Schermerhorn - Chapter 131 Chapter 13 Teams and Teamwork 4 Planning Ahead –How do teams help...

Schermerhorn - Chapter 13 1

Chapter 13Teams and Teamwork

Planning Ahead– How do teams help organizations?– How do teams work?– How do teams make decisions?– How can leaders build high-performance

teams?


Teams in Organizations

A team is a small group of people with complimentary skills who work together to achieve a common purpose and hold themselves mutually accountable for its accomplishment



Teamwork is the process of people working together in teams to accomplish common goals



Synergy– means that a team is using its

membership resources to the fullest and is achieving more as a unit than could otherwise be achieved



Usefulness of Teams– increasing resources for problem solving– fostering creativity and innovation– improving quality of decision making– enhancing members’ commitments to tasks– raising motivation through collective action– helping control and discipline members



What can go wrong in teams?– social loafing– personality conflicts– task ambiguity– poor readiness to work– poor teamwork



Committees– usually operate with an ongoing purpose– membership may change over time



Task Force– usually operates on more temporary basis– tasks very specific and time defined– often disbands after task is completed– creativity and innovation are very important

processes



Cross-Functional Teams– Members come from different functional units

and parts of an organization.– Teams are created to knock down “walls”

separating departments.– Team works on a specific problem or task with

the needs of the whole organization in mind.



Employee Involvement Teams– Groups of workers who meet on a regular basis

outside of the formal assignments.– Have the goal of applying their expertise and

attention to important workplace matters.– Quality circles represent a common form of

employee involvement teams.


•Teams in Organizations

Virtual Teams – employees who work together and solve

problems through largely computer-mediated interactions

• local area networks

• wide area networks

• intranets

• electronic meeting rooms


•Teams in Organizations

Self-Managing Work Teams– 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 they go about doing the required work



In Self-Managing Work Teams, Members– are held collectively accountable for performance

results

– have discretion in distributing tasks

– have discretion in scheduling work

– are able to perform multiple tasks

– evaluate one another’s performance contributions

– responsible for total quality of team products


How Teams Work

Team Effectiveness– two key results

• task performance

• member satisfaction

– effective teams have high levels of both results


•How Teams Work

Team Effectiveness– input factors that influence good group process

• organizational setting

• nature of the task

• team size

• membership characteristics


How Teams Work

Stages of Team Development– Forming - initial orientation and interpersonal testing.

– Storming - conflict over tasks and ways of operating as a team.

– Norming - consolidation around operating task and agendas.

– Performing – teamwork and focused task performance.

– Adjourning – task accomplishment and eventual disengagement.


How Teams Work

Norms and Cohesiveness

– behavior expected of team members

– can be enforces with reprimands and other sanctions


How Teams Work

How to Build Positive Norms– acting as positive role model

– reinforcing desired behaviors

– controlling results by regular feedback

– orienting and training new members to adopt desired behaviors

– holding regular meetings to discuss progress

– using team decision-making methods to reach agreement


How Teams Work

Cohesiveness– degree to which members are attracted to and

want to remain part of a team– can be good if paired with positive performance

norms– more cohesiveness the greater conformity of

members to norms


How Teams Work

Task and Maintenance Needs– Task Activities

• contribute directly to team’s performance purpose

– Maintenance Activities• support emotional life of team

– Distributed Leadership• makes every member responsible for

– correctly recognizing when task and/or maintenance activities are needed and responding appropriately


How Teams Work

Communication Networks– Decentralized

• All members communicate directly with one another

– Centralized• Activities are coordinated and results pooled by

central point of control

– Restricted• Polarized subgroups contest one another.• Subgroups may engage in antagonistic relations.


Decision Making in Teams

Methods for Team Decisions– lack of response

– authority rule

– minority rule

– majority rule

– consensus

– unanimity



Assets and Liabilities of Team Decisions– Potential Advantages

• information

• alternatives

• understanding, acceptance and commitment

– Potential Disadvantages• social pressure to conform

• minority domination

• time demands



Groupthink– tendency for highly

cohesive groups to lose their critical evaluative capabilities



Symptoms of Groupthink– illusions of group invulnerability

– rationalizing unpleasant data

– belief in inherent group morality

– negative stereotypes of competitors

– pressure to conform

– self-censorship

– illusions of unanimity

– mind guarding


Leadership and High Performance Teams High performance teams

• clear and elevating goal

• task-driven, results oriented structure

• competent and committed members

• collaborative climate

• high standards of excellence

• external support and recognition

• strong and principled leadership


Leadership and High Performance Teams 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


Leadership and High Performance Teams Leadership Challenges

– establish clear vision of future– create change– unleash talent

Schermerhorn - Chapter 131 Chapter 13 Teams and Teamwork 4 Planning Ahead –How do teams help...

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