1 Chapter 11
7
Teams and Teamwork
● Identify the ways teams
contribute to organizations.
Planning Ahead ● Explain current trends in the
use of teams in
- Key organizations.
● Describe the key processes
Takeaways through which teams work.
● Discuss the advantages
and disadvantages of team
decision making.
1. Teams in Organizations
a) Teamwork pros
b) Teamwork cons
Chapter 11 c) Meetings, meetings,
meetings
Outline d) Organizations as
networks of groups
2. Trends in the Use of Teams
a) Committees, project
teams, and task forces
b) Cross-functional teams
c) Self-managing teams
d) Virtual teams
e) Team building
3. How Teams Work
a) Team inputs
b) Stages of team development
c) Norms and cohesiveness
Chapter 11 d) Task and maintenance roles
Outline 4.
e) Communication networks
Decision Making in Teams
a) Ways teams make decisions
b) Advantages and
disadvantages of team
decisions
c) Groupthink
d) Creative team decision
making
● Team
○ A small group of people
Teams in with complementary skills
who interact and work with
Organizations one another to achieve
shared goals
● Teamwork
○ The process of people
actively working together
to accomplish common
goals
Team and teamwork roles for
managers:
○ Team leader— serving as
the appointed head of a
Teams in team or work unit
○ Network facilitator —
Organizations serving as a peer leader an
network hub for a special
task force
○ Team member — serving as
a helpful contributing
member of a project team
○ Coach or team developer —
serving as a team’s advisor
on ways to improve
processes and performance
Teams in Organizations
Synergy
○ The creation of a whole
Teams in that is greater than the
sum of its individual parts
Organizations ○ A team uses its
membership resources to
the fullest and thereby
achieves through
collective action far more
than could be achieved
otherwise
Teams in Organizations
Common problems in teams:
○ Personality conflicts
Teams in ○ Individual differences in
work styles
Organizations ○ Ambiguous agendas
○ Ill-defined problems
○ Social loafing: tendency of
some people to avoid
responsibility by “free-
riding” in groups
Teams in Organizations
Formal groups
○ Officially recognized and
Teams in supported by the
organization
Organizations ○ Specifically created to
perform essential tasks
○ Managers and leaders
serve “linking pin” roles
Informal groups
○ Not recognized on
organization charts
○ Not officially created for an
Teams in organizational purpose
○ Emerge as part of the
Organizations informal structure and from
natural or spontaneous
relationships among people
○ Include interest, friendship,
and support groups
○ Can have positive
performance impact
○ Can help satisfy social
needs
Committees, project teams, and task
forces:
○ Committees
■ People outside their daily job
Trends in the assignments work together in a
small team for a specific
Use of Teams
purpose
■ Task agenda is narrow,
focused, and ongoing
○ Projects teams or task forces
■ People from various parts of
an organization work together
on common problems, but on a
temporary basis
■ Official tasks are very specific
and time defined
■ Disbands after task is
completed
Cross-functional teams
○ Members come from
Trends in the different functional units of
an organization
Use of Teams ○ Teams are created to
knock down “walls”
separating departments
○ Functional chimneys
problem – a lack of
communication across
functions
Self-managing teams
○ Have the authority to
Trends in the make decisions about how
they share and complete
Use of Teams their work
○ Key feature is multitasking
with an emphasis on
participation
Trends in the Use of Teams
Characteristics of self-managing teams:
Figure 17.1 Organizational and management
implications of self-managing work teams
Virtual (distributed) teams
○ Teams of people who
Trends in the work together and solve
problems through largely
Use of Teams computer-mediated rather
than face-to-face
interactions
Potential advantages of virtual
teams:
Trends in the ● Savings in time and travel
expenses
Use of Teams ● Minimization or elimination of
interpersonal difficulties
● Ease of expansion
Potential problems of virtual
teams:
● Difficulty in establishing good
working relationships
● Depersonalization of working
relationships
Trends in the Use of Teams
Guidelines for managing virtual teams
● Select team members high in initiative and capable of self-starting.
● Select members who will join and engage the team with positive attitudes.
● Select members known for working hard to meet team goals.
● Begin with social messaging that allows members to exchange information
about each other to personalize the process.
● Assign clear goals and roles so that members can focus while working
alone and also know what others are doing.
● Gather regular feedback from members about how they think the team is
doing and how it might work more effectively.
● Provide regular feedback to team members about team accomplishments.
