1. & 12
& Processes

2. Learning Goals What are the benefits of teams over individuals?
What problems might teams typically encounter?
What are the types of team interdependence and what do they have to do with conflict and rewards?
What factors are involved in team composition?
Why is team task important?
How do team characteristics influence team effectiveness?

3. Team Characteristics
A team consists of two or more people who work interdependently over some time period to accomplish common goals related to some task-oriented purpose.
Subset of the more general term “group.”
Teams differ from groups in two primary respects.
The interactions within teams revolve around a deeper dependence on one another than the interactions within groups.
The interactions within teams occur with a specific task-related purpose in mind.

4. The Benefits of Teams Innovation & Creativity
Build or take advantage of tacit knowledge
Handle Large Scale Problems& Decisions
Develop more solutions & detect flaws
Innovation & Creativity
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5. When To Use Teams?
Good when performing complicated, complex, interrelated and/or more voluminous work than one person can handle
Good when knowledge, talent, skills, and abilities are dispersed across organizational members 12

6. Discussion
When should teams not be used over individuals working independently?

7. Types of Teams Work teams are designed to be relatively permanent.
Purpose is to produce goods or provide services, and they generally require a full-time commitment from their members.
Management teams are designed to be relatively permanent.
Responsible for coordinating the activities of organizational subunits—typically departments or functional areas—to help the organization achieve its long-term goals.

8. Types of Teams, Cont’d
Parallel teams are composed of members from various jobs who provide recommendations to managers about important issues that run “parallel” to the organization’s production process.
Project teams are formed to take on “one-time” tasks that are generally complex and require a lot of input from members with different types of training and expertise.
Action teams (Task Force) perform tasks that are normally limited in duration. However, those tasks are quite complex and take place in contexts that are either highly visible to an audience or of a highly challenging nature.

9. Variations within Team Types
Virtual teams are teams in which the members are geographically dispersed, and interdependent activity occurs through electronic communications—primarily , instant messaging, and Web conferencing.

10. Types of Teams
Table 11-1

11. Stages of Team Development
Forming
Forming - try to understand the boundaries in the team and get a feel for what is expected of them.
Storming - remain committed to ideas, triggers conflict that affects some relationships and harms the team’s progress.
Norming - realize that they need to work together to accomplish team goals.
Performing - members are comfortable working within their roles, and the team makes progress toward goals.
Storming
Time
Norming
Performing

12. Three Issues Addressed by Groups
Interpersonal issues (Matters of trust, personal comfort, and security)
Task issues (Mission or purpose, methods, expected outcomes)
Authority issues (Leadership, managing power and influence, communication flow)

13. Punctuated Equilibrium
At the initial team meeting, members make assumptions and establish a pattern of behavior that lasts for the first half of its life.
Adapted from Figure 11-2

14. Interdependence
Task interdependence refers the degree to which team members interact with and rely on other team members for the information, materials, and resources needed to accomplish work for the team.
Pooled interdependence requires lowest degree of required coordination, members complete their work assignments independently, and then this work is simply “piled up” to represent the group’s output.

15. Team Interdependence, Cont’d
Sequential interdependence requires different tasks to be done in a prescribed order, interact to carry out their work, the interaction only occurs between members who perform tasks that are next to each other in the sequence.

16. Team Interdependence, Cont’d
Reciprocal interdependence requires members are specialized to perform specific tasks. However, instead of a strict sequence of activities, members interact with a subset of other members to complete the team’s work.

17. Team Interdependence, Cont’d
Comprehensive interdependence requires the highest level of interaction and coordination among members. Each member has a great deal of discretion in terms of what they do and with whom they interact in the course of the collaboration involved in accomplishing the team’s work.

18. Effects of Task Interdependence on Performance and Commitment
Figure 11-6

19. Outcome Interdependence
A high degree of outcome interdependence exists when team members share in the rewards that the team earns.
Generally, the higher the degree of team interdependence the higher the outcome interdependence should be.
Pay, bonuses, formal feedback and recognition, pats on the back, extra time off, and continued team survival.

