I.

Team

A team is a small group of people with complementary skills who interact and work with one another to
achieve shared goals. And the process of achieving goals is called teamwork.

A team leader or the manager who leads the should be able to perform four roles.

- As the appointed head of a team or work unit.

- As a helpful contributor.
- As the peer leader and networking hub for a special task force.
- As a coach advising on ways to improve performance.

1. Teamwork

The main reason why team is utilized is the accomplishment of far greater things than a loner. Synergy
indicates the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Advantage:

• Performance gains through synergy

• More resources for problem solving

• Improved creativity and innovation

• Improved quality of decision making

• Greater member commitment to tasks

• Increased motivation of members

• Increased need satisfaction of members

Disadvatage:

Social loafing is the tendency of some people to avoid responsibility by “free- riding” in groups.

In order to eliminate social loafing, leader can try to make their contribution visible to them, reward their
achievement or assign them with interesting tasks.

2. Organizations as Networks of Teams

Formal groups are officially recognized and supported by the organization. They may be called
departments (e.g., market research department), units (e.g., audit unit), teams (e.g., customer service
team), or divisions (e.g., office products division), etc.

These groups form interlocking networks that set the foundations of organization structure. Managers
lead formal groups at one level while also serving as members of others at the next higher level.
Informal groups emerge from natural or spontaneous relationships among people.

- Interest groups in which workers band together to pursue a common cause

- Friendship groups that develop for a variety of personal reasons
- Support groups where the members help one another do their jobs or cope with common
problems

Members of informal groups can satisfy needs that are otherwise unmet in their formal assignments: such
as friendship, security, support, and a sense of belonging – social needs.

II. Trends in the Use of Teams

1. Committees, Project Teams, and Task Forces

A committee brings people together outside of their daily job assignments to work in a small team for a
specific purpose. The task agenda is typically narrow, focused, and ongoing.

Organizations usually have permanent or standing committees dedicated to a variety of concerns, such
as diversity, product quality, and product development.

Project teams or task forces bring people together to work on common problems, but temporarily rather
than permanent basis.

2. Cross-Functional Teams

Cross-functional teams pull together members from across functional units to work on common goals.
These teams help reduce the functional chimneys problem by eliminating the obstacles that limit
communication and cooperation among people from different departments and functions.

3. Self-Managing Teams

Self- managing work teams operate with a high degree of task interdependence, authority to make many
decisions and collective responsibility for results. The “self-management” responsibilities include
planning and scheduling work, training members in various tasks, distributing tasks, meeting performance
goals, ensuring high quality, and solving day-to-day operating problems.

4. Virtual Teams

Virtual teams, or distributed teams, work together through computer-based rather than face-to-face.

Virtual teams can save time and travel expenses when members work in different locations. They can also
be easily expanded more members as needed, and the discussions and shared information can be archived
for later access. Virtual teams are usually quite efficient because members are less prone to stray off task
and get sidetracked by interpersonal difficulties. However, the lack of face-to-face interaction limits the
role of emotions and nonverbal cues in communication and allows relationships to stay depersonalized.

5. Team Building
Team building is a sequence of planned activities used to analyze the functioning of a team and make
constructive changes in how it operates.

The process starts with knowing there is a problem with the team, hence, members should work together
to gather data and fully understand the problem to make and implement plans. Team building usually be
done in outside locations. A popular approach is to bring team members together in special outdoor
settings where their capacities for teamwork are put to the test.

III. How Teams Work

An effective team does three things well

1. Perform its tasks: a team need to be able to transform input resource into outputs.
2. Satisfy its members: team member should be recognized for their contributions to the overall
result and be pleased about that result
3. Remain viable for the future: a team should be able to keep team members’ willingness to work
well together in the future

1. Team Inputs

Membership Characteristics
Teams need members with the right abilities, or skill sets, to master and perform tasks well. Teams must
also have members whose attitudes, values, and personalities are sufficiently compatible for everyone to
work well together.

Team diversity, in terms of different values, personalities, experiences, demographics, and cultures
among the membership, affects how teams work.

- Homogeneous teams—teams whose members share similar characteristics.

- Heterogeneous teams—teams whose members are quite dissimilar to one another.

Resources and Setting

The available resources and organizational setting can affect how well team members use and pool their
talents to accomplish team tasks. Teams function best when members have good information, material
resources, technology, organization structures, and rewards.

