MNO Exam 2: Teamwork Study Guide
In what ways do teams differ from other types of groups?
Members are focused on a joint goal or product, such as a presentation, discussing a topic, writing a report, creating a new design or prototype, or winning a team Olympic medal.
What is needed in teams to create less social loafing?
More fairness
What happens to group members during the "Performing" stage?
-Members are more interdependent -Individuality and differences are respected -Feel themselves to be part of a greater entity -Group has matured, becoming more competent, autonomous, and insightful.
What happens to group members during the "Norming" phase?
-More open and respectful toward each other -Ask each other for both help and feedback -Begin to form friendships and share more personal information with each other
Why are Team Meetings important?
-Serve an important function in terms of information sharing and decision making -Serve an important social function and can help to build team cohesion and a task function in terms of coordination
Norms are?
shared expectations about how things operate within a group or team
Another important type of interdependence that is not specific to the task itself is: Outcome interdependence, in which?
the rewards that an individual receives depend on the performance of others.
Social loafing refers to?
the tendency of individuals to put in less effort when working in a group context.
What kind of groups have high performance levels?
-Groups where people get along -Feel the desire to contribute to the team -Are capable of coordinating their efforts
What are the 4 types of task interdependence?
1. Pooled interdependence 2. Sequential interdependence 3. Reciprocal interdependence 4. Outcome interdependence
Most work is done in what in organizations?
Groups
Who Are the Best Individuals for the Team?
Individuals who are qualified for the roles they will fill for the team.
The following is an example of what kind of group: A few people in the company get together to play tennis on the weekend be
Informal group
Reciprocal interdependence is when?
Team members are working on each task simultaneously.
What kind of task interdependence is this? When students meet to divide the section of a research paper and one person simply puts all the sections together to create one paper
The Pooled interdependence model
How Large Should My Team Be?
The ideal size for a team depends on the task. -Groups larger than 10 members tend to be harder to coordinate and often break into subteams to accomplish the work.
How Diverse Should My Team Be?
The more diverse a team is in terms of expertise, gender, age, and background, the more ability the group has to avoid the problems of groupthink.
American organizational psychologist Bruce Tuckman presented a well-known model of group development called?
Tuckman's 5 Stages of Group Development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning Model
A team is?
a cohesive coalition of people working together to achieve mutual goals.
A group is?
a collection of individuals who interact with each other such that one person's actions have an impact on the others
Collective efficacy refers to?
a group's perception of its ability to successfully perform well.
Social Loafing/The Ringelmann effect found that?
as the number of group members increases, the effort of each member decreases.
Cohesion:
can be thought of as a kind of social glue. It refers to the degree of trust/friendship within the group.
The key properties of a true team include:
collaborative action in which, along with a common goal, teams have collaborative tasks
Norms are a powerful way of?
ensuring coordination within a team
Why is it important for new employees to learn the Norms of their immediate team?
helps teams be more cohesive and perform better
A formal work group is made up of?
managers, subordinates, or both with close associations among group members that influence the behavior of individuals in the group
Sequential interdependence is when?
one person's output becomes another person's input
When collective efficacy is high, groups tend to?
perform better
Pooled interdependence exists when?
team members may work independently and simply combine their efforts to create the team's output.
The performance of a group consists of?
the inputs of the group minus any process losses, such as: -the quality of a product -ramp-up time to production -or the sales for a given month
Teams are most effective when?
they comprise members with the right skills for the tasks at hand, are not too large, and contain diversity across team members.
Informal work groups are made up of?
two or more individuals who are associated with one another in ways not prescribed by the formal organization.
What happens to group members during the "Storming" phase?
-Become more authentic -More argumentative -Begin to explore their power and influence -Stake out their territory by differentiating themselves -Discussions can become heated -Become defensive, competitive, or jealous -Begin to form cliques within the group -Questioning and resisting direction from the leader
The fundamental factors affecting group cohesion include the following:
-Similarity. The more similar group members are in terms of age, sex, education, skills, attitudes, values, and beliefs, the more likely the group will bond. -Stability. The longer a group stays together, the more cohesive it becomes. -Size. Smaller groups tend to have higher levels of cohesion. -Support. When group members receive coaching and are encouraged to support their fellow team members, group identity strengthens. -Satisfaction. Cohesion is correlated with how pleased group members are with each other's performance, behavior, and conformity to group norms.
What are some things managers can do During the meeting to make it more effective?
-Start the meeting on time. -Follow the meeting agenda. -Manage group dynamics for full participation -Summarize the meeting with action items. -End the meeting on time.
What goals are group members trying to achieve during the 1st stage of "Forming"?
-Trying to get to know each other -Members also begin to explore group boundaries to determine what will be considered acceptable behavior -testing the appointed leader or seeing if a leader emerges from the group
Collective efficacy is influenced by a number of factors including?
-Watching others ("that group did it and we're better than them") -Verbal persuasion ("we can do this") -How a person feels ("this is a good group")
What happens to group members during the "Adjourning" stage?
