Chapter 13- Groups and Teams

Negative Conflict: bad for organizations

Conflict that hinders the organization's performance or threatens its interests. Also called dysfunctional conflict.

Groupthink: When peer pressure discourages "Thinking outside the box"

(Abilene paradox: the tendency of people to go along with others for the sake of avoiding conflict) A by product is Groupthink: a cohesive group's blind unwillingness to consider alternatives. Members are friendly, but are unable to think "outside the box."

The result of Groupthink: decision-making defects:

(Moderate cohesiveness is better than high or low: high- groupthink) - Reduction in alternative ideas - Limiting of other information

Five conflict-handling styles

- Avoiding - Accommodating - Forcing - Compromising - Collaborating

Various types of teams

- Continuous improvement team - Cross-functional team - Problem-solving team - Self-managed team - Top-management team - Virtual team - Work team

Symptoms of groupthink (2)

- Illusion of unanimity (silent interpreted as consent), peer pressure (if disagree peer question the loyalty) , and mindguards (self-appointed protectors against adverse information) - Groupthink versus "the wisdom of the crowds" (Members with different ideas censor themselves but in collective wisdom, each person offers his best independent forecast, not about compromise or consensus)

Why teamwork is important?

- Increased productivity - Increased speed - Reduced cost - Improved quality - Reduced destructive internal competition - Improved work`lace cohesiveness

Ways to build collaborative teams

- Investing in signature relationship practices - Modeling collaborative behavior - Creating a gift culture (mentoring and coaching) - Ensuring the requisite skills - Supporting a strong sense of community - Assigning team leaders that are both task-oriented and relationship-oriented - Building on heritage relationships - Understanding role clarity and task ambiguity

Symptoms of groupthink

- Invulnerability (nothing can be wrong, optimism and risk taking), inherent morality (assured of the rightness of their actions that they ignore ethics), stereotyping the opposition (underestimate them). - Rationalization and censorship: No critical questions or debate, hard to argue with success.

Why norms are enforces: four reasons

- To help the group survive: Don't do anything that will hurt us. - To clarify role expectations: you have to go along (with the rules) to get along (with your career) - To help individuals avoid embarrassing situations: Don't call attention to yourself. - To emphasize the group's important vales and to enhance its unique identity: We are known for being special.

Preventing Groupthink: Making criticism and other perspectives permissible

-Allow criticism - Allow other perspectives.

2. Change the organization's culture and procedures

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3. Bring Outsiders for new perspectives

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The considerations in building a group into an effective team are:

1. Performance goals and feedback 2. Motivation through mutual accountability 3. Size 4. Roles 5. Norms 6. Cohesiveness 7. Groupthink

Large teams

10-16 members. Advantages: - More resources - Division of labor: the work is divided into particular tasks that are assigned to particular workers. Disadvantages: - Less interaction, sharing of info, and coordination of activities. Also formation of cliques. Formal and autocratic leadership. - Lower moral: Less commitment and satisfaction and more turnover and absenteeism. More struggles and demands on leaders. - Social loafing: the tendency to exert less effort when working in groups than when working alone.

Small teams

2-9 members. Advantages: -Better interaction: teams with 5 or fewer members offer more opportunity for personal discussion and participation. Informal leadership. -Better moral: better able to see the worth of there individual contributions and thus are more committed and satisfied. Also more participation. Disadvantages: - Fewer resources (knowledge, skills, experience, and abilities) - Possibly less innovation (less creativity and boldness) - Unfair work distribution

Formal Groups: Created to do productive work

A formal group is a group established to do something productive for the organization and is headed by a leader. i.e. A division, a department, a work group, or a committee. It can be permanent or temporary

What a group is: Collection of people performing as individuals

A group is defined as two or more freely interacting individuals who share collective norms, share collective goals, and have a common identity. It is typically management-directed. Different from a crowd and an organization.

Maintenance role: keeping the team together

A maintenance role, or relationship-oriented role, consists of behavior that fosters constructive relationships among the team members. Focus on keeping team members. i.e. Encouragers, who foster group solidarity by praising various viewpoints; standard setters, who evaluate the quality of group processes; harmonizers, who mediate conflict through reconciliation or humor; compromisers, who help resolve conflict by meeting others.

Task roles: Getting the work done

A task role, or task-oriented role, consists of behavior that concentrates on getting the team's tasks done. Task roles keep the team on track and get the work done. i.e Coordinators, who pull together ideas and suggestions; orienters, who keep years headed toward their goals; initiators, who suggest new goals or ideas; energizers, who prod people to move along or accomplish more.

Crowd

A transitory collection of people who don't interact with one another.

Group cohesiveness

A ¨we¨feeling binding group member together.

Informal groups: Created for friendship

An informal group is a group formed by people seeking friendship and has no officially appointed leader, although a leader may emerge from the membership.

