MGMT-464: Chapter 8 - Group and Teams

Group

(1) two or more freely interacting individuals who (2) share norms and (3) goals and (4) have a common identity.

Role

A set of expected behaviors for a particular position.

Norm

An attitude, opinion, feeling, or action—shared by two or more people—that guides behavior.

Team performance strategies

Deliberate plans that outline what exactly the team is to do, such as goal setting and defining particular member roles, tasks, and responsibilities.

Team charters

Descriptions of how the team will operate, such as processes for sharing information and decision making (teamwork); details members' mutual expectations about how the team with operate, allocate resources, resolve conflict, and meet its commitments.

Formal group

Group assigned by organizations or their managers to accomplish specific goals.

Self-managed teams

Groups of workers who are given administrative oversight for their task domains.

C

Jeannie belongs to a formal work group with established norms. All the following would be considered norms for her group EXCEPT a) meetings always start on time. b) meetings are limited to two hours. c) Jeannie's boss always mediates conflict through reconciliation or humor. d) members take turns bringing snacks. e) no cell phones are allowed during the meeting.

B

Kierra is trying to quickly establish a team to find the root cause of a quality issue involving defective air bags in her company, which also involves suppliers and dealers. Which of these should she NOT do? a) Clearly explain the purpose of the team is to locate the root cause of the problem and suggest corrections. b) Decide against using a cross-functional team because she assumes the problem can be solved by one department. c) Have each member share details about their experiences. d) Establish how information will be shared. e) Explain how conflicts in decision making will be resolved.

E

Michael's manager told him that if he finished his project before Friday he would not have to work on the weekend. Michael finished the project on time and was still required to work on the weekend. Which type of trust did Michael's manager betray? a) fairness trust b) competence trust c) respect trust d) communication trust e) contractual trust

Group Norms

Norms are reinforced for many purposes • Group or organization survival • Clarification of behavioral expectations • Avoidance of embarrassment • Clarification of central values or unique identity Creation of norms • Can emerge on their own • Can be purposefully created

Cross-functionalism

Occurs when specialists from different areas are put on the same team.

Task roles

Roles that enable the work group to define, clarify, and pursue a common purpose.

Maintenance roles

Roles that foster supportive and constructive interpersonal relationships.

Free Riders

Social loafing leads to: • Lower quality work • Others being forced to work harder • Disruption for the team Counter social loafing by: • Limiting group size • Assuring equity of effort to reduce the possibility that a member can say, "everyone else is goofing off, so why shouldn't I? • Holding people accountable. Don't allow members to feel they are lost in the crowd and can think, "who cares?'

Team Types

Teams can be differentiated by: • Purpose of the team, duration of the team's existence, and level of member commitment • Work, project, self-managed, cross-functional, and virtual teams

Social loafing

Tendency for individual effort to decline as group size increases. • Social loafers, also referred to as free riders, produce not only low-quality work, which causes others to work harder to compensate, but they also often distract or disrupt the work of other team members. • To reduce loafing, managers should limit group size, assure equity of effort, and hold people accountable.

Group cohesiveness

The "we feeling" that binds members of a group together is the principal by-product of Stage 3.

Team adaptive capacity

The ability of a team to meet changing demands and to effectively transition members in and out.

Task interdependence

The degree to which team members depend on each other for information, materials, and other resources to complete their job tasks.

Outcome interdependence

The degree to which the outcomes of task work are measured, rewarded, and communicated at the group level so as to emphasize collective outputs rather than individual contributions.

Social loafing

The tendency for individual effort to decline as group size increases.

Teams: The Power of Common Purpose

What is a team? A small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable • Team: a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves collectively accountable. • Teams are a central component of the Organizing Framework and a cornerstone of work life. • Practically all employees need to develop their skills related to building effective teams, and leaders need to be able to cultivate the level of trust necessary to foster constructive teamwork.

Project teams

• Assembled to tackle a specific problem, task, or project • Usually exist for duration to compete purpose • Members usually divide time between the team and their primary jobs and responsibilities

Building and Maintaining Trust

• Communication • Support • Respect • Fairness • Predictability • Competence

Work teams

• Have a well-defined and common purpose, are more or less permanent, and require complete commitment from members

Cross-functional teams

• Occurs when specialists from different areas are put on the same team • Created with members from different disciplines within an organization, such as finance, operations, and R&D. • Can be used for any purpose. They can be work or project teams, and they may have a short or indefinite duration. • New-product development is an area in which many organizations utilize cross-functional teams.

How Are Teams Different from Groups?

A group becomes a team when • Leadership becomes a shared activity • Accountability shifts from strictly individual to both individual and collective • The group develops its own purpose or mission • Problem solving becomes a way of life, not a part-time activity • Effectiveness is measured by the group's collective outcomes and products

Trust

A reciprocal belief that another person will consider how his or her intentions and behaviors will affect you.

