Teams

Common Teamwork Competencies

1. Contributes to the team's work 2. Constructively interacts with team members 3. Keeps team on track 4. Expects quality work 5. Possesses relevant knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) for team's responsibilities

How to prevent social loafing

1. Limit group size. 2. Ensure equity of effort to reduce the possibility that a member can say, "Everyone else is goofing off, so why shouldn't I?" 3. Hold people accountable. Don't allow members to feel they are lost in the crowd and can think, "Who cares?"

How to differentiate teams

1. Purpose of the team. 2. Duration of the team's existence. 3. Level of member commitment.

Stage 4: Performing

Activity during this vital stage is focused on solving task problems, as contributors get their work done without hampering others. This stage is 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

Cross Functional Teams

Created with members from different disciplines within an organization, such as finance, operations, and R&D. Cross-functional teams can be used for any purpose, they can be work or project teams, and they may have a short or indefinite duration.

Stage 1: Forming

During the ice-breaking forming stage, group members tend to be uncertain and anxious about such unknowns 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.

Composition

describes the collection of jobs, personalities, knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience levels of team members

Team Charters

detail members' mutual expectations about how the team will operate, allocate resources, resolve conflict, and meet its commitments.

Task Roles

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

formal vs. informal groups

formal: is assigned by an organization or its managers to accomplish specific goals informal: exists when the members' overriding purpose in getting together is friendship or a common interest

Maintenance roles

foster supportive and constructive interpersonal relationships

How to build trust

1. Communication 2. Support 3. Respect 4. Fairness 5. Predictability 6. Competence

Trust

the willingness to be vulnerable to another person, and the belief that the other person will consider the impact of how his or her intentions and behaviors will affect you.

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

Why work in groups/teams?

- Tasks are increasingly complex and interdependent - Organizational need for more flexible labor force and quick response to change - groups/teams generally perform better under these conditions than individuals working alone

norm

- an attitude, opinion, feeling, or action—shared by two or more people—that guides 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 also help groups move through the development process.

5 Dysfunctions of a Team

1. Absence of trust 2. Fear of conflict 3. Lack of commitment 4. Avoidance of accountability 5. Inattention to results

Three C's of Effective Teams

1. Charters and strategies 2. Composition 3. Capacity

Three C's of being a Team Player

1. Committed 2. Collaborative 3. Competent

Characteristics of High Performing Teams

1. Shared Leadership (interdependence created by empowering, freeing up, and serving others) 2. Strong sense of accountability (an environment in which all team members feel as responsible as the manager for the performance of the work unit) 3. Alignment on purpose (a sense of common purpose about why the team exists and the function it serves) 4. Open communication 5. High Trust (belief that member actions and intentions focus on what's best for the team and its members) 6. Clear roles and operational expectations 7. Early Conflict Resolution 8. Collaboration

Three Forms of Trust

1. contractual trust 2. communication trust 3. competence trust

Ways to Create Team Charters

1. mission statements 2. team vision 3. team identity 4. boundaries 5. Operating Guidlines 6. Performance Norms and Consequences 7. Charter Endorsement

What is a group?

1. two or more freely acting individuals 2. collective norms 3. collective goals 4. common identity

Tuckman's Five-Stage Model of Group Development

Forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning

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

Self-Managed Teams

Groups of workers who have administrative oversight over their work domains. Administrative oversight consists of activities such as planning, scheduling, monitoring, and staffing. These are normally performed by managers, but in self-managed teams employees act as their own supervisors. Self-managed teams have a defined purpose and their duration can vary, along with the level of member commitment. Cross-functional, work, and project teams can all be self-managed. Indeed, an organization embracing self-managed teams should be prepared to undergo revolutionary changes in its management philosophy, structure, staffing and training practices, and reward systems.

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 work can be accomplished. Questions about authority and power are best resolved through unemotional, matter-of-fact group discussion. A feeling of team spirit is Page 306sometimes experienced during this stage because members believe they have found their proper roles.

reciprocal interdependence

Hiring processes sometimes use reciprocal interdependence. Candidates are interviewed by members of HR and then separately interviewed by the hiring manager or members of that department, and the two communicate and decide to whom to make the offer.

sequential interdependence

Manufacturing or assembly processes are typically sequential. PCs manufacturing teams, for example, require that motherboards and hard drives be installed before the box can be closed and fastened.

Pooled Interdependence

Many pharmaceutical and other sales teams illustrate pooled interdependence. Each member sells a chosen drug to his or her customers, which requires little or no interaction or coordination with other representatives. At the end of the month all reps' sales are added together to arrive at a team sales total.

comprehensive interdependence

Product development teams often utilize comprehensive interdependence. Online games, for instance, require significant back and forth between those who create the idea, write the code, test, and market the game. It isn't just a linear or sequential process.

Project Teams

Project teams are assembled to tackle a particular problem, task, or project. Depending on their purpose, their duration can vary immensely, from one meeting to many years. For instance, your employer may assemble a team to brainstorm ideas for generating more business with a certain customer. This project team may be limited to only one meeting, whether virtual or face-to-face. Or a project team may be responsible not only for creating ideas for more business with that customer, but also for executing the ideas over the course of one or more years.

Stage 5: Adjourning

The group's work is done; it is time to move on to other things. The return to independence can be eased by rituals such as parties and award ceremonies celebrating the end and new beginnings. During the adjourning stage, leaders need to emphasize valuable lessons learned.

Stage 2: Storming

The storming stage is a time of testing. Individuals test the leader's policies and assumptions as they try to decide how they fit into the power structure. Subgroups may form and resist the current direction of a leader or another subgroup. In fact, some management experts say the reason many new CEOs don't survive is that they never get beyond the storming stage.

Competence Trust

Trust of capability. How effectively do people meet or perform their responsibilities and acknowledge other people's skills and abilities?

Contractual Trust

Trust of character. Do people do what they say they are going to do? Do managers and employees make clear what they expect of one another?

Communication Trust

Trust of disclosure. How well do people share information and tell the truth?

Work Teams

Work teams have a well-defined and common purpose, are more or less permanent, and require complete commitment of their members. Professional sports teams' top priority is to win games, which they hope will also lead to higher ticket sales and more television viewers. The same teams exist from season to season, and membership is a full-time, all-consuming job for each player. An audit team at work is the same: It is full of auditors who work full time auditing.

Virtual Teams

Work together over time and distance via electronic media to combine effort and achieve common goals.

Roles

a set of expected behaviors for a particular position

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

Charters and Strategies

describe how the team will operate, such as through processes for sharing information and decision making (teamwork)

How to Repair Trust

individuals must work their way back from distrust, one step at a time, to finally regain what they have lost. This seven-step process can help whether you are the perpetrator or the victim.

Social Loafing

is the tendency for individual effort to decline as group size increases

Formal groups fulfill _____ and ______ functions

organizational; individual

Team

small number of people who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves collectively accountable.

Group Cohesiveness

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

Capacity

the ability to make needed changes in response to demands put on the team

Collaboration

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

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.