Developing

Teamwork

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Learning Objectives
 Understand the leader’s role in a team-
based organization.
 Describe leader actions that foster
teamwork.
 Explain the potential contribution of
outdoor training to the development of
team leadership.
 Describe how the leader-member
exchange model contributes to an
understanding of leadership.

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 Defining and Classifying
Groups
Group:
 Two or more individuals interacting and interdependent, who
have come together to achieve particular objectives

 Formal Group:
 Defined by the organization’s structure with designated work
assignments establishing tasks

 Informal Group:
 Alliances that are neither formally structured nor
organizationally determined
 Appear naturally in response to the need for social contact
 Deeply affect behavior and performance
 Sub-classifications of Groups

Formal Groups Informal Groups

 Command Group  Interest Group

 A group composed of the  Members work together to
individuals who report attain a specific objective
directly to a given manager with which each is
concerned
 Task Group  Friendship Group
 Those working together to  Those brought together
complete a job or task in because they share one or
an organization but not more common
limited by hierarchical characteristics
boundaries
 Why People Join Groups –
Social Identity

 Similarity
 Distinctiveness
 Status
 Uncertainty
 Concept of Team
 Definition:

 A team is a small number of people with

complementary skills who are committed to a common
purpose, performance goals, and approach for which
they hold themselves mutually accountable

 Group of individual with ability to do special tasks, who

prefer to work collectively for special purpose, have
shared leadership, and bear individual and collective
accountability
 Characteristics of a team
 Small number of people
 Complementary skills
 Common approach and performance goals
 Mutual accountability
 Shared Leadership
 Importance of teams

 Enhanced performance
 Employee benefits
 Reduced costs
 Organizational enhancements
 Differences between Groups
and Teams

 Work Group
 A group that interacts primarily to share information and
to make decisions to help each group member perform
within his or her area of responsibility
 No joint effort required

 Work Team
 Generates positive synergy through coordinated effort.
The individual efforts result in a performance that is
greater than the sum of the individual inputs
Comparing Work Groups and
Work Teams
 Types of Teams
 Problem-Solving Teams
 Groups of 5 to 12 employees
from the same department who
meet for a few hours each week
to discuss ways of improving
quality, efficiency, and the work
environment

 Self-Managed Work Teams

 Groups of 10 to 15 people who
take on the responsibilities of
their former supervisors
 Types of Teams (Continued)
 Cross-Functional Teams
 Employees from about the same hierarchical
level, but from different work areas, who come
together to accomplish a task
 Types of Teams (Continued)
 Virtual Teams
 Teams that use computer technology to tie together
physically dispersed members in order to achieve a
common goal

 Characteristics
 Limited socializing
 The ability to overcome time, cost and space
constraints
 To be effective, needs:
 Trust among members
 Close monitoring
The Leader-Member Exchange
Model (LMX)
 Proposes that leaders develop
unique work relationships with group
members
 Two subsets of employees result:
 The in-group is given additional rewards,
responsibility, and trust in exchange for
their loyalty and performance
 The out-group members are treated in
accordance with a more formal
understanding of leader-member relations

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The Leader-Member Exchange
Model

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Summary
 Teamwork is an understanding of
and commitment to group goals on
the part of all group members
 Leaders must occupy many roles
and employ many strategies
(actions) to be an effective team
builder

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Summary (cont’d)
 How leaders can improve teamwork
include 1) actions using leaders’
own resources and 2) actions that
rely on organizational structure or
policy

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Summary (cont’d)
 According to the leader-member
exchange model, leaders develop unique
relationships with group members that
result in an in-group and an out-group
 The leader’s first impression of a group
member’s competency plays an important
role in placing that person into the in-
group or the out-group

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