Organizational Behavior: An Experiential Approach 8/E

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Chapter 10 Group Dynamics and Work Teams
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Objectives

• List the benefits and liabilities of teams
• Identify what requirements must be in place to
  set the stage for successful work teams
• Describe two models of group development

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Objectives

• Distinguish between group content and group
  process
• Explain and diagnose group process behaviors that
  either help or hinder group effectiveness
• Describe and recognize task and maintenance
  behaviors

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Benefits and Liabilities of Teams

• Benefits of Teams
• Faster decisions
• More accurate decisions
• Large tasks handled
• Greater understanding of decisions
• Greater commitment to decisions

• Liabilities of Teams
• Greater costs
• Slower decisions
• Less accurate decisions
• Damaged relationships
• More extreme decisions

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Defining Team Effectiveness

• Components of Team Effectiveness
• Output
• Quantity, quality and timeliness of the
  productive output of the team
• Social Processes
• Capability of members to work interdependently
• Learning
• Knowledge and well-being of members

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Managers Responsibilities in Creating Effective
Work Teams
Use of Team
Manager
Team Context
Team Members
Task
Process
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When Should Teams Be Used to Make Decisions?

• Task Characteristics
• Complex
• Large
• Requires inputs from multiple sources
• Uncertain
• Member Characteristics
• Task and interaction skills
• Motivated and willing to work on the task
• Trusted to work toward organizational goals
• Team Characteristics
• Resources to complete task
• Responsibility and authority to complete the task

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Managing the Team Context

• Secure resources
• Manage teams reputation
• Coordinate with other organizational units

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Managing the Team Context

• External Roles
• Ambassador
• Manage upward relationships
• Market the team
• Lobby for resources
• Scout
• Gather information
• Manage lateral and downward information searches
• Task Coordinator
• Manage interdependencies with other units
• Coordinate deadlines
• Obtain feedback on how team is doing

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Managing Team Members

• Three factors need to be managed
• Member Skills
• Member Motivation
• Member Composition and Diversity

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Managing Team Members Member Skills

• Members need the following skills
• Collaborative problem solving
• Conflict resolution
• Communication
• Goal setting and performance management
• Planning and coordination

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Managing Team Members - Motivation

• Member Motivation
• Minimize social loafing
• Establish the proper level and type of rewards

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Managing Team Members - Motivation

• Manage social loafing
• Social loafing the tendency for individuals to
  exert less effort when working in a group
• Minimize social loafing by
• Make contributions identifiable
• Design tasks so they are intrinsically motivating
• Assign responsibility and make it public
• Have the team set its own goals
• Reinforce the teams social identity

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Managing Team Members - Motivation

• Design effective reward systems
• Balance team and individual rewards
• Use individual rewards when the task requires
  individual contributions
• Use team rewards when a group output is needed

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Managing Team Members Composition and Diversity

• Groups that incorporate multiple viewpoints and
  perspectives are more effective

• Establish a balance of heterogeneous
  members who share group goals with
• Task and interpersonal skill diversity
• Demographic diversity

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Managing the Team Process and Task

• Two factors need to be managed
• Stages of group development
• Task and interaction requirements of each stage

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Managing the Team Process and Task Group
Development
Adjourning
Tuckmans Model of Group Development
Performing
Norming
Storming
Forming
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Managing the Team Process and Task Group
Development

• Punctuated Equilibrium Model
• Periods of inertia or equilibrium punctuated by a
  transitional period of radical change that occurs
  at the midpoint of the groups calendar life,
  regardless of variations in duration
• Productivity accelerates again right before the
  groups time is completed

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Punctuated Equilibrium Model
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Managing the Team Process and Task Content Vs.
Process
Refers to WHAT the group is working on
Refers to HOW the group is functioning
Process
Content
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How Can Groups Be Effective?

• Need both maintenance and task behaviors
• Groups that emphasize content and ignore their
• process are just as likely to fail as groups
  that
• emphasize process at the cost of task

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Managing the Team Process and Task Task Process

• Task process focuses on how groups accomplish
  their work
• Set agendas
• Figure out time frames
• Generate ideas
• Choose techniques for making decisions and
  solving problems
• Test agreement

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Managing the Team Process and Task Task
Behaviors

• Task behaviors contribute to accomplishing the
  group task or goal
• Initiating
• Seeking or giving information or opinions
• Clarifying and elaborating
• Summarizing
• Consensus testing
• Orienting

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Managing the Team Process and Task Making
Effective Decisions

• Goal is to lengthen the solution evaluation
  phase of group decision making by using
• Structured discussion principles
• Guidelines emphasize solution generation and
  analysis
• Second solutions
• Team must generate at least 2 solutions
• Procedures for generating multiple perspectives
• Adopt perspectives of other stakeholders
• Use the two-column method
• Appoint a devils advocate

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Managing the Team Process and Task Building
Cohesion

• Cohesion is the degree to which members want to
  be a part of the group
• Cohesive groups are better at achieving their
  goals (positive or negative) than noncohesive
  groups

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Managing the Team Process and Task Building
Cohesion

• Cohesion can be increased by
• Small group size
• Group success
• Common threat
• Exclusivity
• Perceived similarity among members
• Intergroup competition

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Managing the Team Process and Task Maintenance
Process

• How do groups function to meet members
  psychological and relationship needs?
• Leadership
• Membership
• Norms
• Communication
• Influence
• Conflict management

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Managing the Team Process and Task Maintenance
Behaviors

• Creating a good climate for work and
• relationships that permit maximum use of
• member resources
• Gate-keeping
• Encouraging
• Harmonizing and compromising
• Standard setting and testing
• Using humor

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Managing the Team Process and Task -
Self-Oriented Emotional Behavior

• Such behavior interferes with effective group
  functioning
• Issues that occur and reoccur at various points
  in a groups development
• Identity
• Control and power
• Goals
• Acceptance and intimacy

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Styles of Reducing Tension and Expressing Emotion
Pure Types
Friendly Helper (tender emotions)
Tough Battler (tough emotions)
Logical Thinker (denial of all emotions)
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Effectively Using Our Emotional Resources

• Accept our personal feelings
• Understand feelings in a group
• Identify what triggers emotion
• Express emotion differently and ask for feedback

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Group Norms - Defined

• A norm is an unwritten, often implicit, rule that
  defines the
• attitudes and behaviors characterize a good
  versus a bad group member
• OR
• group members acceptable behavior, attitudes,
  and feelings

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Transition from Group to Team
Team
Practice and Effort
Group
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Teambuilding

• Teambuilding efforts encourage team members to
• Establish goals and priorities
• Define team member roles
• Examine and determine team task and
  decision-making procedures
• Examine and determine team interpersonal
  relationships and norms

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Types 0f Organizational Teams

• Self-managed teams - Members determine how the
  team will accomplish goals and work process(es)
• Virtual teams - Geographically dispersed members
  work across time, space and organizational
  boundaries
• Multicultural teams - Members of different ethnic
  backgrounds who share same nationality
• Multinational teams - Members of different
  nationalities