Chapter 8

TeamDynamics

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Teamwork at Reckitt Benckiser

From self-led production teams in the UK to volunteering and extreme hiking team-building activities in Brazil (as shown in this photo), household products manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser thrives on a team spirit.

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What are Teams?

Groups of two or more people Exist to fulfill a purpose Interdependent -- interact and influence each other Mutually accountable for achieving common goals Perceive themselves as a social entity

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Many Types of Teams

• Departmental teams

• Production/service/ leadership teams

• Self-directed teams

• Advisory teams

• Task force (project) teams

• Skunkworks

• Virtual teams

• Communities of practice

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Informal Groups

Groups that exist primarily for the benefit of their members

Reasons why informal groups exist:1. Innate drive to bond

2. Social identity -- we define ourselves by group memberships

3. Goal accomplishment

4. Emotional support

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Advantages/Disadvantages of Teams

Advantages1. Make better decisions, products/services

2. Better information sharing

3. Increase employee motivation/engagement- Fulfills drive to bond- Accountable to team members, who monitor performance- Team members are benchmarks of comparison

Disadvantages1. Individuals better/faster on some tasks

2. Process losses

3. Social loafing

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How to Minimize Social Loafing

Make individual performance more visible• Form smaller teams• Specialize tasks• Measure individual performance

Increase employee motivation• Increase job enrichment• Select motivated employees

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Team Effectiveness Model

• Task characteristics

• Team size

• Team composition

Team Design

• Accomplish tasks

• Satisfy member needs

• Maintain team survival

TeamEffectiveness

• Team development

• Team norms

• Team cohesiveness

• Team trust

Team Processes

•Rewards

•Communication

•Org structure

•Org leadership

•Physical space

Organizational and Team Environment

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PSA Peugeot Citroën’s Team Space

PSA Peugeot Citroen, Europe’s

second largest automaker, set

up an “obeya room” (shown

here) to speed up team decision

making. The room, which is

plastered with charts and notes

on key issues, creates a unique

team environment that

encourages face-to-face

interaction to quickly resolve

those issues.

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Organization/Team Environment

Reward systems

Communication systems

Organizational structure

Organizational leadership

Physical space

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Team’s Task Characteristics

Teams are better at tasks that:• are sufficiently complex (require teamwork)• can be divided into more specialized roles

requiring frequent coordination • are well-structured (easier to coordinate)

Teams preferred with higher task interdependence• Extent that employees need to share materials,

information, or expertise to perform their jobs.

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Levels of Task Interdependence

Sequential

Pooled

Reciprocal

Resource

A B C

A B C

A

B C

High

Low

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Team Size

Smaller teams are better because:• need less time to coordinate roles and resolve

differences• require less time to develop• more member involvement, thus higher

commitment

But team must be large enough to accomplish task

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Team Composition

Effective team members must be willing and able to work on the team

Effective team members possess specific competencies(5 C’s in diagram)

Coordinating•Align work with others

•Keep team on track

Communicating•Share information freely, efficiently, respectfully

•Listen actively

ConflictResolving

•Diagnose conflict sources

•Use best conflict-handling strategy

Comforting•Show empathy•Provide psych comfort

•Build confidence

Team Member Competencies

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Team Composition: Diversity

Team members have diverse knowledge, skills, perspectives, values, etc.

Advantages• view problems/alternatives from different perspectives • broader knowledge base• better representation of team’s constituents

Disadvantages• take longer to become a high-performing team• more susceptible to “faultlines” • increased risk of dysfunctional conflict

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Existing teams might regress back to an earlier stage of development

Forming

Storming

Norming

Performing

Adjourning

Stages of Team Development

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Team Development asMembership and Competence

Two central processes in team development

1. Team membership formation • Transition from “them” to “us”• Team becomes part of person’s social identity

2. Team competence development• Forming routines with others• Forming shared mental models

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Team Roles

A set of behaviors that people are expected to perform

Some formally assigned; others informally

Informal role assignment occurs during team development and is related to personal characteristics

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Team Building

Formal activities intended to improve the team’s development and functioning

Types of team building• Clarify team’s performance goals• Improve team’s problem-solving

skills• Improve role definitions• Improve relations

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Team Norms

Informal rules and shared expectations team establishes to regulate member behaviors

Norms develop through:• Initial team experiences • Critical events in team’s history • Experience/values members bring to the team

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Preventing/Changing Dysfunctional Team Norms