20. Five Aspects of Team Composition
Figure 11-4

21. Team and Individualistic Roles
Table 11-3

22. Team and Individualistic Roles, Cont’d
Table 11-3

23. Team Roles Members contribute in diverse ways…. Contributor
Team Member Roles
Contributor
Data/Info
Collaborator
Mission
Communicator
Facilitator
Challenger
Devil’s advocate 11

24. Team Composition, Cont’d
Member ability – team members provide a wide array of abilities, both physical and cognitive.
Disjunctive tasks group performance is disproportionally dependent upon the strongest member. An example would be team “trivial pursuit”.
Conjunctive tasks members perform different, but related, tasks where the team’s performance depends on the abilities of the “weakest link.” Every group member must complete their task in order for the group task to be completed. An example of this would be an assembly line, in which each worker performs tasks that together build a completed car. are tasks
Additive tasks All group members perform the same activity and pool their results at the end. An example of this would be gathering signatures for a petition drive. .

25. Team Composition, Cont’d
Member personality - team members possess a wide variety of personality traits.
Agreeable people tend to be more cooperative and trusting, tendencies that promote
positive attitudes about the team and
smooth interpersonal interactions.
Extraverted people tend to perform more effectively in interpersonal contexts and are more positive and optimistic in general.

26. Diversity at the Top Types of diversity needed Functional diversity
Intellectual diversity
Demographic diversity
Temperamental diversity
Diversity develops different perspectives but lowers cohesiveness.

27. From: Harrison, Price, Bell (1998) UTA
Watson, Kumar and Michaelsen’s (1993) Study of Interaction Processes and Group Performance
Initially, homogeneous groups interacted and performed more effectively than heterogeneous groups. Over time, however, interaction processes and performance for both groups improved, with more rapid improvements occurring in the diverse groups. At the end of the study, the diverse groups had grown more effective in identifying problems and generating solutions than their homogeneous counterparts.
From: Harrison, Price, Bell (1998) UTA

28. Team Performance Problems
Addressing Team Diversity and Size….
Dysfunctional Conflict
Social Loafing
Groupthink
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29. Conflict Can Be Positive or Negative

30. Conflict Management Sources
Today’s organization is more diverse, and while diversity offers strategic advantages it may increase team/workgroup internal conflict.
Tannenbaum lists these pitfalls:
Difference in perceptions and cognitions.
Differences in ideals and norms for the organization.
Differences in loyalty and support for the organization.
(Source: Arnold S. Tanenbaum, Social Psychology of the Work Organization)

31. Balancing Act Ambiguity Logic Need for Different Perspectives
Need to Avoid Conflict
Ambiguity
Logic
Type of Problems or Issues

32. Conflict Management Tactics
Preventing Sources of Conflict
Create a strong, unifying corporate culture
A study by Berkowitz on groups numbering from 2 to 7 found more disagreement in solving logical problems in large groups. A study by Hare found a tendency of groups of more than 12 to break into factions. Another study by Miller yielded a cohesiveness index correlating -.52 with group size. Limit the size of teams to the minimum necessary.
Source: Edwin J. Thomas & Clifton Finds, “Effects of Group Size” from Readings in Organizational Behavior and Human Performance (Cummings & Scott Editors)
Bring together a more homogeneous group of members.
Decrease variations in reference group identification.
Reorganization of the reward structure to prevent difference in goals.
Insure team members have access to the same information, widespread sharing of information.

33. Conflict Management Tactics
Directly Resolving Conflict
Establish buffers between conflicting parties.
Intercession to change attitudes (e.g. sensitivity training).
Use of appropriate Conflict Management Styles.

34. Applying the Problem-Solving Style of Conflict Management
The willingness of both parties is necessary
Convene meetings at the right time and place
Give both parties ample time to cool down
Resume discussion until a workable solution is achieved
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35. Social Loafing Issues & Answers
When working collectively, factors other than the individual’s effort frequently determine performance, and valued outcomes are often divided among all group members.
Individuals work just as hard when their individual inputs to the collective product were unique, but loaf when their inputs are redundant.
Both group size and the number of task performers present are positively related to social loafing.
Individuals are more inclined to loaf on tasks that are perceived as meaningless, when working with strangers, and when the potential for evaluation is absent.
As much as possible, assign tasks with individual responsibility for completion. Keep group size to a minimum needed. Evaluate results, offer feedback. Rewards and recognition should be commensurate with performance.