Too little conflict- indolence

Apathy, lack of creativity, indecision, and missed deadlines.

Motivation through mutual accountability

Being mutually accountable to other members of the team rather than to a supervisor makes members feel mutual trust and commitment. To bring about this team culture, managers often allow teams to do the hiring of new members.

Constructive conflict: Good for organizations

Benefits the main purpose of the organization and serves its interests: functional conflict or cooperative conflict.

Compromising: Let Split the difference

Both parties give up something in order to gain something. Appropriate when both sides have opposite goals or possess equal power. Doesn't work when it is used so often that it doesn't achieve results. Benefit: it is a democratic process that seems to have no losers. Weakness: people may be disappointed and feel cheated.

Stage 2: Storming -Why are we fighting over who does what and who's in charge?

Characterized by the emergence of individual personalities and roles and conflicts within the group. This stage may be of short duration or painfully long, depending on the goal clarity and the commitment and maturity of the members. This is a time of testing and rebellions. In this stage, the leader should encourage members to suggest ideas, voice disagreements, and work through their conflicts about tasks and goals.

6. Cohesiveness: The importance of togetherness.

Cohesiveness, the tendency of a group or team to stick together. Managers can stimulate cohesiveness by: allowing people to chose teammates, off the job events, urging team to recognize and appreciate other's contributions to the team goal. Also achieved by keeping teams small, making sure performance standards are clear and accepted.

Stage 3: Norming-Can we agree on roles and work as a team?

Conflicts are resolved, close relationships developed, and unity and harmony emerge. Here the group may evolve into a team. Teams set guidelines related to what members will do together and how they will do it. Questions about authority are resolved through unemotional, matter-of-fact group discussion. A feeling of team spirit is experienced because members believe they have found their role. Group cohesiveness is the principal by-product of stage 3. Here the leader should emphasize unity and help identify team goals and values.

Continuous improvement team

Consist of small groups of volunteers or workers and supervisors who meet intermittently to discus workplace-adn quality-related problems. Typically a group of 10 to 12 people who meet of 60 to 90 minutes once or twice a month. For members it is a chance for meaningful participation and skills training.

Advice Teams

Created to broaden the information base for managerial decisions. i.e committees, review panes, advisory councils, employee involvement groups, continuous improvement teams.

Collaborating: Let's cooperate to reach a win-win solution that benefit both of us.

Devise solutions that benefit both parties. Appropriate for complex issues plagued by misunderstanding. Inappropriate for resolving conflicts rooted in opposing value systems. Strength: Longer-lasting impact because it deals with the underlying problem. WeaknessL time-consuming. Usually the best approach for dealing with groups and teams.

Forcing- You have to do it my way

Dominating forcing. Is simply ordering an outcome, when a manager relies on his or her authority and power too resolve a conflict. Is appropriate when an unpopular solution must be implemented and when it;s not important that others be committed to your viewpoint. Advantage: can get results quickly. Disadvantage: in the end it does;t resolve personal conflict.

Self-managed teams

Emerged out of continuous improvement teams. Groups of workers who are given administrative oversight for their task domains. Administrative oversight involves delegated activities such as planning, scheduling, monitoring, and staffing. Self-management teams are an outgrowth of a blend of behavioral science and management practice. The goal has been to increase productivity and employee quality of work life. The diasctintion bw manager and managed are blurred as non-managerial employees are delegated greater authority and granted increased autonomy.

Stage 1: Forming- Why are we here?

Forming is the process of getting oriented and getting acquainted. This stage is characterized by a high degree of uncertainty as members try to break the ice and figure to who is in charge and what the group's goals are. During this stage, leaders should allow time for people to become acquainted and to socialize.

How does a group evolve into a team?

Groups may evolve into teams by going through five stages of development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.

3. Multicultural Conflicts: Clashes between cultures.

I.e in cross-border merges, joint ventures, and international alliances (example differing assumptions about how to think and act)

Avoiding: Maybe the problem will go away

Ignoring or suppressing a conflict. Useful when emotions are high and a cooling-off period is needed, or when the cost of confrontation outweighs the benefits of resolving the conflict. Nor appropriate for difficult or worsening problems. Benefit: Buys time in unfolding or ambiguous situations. Weakness> temporary fix and sidesteps the problem.

Self-managed teams (2)

In creating self-managed teams, technical and organizational redesign are necessary: New technology New organizations: structural redesign of the organization because self-managed teams are an integral part of the organization.

Conflict

Is a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party. Conflict is simply disagreement. Non violent types of conflict: opposition, criticism, arguments. Many forms: between individuals, between an individual and o group, between groups, within a group, between an organization and its environment.

