Essentials of Organizational Behavior

12th Edition Robbins Solutions Manual

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Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams Page 123

Chapter 10
Understanding Work Teams
Chapter Overview
PPT 10.1
Teams are increasingly becoming the primary means for organizing
work in contemporary business firms. Understanding how and when to create these work
teams is the purpose of this chapter.

Chapter Objectives

After studying this chapter, the student should be able to:

1. Contrast groups and teams, and analyze the growing popularity PPT 10.2
of using teams in organizations.
2. Compare and contrast four types of teams.
3. Identify the characteristics of effective teams.
4. Show how organizations can create team players.
5. Decide when to use individuals instead of teams.
6. Show how the understanding of teams differs in a global context.

Suggested Lecture Outline

I. WHY HAVE TEAMS BECOME SO POPULAR? PPT 10.3

A. As organizations have restructured themselves to compete
more effectively and efficiently, they have turned to teams as a better way to use
employee talents.
B. Teams are more flexible and responsive to changing events than traditional
departments or other forms of permanent groupings.
C. They can quickly assemble, deploy, refocus, and disband. But don’t overlook the
motivational properties of teams.
D. Consistent with our discussion of employee involvement as a motivator, teams
facilitate employee participation in operating decisions.
E. So another explanation for their popularity is that they are an effective means for
management to democratize organizations and increase employee motivation.
F. The fact that organizations have turned to teams doesn’t necessarily mean they’re
always effective.
II. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GROUPS AND TEAMS
Exhibit 10.1
A. Work Group.
1. A group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting
and interdependent, who have come together to achieve PPT 10.4
particular objectives.
2. A work group is a group that interacts primarily to share
information and to make decisions to help each member PPT 10.5

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Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams Page 124

perform within his or her area of responsibility.

a. Workgroups have no need to engage in collective work or joint efforts, so
no positive synergy is created.
B. Work Team.
1. In contrast to work groups, work teams create positive synergy through
coordinated effort.
a. Their individual efforts result in a level of performance that is greater than
the sum of those individual inputs.
b. The use of work teams creates the potential for organizations to generate
greater outputs with no increase in inputs.
c. This synergy is not guaranteed however.
2. Effective teams have certain common characteristics, (which will be discussed
later in the chapter), that managers must ensure exist to achieve the desired
synergy.
III. TYPES OF TEAMS Exhibit 10.2
A. Problem-Solving Teams.
1. These are teams in which members, often from the same PPT
PPT10.7
9.6
department, share ideas or offer suggestions on how work
processes and methods can be improved;
2. They rarely have the authority to unilaterally implement any of their suggested
actions.
B. Self-Managed Work Teams.
1. Unlike problem-solving teams, these teams move beyond PPT 10.8
simply making recommendations and instead implement
solutions and take responsibility for outcomes.
2. Typically made up of 10 to 15 employees who perform highly-related or
interdependent jobs,
a. This team takes on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors
such as
1) planning and scheduling of work
2) assigning tasks to members, collective control over the pace of work
3) making operating decisions
4) taking actions on problems
5) working with suppliers and customers
3. Research has indicated that the effectiveness of self-manage teams is not
uniformly positive.
a. Self-managed teams do not typically manage conflicts well.
b. When disputes arise, members stop cooperating and power struggles
ensue, which leads to lower group performance.
c. Moreover, although individuals on these teams report higher levels of job
satisfaction than other individuals, they also sometimes have higher
absenteeism and turnover rates.
C. Cross-Functional Teams.
1. These are teams made up of employees from about the PPT 10.9
same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who
come together to accomplish a specific task.
2. This type of team is an effective means of allowing people from diverse areas
within the organization (or even between organizations) to exchange