36. Team Processes
Taskwork Processes
Teamwork Processes
Team States

37. Taskwork Processes
Figure 12-1

38. Taskwork Processes
Taskwork processes are the activities of team members that relate directly to the accomplishment of team tasks.
When teams engage in creative behavior, their activities are focused on generating novel and useful ideas and solutions.
Brainstorming involves a face-to-face meeting of team members in which each offers as many ideas as possible about some focal problem or issue.
Nominal group technique is similar to a traditional brainstorming session, but it makes people write down ideas on their own, thereby decreasing social loafing and production blocking.

39. Taskwork Processes, Cont’d
Decision Making
Decision informity reflects whether members possess adequate information about their own task responsibilities.
Staff validity refers to the degree to which members make good recommendations to the leader.
Hierarchical sensitivity reflects the degree to which the leader effectively weighs the recommendations of the members.

40. Teamwork Processes
Teamwork processes refer to the interpersonal activities that facilitate the accomplishment of the team’s work but do not directly involve task accomplishment itself.
Behaviors that create the setting or context in which taskwork can be carried out.
Transition processes, action processes, interpersonal processes

41. Teamwork Processes
Figure 12-2

42. Effects of Teamwork Process on Performance and Commitment
Figure 12-5

43. Team States
Team states refer to specific types of feelings and thoughts that coalesce in the minds of team members as a consequence of their experience working together.
Cohesion, potency, mental models, transactive memory

44. Team States
Figure 12-3

45. Team States, Cont’d
Cohesion happens when members of teams develop strong emotional bonds to other members of their team and to the team itself.
Groupthink happens in highly cohesive teams when members may try to maintain harmony by striving toward consensus on issues without ever offering, seeking, or seriously considering alternative viewpoints and perspectives.
Avoid too much cohesion by assessing the team’s cohesion, and appointing a devil’s advocate.

46. Team States, Cont’d
Potency refers to the degree to which members believe that the team can be effective across a variety of situations and tasks.
High potency, members are confident that their team can perform well, and as a consequence, they focus more of their energy on achieving team goals.
Team members’ confidence in their own capabilities, their trust in other members’ capabilities, and feedback about past performance play a role in developing high potency.

47. Team States, Cont’d
Mental models refer to the level of common understanding among team members with regard to important aspects of the team and its task.
Transactive memory refers to how specialized knowledge is distributed among members in a manner that results in an effective system of memory for the team.

48. Takeaways Teams are more interdependent and task focused than groups.
Teams might or might not be better than individuals working by themselves. Do not rush to “form a team”.
Teams formation requires expenditures of time, resources and energy before work on a task can begin (OVERHEAD).
Teams can be interdependent in terms of the team task, goals, and outcomes. Interdependence has important implications for rewards and conflict.

49. Takeaways, Cont’d
Diversity can come in a variety of ways, surface and deep level, but diversity adds to conflict and reduces group cohesion.
Match team members’ abilities with disjunctive, conjunctive and additive types.
Match diversity level to the need to solve an intellective or judgmental problem.

50. Takeaways
Team process reflects the different types of activities and interactions that occur within teams and contribute to their ultimate end goals.
When teams have process gain, they become more than the sum of their parts through interactions that create synergy among members. When teams have process loss, they become less than the sum of their parts through interactions that create inefficiencies between members.
Taskwork processes are the activities of team members that relate directly to the accomplishment of team tasks.

51. Takeaways, Cont’d
Teamwork processes refer to the interpersonal activities that facilitate the accomplishment of the team’s work but do not directly involve task accomplishment itself.
Team states refer to specific types of feelings and thoughts that coalesce in the minds of team members as a consequence of their experience working together. Team states include cohesion, potency, mental models, and transactive memory.