Team Dynamics McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc....

TeamDynamics

McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

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Teams at Ergon Energy

At Ergon Energy, teamwork is a

critical operational practice for

achieving excellent customer

service. The Queensland

company organises employees

into teams who are led by team

leaders. Teamwork is one of

Ergon’s six core values.

Teamwork is also reinforced

through company rewards.



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What are Teams?

Groups of two or more people

Exist to fulfil a purpose

Interdependent – interact and influence each other

Mutually accountable for achieving common goals

Perceive themselves as a social entity


3 © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Many Types of Teams



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• Departmental teams

• Production/service/ leadership teams

• Self-directed teams

• Advisory teams

• Task force (project) teams

• Skunkworks

• Virtual teams

• Communities of practice

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/services2. Better information sharing3. Increase employee motivation/engagement

- Fulfils drive to bond- Closer scrutiny by team members- Team members are benchmarks of comparison

Disadvantages1. Individuals better/faster on some tasks2. Process losses – cost of developing and maintaining

teams3. Social loafing



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How to Minimise Social Loafing

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

Increase employee motivation• Increase job enrichment• Select motivated employees



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Team Effectiveness Model



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•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

Organisational and Team Environment

Organisation/Team Environment

Reward systems

Communication systems

Organisational structure

Organisational leadership

Physical space



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Team’s Task Characteristics

Teams work better when tasks are clear and easy to implement• learn roles faster, easier to become cohesive• ill-defined tasks require members with diverse

backgrounds and more time 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



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SequentialSequential

PooledPooled

ReciprocalReciprocal

ResourceResource

AA BB CC

AA BB CC

AA

BB CC

High

Low

Team Size

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

differences• require less time to develop more member

involvement, thus higher commitment

But the team must be large enough to accomplish the task



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Shell Looks for Team Players

Shell holds the 5-day Gourami Business Challenge in Europe, North America, and Asia (shown in photo) to observe how well the university students work in teams. One of the greatest challenges is for students from different cultures and educational specialisations to work together.



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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 Cs)



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Five Cs of Team-member Competencies



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Team Composition: Diversity

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

Advantages• view problems and possible solutions from different

perspectives • broader knowledge base• better representation of team’s constituents

Disadvantages• take longer to become a high-performing team• more susceptible to ‘fault lines’ • increased risk of dysfunctional conflict



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Existing teams might regress back to an earlier stage of development

FormingForming

StormingStorming

NormingNorming

Performing

AdjourningAdjourning

Stages of Team Development



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Team Development as Membership 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 behaviours 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 behaviours

Norms develop through:

• Initial team experiences

• Critical events in team’s history

• Experience/values members bring to the team



Preventing/Changing Dysfunctional Team Norms

State desired norms when forming teams

Select members with preferred values

Discuss counter-productive norms

Reward behaviours representing desired 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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TeamTeamsizesize

MemberMemberinteractioninteraction

• Smaller teams tend to be more cohesive

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

MemberMembersimilaritysimilarity

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

Influences on Team Cohesion



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TeamTeamsuccesssuccess

External External challengeschallenges

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

• Challenges increase cohesion when not overwhelming

Somewhat Somewhat difficult entrydifficult entry

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

Influences on Team Cohesion (cont.)



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Team Cohesion Outcomes

1. Motivated to remain members

2. Willing to share information

3. Strong interpersonal bonds

4. Resolve conflict effectively

5. Better interpersonal relationships

6. Better performance (if norms aligned)



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Team norms support

companygoals

Team norms oppose

companygoals

High team cohesion

Low team cohesion

Team Cohesion and Performance



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Low taskperformance

ModeratelyModeratelyhigh taskhigh task

performanceperformance

ModeratelyModeratelylow tasklow task

performanceperformance

High taskperformance

Trust Defined

Positive expectations one person has of

another person in situations involving

risk



Three Levels of Trust



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Identification-based trustIdentification-based trust

Knowledge-based trustKnowledge-based trust

Calculus-based trustCalculus-based trust

High

Low

Self-Directed Teams at Reckitt Benckiser

Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare has become one of the most productive pharmaceutical operations in Europe due to lean management practices and reliance on self-directed teams.



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Self-Directed Teams Defined

Cross-functional work groups organised 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 organise 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 organisational boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organisational tasks

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

• Increasingly necessary because of:- Organisational learning- Globalisation



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Virtual Team Success Factors

Member characteristics• Technology savvy• Self-leadership skills• Emotional intelligence

Flexible use of communication technologies

Opportunities to meet face-to-face



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Team Decision Making Constraints

Time constraints• Time to organise/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 favour – consider more specific features



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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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Courtesy of Johnson Space Center/NASA

Rules of Brainstorming

1. Speak freely

2. Don’t criticise

3. Provide as many ideas as possible

4. Build on others’ ideas



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Evaluating Brainstorming

Strengths• Produces more creative ideas• 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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DescribeDescribeproblemproblem

IndividualActivity

IndividualActivity

Write downWrite downpossiblepossiblesolutionssolutions

PossiblePossiblesolutionssolutionsdescribeddescribedto othersto others

Vote onVote onsolutionssolutionspresentedpresented

Nominal Group Technique



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TeamDynamics



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Team Dynamics McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc....

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Transcript of Team Dynamics McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc....