Team ... a helpful contributing member of a project team. .

1
Chapter 16

• Teams and Teamwork

2
Planning Ahead Chapter 16

• How do teams contribute to organizations?
• What are the current trends in the use of teams?
• How do teams work?
• How do teams make decisions?
• What are the challenges of leading
  high-performance teams?

3
Teams in Organizations

• Team
• A small group of people with complementary
  skills, who work together to achieve a shared
  purpose and hold themselves mutually accountable
  for performance results.
• Teamwork
• The process of people actively
• working together to accomplish
• common goals

4
Team Teamwork Roles for Managers

• Supervisor serving as the appointed head of a
  formal work unit.
  
• Network facilitator serving as a peer leader an
  network hub for a special task force.
  
• Participant serving as a helpful contributing
  member of a project team.
  
• External coach serving as the external convenor
  or sponsor of a problem-solving team staffed by
  others.

5
Usefulness of Teams

• More resources for problem solving.
• Improved creativity and innovation.
• Improved quality of decision making.
• Greater commitments to tasks.
• Higher motivation through collective action.
• Better control and work discipline.
• More individual need satisfaction.

6
Formal Groups

• Teams that are officially recognized and
  supported by the organization for specific
  purposes.
  
• Specifically created to perform
• essential tasks.
• Managers and leaders serve linking pin roles.

7
Informal Groups

• Not recognized on organization charts.
• Not officially created for an organizational
  purpose.
  
• Emerge as part of the 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.

8
Trends in the Use of Teams

• Committees, project teams, and task forces
• Committees.
• People outside their daily job assignments work
  together in a small team for a specific 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.

9
Guidelines for Managing Projects and Task Forces

• Select appropriate team members.
• Clearly define the purpose of the team.
• Carefully select a team leader.
• Periodically review progress.

10
Trends in the Use of Teams

• Cross-functional teams
• Members come from different functional units of
  an organization.
  
• Team works on a specific problem or task with the
  needs of the whole organization in mind.
  
• Teams are created to knock down walls
  separating departments.
  

11
Trends in the Use of Teams

• Employee involvement teams
• Groups of workers who meet on a regular basis
  outside of their formal assignments.
  
• Have the goal of applying their expertise and
  attention to continuous improvement.
  
• Quality circles represent a common form of
  employee involvement teams.

12
Trends in the Use of Teams

• Virtual teams
• Teams of people who work together and solve
  problems through largely computer-mediated rather
  than face-to-face interactions.
  
• Sometimes called
• Computer-mediated groups
• Electronic group networks

13
Trends in the Use of Teams

• Self-managing work teams
• Teams of workers whose jobs have been redesigned
  to create a high degree of task interdependence
  and who have been given authority to make many
  decisions about how to do the required work.
• Also known as autonomous work groups.

14
Self-Managing Teams

• Typical self-management responsibilities
• Planning and scheduling work.
• Training members in various tasks.
• Sharing tasks.
• Meeting performance goals.
• Ensuring high quality.
• Solving day-to-day operating problems.
• In some cases, hiring and firing team members.

15
Teams as Open Systems
Key Inputs Members Size Goals

Resources
Key Processes Communication Decision making
Norms
Cohesion
Key Outputs Task Performance Member Satisfacti
on
Team Viability
Improve processes
Adjust inputs
Possible changes to increase effectiveness.
16
Team Key Inputs

• Resource input factors that influence group
  process in the pursuit of team effectiveness
  
• Nature of the task.
• Organizational setting.
• Team size.
• Membership characteristics.

17
Team Key Processes

• Group process
• The way the members of any team work together as
  they transform inputs into outputs
  
• Also known as group dynamics.
• Includes communications, decision making, norms,
  cohesion, and conflict, among others.

18
Team Key Outputs

• Effective teams
• Achieve and maintain high levels of task
  performance.
  
• Achieve and maintain high levels of member
  satisfaction.
  
• Retain viability for the future.

19
Teams as Open Systems
Key Inputs Members Size Goals

Resources
Key Processes Communication Decision making
Norms
Cohesion
Key Outputs Task Performance Member Satisfacti
on
Team Viability
Improve processes
Adjust inputs
Possible changes to increase effectiveness.
20
Stages of Team Development

• Forming initial orientation and interpersonal
  testing.
  
• Storming conflict over tasks and 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.

21
How do Teams Work?

• Norms
• Behavior expected of team members.
• Rules or standards that guide behavior.
• May result in team sanctions.
• Performance norms
• Define the level of work effort and performance
  that team members are expected to contribute to
  the team task.

22
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.

23
How do Teams Work?

• Cohesiveness
• The degree to which members are attracted to and
  motivated to remain part of a team.
  
• Can be beneficial if paired with positive
  performance norms.

24
Guidelines for Increasing Team Cohesion

• Induce agreement on team goals.
• Increase membership homogeneity.
• Increase interaction among members.
• Decrease team size.
• Introduce competition with other teams.
• Reward team rather than individual results.
• Provide physical isolation from other teams.

25
The Team Building Process

• Team building
• A sequence of planned
• activities used to gather
• and analyze data on the
• functioning of a team and
• to implement constructive
• changes to increase its operating effectiveness.

26
The Team Building Process

• Steps in a cyclical team-building process
• Step 1 problem awareness.
• Step 2 data gathering.
• Step 3 data analysis and diagnosis.
• Step 4 action planning.
• Step 5 action implementation.
• Step 6 evaluation.

27
Team Decision Making

• Assets of team decision making
• Greater amounts of information, knowledge, and
  expertise.
  
• Expands number of action alternatives
  considered.
  
• Increases understanding and acceptance.
• Increases commitment to follow through.

28
Team Decision Making

• Potential disadvantages of team decision making
• Social pressure to conform.
• Individual or minority group domination.
• Time requirements.

29
Team Decision Making

• Creativity in team decision making guidelines
  for brainstorming
  
• All criticism is ruled out.
• Freewheeling is welcomed.
• Quantity is important.
• Building on one anothers ideas is encouraged.

30
Getting to Team Effectiveness


INPUTS SUPPORT
INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS
NORMS PROCESSES
ROLES CONTRIBUTIONS
GOALS
VISION
31
Getting to Team Effectiveness
What do we have to work with?
What do we need to get the job done?

INPUTS SUPPORT
GOALS
VISION
What do we want to achieve? How will we know wh
en we get there?
Why are we doing this?
32
Getting to Team Effectiveness

How well do we and can we get along?
INPUTS SUPPORT
INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS
GOALS
VISION
33
Getting to Team Effectiveness


INPUTS SUPPORT
INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS
NORMS PROCESSES
VISION
GOALS
What rules govern the team? How do we communica
te, make decisions, etc.?

34
Getting to Team Effectiveness


INPUTS SUPPORT
NORMS PROCESSES
INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS
ROLES CONTRIBUTIONS
GOALS
VISION
Who is best at what? Who leads, and when? Who
does what, when and why?
35
Getting to Team Effectiveness


INPUTS SUPPORT
INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS
NORMS PROCESSES
ROLES CONTRIBUTIONS
VISION
GOALS
Purpose served
Specific Challenging Measurable
Diversity Values Styles
Meetings Decisions Rules
Doing Helping Leading
Talents Resources Task
36
Chapter 16 Review

• How do teams contribute to organizations?
• What are the current trends in the use of teams?
• How do teams work?
• How do teams make decisions?
• What are the challenges of leading
  high-performance teams?