Ch. 8 Groups and teams
socail loafing
tendency for individual effort to decline as group size increases • Typically involved more than simply "slacking off" • Free riders produce low quality work, which causes other to work harder to compensate, but also distract or disrupt the work of other team members
hybrid rewards
those that include team and individual components—reduced social loafing and improved info sharing o Hold members accountable both as individuals and as a team
competency 2. constructively interacts with team members
ex of member behaviors • Communicated effectively • Listened to teammates • Accepted feedback
competency 3: keeps team on track
ex of member behaviors: • Helped team plan and organize work • Stayed aware of team members' progress • Provided constructive feedback
competency: 1. contributes to the team's work
ex of members behaviors: • Completed work in a timely manner • Came to meetings prepared • Did complete and accurate work
competency 5: possesses relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) for team's responsibilities
ex of members behaviors: • Possessed necessary KSAs to contribute meaningfully to the team • Applied knowledge and skill to fill in as needed for other members' roles
competency 4: expects quality work
ex of members behaviors: • Expected team to succeed • Cared that the team produced quality work
informal group
exists when the members' overriding purpose of getting together is friendship or a common interest
maintenance roles
foster supportive and constructive interpersonal relationships o Keep the group together
benefits of virtual teams
reduced real estate cost, ability to leverage diverse knowledge, skills, and experience across geography and time, ability to share knowledge of diverse markets, reduce commuting and travel expenses
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
describe how the team will operate, such as processes for sharing information and decision making (teamwork)
team composition
describes the collection of jobs, personalities, knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience of team members
capacity
- team adaptive capacity b. Fostered by individuals who are motivated to achieve an accurate view of the world and work effectively with others to achieve outcomes
composition
- team composition b. Important that team member characteristics fit the responsibilities of the team for the team to be effective c. Fit facilitates team effectiveness and misfit impedes it—need the right people on your team d. Create teams with the composition to match the desired objectives
Group
1. 2 or more freely interacting individuals who 2. Share norms and 3. Goals and have a 4. Common identity • Groups usually accomplish more than individuals • Groups routinely outperform the average of their individual members, particularly with quantitative tasks • Exs: financial forecasts, sales estimates, and climate change predictions • These performance benefits increase further if the team receives feedback that describes which member's approach is most effective o Rationale is that the team becomes more efficient, focuses on the best approach, and then applies the knowledge and efforts to improving on the best approach, which raises performance even more • EH Shein: the size is limited by the possibilities of mutual interaction and mutual awareness
organizational function
1. Accomplish complex, interdependent tasks that are beyond the capabilities of individuals 2. Generate new or creative ideas and solutions 3. Coordinate interdepartmental efforts 4. Provide a problem solving mechanism for complex problems requiring varied info and assessments 5. Implement complex decisions 6. Socialize and train newcomers
Reina 7 Step Model for Rebuilding Trust
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
effective virtual team participation and management
1. Adapt communication: learn how the various remote workers function, including preference for e-mail, texts, phone calls Be strategic- talk to the right people, at the right times, about the right topics 2. Share the love: use company's intranet or other technology to keep distributed workers in the loop 3. Develop productive relationships with key people on the team: may require extra attention, communication, and travel 4. Partner: common that members are not direct employees- your success and that of your team depend on them- treat them like true partners and not hired help 5. Availability: managers and remote workers all need to know when people can be reached, where and how 6. Pace: b/c of diff time zones, some projects can receive attention around the clock, as they are handed off from one zone to the next 7. Updates: be sure to provide regular updated on your progress to the necessary team members 8. Select the right people: virtual work requires independent thought and willingness to take initiative 9. Communication skills are essential: must have excellent communication skills
Building affective teams fast
1. Break the ice - doing so helps everybody learn what types of skills and abilities the team possesses, also facilitates cooperation because team members can use each other's experiences as a shared history, which sub for the history they don't actually have together 2. Don't reinvent the wheel- ask team members what has worked in the past, can help signal respect 3. Communicate a purpose and plan- explain team's purpose and how they will work together 4. Play to strengths- set individuals and the alter team up to win- match individual members' skills to responsibilities and goals of the team 5. Clarify decision making- how you approach decision making in dealing with conflicts 6. Info is essential- make it flow- establish clear processes and expectation for sharing info within a team
the 3 c's of effective teams
1. Charters and strategies 2. Composition 3. Capacity
3 C's of a team player
1. Committed 2. Collaborative 3. Competent • "cover charge" or the bare minimum to be a team player • Effective team players display the 3 c's
3 forms of trust
1. Contractual trust: trust of character, do people do what they say they are going to do? 2. Communication trust- trust of disclosure, how well do people share info and tell the truth? 3. Competence trust- trust of capability, how effectively do people meet or perform their responsibilities and acknowledge other people's skills and abilities?
