1. Team Leadership and Self-Managed Teams
Chapter 8
Team Leadership
and
Self-Managed Teams
Copyright © 2010 by South-Western/Cengage Learning
All rights reserved.
PowerPoint Presentation by Rhonda S. Palladi
Georgia State University

2. Chapter 8 Learning Outcomes
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of working in teams.
Briefly describe the seven characteristics of effective teams.
Describe top management’s and the team leader’s roles in fostering creativity. For each, list activities they should undertake to promote creativity.
Outline the three parts of conducting effective meetings.
Explain the differences between conventional and self-managed teams.
Describe how team member characteristics impact self-managed team effectiveness.
Describe the benefits of using self-managed teams in organizations
Describe the guidelines for improving self-managed team effectiveness.
Describe the challenges of implementing effective self-managed teams.
Define the key terms listed at the end of the chapter.

3. The Use of Teams in Organizations
Is a way of life in postmodern organizations
Offers the best opportunity for better organizational performance in the form of increased productivity and profits
Leads to cooperation and synergy

4. The Use of Teams in Organizations (cont.)
For many organizations, the use of teams has led to desirable performance improvements, such as:
Improved quality
Improved efficiency
Improved employee satisfaction
Improved customer satisfaction
For some organizations, however, the use of teams has resulted in negative outcomes, such as:
Increased costs
Stress
Lower group cohesion

5. Groups vs. Teams: What is the Difference?
Focus on individual performance and goals
Rely on individual abilities
Work more independently with greater motivation to achieve personal goals
Have a very hierarchical leadership style
Characterized by individual self-interest
TEAM
Have a sense of shared mission
Have collective responsibility
Focus on sharing information, insights, and perspectives
Make decisions that support each individual to do his or her own job better
Reinforce each other’s individual performance standards
Have a participative or empowerment-oriented leadership style
Have performance measures that create direct accountability for the team
Strive for equality between members

6. Advantages and Disadvantages of Teamwork
Synergy
Avoidance of major errors
Faster, better decisions
Continuous improvement
Innovation
Self-motivation
Empowerment
Greater job satisfaction
Needs fulfillment
DISADVANTAGES
Pressure to conform to group standards of performance and conduct
Resistance to the team effort from impinging on autonomy
Social loafing
Groupthink
Intergroup conflicts
High levels of pressure and stress

7. Social Loafing
Is the conscious or unconscious tendency by some team members to shirk responsibilities by withholding effort toward group goals when they are not individually accountable for their work
Is likely when individual effort is not recognized and assessed
Individual-level performance appraisal helps reduce social loafing, but risks jeopardizing team interaction and synergy

8. Groupthink
Is when members of a cohesive group tend to agree on a decision not on the basis of its merit but because they are less willing to risk rejection for questioning a majority viewpoint or presenting a dissenting opinion
Unanimity is more important than objectivity
Dissenting views are suppressed in favor of consensus
Can be remedied by training team members to become effective participants in the decision-making process

9. Discussion Question #1
Teams are often credited with making better decisions than individuals, yet they are also criticized for groupthink. What are some strategies for creating effective teams that are not victims of the groupthink phenomenon?

10. What are some of the key indicators of team dysfunction?
Discussion Question #2
What are some of the key indicators of team dysfunction?

11. Components of Team Effectiveness
Task performance
Is the degree to which the team’s output meets the needs and expectations of those who use it
Group process
Is the degree to which members interact or relate that allow the team to work increasingly well together over time
Individual satisfaction
Is the degree to which the group experience, on balance, is more satisfying than frustrating to team members

12. Characteristics of Effective Teams
Team norms
Team leadership
Team cohesiveness and interdependence
Team composition
Team structure
Organizational support
Team creativity

13. Team Norms Are acceptable standards of behavior shared by team members
Influence how members perceive and interact with one another, approach decisions, and solve problems
Begin developing and being accepted at the early stages of team formation

14. Team Leadership Effective team leaders:
Must recognize that not everyone knows how to be a team player
Must display self-sacrificing behavior and self-confidence
Employ multiple influencing tactics to control and direct team member action toward the achievement of organizational goals
Encourage norms that positively affect the team’s goals and alter those that are negative

15. Team Leadership (cont.)
Effective team leaders: (cont.)
Observe with a keen eye what’s going on in the team
Make contributions when necessary
Encourage a climate of dialogue
Turn obstacles into opportunities
See themselves and others as part of the team’s pool of knowledge, skills, and ideas
Must be adaptive, knowing when to play different roles

16. Team Cohesiveness and Interdependence
Team cohesion is the extent to which team members band together and remain committed to achieving team goals
Highly cohesive teams have high group potency (the collective belief of a group that it can be effective) and a strong self-efficacy (an internal belief held by an individual or group about how well and impending situation can be handled)
The degree to which team members depend on each other for information, resources, and other inputs to complete their tasks affects the level of interdependence or mutual influences within the team