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Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams Page 125

information, develop new ideas and solve problems, and coordinate complex
projects.
3. Cross-functional teams are somewhat difficult to manage and it may take
significant time for the teams to develop sufficient trust to become effective.
D. Virtual Teams.
1. Unlike the first three types of teams, virtual teams do not PPT 10.10
meet face-to face.
2. Virtual teams use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed
members in order to achieve a common goal.
3. These teams have become so pervasive and the technology so advanced that
nearly all types of teams today to do some of their work remotely.
4. Special Challenges of Virtual Teams. The lack of face-to-face contact results in:
a. Less social rapport and direct interaction among members than in other
types of teams.
b. Virtual teams tend to be more task-oriented and exchange less social-
emotional information.
c. Virtual team members report less satisfaction with group interaction.
5. Management Suggestions. For virtual teams to be effective, management
should:
a. Ensure trust is established among team members.
b. Monitor team progress closely.
c. Publicize the efforts and products of the virtual team throughout the
organization.
IV. CREATING EFFECTIVE TEAMS
A. A Model of Effective Teams. Exhibit 10.3
1. Team effectiveness is composed of objective measures
of the team’s productivity, manager’s ratings of the
PPT 10.11
team’s performance, and aggregate measures of
member satisfaction.
2. The components of this model build off many of the group concepts introduced
in Chapter 9. Two caveats:
a. Guidance Only. Teams vary and this model is fairly general: it should be
used as a guide, not an inflexible prescription.
b. Assumption. The model’s underlying assumption is that it has already been
determined that teamwork is preferable to individual work.
B. Context: What Factors Determine Whether Teams Are Effective?
1. There are four general categories of key team
effectiveness components (context, composition, work PPT 10.12
design, and process variables):
a. Adequate Resources.
1) All workgroups rely on resources outside of the group to sustain them.
2) A scarcity of resources directly reduces the ability of the team to
perform its job effectively.
3) These supportive resources include timely information, proper
equipment, adequate staffing, encouragement, and administrative
assistance.
b. Leadership and Structure.

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Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams Page 126

1) Team leadership and structure is required in order to get team

members to agree on the specifics of work and how they fit together to
integrate individual skills into a team output.
2) Leadership is especially important in multi-team systems, where
different teams need to coordinate efforts to produce desired outcome.
3) In these situations, leaders need to play the role of facilitators.
c. Climate of Trust.
1) Members of effective teams trust each other and their leaders.
2) This trust facilitates cooperation, reduces the need to monitor each
other’s behavior, and increases bonding.
3) Team members are more likely to take risks and expose vulnerabilities
when they believe they can trust others on their team.
4) Trust in the leadership helps the team accept and commit to the leaders
goals and decisions.
d. Performance Evaluation and Rewards Systems.
1) These systems must be modified to reflect team performance in order
to hold both individuals and the team accountable.
2) These modifications may include group-based appraisals, profit
sharing, gainsharing, and small-group incentives.
C. Team Composition.
1. There are five variables in this category related to how PPT 10.13
teams should be staffed.
a. Abilities of Members. Part of a team's performance depends on the
knowledge, skills, and abilities of its members.
1) A team’s performance is not merely the summation of its individual
members’ abilities, but these abilities set limits on what members can
do and how effectively they will perform on a team.
2) Research has shown the following results when considering the
abilities of members of effective teams.
a) For tasks that entail considerable thought, high ability teams (teams
composed of mostly intelligent members) do better.
b) High ability teams are also better at adapting to changing situations.
c) When tasks are simple, high ability teams do not perform well: team
tasks must be matched to team abilities.
d) The intelligence and ability of a team’s leader also matters. A less
intelligent leader can neutralize the effect of a high ability team.
b. Personality of Members.
1) As demonstrated in a previous chapter, personality has a significant
influence on individual behavior; it also does on team behavior.
2) Teams that rate higher in mean levels of conscientiousness and
openness to experience with a minimum level of agreeableness tend to
perform better.
3) Conscientious team members are valuable because they back up other
team members and are good at sensing limited support is truly needed.
a) When there are not enough conscientious team members to go
around, it is better to “pack” teams of conscientious members
rather than “seeding” them throughout all of the organization’s
teams.

