CH 07 CH 08 The Nature of Teams, Teamwork and Team Performance

 What are teams and how are they used in
organizations?
 When is a team effective?
 What are the stages of team development?
 What are the input foundations for teamwork?
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7-2
 Team is a group of people brought together to use
their complementary skills to achieve a common
purpose for which they are collectively
accountable.
 Teamwork occurs when team members accept
and live up to their collective accountability by
actively working together so that all their
respective skills are best used to achieve team
goals.
7-3
 Teams that recommend things are established to
study specific problems and recommend solutions
to them.
• Examples: Task forces, ad hoc committees, special
project teams.
 Teams that run things have formal responsibility
for leading organizations and their component
parts.
• Example: Top-Management Team
 Teams that make or do things are work units that
perform ongoing tasks.
• Examples: marketing, sales, systems analysis,
manufacturing, or special projects with due dates.
7-4
 Formal teams found in organizations are created
and officially designated to serve specific
organizational purposes.
• Permanent teams appear on organization charts as
departments, divisions, or teams (e.g., product-
assembly team);
• Temporary teams are short-lived example temporary
committees and task forces created to solve specific
problems and disbanded once the purpose has been
accomplished.
7-5
 Informal groups emerge and coexist as a shadow
to the formal structure and without any assigned
purpose or official endorsement. They develop
through personal relationships and create their
own interlocking networks within the organization.
 Types of informal groups
• Friendship groups consist of persons who like one
another. Members tend to work together, sit together, take
breaks together, and even do things together outside of
the workplace.
• Interest groups consist of persons who share job-related
interests, such as learning about computers, or non-work
interests, such as community service, sports, or religion.
7-6
 Social network analysis – identifies the informal
groups and networks of relationships that are active in
an organization. The analysis typically asks people to
identify co-workers who most often help them, who
communicate with them regularly, and who motivate
and demotivate them. When these social networks are
mapped, you learn a lot about how work really gets
done and who communicates most often with whom.
7-7
 Cross-functional teams or task forces consists of
members brought together from different
functional departments or work units to achieve
horizontal integration and better lateral relations.
• The expected result is higher performance driven
better information and faster decision-making.
 Functional silos problem, also called the
functional chimneys problem occurs when
members of functional units stay focused on
matters internal to their function and minimize
their interactions and cooperation with other
functional teams.
7-8
 Problem-solving teams are created temporarily
to serve a specific purpose by dealing with a
specific problem or opportunity.
 For example, The president of a company might
convene a task force to examine the possibility of
implementing flexible work hours; a human
resource director might bring together a
committee to advise her on changes in employee
benefit policies; a project team might be formed to
plan and implement a new organization-wide
information system.
7-9
 Employee involvement team members meet
regularly to collectively examine important
workplace issues. For example, they may discuss
ways to enhance quality, better satisfy customers,
raise productivity, and improve the quality of work
life.
• Quality circle is a small team of persons who
meet periodically to discuss and develop
solutions relating to improving quality and
productivity.
7-10
 Self-managing teams also called self-directed
work teams is a high-involvement workgroup
empowered to make the decisions needed to
manage themselves on a day-to-day basis.
• Self-managing teams make their own decisions about
scheduling work, allocating tasks, training,
evaluating performance, selecting new team
members, and controlling the quality of work.
• Self-managing teams include between 5 and 15
members, large enough to provide a good mix of
skills and resources but small enough to function
efficiently.
7-11
7-12
 In Multiskilling team members are each capable
of performing many different jobs.
 Advantages of self-managing teams
• Productivity and quality improvements.
• Production flexibility and faster response to technological
change.
• Reduced absenteeism and turnover.
• Improved work attitudes and quality of work life.
 Disadvantages of self-managing teams
• May be hard for some team members to adjust to the “self-
managing” responsibilities.
• Higher-level managers may have problems dealing with the
loss of first-line supervisors.
7-13
 Virtual Team members convene and work
together through computer mediation rather than
interacting face-to-face.
 They can share information, make decisions, and
complete tasks together, similar to face-to-face
teams, but are free from geographic barriers.
7-14
 Advantages of virtual teams
• Brings together individuals who may be located at great
differences from one another.
• Offers obvious cost and time efficiencies.
• Focuses task accomplishment and decision-making by
reducing the emotional considerations that may surface
in face-to-face meetings.
 Disadvantages of virtual teams
• Members of virtual teams can have difficulties
establishing good working relationships.
• The lack of face-to-face interactions limits the role of
emotions and non-verbal cues in the communication
process.
7-15
 Effective Team is one that achieves high levels of
task performance, member satisfaction, and team
viability.
• Task performance - Members attain performance
goals regarding quantity, quality, and timeliness of
work results.
• Members satisfaction - Members believe that their
