MADM701 - M6

Role Conflict Occurs When an Employee Is:

(1) Asked to perform conflicting tasks. (2) Required to perform a task that conflicts with his or her own personal values. In group settings, the odds of role conflicts increase, especially when the group engages in unethical or antisocial behaviors and when the members of the group stress one set of norms while the leader and rules of the formal organization emphasize others.

Three Key Behaviors for Adapting to Unusual Circumstances/Events:

(1) Information collection and transfer. (2) Task prioritization. (3) Task distribution. In one study of airline crews using flight simulations, it was found that the timing of key adaptive group behaviors was more strongly associated with performance than the behaviors themselves. In other words, information must be collected at the right time, prioritized properly, and tasks divided in a frame that allows for successful adaptation to unusual events.

Leadership Conditions for Group Effectiveness

(1) Setting a compelling direction for the group's work. (2) Designing and enabling group structure. (3) Ensuring that the group operates within a supportive context. (4) Providing expert coaching. Hawthorne Studies: A possible explanation of why one highly cohesive work group (the relay room workers) produced at a very high level and the other highly cohesive group (the bank wirers) produced at a very low rate is the type of supervision (or leadership) that was applied.

Besides going through the steps of training, teams also must be monitored and evaluated on a continuous basis. Five key areas that should be monitored and measured include:

(1) The team's mission. (2) Goal achievements. (3) Feelings of empowerment. (4) Communications. (5) Roles and norms that are positive.

Guidelines for Effective Cultural/Global Groups:

1. Adapting to Each Culture; e.g., team pay should be used cautiously in individualistic cultures, but may be readily accepted in collectivist cultures. 2. Changing Implementation of Teams for Each Culture; e.g., in the United States members should be involved in the selection, reward systems, and task assignments; but in Argentina, China, or Mexico such participation may not be needed or wanted. 3. Respecting Local Laws; e.g., in Finland, labor laws do not allow the use of team pay. In addition, a team must be carefully selected.

Strongly enforcing Work Group Norms:

1. Aid in group survival and provision of benefits. 2. Simplify or make predictable the behavior expected of group members. 3. Help the group avoid embarrassing interpersonal problems. 4. Express the central values or goals of the group and clarify what is distinctive about the group's identity.

Today, teams are becoming increasingly popular. Estimates of the prevalence and type of teams among Fortune 1000 companies are as follows:

1. Almost all use project teams (diverse managerial/professional employees working on projects for a defined, but typically extended, period of time). 2. A large majority use parallel teams (employees working on problem-solving or quality teams in parallel to the regular organizational structure). 3. A majority use permanent work teams (self-contained work units responsible for manufacturing products or providing services).

A comprehensive definition would say that if a group exists in an organization, its members:

1. Are motivated to join. 2. Perceive the group as a unit of interacting people. 3. Contribute in various amounts to the group processes (that is, some people contribute more time or energy to the group than do others). 4. Reach agreements and have disagreements through various forms of interaction. Just as there is no one definition of the term group, there is no universal agreement on what is meant by group dynamics.

5 Informal Roles

1. Boundary Spanner: Acts as a facilitator and bridge between units. 2. Buffer: Protects and filters negative or disappointing news. 3. Lobbyist: Promotes and tells others how successful and important the group is. 4. Negotiator: Empowered by the group to get resources and make deals. 5. Spokesperson: The voice of the group.

Training Guidelines for Developing Effective Self-Managed Teams

1. Establish credibility. The trainers must first establish their knowledge and believability. 2. Allow ventilation. The trainees must have their anxieties and unresolved issues cleared before starting. 3. Provide an orientation. The trainers should give specific verbal directions and provide clear expectations and models of behavior. 4. Invest in the process. Early on, have the team identify its problems and concerns. 5. Set group goals. The trainees create, through consensus, their own mission statement and then set goals and specific activities and behaviors to accomplish these goals. 6. Facilitate the group process. The trainees are taught about how groups function and are given techniques, such as nominal grouping and paired comparison. 7. Establish intragroup procedures. This involves setting up a meeting format that might include reporting minutes, making announcements, discussing problems and issues, proposing solutions, taking action, and making new assignments. 8. Establish intergroup processes. Although the team is self-managed, leaders must be selected in order to interact with others, such as supervisors, managers, and other teams. 9. Change the role of the trainers. As the team becomes more experienced and empowered, the trainers take on a more passive role. 10. End the trainers' involvement. At this point, the team is on its own and is self-managing.