Accommodating: Let's do it your way

Is allowing the desires of the other party to prevail. Appropriate conflict-handling strategy when it's possible to eventually get something in return or when the issue isn't important. Not appropriate for complex or worsening problems. Advantage: Encourages competition. Weakness: Temporary fix that fails to confront the underlying problem.

Cross-functional team

Is staffed with specialists pursuing a common objective.

Problem-solving team

Knowledgeable workers who meet as a temporary team to solve a specific problem and then disband.

Stage 4: Performing- Can we do the job properly?

Members concentrate on solving problems and completing the assigned tasks. The leader should allow members the empowerment they need to work on tasks.

Top-management teams

Members consist of the CEO, president, and top-department heads and work to help the organization achieve its mission and goals.

Work team

Members engage in collective work requiring coordinated effort; purpose of team is advice, production, project or action.

Virtual team

Members interact by computer network to collaborate on projects.

Stage 5: Adjourning- Can we help members transition out?

Members rep are for disbandment. Many members feel a compelling sense of loss. The leader can ease the transition by rituals celebrations.

Moderate conflict

More creativity and initiative, thereby better performance.

5. Norms: Unwritten rules for team members

Norms are more encompassing than roles. Norms are general guidelines or rules of behavior that most group pr team member follow.

Size: Small teams or large tams?

Often determined by the team's purpose. Teams seem to range in size from 2 to 16 people, with those of 5-12 most workable and 5 to 6 considered optimal.

1. Personality conflicts: Clashes because of personal dislikes or disagreements.

Personality conflicts is defined as interpersonal opposition based on personal dislike, disagreement, or differing styles. Kinds of personality conflicts: - Personality clashes: when individual differences can't be resolved. - Competition for scare resources: when two parties need the same thing. - Time pressure: when people believe there aren't enough hours to of the work. - Communication failures: when people misperceive and misunderstand.

Too much conflict- warfare

Political infighting, dissatisfaction, lack of teamwork, turnover. Workplace aggression and violence.

4. Ue programmed conflict: Devil's advocacy and the dialectic method

Programmed conflict is designed to elicit different opinions without inciting people's personal feelings. The idea here is to get people, through role playing, to defend or criticize ideas based on relevant facts rather than on personal feelings and preferences. The method for getting people to engage in this debate of ideas is to do disciplined role playing: two methods, the devil's advocacy and the dialectic method

Production Teams

Responsible for performing day-to-day operations. i.e. mining teams, flight-atendant crews, maintanance crews, assembly teams, etc.

Devil's advocacy

Role playing criticism to test wether a proposal is workable. Devil's advocacy is the process of assigning someone to play the role of critic to voice possible objections to a proposal and thereby generate critical thinking and reality testing. Good for training analytical and communicative skills.

The dialectic method

Role-playing two sides of a proposal to test whether it is workable. The dialectic method is the process of having two people or groups play opposing roles in a debate in order to better understand a proposal.

Roles: How team members are expected to behave.

Roles are socially determined expectations of how individuals should behave in a specific position. Team member role is to help the team reach its goal. Members develop their roles based on the expectations of the team, of the organization, and of themselves. Two types of team roles are task and maintenance.

What a team is: Collection of people with common commitment.

Small group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, perform goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. Typically is self-directed. Power unit of collective performance. 2 to 10 employees

Organization

So large that members do not interact, such as a labor union.

Performance Goals and Feedback

Teams are individuals organized for a collective purpose. That purpose needs to be defined in terms of specific, measurable performance goals with continual feedback to tell team members how they are doing.

2. Intergroup Conflicts: Clashed between work groups, teams and departments

The downside of cohesiveness is that it can translate into "we versus them". - Inconsistent goals or reward system: when people pursue different objectives. - Ambiguous jurisdiction- when job boundaries are unclear. - Status differences- when there are inconsistencies in power and influence.

1. Spur competition among employees

To produce higher results. i.e by offering bonuses and awards for achievement.

Three kinds of conflict

Variety of sources of conflict (conflict triggers). (1) between personalities, (2) between groups, (3) between cultures.

How to stimulate constructive conflict

When you group seems afflicted with inertia and apathy, when there's a lack of new ideas and resistance, when there's high employee turnover; when managers seem unduly concerned with peace, cooperation, compromise, consensus and their own polarity rather than achieving work objectives, constructive conflict needed.

Work Teams 4 purposes

Work teams, which engage in collective work requiring coordinated effort, are of four types, which may be idenified according to their purpose: - Advice - Production - Project - Action

Action Teas

Work to accomplish tasks that require people with (1) specialized training and (2) a high degree of coordination. i.e. baseball team, hospital surgery teams, airline cockpit crews, mountain-climbing expedition.

Project Teams

Work to do creative problem solving, often by applying specialized knowledge of members of a cross-functional team*** i.e. task forces, research groups, planning teams, development teams.