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Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams Page 127

4) Opening team members are better communicators and throw up more

ideas leading to more creative and innovative solutions.
c. Allocation of Roles.
1) Teams have different needs, and members should be selected to ensure
all the various roles are filled.
2) A study of 778 major league baseball teams over a 21-year period
highlights the importance of assigning roles appropriately.
a) As you might expect, teams with more experienced and skilled
members performed better.
b) However, the experience and skill of those in core roles who handle
more of the workflow of the team, and who are central to all work
processes (in this case, pitchers and catchers), were especially vital.
c) In other words, put your most able, experienced, and conscientious
workers in the most central roles in a team.
3) We can identify nine potential team roles.
a) Successful work teams have selected people to play all these roles based
on their skills and preferences. (On many teams, individuals will play
multiple roles.)
b) To increase the likelihood the team members will work well together,
managers need to understand the individual strengths each person can
bring to a team, select members with their strengths in mind, and
allocate work assignments that fit with members’ preferred styles.
d. Diversity of Members.
1) Organizational Demography: The degree to which members if a work
unit share a common demographic attribute such as age, sex, race,
educational level, or length of service in the organization.
2) Attributes such as age or the date of joining should help us predict
turnover.
3) Surface-level social-category diversity such as race/ethnicity, gender,
and age tend to have negative effects on the performance of teams.
4) While these effects may decline over time, there is little evidence
diverse teams perform better.
5) For diverse teams to realize their creative potential, they need to focus
on their differences, not their similarities.
6) Culturally heterogeneous teams have more difficulty learning to work
with each other and solving problems, but these difficulties dissipate
with time.
e. Size of Teams.
1) Most effective teams have five to nine members.
2) Using the smallest possible number of people who can accomplish a
task tends to be the most effective way of sizing a team.
3) Doing so reduces coordination problems, decreases the chance of social
loafing, and increases cohesiveness.
f. Member Preferences.
1) Not every employee is a team player.
a) Given the option, many employees will select themselves out of
team participation.

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Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams Page 128

b) When people who would prefer to work alone are required to team
up, there is a direct threat to the team’s morale and to individual
member satisfaction.
c) This suggests that when selecting team members, managers should
consider individual preferences along with abilities, personalities,
and skills. High-performing teams are likely to
be composed of people who prefer working as Exhibit 10.4
part of a group.
D. Team Process.
1. The final key component for team effectiveness is process: specifically six
variables related to how a team completes their task.
2. Team processes should produce positive results: the output should be greater
than the sum of the inputs (positive synergy).
3. Common Plan and Purpose. PPT 10.14
a. Effective teams begin by analyzing the team’s
mission, developing goals to achieve that mission, and creating strategies
for achieving the goals.
b. Teams that establish a clear sense of what needs to be done and how
consistently perform better.
c. Members of successful teams put a tremendous amount of time and effort
into discussing, shaping, and agreeing on a purpose that belongs to them
both collectively and individually.
d. This common purpose, when accepted by the team, becomes what celestial
navigation is to a ship captain:
1) It provides direction and guidance under any and all conditions.
e. Like a ship following the wrong course, teams that don’t have good
planning skills are doomed; perfectly executing the wrong plan is a lost
cause.
f. Effective teams also show reflexivity, meaning they reflect on and adjust
their master plan when necessary.
g. A team has to have a good plan, but it also has to be willing and able to
adapt when conditions call for it.
4. Specific Goals.
a. Successful teams translate their common purpose into specific, measurable,
and realistic performance goals.
b. Specific goals facilitates better communication and help teams maintain
focus on results.
c. These goals should be challenging in order to be motivational.
5. Team Efficacy.
a. Effective teams have confidence in themselves: they believe they can
succeed.
b. Past success breeds future success.
c. In order to increase team efficacy, managers can take one or both of the
following two options.
1) Help the team to achieve small initial successes.
2) Provide technical and interpersonal skills training.