Identifiable Stages of Group Development:

1. Forming. 2. Storming. 3. Norming. 4. Performing. 5. Adjourning.

Views of Group Dynamics

1. How a group should be organized/conducted: Democratic leadership, membership participation, and overall cooperation. 2. A Set of Techniques: Role playing, brainstorming, focus groups, leaderless groups, group therapy, sensitivity training, team building, transactional analysis, and the Johari window are traditionally equated with group dynamics, as are the more modern selfmanaged and virtual teams. Creative vs. Personal abrasion. 3. Internal Nature of Groups, how they form, their structure and processes, and how they function and affect individual members, other groups, and the organization.

Practical Benefits of the Informal Organization:

1. Makes for a more effective total system. 2. Lightens the workload on management. 3. Fills in gaps in a manager's abilities. 4. Provides a safety valve for employee emotions. 5. Improves Communication. Because of the inevitability and power of the informal organization, the functions should be exploited in the attainment of objectives rather than futilely combated by management.

Types of Groups

1. Membership Groups; Membership groups are those to which the individual actually belongs. An example would be membership in a craft union. 2. Reference Groups; Groups with whom people identify and whose values or attitudes they adopt. 3. In-Groups; An in-group is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. 4. Out-Groups; By contrast, an out-group is a social group with which an individual does not identify. In-groups are those who have or share the dominant values, and out-groups are those on the outside looking in. 5. Formal; Those defined by the organization's structure; The functional departmental committees (finance, marketing, operations, and human resources). 6. Informal; Informal groups form for political, friendship, or common interest reasons.

Overall summary on leveraging groups to enhance satisfaction and performance:

1. Organizing work around intact groups. 2. Having groups charged with selection, training, and rewarding of members. 3. Using groups to enforce strong norms for behavior, with group involvement in offthe-job as well as on-the-job behavior. 4. Distributing resources on a group rather than an individual basis. 5. Allowing and perhaps even promoting intergroup rivalry so as to build within-group solidarity.

Three Factors Impacting Group Effectiveness:

1. Task Interdependence. 2. Outcome Interdependence. 3. Potency.

4 Ways to Enhance Team Effectiveness:

1. Team Building. 2. Collaboration. 3. Leadership. 4. Understanding Cultural Issues in Global Situations.

Individual Problems with Self-Managed Teams:

1. Team members aren't willing to give up past practices or set aside power and position. 2. Not all team members have the ability, knowledge, or skill to contribute to the group. Team functioning slows because some members shoulder more responsibility than others. 3. As team members, workers often face conflicts or challenges to their own personal beliefs. What works for the group often does not work for the individual.

Establish credibility.

1. The trainers must first establish their knowledge and believability. Training Guidelines for Developing Effective Self-Managed Teams.

Specific differences between work groups and teams:

1. The work group has a strong, clearly focused leader; the team has shared leadership roles. 2. The work group has individual accountability; the team has individual and mutual accountability. 3. The work group's purpose is the same as the organization's; the team has a specific purpose. 4. The work group has individual work-products; the team has collective work-products. 5. The work group runs efficient meetings; the team encourages open-ended, active problem-solving meetings. 6. The work group measures effectiveness indirectly (for example, financial performance of the overall business); the team measures performance directly by assessing collective work-products. 7. The work group discusses, decides, and delegates; the team discusses, decides, and does real work. The point is that teams do go beyond traditional formal work groups by having a collective, synergistic (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts) effect.

