McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, All Rights Reserved.

Chapter Thirteen

Groups & Teams

Increasing Cooperation, Reducing

Conflict

13 - 2

Groups & Teams

• Group

two or more freely acting individuals who

share collective norms, collective goals,

and have a common identity

13 - 3

Groups & Teams

• Team

small group of people with complementary

skills who are committed to a common

purpose, performance goals, and

approach for which they hold themselves

mutually accountable

13 - 4

Stages of Group and Team Development

Figure 13.1

13 - 5

Size: Small Teams or Large Teams?

• Small teams: 2-9 members

better interaction

better morale

• Disadvantages

Fewer resources

Possibly less innovation

Unfair work distribution

13 - 6

Size: Small Teams or Large Teams?

• Large Teams: 10-16 members

More resources

Division of labor

• Disadvantages

Less interaction

Lower morale

Social loafing

• Social loafing – tendency of people to exert less effort

when working in groups than when working alone

13 - 7

Roles & Norms

• Roles

a socially determined expectation of how

an individual should behave in a specific

position

• Task roles, maintenance roles

• Norms

general guidelines that most group or team

members follow

13 - 8

Cohesiveness & Groupthink

• Cohesiveness

tendency of a group or team to stick

together

• Groupthink

a cohesive group’s blind unwillingness to

consider alternatives

13 - 9

Ways to Build Collaborative Teams

• Investing in signature relationship practices

• Modeling collaborative practices

• Creating a “gift culture”

• Ensuring the requisite skills

• Supporting a strong sense of community

• Assigning team leaders that are both task

and relationship oriented

• Building on heritage relationships

• Understanding role clarity and task ambiguity

13 - 10

Symptoms of Groupthink

• Invulnerability, inherent morality, and

stereotyping of opposition

• Rationalization and self-censorship

• Illusion of unanimity, peer pressure, and

mindguards

• Groupthink versus “the wisdom of the

crowds”

13 - 11

The Nature of Conflict

• Conflict

process in which one party perceives that

its interests are being opposed or

negatively affected by another party

13 - 12

Relationship Between Level of Conflict and Level of Performance

Figure 13.2

13 - 13

Seven Causes of Conflict

1. Competition for scarce resources

2. Time pressure

3. Inconsistent goals or reward systems

4. Ambiguous jurisdictions

5. Status differences

6. Personality clashes

7. Communication failures

13 - 14

Five Conflict-Handling Styles

• Avoiding - “Maybe the problem will go away”

• Accommodating – “Let’s do it your way”

• Forcing – “You have to do it my way”

• Compromising – “Let’s split the difference”

• Collaborating – “Let’s cooperate to reach a

win-win solution that benefits both of us”

13 - 15

Devices to Stimulate Constructive Conflict

1. Spur competition among employees

2. Change the organization’s culture &

procedures

3. Bring in outsiders for new perspectives

4. Use programmed conflict

13 - 16

REVISION• 1. (p. 407) Fifteen employees from the

Springfield plant are meeting with Human Resources staff to learn about new benefits. This is an example of team commitment.

FALSE

• These employees are a group-two or more freely interacting individuals who share collective norms, share collective goals (meeting with HR to learn about benefits), and have a common identity (employees from the Springfield plant).

13 - 17

• 2. (p. 412) A leader can help ease the

transition of a group after adjourning by

rituals celebrating "the end" and "new

beginnings.“

TRUE

• Parties, award ceremonies, graduations,

or mock funerals can provide the needed

punctuation at the end of a significant

teamwork project.

13 - 18

• 3. (p. 416) Norms are seldom discussed openly, and have a powerful influence on group and organizational behavior.

TRUE

• Norms point up the boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Although norms are typically unwritten and seldom discussed openly, they have a powerful influence on group and organizational behavior.

13 - 19

• 4. (p. 425) The conflict-handling style of accommodating is appropriate for complex or worsening problems.

FALSE

• Accommodating is allowing the desires of the other party to prevail. This may be an appropriate strategy when it's possible to get something in return or when the issue isn't important to you. It's not appropriate for complex or worsening problems.

13 - 20

• 5. (p. 425) The weakness of the

"collaborating" conflict-handling technique

is that it provides only a temporary fix and

does not deal with the underlying

problem.

FALSE

• The strength of collaborating is its longer-

lasting impact because it deals with the

underlying problem, not just its symptoms.

13 - 21