7002ENG Engineering Communication And Leadership Queensland, Australia

Week 8: Team Leadership and Self Managed Teams

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Week 8: Learning Objectives – This week you will learn to:
• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of working in teams.
• Briefly describe the ten characteristics of effective teams.
• What role can a team leader play in creating an effective team?
• Describe how Organisational climate can influence team creativity.
• Outline the three parts of conducting effective meetings.
• Explain the differences between conventional and self managed teams.
• Describe the benefits of using self managed teams in Organisations
• Describe the top management’s role in improving the success rate of self managed
teams.
• Describe the challenges of implementing effective self managed teams.

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Course Convenor: Dr Jennifer Campbell Email: jennifer.campbell@griffith.edu.au
Textbook Readings

Relevant Textbook Chapters from Leadership: Theory,

Application and Skills Development (7th Edition) by
Robert N.Lussier and Christopher F. Achua

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• Chapter 8: Team Leadership and Self-Managed Teams
Groups vs Teams

The Shift from Functional

Hierarchies to Team-

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Structure Models
Why Teams?

• Many organizations today are shifting

from a functional hierarchy model to a
more collaborative team-based model.
• Collaboration allows teams to be more
productive than they would be if the
members worked individually.
• Many organizations fail to manage
cross-functional teams in an effective
way.

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Groups vs Teams
Group
A collection of individuals who interact
primarily to share information and to make
decisions that enable each member to
perform within their area of responsibility.
• Focus on individual performance and
goals
• Rely on individual abilities
• Work more independently with greater
motivation to achieve personal goals
• Have a very hierarchical leadership style
• Characterized by individual self-interest
Team
A unit of interdependent individuals with complementary
skills who are committed to a common purpose and set of
performance outcomes and to common expectations, for
which they hold themselves accountable.
• Have a sense of shared mission
• Have collective responsibility
• Focus on sharing information, insights, and perspectives
• Support individuals in doing their jobs better
• Reinforce each other’s individual performance
standards
• Use a participative/ empowerment oriented leadership
style
• Have performance measures that create direct
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accountability
• Strive for equality among members
Some Definitions
• Teamwork: A group of people working together cohesively towards a common goal, creating
a positive working atmosphere, and supporting each other to enhance team performance.
• Team-Member Exchange: A team member’s social exchanges with peers in terms of the
mutual exchange of ideas, support, camaraderie, and feedback.
• Team effectiveness: A construct consisting of three dimensions:

• (1) task performance—the degree to which the team’s output (product or service) meets
the needs and expectations of those who use it;

• (2) group process—the degree to which members interact or relate in ways that allow
the team to work increasingly well together over time; and

• (3) individual satisfaction—the degree to which the group experience, on balance, is

more satisfying than frustrating to team members.

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• Team learning: The collective acquisition, combination, creation, and sharing of knowledge.
Critical Questions To Ask
Before Embracing the Team
Concept
• Will the use of teams diffuse important
organisational capabilities?
• How much infrastructure realignment
will be required?
• Will leaders embrace the team concept
and change their styles to suit?
• Can teams carry out tasks previously
performed by individuals or functional
units?
• How difficult it will be to develop team

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problem solving capabilities?
 Why Teams?
Advantages of Teams
• Synergy: When a team’s total output
exceeds the sum of the various
members’ contributions.
• Mutual support and peer review can
help team members avoid making
errors.
• Faster, better decisions
• Continuous improvement
• Teams provide natural spaces for
employee empowerment and
innovation.
• Self motivation
• Empowerment
• Greater job satisfaction
• Needs fulfillment
Disadvantages of Teams
• Pressure to conform to group standards - Team
standards may not be in the best interest of the
organization as a whole.
• Social loafing: The conscious or unconscious tendency
by some team members to shirk responsibility by
withholding effort toward team goals when they are not
individually accountable for their work.
• Groupthink: When members of a group tend to agree on
a decision not on the basis of its merit but because they
are less willing to risk rejection for questioning a
majority viewpoint or presenting a dissenting opinion.
• Resistance to the team effort from impinging on
autonomy
• Intergroup conflicts - Demographic differences can
result in divisions and pose a challenge to team unity.
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• High levels of pressure and stress
More on Social Loafing