Symptoms of Groupthink

1. There is the illusion of invulnerability. There is excessive optimism and risk taking. 2. There are rationalizations by the members of the group to discount warnings. 3. There is an unquestioned belief in the group's inherent mortality. The group ignores questionable ethical or moral issues or stances. 4. Those who oppose the group are stereotyped as evil, weak, or stupid. 5. There is direct pressure on any member who questions the stereotypes. Loyal members don't question the direction in which the group seems to be heading. 6. There is self-censorship of any deviation from the apparent group consensus. 7. There is the illusion of unanimity. Silence is interpreted as consent. 8. There are self-appointed mindguards who protect the group from adverse information

Facilitate the group process.

6. The trainees are taught about how groups function and are given techniques, such as nominal grouping and paired comparison. Training Guidelines for Developing Effective Self-Managed Teams.

Sucker Effect

A condition in which some group members, not wishing to be considered suckers, reduce their own efforts when they see social loafing by other group members.

Cross-Functional Teams

A cross-functional team comprises people from different departments and with special areas of expertise working to achieve a common goal. Cross- functional teams combine people with different areas of expertise from separate departments such as finance, human resources, and marketing. The range of knowledge on cross-functional teams creates a broader perspective that can lead to new ideas and better solutions and also avert risks and poor outcomes. The diversity of cross-functional teams can create challenges to effective communication and collaboration.

Groupthink

A deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment that results from in group pressures. Groupthink results from the pressures on individual members to conform and reach consensus.

Dyad

A dyad is a group of two people, the smallest possible social group. As an adjective, "dyadic" describes their interaction.

Self-Managing Teams

A group of employees who are responsible for managing and performing technical tasks that result in a product or service being delivered to an internal or external customer. A self-organized, semiautonomous small group of employees whose members determine, plan, and manage their day-to-day activities and duties under reduced or no supervision. Also called self-directed team or self-managed natural work team. The team members work together to perform a function or produce a product or service. Because they are self-managing, they also perform functions such as planning, organizing, and controlling the work. For example, at 3M self-managed teams are empowered to take corrective actions to resolve day-today problems; they also have direct access to information that allows them to plan, control, and improve their operations. Importantly, however, such self-managed teams do not necessarily always make consensus decisions. The bar is: Can you live with it?

Cohesion and Leadership

A highly cohesive group is analogous to a time bomb in the hands of management. The direction in which the highly cohesive group goes, breaking production records or severely restricting output, depends on how it is led. The low-cohesive group is much safer in the hands of management. Leadership will not have a serious negative or positive impact on this group. However, the implication is that if management wishes to maximize productivity, it must build a cohesive group and give it proper leadership and, importantly, over time this highly cohesive group may become self-managing.

Exchange Theory

A reward-cost exchange theory of group formation. This theory is based on reward-cost outcomes of interactions. To be attracted towards a group, a person thinks in terms of what he will get in exchange of interaction with group members. A minimum positive level (rewards greater than costs) of an outcome must exist in order for attraction or affiliation to take place. Rewards from interactions gratify needs, whereas costs incur anxiety, frustration, embarrassment, or fatigue. Propinquity, interaction, and common attitudes all have roles in exchange theory.

Role

A role consists of a pattern of norms; the use of the term in organizations is directly related to its theatrical use. A role is a position that can be acted out by an individual. The content of a given role is prescribed by the prevailing norms. Probably role can best be defined as a position that has expectations evolving from established norms.

Small Group

A small group has to meet only the criterion of small size. Usually no attempt is made to assign precise numbers, but the accepted criterion is that the group must be small enough for fairly constant interaction and communication to occur face- to-face or, in recent times, electronically. All primary groups are small groups, but not all small groups are primary groups.

Coalitions, Characteristics:

A study found that employees in a large organization formed into coalitions to overcome petty conflicts and ineffective management in order to get the job done. 1. Interacting group of individuals. 2. Deliberately constructed by the members for a specific purpose. 3. Independent of the formal organization's structure. 4. Lacking a formal internal structure. 5. Mutual perception of membership. 6. Issue-oriented to advance the purposes of the members. 7. External forms . 8. Concerted member action, act as a group.

