INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT

Session 1: Working in team

Theory (also called model): ‘what we know to be true’ at this moment in time, subject to
change/revision, based upon clearly defined assumptions

 There will always be more than one theory to consider.

 Different theories are based upon different assumptions
 Academic description of the real world, sometimes they do not apply
 Exists in different fields
 Now in an Open System model

Practice: what connects actors, material things, and ideas.

 The key management practice is control (in business, usually good even if it can sometimes
be bad)
 Managers interact with stakeholders (e.g. employees, customers and shareholders)

Importance of management: When we witness situations of management failure and success, how
hard it is to be a manager becomes clear

 Management Failure – Terminal 5

 Management Success – Ford Motor Company and Google

INTRODUCTION:

Can be a lot of discussions ab how to do the task  can take more time

Pros and cons

Based on several comprehensive reviews of studies that examined various concept-mastery,

creativity, problem solving, and judgment tasks, it appears that group performance often, although
not always, exceeds that of individuals (e.g., Gigone & Hastie, 1997; Hill, 1982; Kerr, MacCoun, &
Kramer, 1996; Vollrath, Sheppard, Hinsz, & Davis, 1989)”.

"The 'romance of teams’ (Allen; Hecht, 2004)

GROUP AND TEAM

Difference: group can be a collection of individuals that wasn’t selected by anybody, whereas a team
is selected to work well together (eg sport teams have different functions and wins if the team
interacts well)

 Group – interacts to share information and make decisions to help each group member
perform his or her area of responsibility.
 Team (engineered group of individuals) – a group whose individual efforts result in a
performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs

Group – two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to
achieve particular objectives
  Formal groups (eg the military): command; task
 Informal groups (eg groups where you read where everybody reads and listens): interest (eg
book); friendship (usually comes from that shared interest)

Why join?

• Security (one of the earliest reasons for joining a group, eg military)

• Status (eg going to school, getting a degree which will give you a certain status)

• Self-esteem (by joining a group that is doing something that you aspire to (if they accept you) it will
give you self-esteem)

• Affiliation (eg supporting a certain football team, coming from a certain area)

• Power

• Goal Achievement (eg finish a book)

Influence:

 The presence of others strongly influences individual behaviour.

 Conversely, the behaviour of individuals is affected by being part of a group.
 Business requires groups (eg departments), therefore how groups work influences how
individuals behave and work

Teams (defined by Katzenbach and Smith, 1993; helps evaluate a team’s likely effectiveness):

 Need for complementary skills (find the best sequence of team members)
 Common purpose/ Common approach
 Mutual accountability (if the team fails, everyone is accountable)

Example: a swim team can be considered as such because aim at a common goal and is broken down
into several members arranged in the most effective way (beginners and finishers)

Relevance:

 Teams exist everywhere in business:

 Important not to succumb to the pressure
 Teamwork is a way of working to add value
 Used very widely, in diverse settings (Research groups, product development, etc.)
 Combine diverse skills, and sometimes work as ‘virtual’ teams
 Using teams well depends on understanding: how teams develop and work, how to be an
effective team member, how to evaluate their effectiveness

Different types, according to:

 Degree of formality
o Formal teams deliberately created
o Informal groups form spontaneously
 Physical separation
  Increasingly common – for example, Cisco Systems.
 Permanence

Composition (what type of person does best in what kind of role)

According to Belbin’s research on team roles:

 Diversity of members implies that people take on diverse team roles

 Task (Initiator, information seeker, etc.)
 Maintenance (Encourager, peacekeeper, clarifier, etc.)

a)0 ; 0 ; 1 ; 1 ; 1 ; 1 ; 2

b)0 ; 0 ; 1 ; 2 ; 1 ; 3 ; 0

c)5 ; 0 ; 2 ; 4 ; 1 ; 2 ; 2

d)0 ; 1 ; 2 ; 0 ; 1 ; 2 ; 1

e)0 ; 5 ; 1 ; 1 ; 1 ; 0 ; 1

f)3 ; 1 ; 1 ; 1 ; 0 ; 0 ; 1

g)0 ; 2 ; 2 ; 1 ; 3 ; 1 ; 2

h)2 ; 1 ; 0 ; 0 ; 2 ; 1 ;1

IMP : 2

CO : 5

SH : 16

PL : 14

RI : 5

ME : 10

TW : 8

CF : 10