criteria of successful teams
1. Leadership becomes a shared activity 2. Accountability shifts from strictly individual to both individual and collective 3. The group develops its own purpose or mission 4. Problem solving becomes a way of life, not a part time activity 5. Effectiveness is measured by the group's collective outcomes and products
to combat loafing
1. Limit group size 2. Assure equity of effort to mitigate the possibility that a member can say "everyone else is goofing off, so why shouldn't I?" Your knowledge of equity and justice can offer ideas on how to avoid or fix this 3. Hold people accountable—don't allow members to feel they are lost in the crowd- performance management can be helpful
characteristics of high performing teams
1. Participative leadership: creating interdependency by empowering, freeing up, and serving others 2. Shared responsibility: establishing an environment which all team members feel as responsible as the manager for the performance of the work unit 3. Aligned on purpose: having a sense of common purpose about why the team exists and the function it serves 4. High communication: creating a climate of trust and open, honest communication 5. Future focused: seeing change as an opportunity for growth 6. Focused on task: keeping meetings focused on results 7. Creative talents: applying individual talents and creativity 8. Rapid response: identifying and acting on opportunities
individual function
1. Satisfy the individual's need for affiliation 2. Develop, enhance, and confirm the individual's self-esteem and sense of identity 3. Give individuals an opportunity to test and share their perceptions of social reality 4. Reduce the individual's anxieties and feelings of insecurity and powerlessness 5. Provide a problem solving mechanism for personal and interpersonal problems
task roles
enable the work group to define, clarify, and pursue a common purpose o Keep the group on track
these groups often overlap (formal and informal)
The desirability of overlapping is debatable: some managers firmly believe personal friendship fosters productive teamwork on the job, while other view it as a serious threat to productivity
role
a set of expected behaviors for a particular position • Each role you play is defined by the expectations of that role • Fundamental basis of human interaction and experience • People often play multiple roles • If you understand your own preferences, you can set yourself up to win in future groups
Trust
a reciprocal belief that another person will consider how his or her intentions and behaviors will affect you • We feel or observe that other trust us, we are more likely to trust them • The interpersonal lubricant for relationships within and between all org levels—individual, group, and org—and drives many important team-level outcomes found in the integrative framework (eg. Cooperation, communication, performance, and innovation)
group role
a set of expected behaviors for members of the group as a whole • Roles not always performed when needed (coordinator, evaluator, gatekeeper) can be performed in a timely manner by the formal leader or assigned to other members • Leaders can further ensure that roles are fulfilled by clarifying specifically what is expected of employees in the group • Initiator, orienteer, and energizer are especially important because they are goal directed roles • Difficult but achievable goals are associated with better group results • Group goals are more effective if group members clearly understand them and are both individually and collectively committed to achieving them • Many important maintenance roles: "office moms" o Offer all kinds of support and advice, informally, for work and life matters that fall outside of more formal task roles and company infrastructure
1. Charters and strategies
a. Urge groups and teams to plan before tackling their tasks, early in the group development process - team charters - team performance strategies
norm
an attitude, opinion, feeling, or action—shared by 2 or more people—that guides behavior • Help create order and allow groups to function more efficiently, as they prevent groups from having to progress through the development process each time they meet • Shared phenomena and apply to the group, team or org level • Emerge either on own, over time, or a more conscious effort
why loaf
apathy and social disconnectedness o Apathy: uninterested in the task, don't care about grade, unconcerned about effect of their poor work on others o Social disconnection: due to simply not liking or getting along with one or more members of the team, may feel like outsiders • Loafing generally increases as group size increases and work is more widely dispersed
team building
catchall term for a host of techniques aimed at improving the internal functioning of work groups • Strive for greater cooperation, better communication, and less dysfunctional conflict • Greater emphasis on how work groups get the job done then the task itself • Interpersonal trust exercises, conflict role-play sessions, and competitive games are common
Self managed teams
groups of workers who are given administrative oversight for their task domains • Involved delegating activities such as planning, scheduling, monitoring and staffing • "chores" normally performed by managers • Accountability is maintained indirectly by outside managers and leaders • Referred to as semiautonomous work groups, autonomous work groups, and superteams • Have been shown to improve work life quality, customer service and productivity • Other studies reported low or no improvement in these same outcomes
team adaptive capacity