Balance Theory

A symmetrical balance between attraction and common attitudes. Group Formulation Theory: Theodore Newcomb states that "Persons are attracted to one another on the basis of similar attitudes towards commonly relevant objects and goals. 1. Individual X will interact and form a relationship/group with individual Y because of common attitudes and values (Z). 2. Once this relationship is formed, the participants strive to maintain a symmetrical balance between the attraction and the common attitudes. 3. If an imbalance occurs, an attempt is made to restore the balance. 4. If the balance cannot be restored, the relationship dissolves. Both propinquity and interaction play a role in balance theory.

Difference Between a Work Group and Team

A working group's performance is a function of what its members do as individuals. A team's performance includes both individual results and what we call "collective workproducts." A collective work-product is what two or more members must work on together ... [it] reflects the joint, real contribution of team members.

Boundary Spanner (Informal Role)

Acts as a facilitator and bridge between units or groups which would not otherwise interact.

Synchronous Technologies

Allows virtual team members communicate and interact with one another in real time simultaneously and include videoconferencing, teleconferencing, and electronic meetings. Discussion boards, and project management software may be used when delayed interaction is acceptable.

Dissent, and Firm Size/Privatized

Although many studies show that successful companies advocate such open conflict and healthy debate among group members, other studies point to the value of consensus. This apparent contradiction may be resolved by recognizing the following: Consensus may be preferred for smaller, non-diversified, privately held firms competing in the same industry while larger firms dealing with complex issues of diversification may benefit from the dissent raised in open discussions. Larger firms in uncertain environments need dissent while smaller firms in more simple and stable markets can rely on consensus.

Cultural/Global Issues

Although today's times make global teams operating in a multicultural environment inevitable, there is evidence that they can experience problems. Importantly, certain cultural values lead to resistance to teams. For example, although workplace teams can borrow from and use successful sports teams as a model in the United States, in other cultures such as Asia or Europe, making the language of sports the dominant model or metaphor in one analysis "may be confusing, demotivating, and counterproductive." To improve global teams, research indicates that creating a "hybrid" team culture can be linked to improved performance. Homogenous and highly heterogeneous teams outperformed moderately heterogeneous groups in the long run. Team effectiveness may be enhanced using team-building programs, collaboration, and effective leadership and by accounting for functional, demographic, or cultural diversity and global issues when teams are formed.

In-Group vs. Out-Group

An in-group is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. By contrast, an out-group is a social group with which an individual does not identify. In-groups are those who have or share the dominant values, and out-groups are those on the outside looking in.

Factors Affecting Group Success

Another study on group composition found that members who had higher cognitive ability, achievement, and openness had superior performance. Factors that affect the success level of any given group include the type of task being performed and the composition of the group itself. Teams with self-leadership have been found to have varying levels of success, depending on whether the group's task is primarily conceptual or primarily behavioral in nature. The composition of the group has been found to be optimal when there is a mix of member types.

Parallel Teams

Are composed of members from various jobs who provide recommendations to managers about important issues that run "parallel" to the organization's production process. Employees working on problem-solving or quality teams in parallel to the regular organizational structure. Parallel teams are highly task-focused and draw on individuals from different functional areas and locations. While they generally complete their work on a defined schedule, parallel teams may not be disbanded but may instead remain to take on a subsequent set of tasks.

Punctuated Equilibrium Model

Argues that groups often move forward during bursts of change after long periods without change. 1. Groups form in a first phase in which a target or mission is set and then are not altered very easily, due to a process called inertia, or systematic resistance to change. 2. At some midpoint, the second phase begins. This phase commences when group members suddenly recognize that if they don't change tactics, the group's goal or mission will not be accomplished. This "midlife crisis" in the group's existence is exemplified by changes made in tactics followed by bursts of activity and energy designed to complete the task.

Organizational-Level Problems with Self-Managed Teams:

Compensation and reward systems that still focused solely on individual performance; thus there was little incentive for teams to perform well. With the proliferation of short-term, virtual, and cross-functional teams, members are not able to go through the gradual process of gaining confidence in one another's competence, honesty, and dependability. In other words, there is too often a lack of trust, which research indicates leads to dissatisfaction with team-based pay.