participation and experiences are positive and meet
important personal needs.
• Team viability - Members are sufficiently satisfied
to continue working together on an ongoing basis.
7-16
 Effective teams offer the benefits of synergy - the
creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of
its parts.
 The performance advantages of teams are:
• Teams tend to make better judgments than
individuals alone.
• Teams are typically more successful than individuals
when problems are complex and require a division
of labor and the sharing of information.
• Teams can be more creative and innovative than
individuals.
7-17
 Teams are beneficial as settings where people learn
from one another and share job skills and knowledge.
 The learning environment and the pool of experience
within a team can be used to solve difficult and unique
problems.
 Opportunities for social interaction within a team can
provide individuals with a sense of security through
work assistance and technical advice.
 Team members provide emotional support for one
another in times of special crisis or pressure.
 Many contributions individuals make to teams can help
members experience self-esteem and personal
involvement.
7-18
 Social loafing also known as the Ringlemann
effect, is the tendency of people to work less hard
in a group than they would individually.
• Reasons for social loafing: Individual contributions are
less noticeable in the group context; some prefer to
see others carry the workload.
• Prevent social loafing: Keep group size small; Redefine
roles to make free riders more visible and peer
pressures to perform more likely; Increase
accountability by making individual performance
expectations clear and specific; Make rewards directly
contingent on an individual’s performance
contributions.
7-19
 Social facilitation theory is the tendency for
one’s behavior to be influenced by the presence
of others in a group or social setting.
• Positive result is extra effort when an individual is
proficient with the task at hand.
• Negative result when the task is unfamiliar, or a
person lacks the necessary skills.
7-20
 Personality conflicts and differences in work styles
can disrupt relationships and create antagonisms.
 Task uncertainties and competing goals or visions
may cause some team members to withdraw and
reduce their participation.
 Ambiguous agendas or ill-defined problems can
also cause fatigue
 Loss of motivation when teams work too long on
the wrong things with little to show for it or
conflicts with other work deadlines and priorities.
 Perceptions of poor team organization or progress,
or meetings that lack purpose
7-21
7-22
 Forming stage focuses on the initial entry of
members to a team.
• Member challenges
 Getting to know each other
 Discovering what is considered acceptable
behavior
 Determining the group’s real task
 Defining group rules
7-23
 Storming stage
• A period of high emotionality and tension
among group members.
 Hostility and infighting
 Formation of coalitions and cliques
 Clarification of members’ expectations
7-24
 Norming stage
• The point at which the members really begin to
come together as a coordinated unit.
 Holding team together may over supersede
task accomplishment.
 Sense of cohesiveness may discourage
minority views.
 Can result in false sense of team maturity.
7-25
 Performing stage
• Marks the emergence of a mature, organized,
and well-functioning team motivated by group
goals.
 Continuing efforts to improve relationships and
performance.
7-26
7-27
 Adjourning stage
• A well-integrated team is able to
 Disband when its work is finished.
 Work together in the future.
• Particularly important for temporary teams.
7-28
The quality of inputs determine the eventual team
effectiveness (TE).
TE =Quality of Inputs + (Process gains – Process losses)
 Team effectiveness is affected by the nature of the
task
 Different tasks place different demands on teams.
 Well-defined tasks contribute to effectiveness.
 Team effectiveness is harder to achieve with complex tasks.
interaction.
 Success at complex tasks is a source of high satisfaction for
team.
7-29
7-30
 Nature of task affects outcome
 Technical demands of a task
 The degree to which a task is routine or not, the level of
difficulty involved, and the information requirements.
 Social demands of a task
 Involve the degree to which the issues of interpersonal
relationships, ego, controversies, over ends and means, and
the like that come into play.
7-31
 Team size
• Can have an impact on a team’s effectiveness.
• As team size increases, performance and member satisfaction
increase up to a point.
 Team composition
 The mix of abilities, skills, personalities, and experiences that
the members bring to the team.
 FIRO-B Theory (“fundamental interpersonal
orientation”)
 Identifies differences in how people relate to one another in
groups.
 Individual difference determine needs to express and receive
feelings of inclusion, control, and affection.
7-32
 Status
• A person’s relative rank, prestige, or social standing.
 Status congruence
• Occurs when a person’s position within the team is equivalent
in status to positions the individual holds outside of it.
7-33
 Diversity and Team Performance
• Team diversity – consists of different values,
personalities, experiences, demographics, and
cultures among members.
• In homogeneous teams, members are very similar to
one another.
• In heterogeneous teams, members are very
dissimilar, teamwork problems are more likely.
7-34
 Diversity-Consensus Dilemma
• The tendency for diversity to make it harder for team members
to work together, even though the diversity itself expands the
skills and perspectives available for problem-solving.
 Collective Intelligence
 The ability of a group or team to perform well across a range
of tasks.
 Group or team dynamics
• Forces operating in teams that affect the way
members relate to and work with one another.
7-35
9-36
 What are high-performance teams?
 How can team processes be improved?
 How can team communications be improved?
 How can team decisions be improved?
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