Nature of the Task

The nature of the task or task characteristics not only sets standards for the talents needed but also affects
how they work together. Clearly defined tasks are easier to deal with. Complex tasks ask a lot more of
members in things like information sharing and coordinated action.

Team Size

Team size affects how members work together, handle disagreements, and make decisions. Too large
teams create communication problems and congestion.

2. Stages of Team Development

Forming Stage

The forming stage involves the first entry of members into a teamwhere people begin to identify with
other members and with the team itself. They are concerned about getting acquainted, establishing
relationships, discovering what is acceptable behavior, and learning how others perceive the team’s task.
Difficulties in this stage tend to be greater in more culturally and demographically diverse teams.

Storming Stage

The storming stage is a period of high emotionality and can be the most difficult stage to pass through.
Tensions often emerge over tasks and interpersonal concerns. Conflict may develop as individuals
compete to impose their preferences on others and to become influential.

Norming Stage

The norming stage is also part of the critical zone of team development. As members develop initial
feelings of closeness, a division of labor, and shared expectations, this helps protect the team from
disintegration.

Performing Stage
Teams in the performing stage are more mature, organized, and well-functioning. Performing is a stage of
total integration in which team members are able to deal in creative ways with complex tasks and any
interpersonal conflicts.

Adjourning Stage

The final stage of team development is adjourning, when team members prepare to achieve closure and
disband. Temporary committees, task forces, and project teams should disband when important goals
have been accomplished.

3. Norms and Cohesiveness

A norm is a behavior expected of team members. It is a “rule” or “standard” that guides behavior.
Typical team norms relate to such things as helpfulness, participation, timeliness, work quality, and
creativity and innovation. A team’s performance norm is one of the most important, since it defines the
level of work effort and performance that members are expected to contribute.

Cohesiveness is the degree to which members are attracted to and motivated to remain part of a team.

Managing Team Norms

Norm development should include all team members during forming and storming stage. For example,
norms regarding helpfulness might be developed during forming stage but creativity might happen during
storming.

Managing Team Cohesiveness

Persons in a highly cohesive team value their membership and strive to maintain positive relationships
with other team members. They then have the tendency to follow the norms.

4. Task and Maintenance Roles

Task activities contribute to the team’s performance purpose

Maintenance activities support the emotional life of the team as an ongoing social system

- Leading through task activities involves defining and solving problems and to advance work
toward results.
- Leading through maintenance activities involves strengthen the team as a social system assuring
the ability of the team to stay together over the longer term.

This concept of distributed leadership where every member is responsible for recognizing when task or
maintenance activities are needed and taking actions to provide them.

Disruptive activities are activities toward other members, withdrawing from the discussion, and fooling
around are self-serving and detract from, rather than enhance, team effectiveness.

5. Communication Networks
Decentralized communication network where all members communicate directly with one another.

Centralized communication network where activities are coordinated, and results pooled by a central
point of control.

Restricted communication network where teams are composed of subgroups with issue-specific
disagreements, such as a temporary debate.

IV. Decision Making in Teams

Decision making is the process of making choices among alternatives and it is importatn as a team faces
different kind of promblems.

Edgar Schein identifíd 6 methods of decision making:

- Lack of response: one idea after another is suggested without any discussion.
- Authority rule: the leader, manager, committee head makes a decision for the team.
- Minority rule: two or three people are able to dominate the team into making a decision.
- Majority rule: vote and arrive at a decision.
- Consensus: full discussion leads to one alternative being favored by most members.
- Unanimity: all team members agree on the course of action to be taken.

1. Advantages and Disadvantages of Team Decisions

Advantage:

- The process of making a true team decision makes more information, knowledge, and expertise
available.
- It expands the number of alternatives that are examined, and helps to avoid considering only one
or a few options.
- Team decisions also increase understanding and acceptance by members which helps build
commitments of members to work hard to implement the decisions

Disadvantage:

- The potential disadvantages of team decision making trace largely to the difficulties with group
process.

- It can be hard to reach agreement when many people are trying to make a team decision.
- the time required to make team decisions can be a disadvantage as more people are involved in
the discussion, decision making takes longer.

2. Creativity in Team Decision Making

Classic brainstorming asks members to follow these strict guidelines.

- Don’t criticize each other.

- Welcome “freewheeling”.
- Go for quantity.
 - Keep building on one another’s ideas.

Nominal group technique uses a highly structured meeting agenda that allows everyone to contribute
ideas without the interference of evaluative comments by others.