Asynchronous Technologies

Delay communications, including email, electronic bulletin boards, and internet websites. Discussion boards, and project management software may be used when delayed interaction is acceptable.

Project Teams

Diverse managerial/professional employees working on projects for a defined, but typically extended, period of time.

Collaboration (Enhancing Team Effectiveness)

Effective group leaders do not act alone. They assemble a group of highly talented people and figure out how to get the most creative efforts out of everyone by effectively organizing their collaborative efforts. As in the development of "freeware," the process of collaboration involves learning how to improve interpersonal interactions in group settings while committing to a common agenda. Various developmental milestones may indicate that these collaborative skills are being learned and effectively applied.

Effective Groups : Warren Bennis

Effective groups have shared dreams and manage conflict by abandoning individual egos in the pursuit of a dream. They also are protected from the "suits," or corporate leaders, have real or invented enemies, see themselves as underdogs who are winning, and pay a personal price to succeed. Their leaders provide direction, meaning, trust, and hope and display a bias toward action, risk taking, and urgency.

Negotiator (Informal Role)

Empowered by the group to act on its behalf to get resources and make deals

Norming

Finally, in this stage the members begin to settle into cooperation and collaboration. They have a "we" feeling with high cohesion, group identity, and camaraderie.

Group-Induced Attitude Polarization

Group discussion enhances the initial tendency of individual members in a given direction. Called group-induced attitude polarization, this means that, for example, if an employee has a prounion (or antiunion) attitude before group discussion, the group discussion results in an even more extreme attitude in the same direction. Group polarization refers to a strengthening of the dominant tendency, not to increased cleavage and diversity within a group.

Norm Violation and Role Ambiguity/Conflict

Group norms that are violated can result in antisocial behaviors. At the extreme, these include sexual harassment and theft. Others include lying, spreading rumors, withholding effort, and absenteeism. One study found group members who are chronically exposed to antisocial behaviors are more likely to engage in them, and dissatisfaction with coworkers may also rise, especially when those coworkers exhibit more antisocial activities than the person in question.

Virtual Teams

Groups of people who work interdependently with shared purpose across space, time, and organization boundaries using technology to communicate and collaborate. From research, a key to effective virtual teams has been the importance of choosing the appropriate communication media to fit the requirements of the task and the message. For example, for complex tasks like determining strategy, the medium for effective virtual teams should be synchronous technologies, which allow members to interact at the same time, or in real time.

Hot Groups

Groups that accomplish breakthrough performances are ones in which members see distinction and importance in their work, that the tasks captivate members, and that the tasks take priority over interpersonal relationships. Building hot groups requires less micromanaging, more informal (as opposed to formal) feedback, and role modeling of successful hot group behaviors by experienced members working with other new groups. Leadership in this approach is less intrusive and emphasizes group rather than individual rewards, and, as a result, groups can "turn on a dime" and get things done more quickly.

Reference Groups

Groups with whom people identify and whose values or attitudes they adopt. Reference groups are those to which an individual would like to belong—those he or she identifies with. An example would be a prestigious social group.

Task Interdependence

How closely group members work together.

The Difference between Small and Primary Groups

In addition to being small, a primary group must have a feeling of comradeship, loyalty, and a common sense of values among its members. Thus, all primary groups are small groups, but not all small groups are primary groups.

Primary Group

In addition to being small, a primary group must have a feeling of comradeship, loyalty, and a common sense of values among its members. Thus, all primary groups are small groups, but not all small groups are primary groups. Two examples of a primary group are the family and the peer group. Work groups definitely have primary group qualities

Dysfunctional Aspects of Informal Organizations

In contrast to formal organization analysis, the dysfunctional aspects of informal organization have received more attention than the functional ones. For example, conflicting objectives, restriction of output, conformity, blocking of ambition, inertia, and resistance to change are frequently mentioned dysfunctions of the informal organization.