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Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams Page 129

6. Mental Models.
a. Effective teams have accurate and common mental models—knowledge
and beliefs (a “psychological map”) about how the work is done. Incorrect
or inaccurate mental models will decrease effectiveness.
7. Conflict Levels.
a. A low level of conflict can actually improve team effectiveness.
b. Relationship conflicts are usually detrimental, but task conflicts in teams
performing non-routine activities may actually lead to superior decisions.
8. Social Loafing.
a. Individuals can hide within groups.
b. They coast on the group's effort because their individual contributions can't
be identified.
c. Effective teams undermine this tendency by holding themselves
accountable at both the individual and team level.
V. TURNING INDIVIDUALS INTO TEAM PLAYERS
A. In many cultures and companies, employees have been trained
to be fiercely individualistic. PPT 10.15
1. Teamwork is not a natural state for them.
2. Management's challenge, therefore, is to overcome the individual resistance
toward team participation.
B. Selection: Hiring Team Players.
1. When hiring team members, in addition to technical skills, candidates should
be screened on their ability to fulfill team roles.
2. Creating teams often means resisting the urge of hire the best talent no matter
what.
C. Training: Creating Team Players.
1. Managers can train individuals to become team players.
2. This may require the use of outside consultants who can help employees
improve the employees’ problem solving, communication, negotiation, conflict-
management, and coaching skills.
D. Rewarding: Providing Incentives to Be a Good Team Player.
1. An organization’s reward system must be reworked to encourage cooperative
efforts rather than competitive ones.
a. Hallmark Cards Inc. added to its basic individual-incentive system an
annual bonus based on achievement of team goals.
b. Whole Foods directs most of its performance-based rewards toward team
performance.
c. As a result, teams select new members carefully so they will contribute to
team effectiveness (and thus team bonuses).
2. It is usually best to set a cooperative tone as soon as possible in the life of a
team.
a. As we already noted, teams that switch from a competitive to a cooperative
system do not share information and make rushed, poor-quality decisions.
b. Apparently, the low trust typical of the competitive group will not be
readily replaced by high trust with a quick change in reward systems.
c. These problems are not seen in teams that have consistently cooperative
systems.

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Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams Page 130

3. Promotions, pay raises, and other forms of recognition should be given to

individuals who work effectively as team members by training new colleagues,
sharing.
4. Don’t forget the intrinsic rewards, such as camaraderie, that employees can
receive from teamwork.
VI. BEWARE! TEAMS AREN'T ALWAYS THE ANSWER
A. Teamwork takes more time and often more resources than
individual work. PPT 10.16
B. Therefore, the benefits of using teams must exceed the costs of
having them. This may not always be the case, and there are three tests to
determine if a team is necessary in a given situation.
1. Complexity of Work. A good indicator of the need for teams is the complexity
of the work and the need for different perspectives for effective solution.
Simple tasks, that do not need diverse input, are probably best left to
individuals.
2. Common Purpose. For organizational outcomes that require multi-function
interaction, the common purpose created by a team may increase
organizational effectiveness.
3. Interdependence. Teams make sense when the tasks are interdependent and
require a great deal of coordination.
VII. GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS
A. Extent of Teamwork. Teamwork is less pervasive in the
United States than it is in other developed nations. PPT 10.17
B. Self-Managed Teams. Self-managed teams may be difficult to
introduce globally. This is especially true in cultures that have a low tolerance for
ambiguity and uncertainty and where employees have a strong respect for
hierarchical authority (i.e., high power distance).
C. Team Cultural Diversity and Team Performance. National and cultural
differences interfere with team processes, at least in the short term. Such cultural
diversity may be an asset for tasks that call for a variety of viewpoints, but such
teams have difficulty learning to work with each other in solving problems. Often
these difficulties dissipate within three months of team formation.
VIII. IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS
A. The introduction of teams into the workplace is an important
trend for managers.
PPT 10.18
1. Effective teams:
a. Have adequate resources, effective leadership, a climate of trust, and a
performance and rewards system that reflects team contributions.
b. Are composed of individuals with both technical and interpersonal skills—
typically fewer than 10 in number.
c. Perform work that provides freedom, autonomy, and the opportunity for
members to use different skills and talents.
d. Have members committed to a common purpose and specific team goals,
who believe in the team’s abilities.
2. By managing the environment and composition, managers can create teams
that are more effective.
IX. KEEP IN MIND
A. Team composition matters—the optimal way to construct PPT 10.19