 Characteristics of High Performance Teams
• Set a clear and challenging direction.
• Believe in the goals and motivated to work hard to accomplish
them.
• Turn a general sense of purpose into specific objectives.
• Set standards for measuring results and obtain feedback.
• Members have the right mix of technical, problem-solving and
interpersonal skills.

 Team Building
• It is a sequence of planned activities designed to gather and
analyze data on the functioning of a team and to initiate
changes designed to improve teamwork and increase team
effectiveness.
• When done well and at the right times, team building can be a
good way to deal with actual or potential teamwork problems.
• Team building is a way of updating and strengthening the

processes through which people work together in teams,
something often called team or group dynamics.

 Formal retreat approach
• Team building occurs during an offsite “retreat.”
 Outdoor experience approach
• Members engage in a variety of physically challenging
situations that require teamwork.
 Continuous improvement approach
• The manager, team leader, or group members take
responsibility for ongoing team building.

 Team or group dynamics are the forces operating
in teams that affect the way members relate to and
work with one another
 New members may worry about:
• Participation—“Will I be allowed to participate?”
• Goals—“Do I share the same goals as others?”
• Control—“Will I be able to influence what takes
place?”
• Relationships—“How close do people get?”
• Processes—“Are conflicts likely to be upsetting?”

Tough Friendly Objective
Battler Helper Thinker
• Acts • Acts • Acts
aggressive insecure reflective
• Seeks • Tries to be • Wants clear
authority helpful goals

 Disruptive behaviors:
• Bullying and being overly aggressive toward other members.
• Withdrawing and refusing to cooperate with others.
• Using the group as a forum for self-confession.
• Talking too much about irrelevant matters.
• Trying to compete for attention and recognition.

 Role
• Set of expectations associated with a job or position
on a team.
 Role ambiguity
• Occurs when a person is uncertain about his or her
role and what is expected.
 Role overload
• Occurs when too much is expected of the individual.
 Role underload
• Occurs when too little is expected of the individual.

 Role conflict
• Occurs when a person is unable to respond to role expectations
that conflict with one another.
 Forms of role conflict
 Intrasender role conflict occurs when the same person sends
conflicting expectations.
 Intersender role conflict occurs when different people send
conflicting and mutually exclusive expectations.
 Person–role conflict occurs when a person’s values and needs
come into conflict with role expectations.
 Inter-role conflict occurs when the expectations of two or
more roles held by the same individual become incompatible,
such as the confl ict between work and family demands.

 Role negotiation
• Process for discussing and agreeing upon what team members
expect of one another.
• Team members meet to discuss, clarify, and agree on their
individual role expectations each holds for the other.