Implications From Research on Group and Team Dynamics

In general, it can be concluded from research over the years that groups have a positive impact on both individual employee effectiveness (help learn about the organization and one's self, gain new skills, obtain rewards not available to individuals, and fulfill important social needs) and organizational effectiveness (strength in numbers of ideas and skills, improved decision making and control, and facilitating change as well as organizational stability). A meta-analysis of a number of studies over the years found that group cohesiveness has a highly significant positive effect on performance. Leadership: A highly cohesive group that is given positive leadership may have the highest possible productivity. On the other side of the coin, a highly cohesive group that is given poor leadership may have the lowest possible productivity.

Individualistic Cultures Problem-Solving

In general, to help overcome some of the problems associated with more individualistic cultures, it is advisable to allow groups to form voluntarily or for members to join voluntarily. Those who volunteer are more likely to be cooperative and experience greater satisfaction, motivation, and fewer disciplinary problems. Further, group goal-setting processes may also serve to increase motivation and satisfaction when they build group or collective efficacy.

Time and Group Cohesion

In one study, a longer time together gave group members the opportunity to engage in meaningful interactions. Importantly, for today's environment for groups, surface-level diversity issues (age, gender, race differences) were found to weaken over time, whereas deep-level diversity differences (attitudes and values) became stronger.

Propinquity

Individuals affiliate with one another because of spatial or geographical proximity. The theory would predict that students sitting next to one another in class, for example, are more likely to form into a group than are students sitting at opposite ends of the room. The drawback is that it is not analytical and does not begin to explain some of the complexities of group formation and the modern development of globalization and electronic, online networking and telecommunicating.

Informal Groups

Informal groups form for political, friendship, or common interest reasons. The major difference between formal and informal groups is that the formal group has officially prescribed goals and relationships, whereas the informal one does not. For political purposes, the informal group may form to attempt to get its share of rewards and/or limited resources. Friendship groups may form on the job and carry on outside the workplace. Common interests in sports or ways to get back at management can also bind members into an informal group.

Long-Standing Models of Team Effectiveness

Long-standing models of team effectiveness include creating the right environment where support, commitment, goals, reward systems, communication systems, and physical space are all in sync to allow the team to work in a productive atmosphere. Tasks should be designed to be interdependent, team size should be kept as small as possible, and members should be selected based on both being motivated and competent. Further, team cohesion should be built by either establishing homogenous groups or overcoming potential problems associated with diversity, by encouraging interaction and contact, and by making the group seem somewhat "exclusive," so that the members are happy to be included. Also, team successnaturally tends to build greater cohesion, as does the presence of external competition and challenges.

Potency

Members' belief that the group can be effective.

Membership Groups

Membership groups are those to which the individual actually belongs. An example would be membership in a craft union. A "card carrying" member.

Role Ambiguity

Occurs when the individual employee is unclear about the dictates of a given situation, or, in more common terms, "doesn't know what he's supposed to be doing." Unclear job descriptions, incomplete orders given by a manager, and inexperience all contribute to role ambiguity. Such ambiguity can affect the person's ability to function effectively in a group or team.

Dysfunctions of Groups and Teams

Of particular interest in work groups and teams are norm violation and role ambiguity/conflict, groupthink, risky shift, and social loafing.

Lobbyist (Informal Role)

Promotes and tells others how successful and important the group is to outsiders.

Buffer (Informal Role)

Protects and filters negative or disappointing news or information that might cause group members to be upset and cause morale to suffer.

A Balance Theory of Group Formation: Common Attitudes and Values

Religion Politics Lifestyle Marriage Work Authority

Risky Shift Phenomenon

Risky shift occurs when people change their decisions or opinions to become more extreme and risky when acting as part of a group, as compared with acting individually. Research going back many years has shown that, contrary to popular belief, a group may make more risky decisions than the individual members would on their own. This conclusion, of course, must be tempered by the values attached to the outcomes, but most of the research over the years finds that group discussion enhances the initial tendency of individual members in a given direction. Group polarization refers to a strengthening of the dominant tendency, not to increased cleavage and diversity within a group.

Which size teams are more likely to contribute to social loafing?

Social loafing is more likely to appear in large teams, where individual contributions are more difficult to identify. To reduce the impact of members shirking their duties and to ensure that they are fully contributing members of the team, it has been suggested to keep teams smaller in size, specialize tasks so that individual member contributions are identifiable, measure individual performance, and select only motivated employees when building teams.

