MANAGING WORK TEAMS
CHAPTER 9
“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common
vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments
toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows
common people to attain uncommon results.”
– Andrew Carnegie
Managing Teams
• A work group is a collection of individuals operating towards a business goal with little or no
collaboration between the members of the group. For example, the work group may be
responsible for work on separate parts of a project or for assisting different customers.
• A work team is a collaborative group of individuals with complementary talents and skills
joined together to accomplish a common organizational objective or goal.
• Similar to work
teams, a high-
functioning team is
generally regarded as
a tight-knit team,
aligned with and
committed to a
common goal,
capable of achieving
a high level of
collaboration and
innovation.
The Advantages and
Disadvantaged of Teams
• Several of the advantages work • The two most crucial
teams offer the team member disadvantages of teamwork are
include improved office social loafing and the problems
relationships, development of ability associated with groupthink.
or expansion of knowledge through • Social loafing occurs when team
the sharing of work, a feeling of members do not participate and
connectedness, and job satisfaction. instead deliberately exert less or
• The advantages of teamwork are entirely withhold their efforts. In
more than just organizational and other words, they do not perform
business; generally, there are their share of the work and allow
personal benefits for the employees. others to do most of the work.
Reducing Social Loafing
Dan Rothwell (1999) claims utilizing the three Cs of motivation can reduce
social loafing: collaboration, content, and choice.
1. Collaboration, a way to involve team members, is achieved by
assigning special and meaningful tasks to all members of the team.
2. Content, giving meaning to involvement, is achieved by assigning
worthy and meaningful tasks to team members.
3. Choice, the opportunity to have input into involvement, is achieved by
providing members the opportunity to choose their tasks.
Reducing Social Loafing
Janis acknowledged three antecedent conditions to groupthink: high group
cohesiveness, structural faults, and situational context.
1. High group cohesiveness leads to lack of individuality. The group
becomes more important than the individual or their opinions and ideas.
2. Structural faults include insulation of the group, lack of rules or norms
for decision-making, lack of impartial leadership, lack of diverse
experience, background and knowledge among group members.
3. Situational context includes recent group failures, moral dilemmas,
overwhelming difficulties in decision-making, and disproportionate or
overpowering external threats.
Continuing his work in the field, Janis acknowledged three antecedent
conditions to groupthink: high group cohesiveness, structural faults, and
situational context.
Types of Work Teams
1. Problem-solving teams, designed for specific issues, help to solve
organizational problems by offering suggestions and advice to
management.
2. Self-managed teams have the greatest degree of autonomy, as they
generally take on supervisory responsibilities. Self-managed teams are
generally granted responsibility over their schedules, meeting times, task
assignments, and processes.
3. Cross-functional teams are intentionally composed of employees at
about the same hierarchical level but from different functional areas of the
organization. Generally, cross-functional teams are created to coordinate
complex projects or accomplish a specific task that requires one or more
areas of expertise.
4. Virtual teams are composed of geographically and/or organizationally
dispersed employees who use technology to meet and accomplish
assigned tasks. Virtual team members collaborate online and rarely meet
face-to-face.
Designing Work Teams
Team member composition, the process
of selecting the right people for the team,
is an essential factor for creating well- 1. Team Norms
functioning and high performing teams 2. Team Cohesiveness
3. Team Roles
Despite the different characteristics used 4. Team Size
to describe team composition, a set of
common set of components are 5. Group diversity
recognized as critical in designing
effective work teams.
Team Roles According to Strengths
People
• Resource Investigator: A strong communicator who can gather information and resources
and negotiate with external parties.
• Team Worker: A popular team member. They provide support and encouragement to other
team members.
• Coordinator: A calm, positive, and charismatic member of the team. They tend to be
mature, confident and good team leaders.
Action/Task
• Shaper: An outgoing member of the team. They love embracing challenges and thrive on
pressure.
• Implementer: A “let’s get it done” member of the team. They are disciplined, reliable,
conservative, conscientious, and efficient.
• Completer-Finisher: A task focused member of the team. They are painstaking with detail,
perfectionist, and conscientious.
Thinking
• Plant: An intellectual and individualistic team member. They tend to be creative, imaginative,
innovative, and unorthodox.
• Specialist: The expert. They tend to be single-minded, self-starting, professional, and
dedicated.
• Monitor-Evaluator: The clever and unemotional team member. They tend to be sober, and
strategic.
Stages of Team Development
1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing
5. Adjourning