groups at convergent thinking but they are worse than them at divergent thinking. Teams are NOT more creative than individuals
What is escalation of commitment? Right/wrong ways to manage?
Define: Teams will persist with losing course of action, even in the face of clear evidence to the contrary. Example (right): > Set Limits: Ideally, a team should determine at the outset what criteria and performance standards justify the continued investment in the project or program in question. > Avoid Tunnel Vision: Get several perspectives on the problem. Ask people who are not personally involved in the situation for their appraisal. > Recognize sunk cost: Most powerful way to avoid escalation of commitments. This is simply recognizing and accepting sunk costs, which are resources, such as money and time, that was previously invested and cannot be recovered. For example, JC Penny terminated a project that had a $163M sunk cost when it finally shelved a plan to drop store discounts and switch to a simpler pricing plan. Example (wrong): > Bystander Effect: In many ambiguous situations, people are not sure how to behave and do nothing because they don't want to avoid foolish. This is the bystander effect, tendency not to take action when others are around.
The Abilene Paradox
Define:results from group members desire to avoid conflict and reach consensus at all costs. The abilene process is a form of pluralistic ignorance: where group members adopt a position because they feel other members desire it; team members don't challenge one another because they want to avoid conflict or achieve consensus. Example (right): > Confront the issue in a team setting: Meet with organization members who are in positions of power with regard to the decision and to discuss options as well as options to opt out. > Conduct a private vote: Distribute blank cards and ask team members to privately write their opinions. Guarantee them anonymity and then share overall outcomes with the team. > Minimize status differences: High-status members are often at the center of communication, and lower-status members are likely to feel pressures to conform more quickly. Reassurances by senior members about importance of frank and honest discussion reinforced by the elimination of status symbols, like dress, meeting place, and title, may be helpful. > Utilize scientific method: Let evidence make the decision, not own beliefs. Example (wrong) > Self-Limiting Behaviors: continue participating in behaviors which include team members feeling intimidated or that their efforts will not be worthwhile Causes of these behaviors: - Presence of an expert: people will self-limit their input if they feel like one of their members is an expert in the topic - Strong Arguments: If a lot of time has been spent in discussion and idea fatigue is occurring, members who presents a good solution even if it is not optimal, may find agreements b/c group wants to move on - Lack of self-confidence: self-limit id unsure about their contributions - Trivial Decision: When group members don't see how the decision impacts themselves or something important Conformity: Faulty Decision-Making Climate: when team members are easily frustrated and believe that others are dispassionate, involved, or apathetic, they are likely to self-limit
What is Groupthink? Examples of right ways and wrong ways to manage
Definition: Occurs when team members place consensus above all other priorities- including using good judgement- when the consensus reflects poor judgment or improper or immoral actions. Example (right): > Manage by monitoring team size: People grow more intimidated and hesitant as team size increases. So, make sure to not let the group size to be too big. Usually teams with more than 10 members may feel less personal responsibility for team outcomes. > Risk technique: Structured discussion designed to reduce group members' fears about making decisions. For example, have a facilitator play the role of a devil's advocate for a particular decision. > Appoint a Devil's advocate: Winston Churchill knew how to combat group think and yes-men by instituting a unit outside his chain of command, called the "statistical office" whose key job was to bring him the bleakest, most gut-wretching facts. > Second Solution: Requires teams to identify a second solution or decision recommendation as an alternative to their first choice. This enhances the problem-solving and idea-generation phases, as well as performance quality. Example (wrong): > Not Inviting different perspectives: Inviting different perspectives is when team members assume the perspective of other constituencies with a stake in the decision. A bad example is when in 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded after lift off due to a major malfunction. An engineer tried to halt the flight because he knew there could be trouble. But, he was largely ignored because the management refused to discuss the facts and would just not respond verbally to him. He eventually felt helpless and stopped pressing his cost. > Time Pressure: Time pressure leads to more risky decision making. Time pressure acts as a stressor on teams and stress impairs the effectiveness of team decision making. Moral principles are more likely to guide decisions for the distant future than for the immediate future, whereas difficulty, cost, and situational pressures are more likely to be important in near-future decisions.
What is a 360-degree performance evaluation program?
It involves getting feedback from top (supervisors), bottom (subordinates), coworkers, suppliers, and end-user customers. Usually 5-10 people participate. A disadvantage of top-down performance is evaluation bias so 360 is more fair and provides anonymity.
Discuss the skills managers should have in order to manage conflict effectively? (hint: see the slides from the self-assessment portion of the class on conflict)
Know your preferred conflict handling style - Most people have a prefered conflict handling style and we need to know the range of responses and be able to determine which is the most appropriate in a given situation. Pick your fights carefully - Not all fights require your attention and some are unmanageable. Assess the players - What are the interests, values, and personalities of those involved and what resources do they control? Assess the source of the conflict - The cause of the conflict may help determine your response to it. Communication differences arise from misunderstandings and noise in communication channels. Know your options - Know whether to use avoidance, accommodation, competition, or the most frequent method seen in organizations by managers using formal authority to settle a conflict, compromise or collaboration. Recognize your own goals in settling the conflict - How important is the issue? How concerned are you with maintaining long-term interpersonal relations, and how rapidly does the conflict need to be resolved. The answers to these questions will help you choose amongst the available options.