• Is the conscious or unconscious

tendency by some team members to not
meet responsibilities by withholding
effort toward group goals when they are
not individually accountable for their
work
• Is likely when individual effort is not
recognized and assessed
• Individual level performance appraisal
helps reduce social loafing, but risks
reducing team interaction and synergy

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10 Characteristics of Highly Effective Teams
1. Team charter and norms. Team norms: Acceptable standards of behavior that are shared by team members.
2. Widely shared team goals. Setting clear goals enhances team performance.
3. Team cohesion/task interdependence. Team cohesion: The extent to which team members band together
and remain committed to achieving shared team goals.
4. Diverse team mix and size. Team demographics play a crucial role in team performance, and small teams are
typically more effective than larger teams.
5. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities. When team members understand their roles and responsibilities,
team performance increases.
6. Positive interpersonal relationships. Positive interpersonal relationships are developed when there is
mutual respect and trust, support, inclusion, collaboration, and open communication between team
members.
7. Clearly stated operating procedures. Laying down clear operating rules and procedures helps assure
consistency in behavior while reducing the chance of mistakes or conflict.
8. Effective conflict resolution strategies. Effective teams develop conflict resolution strategies that quickly
repair any damage to the team culture.
9. High-level interpersonal communication. Effective teams have open and honest communication between

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all members.
10. Strong top management support. Effective teams require support from top management in order to have
access to the resources they need to be successful.
Highly Publicized Team
Charter and Team Norms
Team Norms
• Are acceptable standards of behavior
shared by team members
• Influence how members perceive and
interact with one another, approach
decisions, and solve problems
• Are developed and become accepted in
early formation stages

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Team Leader’s Role in
Creating Effective Teams
• Team leaders provide planning,
organization, motivation, and coaching
for their team.
• The effectiveness of a team is influenced
by the leader’s behavior and leadership
style.
• Team leaders play a variety of roles,
including chief motivator, coach, mentor,
role model, culture enforcer, cheer
leader, and resource person.

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Team Leader’s Role in
Creating Effective Teams
• Emphasize group recognition and rewards.
• Identify and build on the team’s strengths.
• Develop trust and a norm of teamwork.
• Develop the team’s capabilities to
anticipate and deal with change effectively.
• Empower teams to accomplish their work
with minimal interference.
• Inspire and motivate teams toward higher
levels of performance.
• Recognize individual and team needs and
attend to them in a timely fashion.

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• Encourage and support team decisions.
• Provide teams with challenging and
motivating work.
Fostering Team Creativity
• Creativity is a crucial competitive advantage in
today’s knowledge-based economy.
• Is the creation of a valuable, useful, and novel
product, service, idea, procedure, or process
carried out via discovery rather than a
predetermined step by step procedure, by
individuals working together in a complex social
system
• Organisations that will survive and thrive are
those that use the creativity within their
workforce
• Team creativity can be promoted through the
cross-fertilization of ideas gathered across
various media sources.
• Team creativity: The creation of something that
is valuable, useful, and novel by individuals

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working together in a complex social system.
• Inter-team rivalry can also stimulate teams to be
more creative through healthy competition.
 Fostering Team Creativity

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Decision Making in Teams
Decision-making in teams can be done three ways:
• Leader Centred: The leader exercises power to initiate, direct, drive,
instruct, and control team members by paying attention to key factors
• Normative Decision Model: Leader determines level of team participation
for a given situation using styles of decide, consult individually, consult
group, facilitate or delegate
• Team-Centred Decision Model: Leader empowers team members to
make decisions and follow them through

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Leader Centred Decision
Making Model
As a leader exercises power to initiate, direct,
drive, instruct, and control team members,
success requires:
• Focus on task
• Ignore personal feelings and relationships
• Seek opinions
• Get agreement
• Make final decisions
• Stay in control
• Stop disruptions
• Discourage members from expressing their
feelings

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• Keep it rational
• Guard against threats to leader authority
Normative Leadership Model

• Originally discussed in earlier chapter on

contingency Leadership
• The normative leadership model allows
leaders to switch between five different
leadership styles in order to maximize
decision outcomes, depending on the
situation.
• The decision styles are:
• Decide.
• Consult individually.
• Consult group.
• Facilitate.