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Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams Page 131

teams depends on the ability, skill, or trait under consideration.

B. By matching individual preferences with team role demands, managers increase
the likelihood that the team member will work well together.
C. Effective teams maintain a common plan and purpose to their actions that guides
their actions and doncentrates their energies.
X. SUMMARY PPT 10.20

Discussion Questions

1. Why is the use of teams in organizations becoming more popular?

Answer: As organizations have reacted to external pressures to restructure
themselves to compete more effectively and efficiently, they have turned to teams
more and more often. The use of teams has increased managerial flexibility and is
an effective means for democratizing organizations and increasing employee
motivation.
2. What is the difference between a team and a group?
Answer: A group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting and
interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives. A work
group is a group that interacts primarily to share information and to make
decisions to help each member perform within his or her area of responsibility.
Workgroups have no need to engage in collective work or joint efforts, so no
positive synergy is created. In contrast, work teams create positive synergy
through coordinated effort. Their individual efforts result in a level of performance
that is greater than the sum of those individual inputs. The use of work teams
creates the potential for organizations to generate greater outputs with no increase
in inputs.
3. Describe the four types of teams.
Answer: (1) Problem-Solving Teams. These are teams in which members share
ideas or offer suggestions on how work processes and methods can be improved;
although they rarely have the authority to unilaterally implement any of their
suggested actions. (2) Self-Managed Work Teams. These are autonomous teams of
10 to 15 employees who perform highly-related or interdependent jobs, this team
takes on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors such as planning
and scheduling of work, assigning tasks to members, collective control over the
pace of work, making operating decisions, taking actions on problems, and working
with suppliers and customers. (3) Cross-Functional Teams. These are teams made
up of employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work
areas, who come together to accomplish a specific task. This type of team is an
effective means of allowing people from diverse areas within the organization to
exchange information, develop new ideas and solve problems, and coordinate
complex projects. (4) Virtual Teams. Virtual teams use computer technology to tie
together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal. They
rarely, if ever, meet face-to face. All types of teams seem to have embraced this
virtual technology.
4. Describe the four main components of effective teams.
Answer: (1) Context: effective teams have adequate resources, leadership, and
structure, a climate of trust and supportive performance evaluation and rewards
systems. (2) Team Composition: effective teams must be composed of people who
are able, have the correct personality types, are flexible, and prefer to work on

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Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams Page 132

teams. (3) Work Design: effective teams need to work together into a collective
responsibility to complete significant tasks so they need freedom and autonomy,
skill variety, task identity, and task significance. (4) Process: effective teams need a
common purpose, specific goals, team efficacy, moderate non-personal conflict, and
a lack of social loafing.
5. How can managers help individuals become team players?
Answer: Managers can help individuals become team players by: (1) hiring the
correct people (candidates that can fulfill their team roles as well as technical
requirements), (2) training people to become team players (perhaps through
outside consultants), and (3) ensuring the organizational reward systems are
aligned to support good teamwork.
6. When should individuals be used rather than teams?
Answer: Based on the three rules for the use of teams, individuals are preferred
when: (1) the work is simple and doesn’t need diverse input, (2) there is no need
for or benefits from a common purpose, and (3) there is little or no
interdependence or need for coordination.