17. Team Cohesiveness and Interdependence (cont.)
Team cohesion is increased when:
Team members agree on common purpose and direction
External parties give high praise and recognition for the team’s success
The organization encourages and motivates teams to compete with each other for rewards
Members find they have common ground and similar attitudes and values
Members enjoy being on the team

18. Team Composition
Focuses on the diversity in knowledge, background, and experiences of team members
Teams need the right mix of complementary skills, knowledge, and ability
Teams with experience in working together tend to demonstrate greater task proficiency and teamwork effectiveness

19. Team Composition (cont.)
Team diversity reduces the likelihood of groupthink
Teams that do not manage diversity well may suffer negative consequences
Good working relationships require good social skills for team members
Size also impacts team effectiveness
Small teams of under 12 members are generally more effective

20. Team Structure
Refers to interrelations that determine the assignment of tasks, responsibilities, and authority
Team members’ degree of interdependence and autonomy have been identified as key structural components that influence team effectiveness
Determines the extent to which team members directly control the actions of each other or report observations of their peers’ efforts to management
Horizontal incentive system
Vertical incentive system

21. Organizational Support
Effective teams have strong support from top management
Assessing team effectiveness as part of overall organizational performance is an important role of top management

22. Team Creativity
Is the creation of a valuable, useful, and novel product, service, idea, procedure, or process carried out via discovery rather than a predetermined step-by-step procedure, by individuals working together in a complex social system
Organizations that will survive and thrive are those that make the best use of the creativity of their workforce

23. Organizational Practices that Foster Team Creativity
Use this space for overall reminders or special tips linked to the slide or occasion. Simply select this text and replace it with your own reminders.
Provide
adequate
and quality
resources
Provide
appropriate
recognition
and
rewards
Organizational
Practices that
Foster
Team Creativity
Summary
Heading. Text.
Provide
supportive
climate
and
culture
Provide
flexibility
and a minimum
amount of
structure

24. Team Leader Practices that Foster Creativity
Matching people with the right assignments
Team Leader Practices that Foster Creativity
Use this space for overall reminders or special tips linked to the slide or occasion. Simply select this text and replace it with your own reminders.
Giving team members greater autonomy to do the job
Team Leader
Practices
that
Foster
Creativity
Protecting against
“creativity blockers”
Summary
Heading. Text.
Ensuring the availability of adequate time, money, and other resources

25. Cross-Functional Team
Types of Teams
Functional Team
Use this space for overall reminders or special tips linked to the slide or occasion. Simply select this text and replace it with your own reminders.
Cross-Functional Team
Types of
Teams
Virtual Team
Summary
Heading. Text.
Self-Managed Team

26. Functional Team
Is a group of employees belonging to the same functional department, such as marketing, R&D, production, human resources, or information systems who have a common objective
The structure is generally more hierarchical with the functional leader making all the decisions and expecting his or her followers to implement them

27. Functional Team (cont.)
Team members tend to focus on their local area of specialization ignoring the overall organizational mission
There is no one best leadership style to use
The use of functional structure has been in decline

28. Cross-Functional Team
Is made up of members of different functional departments of an organization who are brought together to perform unique tasks to create new and nonroutine products or services
Some members may be from outside the organization
Interaction, cooperation, coordination, information sharing, and cross-fertilization of ideas among people from different functional areas produces better quality products/services with shorter development cycles

29. Cross-Functional Team (cont.)
Cross-functional teams offer many potential benefits to an organization, such as:
A rich and diverse base of knowledge and creative potential that far exceeds anything a single functional team could come up with
Improved coordination
Avoidance of problems
Multiple sources of information and perspectives
Contacts outside of one’s functional specialty
Speed to market
Learning of new skills that members carry back to their functional unit
Synergy

30. Virtual Team
Is one whose members are geographically distributed, requiring them to work together through electronic means with minimal face-to-face interaction
New and advanced technologies are providing the means for teamwork that is dispersed (carried out in different locations) and asynchronous (carried out at different times)

31. Virtual Team (cont.)
Have significant collaboration, communication, and leadership challenges
Team interaction, information sharing, and knowledge integration are all critical to success
Virtual cross-functional teams are growing in companies with global operations

32. Self-Managed Team (SMT)
Are relatively autonomous teams whose members share or rotate leadership responsibilities and hold themselves mutually responsible for a set of performance goals assigned by higher management
Are usually cross-functional in membership makeup
Have wide latitude in decision making
Can manage themselves, plan and schedule work, and take action on problems

33. Leader-Centered Decision-Making Model
The leader exercises his or her power to initiate, direct, drive, instruct, and control team members
To be successful, the leader should:
Focus on task
Ignore personal feelings and relationships
Seek opinions
Get agreement
Make final decisions
Stay in control
Stop disruptions
Discourage members from expressing their feelings
Keep it rational
Guard against threats to his or her authority

34. Team-Centered Decision-Making Model
Empowers team members to make decisions and follow through
To be successful, the team leader should:
Listen attentively
Watch for nonverbal cues
Be aware of members’:
Feelings
Needs
Interactions
Conflict
Serve as a consultant, advisor, teacher, and facilitator
Model appropriate leadership behaviors
Establish a climate of approval for expression of feelings and ideas
Relinquish control to the team
Allow the team to make final decisions