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• Delegate.
Team-Centred Decision-Making Model
• The team-centred decision-making model is preferred when

• (a) relevant information and expertise are scattered among different people,

• (b) participation is needed to obtain necessary commitment,

• (c) concentrating power in a single individual hurts the team, and

• (d) unpopular decisions need to be made.

• There are a number of advantages of team-centred decision-making, including improved
decision quality, shifting of operational decisions away from the leader, and diffusion of
responsibility.
• There are a number of disadvantages of team-centred decision-making, including longer
decision times, potential to be self-serving, and potential for a poor compromise.

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Team-Centred Decision-Making Model
• Empowers team members to make decisions and follow through
• To be successful, the team leader should:

• Listen attentively and watch for nonverbal cues

• Be aware of members’ feelings, needs, interactions, conflicts

• Serve as a consultant, advisor, teacher, and facilitator

• Model appropriate leadership behaviours

• Establish a climate of approval for expression

• Relinquish control to the team

• Allow the team to make final decisions

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Personality Traits and Team
Decision Making
• Surgency - Team members with a high
need for power must be careful not to
dominate the group.
• Agreeableness - Team members with a
high need for affiliation tend to be good
team players.
• Conscientiousness - Team members
with a high need for achievement may
have a tendency to be individualistic
rather than team oriented.

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Leadership Skills for Conducting Effective Team Meetings

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Planning Meetings

• Objectives - Meetings should have a

clearly defined purpose.
• Participants and assignments -
Carefully determine who needs to be in
the meeting.
• Agenda - An agenda is useful for
keeping meetings on track and
productive.
• Date, time, and place - Select a date,
time, and place using input from the
members of the meeting.
• Leadership - Leaders should typically

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play the role of facilitators.
Conducting Meetings

• Identifying objectives - Reviewing

objectives is one of the first steps for
every meeting.
• Covering agenda items - Cover agenda
items in order of their priority.
• Summarizing and reviewing
assignments - End the meeting on time
and review the assignments that were
determined during the meeting.

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Handling Problem Members

• Silent - There are several techniques that can

be used to encourage participation from silent
members, such as having all members take
turns giving their input.
• Talker - Do not let a single talker dominate the
group. Either use the rotation method, or gently
interrupt the talker and give others a chance to
speak.
• Wanderer - Firmly keep the discussion on track
and do not allow wanderers to distract the group
with socialization or irresolvable issues.
• Bored - Keep group members motivated by
assigning tasks to bored members and calling
on them to participate in discussion.

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• Arguer - Bring others into discussions when
arguers attempt to start an argument, and cut
off any personal attacks.
 Meeting Plans

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 Types of Teams

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 Types of Teams
Functional team Cross-functional Virtual team
team
• A group of employees • A team composed of
belonging to the same members from different
functional department, functional departments of
such as marketing, R&D, an organization who are
production, human brought together to
resources, or information perform unique tasks to
systems, who have a create new and non-
common objective. routine products or
• Drawbacks include services.
boredom, hierarchical • Teamwork among people
structure, and tunnel from different functional
vision. areas produces better
• Functional teams have outcomes.
been in decline over the • Cross-functional teams
years. also allow for a greater
diversity of experience and
perspective.
• Cross-functional teams
promote employee
participation and
empowerment.
• A team whose members
are geographically
dispersed, requiring them
to work together through
technological platforms
with minimal physical
interaction.
• The use of virtual teams is
a relatively recent but
growing phenomenon in
business today.
• Virtual teams are made
possible by advancements
in globalization and
technology.
• Allow for more
asynchronous teamwork
as virtual cross functional
teams grow in global
operations
Self-managed
teams (SMTs)
• Introduced in 1950s by
2000 over 50% of US
Fortune 1000 companies
used SMTs
• Relatively autonomous
teams whose members
share or rotate leadership
responsibilities and hold
one another mutually
responsible for a set of
performance targets
assigned by senior
management.
• Self-managed teams
operate autonomously and
are allowed to use their
own discretion in
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determining the best way
to accomplish their given
objectives.
Self Managed Teams