State desired norms when forming teams

Select members with preferred values

Discuss counter-productive norms

Introduce team-based rewards that counter dysfunctional norms

Disband teams with dysfunctional norms

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Team Cohesion

• The degree of attraction people feel toward the team and their motivation to remain members

• Both cognitive and emotional process

• Related to the team member’s social identity

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Teamsize

Memberinteraction

• Smaller teams tend to be more cohesive

• Regular interaction increases cohesion• Calls for tasks with high interdependence

Membersimilarity

• Similarity-attraction effect• Some forms of diversity have less effect

Influences on Team Cohesion

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Teamsuccess

External challenges

• Successful teams fulfill member needs• Success increases social identity with team

• Challenges increase cohesion when not overwhelming

Somewhat difficult entry

• Team eliteness increases cohesion• But lower cohesion with severe initiation

Influences on Team Cohesion (con’t)

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Team Cohesion Outcomes

1. Motivated to remain members

2. Willing to share information

3. Better social support

4. Resolve conflict effectively

5. Better interpersonal relationships

6. Better performance But only if norms are aligned with org goals Also, effect of performance on cohesion might be

stronger than vice versa

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Team Norms Support

CompanyGoals

Team Norms Oppose

CompanyGoals

High Team Cohesion

Low Team Cohesion

Team Cohesion and Performance

Low taskperformance

Moderatelyhigh task

performance

Moderatelylow task

performance

High taskperformance

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Trust in Teams

Positive expectations one person has of another person in situations involving risk

Three levels of trust

Swift trust• New team members tend to have moderate or

higher trust in co-workers• Trust is fragile in new relationships – based on

assumptions, not experience – so easily broken

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Three Levels of Trust

Identification-based Trust

Knowledge-based Trust

Calculus-based Trust

High

Low

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Self-Directed Teams at Whole Foods Markets

Whole Foods Markets organizes employees around self-directed teams, responsible for a particular store area. These teams have considerable autonomy to operate their store section.

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Self-Directed Teams Defined

Cross-functional groups organized around work processes, that complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks, and that have substantial autonomy over the execution of those tasks.

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Self-Directed Team Success Factors

Responsible for entire work process

High interdependence within the team

Low interdependence with other teams

Autonomy to organize and coordinate work

Work site and technology support team communication/coordination

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Virtual Teams

Teams whose members operate across space, time, and organizational boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organizational tasks

• Increasingly possible because of:- Information technologies- Knowledge-based work

• Increasingly necessary because of:- Organizational learning- Globalization

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Virtual Team Success Factors

Member characteristics• Communication technology skills• Self-leadership skills• Emotional intelligence

Flexible use of communication technologies

Fairly high task structure

Opportunities to meet face-to-face

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Team Decision Making Constraints

Time constraints• Time to organize/coordinate• Production blocking

Evaluation apprehension• Belief that others are silently evaluating you

Peer pressure to conform• Suppressing opinions that oppose team norms

Groupthink• Tendency in highly cohesive teams to value consensus

at the price of decision quality• Concept losing favor – study specific elements

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General Guidelines forTeam Decisions

1. Team norms should encourage critical thinking

2. Sufficient team diversity

3. Ensure neither leader nor any member dominates

4. Maintain optimal team size

5. Introduce effective team structures

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Constructive Conflict

People focus their discussion on the issue while maintaining respectfulness for others having different points of view.

Problem: constructive conflict easily slides into personal attacks

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Brainstorming

Team structure in which participants try to think up as many ideas as possible.

Four specific rules to follow• Speak freely• Don’t criticize• Provide as many ideas as possible• Build on others’ ideas

Dismissed by research, but embraced by some of the world’s most creative firms• Reason: Brainstorming works under specific conditions

but lab studies haven’t replicated those conditions

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Evaluating Brainstorming

Strengths• Produces more creative ideas (under some conditions)• Less evaluation apprehension when team supports a

learning orientation• Strengthens decision acceptance and team

cohesiveness• Sharing positive emotions encourages creativity

Weaknesses• Production blocking still exists• Evaluation apprehension exists in many groups

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Electronic Brainstorming

Relies on networked computers to submit and share creative ideas

Strengths -- more creative ideas, minimal production blocking, evaluation apprehension, or conformity problems

Limitations -- too structured and technology-bound

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Describeproblem

IndividualActivity

TeamActivity

IndividualActivity

Write downpossiblesolutions

Possiblesolutionsdescribedto others

Vote onsolutionspresented

Nominal Group Technique

Chapter 8

TeamDynamics