important to meet changing demands and to effectively transition members in and out
Formal group
is assigned by organizations or their managers to accomplish specific goals o Often have labels: work group, team, committee, task force o Fulfill 2 basic functions: organizational and individual
challenged of virtual teams
more difficult to establish team cohesion, work satisfaction, trust, cooperative behavior, commitment to team goals, inability to observe nonverbals
ROI for team building
o Clear objectives: starting point- many outcomes are possible, but important to identify which are most relevant for a particular team, such as increased sales, increased customer satisfaction, timeliness, or quality o Validation: confirming that team building efforts actually link to the desired changes in behavior and attitudes o Performance info: what data are needed to track the previous 2 elements and how will they be obtained
There is no substitute for face to face contact
o Enable people to get familiar with each other and build credibility, trust and understanding- reduces misunderstanding and makes subsequent virtual interactions more efficient and effective, also increases job performance and reduces conflict and intentions to quit o Bottom line: People bond when they see each other Virtual means you pay less attention Casual convo have lasting benefits
cross functionalism
occurs when specialists from diff areas are put in the same team
Building trust
we tend to give what we get: trust begets trust; distrust begets distrust o Communication: tell the trust, be candid about one's own problems and limitations o Support: be available and approachable, provide help, advice, coaching and support for team members' ideas o Respect: delegation, in the form of real decision-making authority, most important expression of managerial respect o Fairness: be quick to give credit and recognition to those who deserve it o Predictability: be consistent and predictable in your daily affairs o Competence: enhance your credibility
virtual teams
work together over time and distance via electronic media to combine effort and achieve common goals • Product of evolving info technologies that allow people to connect from anywhere most anytime • Workforce is distributed • Very flexible and efficient because they are driven b info and skills not by time and location
Stage 1: forming
• "ice breaking" stage, group members tend to be uncertain and anxious about such things as their roles, the people in charge, and the group's goals • Mutual trust is low, and there is a good deal of holding back to see who takes charge and how • Time in a group's development where some conflict among members is beneficial • If the formal leader does not assert his or her authority, an emergent leader will often step in to fulfill the group's need for leadership and direction
stage 4: performing
• Activity during this vital stage is focused on solving task problems, as contributors get their work done without hampering others • Often characterized by 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
peer pressure
• Expectations, how effective or problematize it can be • The influence of the group on the individual, and the expectations of associated roles and norms are the means of this influence
stage 3: norming
• Groups that make it through stage 2 generally do so because a respected member, other than the leader, challenges 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 • Feeling of team spirit is sometimes experienced during this stage because members believe they have found their proper roles • Group cohesiveness: the "we feeling" that binds members of a group together, is the principal by product of stage 3
A team is more than just a group
• Successful teams tend to take on a life of their own • Bob Lane emphasis purpose and effectiveness of teams when talks about company being a team, not a family • Mature groups are more effective • Teams are task groups that have matured to the performing stage o Because of conflicts due to power, authority, and unstable interpersonal relations, many work groups never qualify as a real team o "the essence of a team is common commitment. Without it, groups perform as individuals. With it, they become a powerful unit of collective performance" This underscores 2 important distinctions between teams and groups: teams assemble to accomplish a common task and require collaboration
Developing your teamwork competencies
• Teamwork competencies need to be role modeled and taught o Include group problem solving, mentoring, conflict management skills, and emotional intelligence o Many of the inputs and processes across various levels in the integrative framework are also important elements of effective teams and team building o Teams collaborate most effectively when companies develop and encourage teamwork competencies - should be measured and rewarded
Stage 5: adjourning
• The work is done, it's time to move onto other things. The return to independence can be eased by rituals celebrating "the end" and "new beginnings" • Leaders need to emphasize valuable lessons learned during this stage • Team: 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 o Cornerstone of work life o 3 traits of most admired bosses were trust in employees, honesty/authenticity, and great team-building skills
stage 2: storming
• Time of testing. Individuals test the leader's policies and assumptions as they try to determine how they fit into the power structure. Subgroups take shape, and subtle forms of rebellion, such as procrastination occur • Many groups stay in this stage because of how power and politics can erupt into open rebellion