-victory, grief, and insecurity about what is coming next -Group leaders and members alike should be sensitive to handling these endings respectfully and compassionately
What are the 5 ways to have Constructive disagreement as a team?
1. Assemble a heterogeneous team, including diverse ages, genders, functional back- grounds, and industry experience. 2.Meet together as a team regularly and often. Frequent interaction builds the mutual confidence and familiarity team members require to express dissent. 3. Encourage team members to assume roles beyond their obvious product, geographic, or functional responsibilities. 4. Apply multiple mind-sets to any issue. Try role-playing, putting yourself in your competi- tors' shoes, or conducting war games. Such techniques create fresh perspectives and engage team members, spurring interest in problem solving. 5. Actively manage conflict. Identify and treat apathy early, and don't confuse a lack of conflict with agreement.
What are 6 key things managers can do Before the meeting to make it more effective?
1. Determine whether a meeting is needed 2. Decide who should be at the meeting, only invite those 3. Decide how long the meeting should be, keep it short 4. Create and distribute an agenda. 5. Send a reminder prior to the meeting 6. Decide if you need chairs.
What are the 8 symptoms of Groupthink? 11.4
1. Illusion of invulnerability 2. Collective rationalizations 3. An unquestioned belief in the group's inherent morality 4. Stereotyped views of outgroups 5. Direct pressure 6. Self-censorship 7. Illusions of unanimity 8. The emergence of self-appointed mindguards
What are the 4 Barriers to effective teams?
1. Knowing where to begin 2. Dominating team members 3. The poor performance of team members 4. Poorly managed team conflict
What are the 2 Boundary-Spanning Roles?
1. The Consul Role: includes gathering information from the larger organization and informing those within the organization about team activities, goals, and successes. -Often the consul role is filled by team managers or leaders. 2. The Coordinator Role: includes interfacing with others within the organization so that the team's efforts are in line with other individuals and teams within the organization.
What are the 5 Task Roles?
1. The Contractor Role: includes behaviors that serve to organize the team's work, including creating team timelines, production schedules, and task sequencing 2. The Creator Role: deals more with changes in the team's task process structure (ex: reframing the team goals and looking at the context of goals would fall under this role) 3. The Contributor Role: brings information and expertise to the team (characterized by sharing knowledge and training with those who have less expertise to strengthen the team) 4. The Completer Role: transforms ideas into action (following up on tasks, such as gathering needed background information or summarizing the team's ideas into reports) 5. The Critic Role: includes "devil's advocate" behaviors that go against the assumptions being made by the team.
What are the 3 Social Roles?
1. The Cooperator Role: includes supporting those with expertise toward the team's goals. This is a proactive role. 2. The Communicator Role: includes behaviors that are targeted at collaboration, such as practicing good listening skills and appropriately using humor to diffuse tense situations. 3. The Calibrator Role: serves to keep the team on track in terms of suggesting any needed changes to the team's process. -This role includes initiating discussions about potential team problems such as power struggles or other tensions. -Similarly, this role may involve settling disagreements or pointing out what is working and what is not in terms of team processes
What are the 6 Tactics Strong Teams use for Managing Interpersonal Conflict?
1. Worked with more, rather than less, information and debated on the basis of facts; 2. Developed multiple alternatives to enrich the level of debate; 3. Shared commonly agreed-upon goals; 4. Injected humor into the decision process; 5. Maintained a balanced power structure; 6. Resolved issues without forcing consensus.
Within an organization, groups might consist of?
Project-related groups such as a product group or division -an entire store or branch of a company
What kind of task interdependence is this? If the student team decided that in order to create a top-notch research paper they should work together on each phase of the research paper so that their best ideas would be captured at each stage
Reciprocal interdependence
What kind of task interdependence is this? When the students divide the paper, the person writing the conclusion has to wait until the person before him is done, to have the information for the conclusion.
Sequential interdependence
What is the concept behind questions such as: "My own effort will have little effect on the outcome," "Others aren't pulling their weight, so why should I?" or "I don't have much to contribute, but no one will notice anyway."
Social Loafing
What is the "Performing" stage of Tuckman's 5 stages of Group Development?
Stage when participants are not only getting the work done, but they also pay greater attention to how they are doing it.
What is the "Norming" stage of Tuckman's 5 stages of Group Development?
Stage when participants find it easy to establish their own ground rules (or norms) and define their operating procedures and goals.
What are the 10 key team roles?
Task roles: Contractor, Creator, Contributor, Completer, Critic Social roles: Calibrator, Communicator, Cooperator Boundary-spanning roles: Consul, Coordinator.
The aim and purpose of a team is to?
perform, get results, and achieve victory in the workplace.
Effective meetings include?
preparation, management during the meeting, and follow-up on action items generated in the meeting.
Tuckman's 5 stages of Group Development model is useful in?
prescribing stages that groups should pay attention to as they develop.
For example, is it acceptable to be late to meetings? How prepared are you supposed to be at the meetings? Is it acceptable to criticize someone else's work? These norms are shaped early during the life of a team and affect whether the team is?
productive, cohesive, and successful.