Group role

A set of expected behaviors for members of the group as a whole.

Team

A small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.

Group Roles and Norms

Norms: the attitudes, opinions, feelings, or actions shared by two or more people that guide behavior • Norms help create order and allow groups to function more efficiently because they save groups from having to figure out how to do the same things each time they meet. • Norms are typically unwritten and seldom discussed openly, but they have a powerful influence on group and organizational behavior. Like organizational culture, individual and group behavior are guided in part by shared expectations and norms. • Another way to think about roles and norms is as peer pressure, which is simply the influence of the group on the individual, and the expectations of associated roles and norms are the means of this influence. Roles At the individual level Pertain to a specific job or situation Norms • Shared phenomena • Apply to group, team, or organization

Team Players Versus Free Riders

Team Players Are: Committed Collaborative Competent They: Contributes to the team's work • Completed work in a timely manner • Came to meetings prepared • Did complete and accurate work Constructively interacts with team members • Communicated effectively • Listened to teammates • Accepted feedback Keep team on track • Helped team plan and organize work • Stayed aware of team members' progress • Provided constructive feedback Expect high-quality work • Expected team to succeed • Cared that the team produced high-quality work Possess relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) for team's responsibilities • Possessed necessary KSAs to contribute meaningfully to team • Applied knowledge and skill to fill as needed for other members' roles

Virtual teams

Teams that work together over time and distance via electronic media to combine effort and achieve common goals.

Collaboration

The act of sharing information and coordinating efforts to achieve a collective outcome.

Team composition

The collection of jobs, personalities, knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience of team members.

Teams and Building Trust

What is trust? • A reciprocal belief that another person will consider how their intentions and behaviors will affect you • When we feel or observe others trust us, we are more likely to trust them • Trust is the interpersonal lubricant for relationships within and between all organizational levels—individual, group, and organizational—and drives many important team-level outcomes found in the Organizing Framework. Trust is thought to come in three forms. • Contractual trust o Trust of character o Do people do what they say they are going to do? o Do managers and employees make clear what they expect of one another? • Communication trust o Trust of disclosure o How well do people share information and tell the truth? • Competence trust o Trust of capability o How effectively do people meet or perform their responsibilities and acknowledge other people's skills and abilities?

The 3 Cs of Effective Teams

Charters and Strategies • Both researchers and practitioners urge groups and teams to plan before tackling their tasks, early in the group development process (the storming stage) and recommend that teams develop team charters and team performance strategies. o Team charters: describe how the team will operate, such as processes for sharing information and decision making (teamwork). o Team performance strategies: deliberate plans that outline what exactly the team is to do, such as goal-setting and defining particular member roles, tasks, and responsibilities. Team Composition • Team composition: the collection of jobs, personalities, knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience of team members. • It is important that team member characteristics fit the responsibilities of the team for the team to be effective. • It is important to create teams with the composition to match the desired objectives. Capacity • Team adaptive capacity: the ability to make needed changes in response to demands put on the team. • Adaptive capacity is fostered by team members who are both willing and able to adapt to achieve the team's objectives. • Team adaptive capacity crucial to meet changing demands and to effectively transition members in and out

A

Franco is part of a group which must resolve a quality control issue at his company. Franco is worried about what the group expects from him, and is not sure who is in charge. What stage of group development is the group likely in at this time? a) forming b) storming c) norming d) performing e) adjourning

Informal group

Group exists when the members' overriding purpose of getting together is friendship or a common interest.

Group Roles and Norms

Group roles are expected behaviors for members of the group as a whole. While people often play multiple roles, two types of roles are especially noteworthy. Task Roles: enable the work group to define, clarify, and pursue a common purpose; Keeping the group on track • Initiator: suggests new goals or ideas • Information seeker/given: clarifies key issues • Opinion seeker/giver: clarifies pertinent values • Elaborator: promotes greater understanding through examples or exploration of implications • Coordinator: pulls together ideas and suggestions • Orienter: keeps group headed towards its stated goal(s) • Evaluator: tests group's accomplishments with various criteria such as logic and practicality • Energizer: prods group to move along or to accomplish more • Procedural technician: performs routine duties (handling out materials or rearranging seats) • Recorder: performs a "group memory" function by documenting discussion and outcomes Maintenance Roles: foster supportive and constructive interpersonal relationships; Keeping the group together • Encourager: fosters group solidarity by accepting and praising various points of view • Harmonizer: mediates conflict through reconciliation or humor • Compromiser: helps resolve conflict by meeting others halfway • Gatekeeper: encourages all group members to participate • Standard setter: evaluates the quality of group processes • Commentator: records and comments on group processes/dynamics • Follower: serves as a passive audience

Punctuated equilibrium

Groups establish periods of stable functioning until an event causes a dramatic change in norms, roles, and/or objectives. The group then establishes and maintains new norms of functioning, returning to equilibrium.