Manager Led Team
Manager is team leader and is responsible for defining the goals, methods, and functioning of the team. Pros: Efficient, low start up costs, highest control over team behavior and tasks Cons: Diffusion of responsibility, conformity to leaders' goals and ideals. Low autonomy, low empowerment. Power: Part of organization's hierarchy, management controlled Decision Making: Authoritarian or consultative Tasks: Independent Examples: Sports team, surgical team, military teams, stage screws
Self-Managing
Manager sets goals and the team sets performance processes Pros: Build commitment, offer increased autonomy, can enhance morale for members, improve productivity, quality, savings, and reduce absenteeism and turnover. Cons: manager has less control over the process and products, difficult to assess progress, more time consuming. Power: Linked to organizations hierarchy, some shift of power to team Leadership: Leader with limited managerial power, selected by organization Decision Making: consultative, democratic, or consensus Tasks: interdependent, coordinated by leader Examples: Executive search committees and managerial task forces.
Self-directing
Set own goals, choose methods to achieve them; best for complex, ill-defined, ambiguous problems Pros: offer most potential for innovation, enhanced goal commitment, and motivation. Provide for organizational learning and rapid change Cons: Extremely time consuming, greatest potential for conflict, very costly to build, difficult to monitor progress, marginalization of the team and lack of team legitimacy. Power: Linked to organizations hierarchy, increased power and independence Leadership: Leader (the team facilitator) selected by team Decision Making: democratic or consensus Tasks: Interdependent, coordinated by team members Examples: Google, Southwest airlines
What are five methods by which you can increase your social capital?
Team social capital is the configuration of team members' social relationships within a group and in the social structure of the broader organization 1) Analyze your social network - those who hold an accurate perception of their own social network are more effective than those who hold inaccurate perceptions; get to know you information broker 2) Identify structural holes in your organization - structural holes are gaps that are created when members of cliques (close dnetworks) do not connect. Identify those gaps and find a way to bridge them. People in clique networks fall prey to homogeneity bias. 3) Expand the size of the network - increase the number of people that the manager and team come into contact with. Speed networking is an example of maximizing contacts. 4) Diversify networks - Cross organizational boundaries and functional areas. People who have a close friend in an ethnically different group are more likely to perceive an association of the friend's ethnicity with the self and have positive expectations about the out-group 5) Build hierarchical networks - network not only laterally, but also hierarchically.
If you were observing a team for the first time, what types of behavior would indicate to you that the team has a high level of cohesion?
They sit closer together, focus more attention on one another, show signs of mutual affection and display coordinated patterns of behavior. They are also more likely to give due credit to their partners, participate in team activities, stay on the team and convince others to join, and resist attempts to disrupt the team. Productive on a variety of tasks.
How can a group measure the creativity of the ideas they generate?
Through use of Guildford's creativity measurement system -Fluency: measure of how many ideas a person (or team) generates. quantity does not breed quality -Flexibility: measure of how many types of ideas a person (or team) generates -Originality: ability to generate unusual solutions and unique answers to problems The people who get highest scores on originality also get high scores on flexibility and fluency.
How would you explain Wageman and Donnenfeld's conflict intervention model to a friend worried about how to reduce the amount of conflict in his/her team?
Wageman and Donnenfeld's Conflict Intervention Model distinguishes four kinds of interventions that team leaders and managers can use to improve the quality of conflict resolution processes. 1) Team Redesign - deliberate changes in the structure in which teams do their work. This has the largest effect because an effective team design addresses the root causes of most team conflicts. 2) Task Process Coaching - Coaching that helps the team perform better via changes in effort, strategy, and talent. After the team is well designed, the team leader should use the strategy of coaching on the key performance drivers. 3) Conflict Process Coaching - Direct intervention in a team to improve the quality of conflict the team is having. It is important to focus on content rather than style. Focus on the substance, not the delivery. 4) Changing The Individual - Individual-level training with the goal of making specific team members more tolerant, thoughtful, and capable when they disagree with others. Changing individuals will have its greatest impact only after the team design and team processes are addressed.
Group Cohesion
emotional attraction among group members
How can you as team leader increase the cohesion in your team?
help the team build identity, make it easy for the team to be close together, focus on similarities among team members, put a positive spin on the team's performance, challenge the team
Why is trust important in a team?
respect is the level of esteem a person has for another and trust is the willingness of a person to rely on another person in the absence of monitoring. Trustworthiness is an important attribute. autonomy in a team context is defined as amount of freedom and discretion that a person has in carrying out tasks. Performance improves when there is high trust in the team and low individual autonomy.