35. Team-Centered Decision- Making Model (cont.)
Advantages
Can improve decision quality
Shifts much of the decision making away from the leader
Allows the leader to think more strategically
Allows responsibility to be diffused among several people
Results in higher commitment by team members to implement decisions as compared to decisions made alone by a leader

36. Team-Centered Decision- Making Model (cont.)
Disadvantages
Can take longer than decisions made alone by a manager
Can be self-serving and contrary to the best interests of the organization, if team members have objectives and/or priorities different from those of the leader
Can end up being a poor compromise rather than an optimal solution

37. Normative Leadership Model
Originally discussed in Chapter 5
The normative model applies to group decision making, because the model is used to determine the level of participation to use in a given situation
The decision styles are:
Decide
Consult individually
Consult group
Facilitate
Delegate

38. Leadership Skills for Effective Team Meetings
Planning meetings
Objectives
Selecting participants and making assignments
The agenda
The time and place for the meeting
Leadership
Conducting meetings
Each meeting should cover the following:
Identifying objectives
Covering agenda items
Summarizing and reviewing assignments

39. Leadership Skills for Effective Team Meetings (cont.)
Handling problem members
Silent
Talkers
Wanderers
Bored
Arguers

40. The Nature of Self-Managed Teams
To understand the nature of SMTs, two key questions need to be posed and addressed:
What makes them different from conventional teams?
How widespread is their use in organizations?

41. Differences Between Conventional and Self-Managed Teams
Characteristics
Self-Managed Teams
Conventional Teams
Leadership
Within the team
Outside the team
Team member role
Interchangeable
Fixed
Accountability
Team
Individual
Work effort
Cohesive
Divided
Task design
Flexible
Skills
Multiskilled
Specialized

42. The Benefits of Self-Managed Teams
Greater improvements in quality, speed, process, and innovation
A sense of belonging and ownership in one’s work
Greater employee motivation
Accelerated new product development
Greater employee participation
Reduced operational costs because of reductions in managerial ranks and greater efficiencies
Greater employee job satisfaction, commitment, and productivity, and lower turnover and absenteeism rates

43. Guidelines for Improving Self-Managed Team Effectiveness
Ensure that the whole organization has changed its culture, structure, and climate to support SMTs
Have a champion to support and defend the SMT from opponents who are threatened by the new concept and what it represents
The self-managed team champion is an advocate of the self-managed team concept whose responsibility is to help the team obtain necessary resources, gain political support from top management and other stakeholders of the organization, and defend it from enemy attacks
Have a well-thought-out vision of the way in which SMTs will fit into the scheme of the entire organization
Allow time for team members to bond with one another and form team skills

44. Guidelines for Improving Self-Managed Team Effectiveness (cont.)
Provide adequate training so team member skills and experiences match task requirements
Provide objective goals, incentives, and appropriate infrastructure
Ensure that the organization has the necessary resources to commit to this kind of change in time, money, and people
Create a sense of empowerment so SMTs take ownership of what they are doing and how they are going to do it
Pay close attention to team design decisions
Develop team-based measurements and corresponding feedback methods that address team performance
Recruit and train managers to act as facilitators or coaches
Avoid overreacting at the first sign of crisis

45. The Changing Role of Leadership in Self-Managed Teams
The concept of a self-managed team does not mean “without management”
Rather, it implies self-responsibility and self-accountability
The self-managed team must still receive direction and instruction from higher authority
Many managers find themselves in a conflicting position when called upon to function as external leaders for self-managed teams
Most receive conflicting signals on how to go about it

46. The Changing Role of Leadership in Self-Managed Teams (cont.)
Distributed leadership
Multiple leaders take complementary leadership roles in rotation within the same SMT, according to their area of expertise or interest
Self-managed team facilitator
Is the external leader of a self-managed team, whose job is to create optimal working conditions so team members take on responsibilities to work productively and solve complex problems on their own
Must be good at coaching, influencing, and empowering the team

47. SMT Facilitator Team-Building Activities
Opening forums to resolve interpersonal conflicts
Creating opportunities for social interaction
Increasing mutual acceptance and respect among diverse team members
Maintaining an open communication policy
Highlighting mutual interest, not differences, of team members
Increasing team identification through the use of ceremonies, rituals, and symbols
Using team-oriented incentives to foster teamwork

48. The Challenges of Implementing Self-Managed Teams
Many of the drawbacks associated with SMTs stem from the difficulties of transitioning from a traditional command-and-control work environment to self-managed teams
Managers may resist or undermine the transition of power
Team members may experience anxiety about learning new behaviors

49. The Challenges of Implementing Self-Managed Teams (cont.)
Some of the disadvantages of working in teams in general—such as social loafing and groupthink—are also likely to occur in self-managed teams
The decision to use self-managed teams is not a guaranteed success, and requires a great deal of commitment, effort, and support from all members of the organization