Team Interdependence

One of the most important aspects of teams is interdependence, or the extent to which members are dependent on each other to accomplish their work. Two common forms of interdependence are task and outcome. Task interdependence: the degree to which team members depend on each other for information, materials, and other resources to complete their job tasks. • The degree of task interdependence is determined by the degree of interaction between members and the amount of coordination required among them. • The four basic types of task interdependence, ranked by how much team member interaction and coordination are required, are pooled, sequential, reciprocal, and comprehensive. • Task interdependence provides opportunities for interaction, sharing, and coordination, and the form of interdependence should match what the team requires to achieve its goals. Outcome interdependence: the degree to which the outcomes of task work are measured, rewarded, and communicated at the group level so as to emphasize collective outputs rather than individual contributions. • Outcome interdependence is determined by the extent to which team members' objectives and rewards are aligned.

Pros and Cons of Virtual Teams

Pros • Reduced real estate costs • Ability to leverage diverse KSAs over geography and time • Ability to share knowledge of diverse markets • Reduced commuting and travel expenses • Reduced work-life conflicts • Ability to attract and retain talent Cons • Difficult to establish cohesion, work satisfaction, trust, cooperative behavior, and commitment to team goals • Cultural differences • Differences in local laws and customs • Lack of nonverbal cues • Lack of collegiality Virtual Team Management: Best Practices • Adapting communications to preferred channels and convenient times. • Sharing the love by keeping distributed workers in the loop and connected. • Developing productive relationships with key people on the team who can make or break the team assignment. • Treating members of virtual teams like true partners and not hired help. • Being available by letting others know when you can be reached, where, and how. • Documenting the work when the project is handed off from one time zone to the next by having senders and receivers clearly specify what they have completed and what they need in each transfer. • Providing regular updates on your progress to the necessary team members. • Selecting the right people who thrive in interdependent work environments and are self-reliant and self-motivated. • Requiring effective communication skills. There is no substitute for face-to-face contact, and meeting in person is especially beneficial early in virtual team development. • Face-to-face interactions enable people to get familiar with each other and build credibility, trust, and understanding. • Face-to-face interactions enable people to get real-time feedback, forge meaningful and real connections, get a better sense of what others actually think and feel, and make subsequent virtual interactions more efficient and effective.

Virtual teams

Teams that work together over time and distance via electronic media to combine effort and achieve common goals • Report in from different locations, different organizations, and often different time zones and countries • Flexible and efficient because driven by information and skills, not by time and location • People with needed information and/or skills can be team members, regardless of where or when they actually do their work • Virtual teams and distributed workers present many potential benefits: reduced real estate costs; ability to leverage diverse knowledge, skills, and experience across geography and time; ability to share knowledge of diverse markets; and reduced commuting and travel expenses. • It is more difficult for virtual teams than for face-to-face teams to establish team cohesion, work satisfaction, trust, cooperative behavior, and commitment to team goals.

Groups

Two or more freely interacting individuals who share norms and goals and have a common identity • The size of a group is limited by the potential for mutual interaction and mutual awareness. • People form groups for many reasons, including the fact that groups usually accomplish more than individuals. Formal or informal; can overlap Formal Groups - EX: Insurance claims department • Assigned by organization to accomplish specific goals • Fulfill two basic functions o 1) Organizational functions Accomplish complex, interdependent tasks that are beyond the capabilities of individuals Generate new or creative ideas and solutions Coordinate interdepartmental efforts Provide a problem-solving mechanism for complex problems requiring varied information and assessments Implement complex decisions Socialize and train newcomers o 2) Individual functions Satisfy the individual's need for affiliation Develop, enhance, and confirm the individual's self-esteem and sense of identity Give individuals an opportunity to test and share their perceptions of social reality Reduce the individual's anxieties and feelings of insecurity and powerlessness Provide a problem-solving mechanism for personal and interpersonal problems • Have labels: work group, team, committee, or task force Informal Groups - EX: Social club at the university • Overriding purpose for meeting is friendship or common interest

Teams: Rebuilding Trust

• Demonstrating each of the three types of trust builds trust. • To build and maintain trust, you should communicate candidly, provide support by being available and approachable, show respect by delegating meaningful responsibilities, be fair, be consistent and predictable, and enhance your competence. • Just as trust can be built, it can be eroded. • The violation of trust, or even the perception of it, can diminish trust and lead to distrust. • Trust is violated in many different ways, sometimes unknowingly and other times purposefully, but it is important to repair trust when it is damaged regardless of the cause. Reina seven-step model for rebuilding trust Starting from a climate of distrust 1) Acknowledge what caused trust to be compromised. 2) Allow feelings and emotions to be discussed, constructively. 3) Get and give support to others in the process. 4) Reframe the experience and shift from being a victim to taking a look at options and choices. 5) Take responsibility. Ask, "What did I do or not do that caused this to happen?" 6) Forgive yourself and others. 7) Let go and move on. Trust should be restored.