Team Size: Social Loafing

Social loafing is more likely to appear in large teams, where individual contributions are more difficult to identify. To reduce the impact of members shirking their duties and to ensure that they are fully contributing members of the team, it has been suggested to keep teams smaller in size, specialize tasks so that individual member contributions are identifiable, measure individual performance, and select only motivated employees when building teams.6

Team Building (Enhancing Team Effectiveness)

Team building begins with the understanding that work groups require time and training before they develop into productive and cohesive units. There seems to be a learning curve in building an effective team. There are rare exceptions: hijacking of 9/11 in PA, passengers responded quickly and with teamwork. Managers should expect to see some uncertainty in the team, which may last for up to two years, and during that time there may even be a dip in productivity. As the team matures, members learn the basics of team work, understand their roles more clearly, make more effective group decisions, and pursue group goals. Team effectiveness may be enhanced using team-building programs, collaboration, and effective leadership and by accounting for functional, demographic, or cultural diversity and global issues when teams are formed.

When does team building succeed?

Team building succeeds when individuals share collective intelligence and experience a sense of empowerment and engagement. Team building involves rapid learning, which takes place when there is a free-flowing generation of ideas. When there is educational diversity among the team members, there is research evidence this will positively influence the range and depth of information use, but may detract from the integration of the information available to the team. Quality team-building programs must fit with the corporate culture, have well-designed goals, allow members to translate skills to the workplace, often take place in a separate environment, and may even move employees outside of a comfort zone, but not so much that they cannot learn. Programs such as rope climbing and even cooking classes may help members of some teams bond and learn to work together.

Norms

The "oughts" of behavior. They are prescriptions for acceptable behavior determined by the group.

Personal Abrasion

The clash of people.

Social Loafing

The concept that people are prone to exert less effort on a task if they are in a group versus when they work alone. The idea of working in groups is typically seen as a way to improve the accomplishment of a task by pooling the skills and talents of the individuals in that group. Primary causes include lack of performance feedback within the group, tasks that are not intrinsically motivating, situations in which the performances of others will cover for the reduced effort given by some members, and the "sucker effect" of not wanting to do more than the perception of effort being given by others. Research has found that cultures dominated by individual, self-interest values, such as the above example, are more likely to have groups that experience loafing. On the other hand, more collectivist cultures, which are dominated by a "we feeling" and group goals, lead to a stronger focus on the collective good and therefore may endure less loafing by group members.

Group Dynamics

The interactions and forces among group members in social situations.

To improve coordination with cross-functional teams, organizations can carry out five steps:

The key to ensuring successful performance of cross-functional teams is found in two sets of criteria: one inside the team and one in the organization at large. (1) Choosing the membership carefully. (2) Clearly establishing the purpose of the team. (3) Ensuring that everyone understands how the group will function. (4) Conducting intensive team building up front so that everyone learns how to interact effectively. (5) Achieving noticeable results so that morale remains high and the members can see the impact of their efforts.

Activities, Interactions, Sentiments (George Homans)

The more activities persons share, the more numerous will be their interactions and the stronger will be their sentiments (how much the other persons are liked or disliked); the more interactions among persons, the more will be their shared activities and sentiments; and the more sentiments persons have for one another, the more will be their shared activities and interactions. Interaction not just through propinquity, but through cooperation and problem-solving.

Creative Abrasion

The search for a clash of ideas; Clash of ideas from which new ideas and breakthrough solutions can evolve.

The Nature of a Team

The team has shared leadership roles. The team has individual and mutual accountability. The team has a specific purpose. The team has collective work-products. The team encourages open-ended, active problem-solving meetings. The team measures performance directly by assessing collective work-products. The team discusses, decides, and does real work. The point is that teams do go beyond traditional formal work groups by having a collective, synergistic (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts) effect.

Spokesperson (Informal Role)

The voice of the group.

The Nature of Groups

The work group has a strong, clearly focused leader. The work group has individual accountability. The work group's purpose is the same as the organization's. The work group has individual work-products. The work group measures effectiveness indirectly (for example, financial performance of the overall business). The work group discusses, decides, and delegates.