Relatively autonomous teams whose members share

or rotate leadership responsibilities and hold one
another mutually responsible for a set of

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performance targets assigned by senior
management.
How Are SMTs Different from Conventional Teams?

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How Are SMTs Different
from Conventional Teams?
• Authority in self-managed teams is
shared among team members.
• Role interchange occurs frequently as
members act as both followers and
leaders.
• Team accountability is important as
members are responsible for the
performance of other team members.
• The amount of authority given to an SMT
varies depending on the organization.

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The Benefits of Self Managed Teams
• SMTs share all the same advantages associated with traditional forms of teamwork.
• There are also a variety of benefits associated with SMTs specifically, such as flexible working
arrangements, high retention rates, and an increase in effective commitment.
• Greater improvements in quality, speed, process, and innovation
• A sense of belonging and ownership in one’s work
• Greater employee motivation
• Accelerated new product development
• Greater employee participation
• SMTs may also lower the cost of production by reducing the number of managers needed in
an organization.
• Reduced operational costs because of reductions in managerial ranks and greater efficiencies

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• Greater employee job satisfaction, commitment, and productivity, and lower turnover and
absenteeism rates
Improving Effectiveness of
SMTs
• SMTs need strong support from senior
management in order to be successful.
• Some employees may not be ready or
equipped to handle the heightened
responsibility and accountability
associated with SMT membership.
• The SMT concept represents a paradigm
shift for many companies.

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Adapting Leadership Role for SMTs
SMT Concept
• SMT not “without management” still receives direction, instructions
• from higher authority implies self responsibility and self accountability
• Managers need clear direction on how they function as external
• leaders for self managed teams
Distributed Leadership
• A leadership model in which multiple leaders take complementary leadership roles in rotation
within the same SMT, according to their area of expertise or interest.
Self Managed Team Facilitator
• Is external SMT leader who creates optimal working conditions for
• team members to execute responsibilities, work productively, solve

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• complex problems on their own.
• Is expert at coaching, influencing and empowering SMT
Challenges of Implementing SMTs
• Launching SMTs can cause stress or frustration for employees who are unfamiliar with the new structure
and routines associated with SMTs.
• When launching an SMT, success is not guaranteed, as they are prone to the same disadvantages
associated with conventional teams.
• Some SMT problems arise when transitioning from traditional command and control work environment
to SMTs

• Managers may resist or undermine the transition of power

• Team members may experience anxiety about learning new behaviors

• Some managers are unable to transition from conventional leadership roles to the shared role utilized in
self-managed teams.
• Some managers may resist the launch of SMTs because they have become accustomed to traditional
management approaches.
• Other team problems such as social loafing and groupthink are also likely to occur in SMTs
• Deciding to use self managed teams

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• Is not a guarantee of success

• Needs considerable commitment, effort and support across organisation

Week 8 Summary – You can now do the following:
• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of working in teams.
• Briefly describe the ten characteristics of effective teams.
• What role can a team leader play in creating an effective team?
• Describe how Organisational climate can influence team creativity.
• Outline the three parts of conducting effective meetings.
• Explain the differences between conventional and self managed teams.
• Describe the benefits of using self managed teams in Organisations
• Describe the top management’s role in improving the success rate of self managed
teams.
• Describe the challenges of implementing effective self managed teams.

CRICOS: 00233E | TEQSA: PRV12076