Exercises

1. Self-analysis. Are you a team player? Based on the information in this chapter, do
you believe you are a team player? Why or why not? How might you improve your
ability to function well on effective teams?
2. Web Crawling. Using your favorite search engine, search on the term “team
effectiveness.” Find five webpages related to this concept and write up a one-page
summary of the common team effectiveness concepts you discovered by visiting
these pages.
3. Teamwork. As a team, you are to develop a bulleted study guide for this Chapter.
The items included on the study guide are to fully represent the chapter content.
The items are also to be placed in the study guide in descending order of
importance. In other words, the most important content item from the Chapter is
to be listed first, down to the least important content item. The items chosen for
inclusion on this study guide, and their order of importance, must be completely
agreed upon by ALL members of the team. No use of voting and majority rules can
be employed in determining the content of the study guide. Consensus agreement
must prevail within the team.
Instructor notes: The purpose of this exercise is to indicate to students the
relationship between size and team effectiveness. Divide the class into different
sized teams. Make some teams extremely small and lacking in diversity and skills,
and some teams extremely large and cumbersome. Give the teams the instructions
that they are to come to consensus on the content of their study guide.
You might want to have a quick discussion on team roles, or simply let the teams
themselves formally or informally let team roles evolve naturally, and have the
teams identify the different role holders after the conclusion of the exercise.
Record the time required by each different team to complete its task. Walk around
the classroom and listen to the conversations within the different groups—this
may provide rich insights as to why some groups completed the task more
efficiently than others. When the study guides are done, conduct a discussion on
what problems the teams encountered (size, diversity, roles) and how they think
the team overcome that particular problem.

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Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams Page 133

4. Analyzing Your Organization (Cumulative Project). If you are currently in an

environment of teamwork, interview or discuss with the team leaders some of the
variables in this chapter, using the following questions as a guide.
a. How do you determine the size of the team?
b. What types of conflict occur? How do you resolve conflict?
c. Does it take longer to complete tasks in a team environment?
d. Do you have “resistors” to teamwork? If so, how do you manage that?
e. What happened to cause management to look at teams as a more efficient
way of doing work?
If you are not in a teamwork environment at your organization, what aspects of
your organization would benefit from teamwork? Justify your answer.

Suggested Assignment

Use the teams structured in the Teamwork. Ask the students to go to Google Docs
presentation template at
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0ASCP6dbp8LXCZGRkMzZoeGpfMTgxY3dicXFo
Y2M&hl=en&authkey=CP_bsocC and select edit on the actions menu at the bottom. When
the edit window opens, ask students to create a new presentation file by selecting
File>New>Presentations (this may require that a student have a Google Docs account. If it
does, ask one of the students to act as the coordinator and to sign up for a Google Account
to manage the presentation set up.) A new presentation document should come up. Ask the
students to rename the presentation document to a name they will remember by clicking
on the “Chapter 9 Robbins and Judge” title. Ask the students to click on the “Share” button
on the right. When its dialog box opens, click on “Change” access. Select “Only those with
the address.” And “anyone can edit” (two check boxes). This should set the presentation to
access by all students who use the unique address as a web url. Once this is done and
everything is saved, the student creating the presentation for the group should email the
address to the other members of his or her group.
This is a presentation collaboration site that does not require passwords or other security
clearance. Ask the groups to prepare a presentation on the results of the Teamwork
Exercise. Assign this task to be done from their home computers or laptops in virtual
meeting format. This illustrates the use of “Cloud Computing” for online virtual
collaboration on a presentation. The same can be done for reports or spreadsheets. When
the presentation is complete, have the students email the presentation address to the
instructor, who will then distribute it to the class. Each class member can then view the
presentations. Note that creation of this type of stand-alone presentation is different from
the typical student outline of a paper that constitutes the slide content.
Ask students to rate the presentations on the basis of creativity, information presentation,
and achievement of a communication objective. Discuss in class how the presentation
could be improved to better present the information about the teamwork outcome.

Copyright ©2014 Pearson Education Inc.