Team Building
○ Activities that analyze
Trends in the teams and make changes
to improve performance
Use of Teams ○ May include meetings,
games and outdoor
activities
Trends in the Use of Teams
Effective Teams
○ Perform tasks
How Teams ○ Satisfy members
○ Remain viable for the
Work future
Figure 17.2 An open-systems model of team
effectiveness
How Teams Work
Team effectiveness may be summarized as
Process
Team
Quality of gains –
effectivene
inputs Process
ss
losses
Team diversity:
○ A variety of values,
How Teams personalities, experiences,
demographics, and cultures
Work among members
○ Greater variety of available
ideas, perspectives, and
experiences
○ As team diversity
increases, complexity of
interpersonal relationships
also increases
Team input factors that
influence group process in the
How Teams pursuit of team effectiveness:
○ Membership
Work characteristics
○ Resources and setting
○ Nature of the task
○ Team size
Stages of team development:
○ Forming
■ initial orientation and
interpersonal testing
How Teams ○ Storming
■ conflict over tasks and
Work ways of working as a team
○ Norming
■ consolidation around task
and operating agendas
○ Performing
■ teamwork and focused task
performance
○ Adjourning
■ task accomplishment and
eventual disengagement
Figure 17.3 Criteria for assessing the
maturity of a team
● Norms
○ Behavior expected of
How Teams team members
○ Rules or standards that
Work guide behavior
○ May result in team
sanctions
● Cohesiveness
○ Degree that members are
attracted to and motivated
to remain part of the team
○ Desire to conform to
norms
How Teams Work
Guidelines for building positive norms
● Act as a positive role model
● Reinforce the desired behaviors with rewards
● Control results by performance reviews and regular feedback
● Orient and train new members to adopt desired behaviors
● Recruit and select new members who exhibit desired behaviors
● Hold regular meetings to discuss progress and ways of improving
● Use team decision-making methods to reach agreement
Figure 17.4 How cohesiveness and norms
influence team performance
Guidelines for increasing team
cohesion:
○ Create agreement on team
goals
How Teams ○ Reward team rather than
Work individual results
○ Increase membership
homogeneity
○ Increase interactions among
members
○ Decrease team size
○ Introduce competition with
other teams
○ Provide physical isolation
from other teams
Task activities
○ Actions by team
How Teams members that contribute
directly to team’s
Work performance purpose
○ Include:
■ Initiating
■ Information sharing
■ Summarizing
■ Elaborating
■ Opinion giving
Maintenance activities
○ Support emotional life of a
How Teams team as an ongoing social
system
Work ○ Include:
■ Gatekeeping
■ Encouraging
■ Following
■ Harmonizing
■ Reducing tension
Distributed leadership roles …
○ Make every member
responsible for recognizing
when task and/or
How Teams maintenance activities are
needed and taking actions to
Work provide them
○ Leading through task
activities focuses on solving
problems and achieving
performance results
○ Leading through maintenance
activities helps strengthen
and perpetuate the team as a
social system
17.5 Distributed leadership helps teams meet
task and maintenance needs
Disruptive activities that detract
from team effectiveness:
How Teams ○ Being aggressive
○ Blocking
Work ○ Self-confessing
○ Seeking sympathy
○ Competing
○ Withdrawal
○ Horsing around
○ Seeking recognition
Communication networks
○ Decentralized
■ All members
communicate directly
How Teams with one another
○ Centralized
Work ■ Activities are
coordinated and results
pooled by central point
of control
○ Restricted
■ Polarized subgroups
contest one another
■ Subgroups may engage
in antagonistic relations
Figure 17.6 Interaction patterns and
communication networks in teams
Methods of team decision
making:
Decision ○ Lack of response
○ Authority rule
Making in ○ Minority rule
Teams ○ Majority rule
○ Consensus
○ Unanimity
Advantages of team decision making:
● Greater amounts of information,
knowledge, and expertise
Decision ● Expands number of action
alternatives considered
Making in ● Increases understanding and
acceptance
Teams ● Increases commitment to follow
through
Disadvantages of team decision
making:
● Social pressure to conform
● Individual or minority group
domination
● Time requirements
Symptoms of groupthink:
○ Illusions of invulnerability
○ Rationalizing unpleasant
and disconfirming data
Decision ○ Belief in inherent group
morality
Making in ○ Stereotyping competitors as
Teams weak, evil, and stupid
○ Applying direct pressure to
deviants to conform to
group wishes
○ Self-censorship of members
○ Illusions of unanimity
○ Mind guarding
Decision Making in Teams
Creativity in team decision
making
○ Brainstorming
■ Open and spontaneous
Decision discussion of problems
and ideas
Making in ■ Guidelines
Teams ● Go for quantity of ideas
● Don’t criticize each
other
● Welcome
“freewheeling”
● Build on the ideas of
others
Creativity in team decision
making (cont’d)
Decision ○ Nominal Group technique
■ Meeting agenda
Making in structured to allow
participation of all group
Teams members
■ Individual contributions
are brought to the group
for discussion