Which cultures are more likely to be dominated by social loafing?

There is a cultural component inherent in such social loafing. Research has found that cultures dominated by individual, self-interest values, are more likely to have groups that experience loafing. On the other hand, more collectivist cultures, which are dominated by a "we feeling" and group goals, lead to a stronger focus on the collective good and therefore may endure less loafing by group members.

Forming

This initial stage is marked by uncertainty and even confusion. Group members are not sure about the purpose, structure, task, or leadership of the group. The first stage of team development, in which team members meet each other, form initial impressions, and begin to establish team norms.

Performing

This is the stage where the group is fully functioning and devoted to effectively accomplishing the tasks agreed on in the norming stage.

Adjourning

This represents the end of the group, which in ongoing, permanent groups will never be reached. However, for project teams or task forces with a specific objective, once the objective is accomplished, the group will disband or have a new composition, and the stages will start over again.

Storming

This stage of development, as indicated by the term, is characterized by conflict and confrontation. In the usually emotionally charged atmosphere, there may be considerable disagreement and conflict among the members about roles and duties.

Formal Groups

Those defined by the organization's structure; The functional departmental committees (finance, marketing, operations, and human resources). The major difference between formal and informal groups is that the formal group has officially prescribed goals and relationships, whereas the informal one does not. Cross-functional teams are examples, as are standing committees such as the public affairs committee, grievance committee, executive committee, and even the board of directors.

Factional Groups/Teams

Those in which members are representatives from a small number of (often just two) social entities. Such groups include many merger integration teams, bilateral task forces, and joint venture teams. A political faction is a group of individuals within a larger entity, such as a political party, a trade union or other group, or simply a political climate, united by a particular common political purpose that differs in some respect to the rest of the entity. When these formal committees meet, they are often frustrating to the members. In fact, one survey found only 42 percent felt that the meetings were productive.

Shapers

Those who define group tasks.

Positive Results from Self-Managed Teams

To date, both the research and the practice literature has been quite favorable to self-managed teams. For example, studies of the empowerment of self-managed teams found increased job satisfaction, customer service, and team organizational commitment and the facilitation of emergent leadership. Also, a comprehensive meta-analysis covering 70 studies concluded that self-managed teams had a positive impact on productivity and specific attitudes related to the team, but not on general attitudes, absenteeism, or turnover. This finding on the impact on productivity is impressive, and more recent studies also find a more favorable impact on attitudes as well.

Citizenship Behaviors

Voluntary activities that may or may not be rewarded but that contribute to the organization by improving the quality of the setting where work occurs. Citizenship behaviors include altruism, conscientiousness (or being a "good soldier"), courtesy, sportsmanship, and civic virtue, which are also involved in looking out for the welfare of the group and the organization. Perceptions of fairness, group norms, and leader-team congruence in power distance values may impact such citizenship behaviors, which in turn help maintain the group's performance levels.

Outcome Interdependence

Whether and how group performance is rewarded.

Group Leadership

Whether the assigned head of the team or the emergent leader in self-managed teams, there are two key ways in which leaders may affect performance of groups: (1) how they select members and (2) the tactics they use to affect those members. Tactics that help create a more team-oriented climate include eliminating or reducing special offices for the group heads, major differences in perks and privileges, and a decline in the use of designated leader titles.116 There is also research coming out of the procedural justice literature indicating that team members are more satisfied with their leader and have lower absenteeism and better performance when they feel they are being treated fairly. Leaders need to continue to be clear and decisive even as they work with different people, different teams, and different environments. Recent research finds that when team leaders exhibit positivity, their members tended to be more positive (i.e., a contagion effect) and also exhibited better coordination.

Factors That Increase Group Cohesiveness

• Agreement on group goals. • Frequency of interaction. • Personal attractiveness. • Intergroup competition. • Favorable evaluation.

Factors That Decrease Group Cohesiveness

• Disagreement on goals. • Large group size. • Unpleasant experiences. • Intragroup competition. • Domination by one or more members.