Groups Develop in Stages

• Groups and teams go through a development process. • Some groups go through a specific series of stages. • Other groups progress in a stable manner for a while, but then respond to an event by radically changing their approach. • Two models of group development are Tuckman's five-stage theory of group development and punctuated equilibrium. • Tuckman's Five-Stage Model of Group Development • Tuckman's five-stage theory of group development presented in Figure 8-3 is one oft-cited model of the group stages. • The stages are not necessarily of the same duration or intensity for each group, and they may be impacted by the goal clarity and the commitment and maturity of the members. Stage 1: Forming • "Ice-breaking" stage • Group members uncertain and anxious about such things as their roles, who is in charge, and the group's goals • Mutual trust is low • Good deal of holding back to see who is in charge and how • Conflict is beneficial and leads to increased creativity Stage 2: Storming • Time of testing • Testing leader's policies and assumptions and how they fit into the power structure • Subgroups take shape, and subtle forms of rebellion occur • Subgroups may form and resist the current direction of a leader or another subgroup • Many groups stall in Stage 2 because power and politics erupt into open rebellion Stage 3: Norming • Groups making it this far usually do so thanks to a respected member, other than the leader, challenging the group to resolve its power struggles so something can be accomplished. • Questions about authority and power are best resolved through unemotional, matter-of-fact group discussion. • A feeling of team spirit is sometimes experienced during this stage because members believe they have found their proper roles. • By-product of this stage is group cohesiveness: a "we feeling" binding group members together, is the principal by-product of Stage 3. • Group more cohesive • Less conflict with increasing team member interactions and interdependence of work tasks Stage 4: Performing • Activity during this vital stage is focused on solving task problems, as contributors get their work done without hampering others. • There is a climate of open communication, strong cooperation, and lots of helping behavior. • Conflicts and job boundary disputes are handled constructively and efficiently. • Cohesiveness and personal commitment to group goals help the group achieve more than could any one individual acting alone. Stage 5: Adjourning • The work is done so it is time to move on to other things. • Return to independence can be eased by rituals celebrating "the end" and "new beginnings" through parties, award ceremonies, graduations, etc. • Leaders need to emphasize valuable lessons learned during the adjourning stage.

Self-managed teams

• Groups of workers who are given administrative oversight for their task domains such as planning, scheduling, monitoring, and staffing • These are normally performed by managers, but in self-managed teams' employees act as their own supervisors • Have a defined purpose and their duration can vary, along with the level of member commitment • Self-managed: leadership responsibilities often are shared and shift as the demands on and members of self-managed teams change • Outside managers and leaders maintain indirect accountability. This contrasts with the hierarchical or centralized types of management historically found in teams. • Accountability is maintained indirectly by outside managers, and leaders and leadership responsibilities often are shared. • Involves a revolutionary change in management philosophy, structure, staffing and training practices as well as reward systems

Characteristics of High-Performing Teams

• Participative leadership • Shared responsibility • Aligned on purpose • High communication • Future focused • Focused on task • Creative talents • Rapid response Current research and practice have identified the following eight attributes of high-performance teams: 1) Shared leadership that creates interdependency by empowering, freeing up, and serving others. 2) Strong sense of accountability in which all team members feel as responsible as the manager for the performance of the work unit. 3) Aligned on purpose is a sense of common purpose about why the team exists and the function it serves. 4) Open communication based on a climate of open and honest communication. 5) High trust and the belief that member actions and intentions focus on what's best for the team and its members. 6) Clear role and operational expectations with defined individual member responsibilities and team processes. 7) Early conflict resolution as conflicts arise, rather than avoidance or delay. 8) Collaboration with cooperative effort to achieve team goals.

Other Determinants of Effective Teams

• Rewards - team based rather than individual to foster collaboration • Effective team size - depends on the purpose of the team but usually ten or fewer • Collaboration: the act of sharing information and coordinating efforts to achieve a collective outcome. • Teams whose members collaborate are more effective than those whose members don't, especially as interdependence increases. • To help foster collaboration, it is important to communicate expectations, set team goals, encourage creativity, build workflow rhythm, and leverage team members' strengths. • Dissatisfaction with rewards is a common cause for suboptimal team performance. • Organizations that foster the greatest collaboration and most effective teams typically use hybrid rewards and recognize both individual and team performance. • Table 8.5 provides guidance on how to reward performance in teams, based on the desired outcome (speed or accuracy) and the degree of interdependence (low, moderate, high). To help foster collaboration, we recommend the following as a starting point: 1) Communicate expectations 2) Set team goals 3) Encourage creativity 4) Build work flow rhythm 5) Leverage team member strengths