 Norms
• Represent ideas or beliefs about how members are
expected to behave.
• Considered rules or standards of conduct that are
supposed to guide members.
• Help members to guide their own behavior and
predict what others will do.

 Performance norms convey expectations about
how hard team members should work and what
the team should accomplish.
 Common Team Norms
 Ethics norms—“We try to make ethical decisions, and
we expect others to do the same” (positive); “Don’t
worry about inflating your expense account; everyone
does it here” (negative).

 Common Team Norms cont’d
 Organizational and personal pride norms—“It’s a
tradition around here for people to stand up for the
company when others criticize it unfairly” (positive);
“In our company, they are always trying to take
advantage of us” (negative).
 High-achievement norms—“On our team, people
always want to win or be the best” (positive); “No one
really cares on this team whether we win or lose”
(negative).

 Common Team Norms cont’d
 Support and helpfulness norms—“People on this
committee are good listeners and actively seek out
the ideas and opinions of others” (positive); “On this
committee it’s dog-eat-dog and save your own skin”
(negative).
 Improvement and change norms—“In our department
people are always looking for better ways of doing
things” (positive); “Around here, people hang on to
the old ways even after they have outlived their
usefulness” (negative).

Positive role
model
Reward and Leaders can Set aside time to

positively
Influence discuss goals and
reinforce desired
norms
behaviors Norms
Select members
who can and will
live up to desired
norms

 Cohesiveness
• The degree to which members are attracted to a
group and motivated to remain a part of it.
• There is a strong relationship between cohesiveness,
conformity to group norms, and performance.
 Inter-team dynamics
• The relationships between groups cooperating and
competing with one another.

 Teams make decisions by choosing from alternative
actions.
• Decision by lack of response
 One idea after another is suggested without any discussion-
taking place.
• Decision by authority rule
 The chairperson, manager, or leader makes a decision for the
team.
• Decision by minority rule
 Two or three people are able to dominate or “railroad” the
group into making a decision to which they agree.

1-55
 Decision Making in Team cont’d.
• Decision by majority rule
 Formal voting usually takes place, or members may be polled,
publicly or confidentially, to find the majority viewpoint.
• Decision by consensus
 Discussion leads to one alternative being favored by most
members and the other members agree to support it.
• Decision by unanimity
 All group members agree totally on the course of action to
be taken.

1-56
Assets and Liabilities of Consensus and
Unanimity
 Advantages:
• More information, knowledge and expertise is applied to
solve problem.
• Discussion leads to broader understanding of final decision.
• Increases acceptance and strengthens commitment of
members to follow through and support decision.
 Disadvantages:
• Imperfect decisions may result from social pressures to
conform to group, or undue influence of team leader.
• Team decisions take more time than individual
decisions.

 Groupthink
• The tendency of members in highly cohesive groups
to lose their critical evaluative capabilities.

• Leader refrains from announcing any position.
• Every team member acts as critical evaluator.
• Different sub-groups explore same problems.
• Bring in outside experts to evaluate information,
realism of goals, and plans for action.
• Assign someone to be a “devil’s” advocate at
Avoiding each team meeting. Rotate an appointed team

"devil's advocate" so that no one particular
person appears to dissent.
groupthink

 Brainstorming
• Used in teams to actively generate as many ideas and
alternatives as possible.
 All criticism is ruled out
 All ideas are welcomed
 Emphasis on creativity and imagination
 Quantity is wanted
 Building on others’ ideas or “piggy-backing” is encouraged
 Nominal group technique
• Members are asked to respond individually and in writing to a
“nominal” question.
 Delphi technique
• Involves generating decision-making alternatives through a
series of survey questionnaires.

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CH 07 CH 08 The Nature of Teams, Teamwork and Team Performance

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 What are teams and how are they used in

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

• Team building is a way of updating and strengthening the

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

• Withdrawing and refusing to cooperate with others.

• Using the group as a forum for self-confession.

• Talking too much about irrelevant matters.

• Trying to compete for attention and recognition.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Reward and Leaders can Set aside time to

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Avoiding each team meeting. Rotate an appointed team

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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