Teams Kevin Posalski David Shin

What are Teams Teams are groups of two or more people who interact and influence each other, are mutually accountable for achieving common goals associated with organizational objectives, and perceive themselves as a social entity within an organization.

Types of teams Departmental Teams – Employees have similar or complimentary skills located in the same unit of a functional structure. Production/Service/Leadership Teams – Team members collectively produce a common product or service or make ongoing decisions. Self-directed Work teams – Similar to Production/Service teams except they produce an entire product and they typically have a high degree of autonomy.

Types of teams (Cont’d) Advisory Teams – Entities that provide recommendations to decision makers. Task Force Teams – Temporary multi-skilled teams formed to solve a problem of develop a product. Skunk works – An independent team that, upon its own initiative, develops a new product.

Types of teams (Cont’d) Virtual Teams – Formal teams who operate across space, time, and organizational boundaries and are linked through informational technologies. Communities of Practice – Informal group joined by a shared expertise and passion for a particular activity of interest.

Why Rely on Teams Teams are generally more successful than individuals working alone at identifying problems, developing alternatives, and choosing from those alternatives because a team can provide a greater breadth of knowledge than an individual can. Teams also create a higher degree of motivation and accountability than a supervisor can and thus, typically get more done.

Team Effectiveness The extent to which a team achieves its objectives, achieves the needs and objectives of its members, and sustains itself overtime.

Elements of Team Effectiveness Reward System Communication System Physical Space Organizational Environment Organizational Structure Organizational Leadership

Team Design Characteristics Task Characteristics Team Size Team Composition

Task interdependence Task interdependence - the extent to which team members must share common inputs to their individual tasks, need to interact in the process of executing their work, or receive outcomes. The Greater the interdependence, the greater the need for teams.

Types of Interdependence Pooled Interdependence - Individuals operate independently except for reliance on a common resource or authority. Sequential Interdependence - The output of one person becomes the direct input for another person. Reciprocal interdependence - work output is exchanged back and forth among individuals.

Team Size The Larger the team, the less effective it usually it. Individual members spend much of their time coordinating their work instead of actually doing it.

Team Composition A team is more than just a collection of experts. Team members need to be able to work together. Team Diversity – Homogeneous Teams – members have common technical expertise, demographics (age, sex), ethnicity, experiences, or values. – Heterogeneous Teams – Members have diverse characteristics or backgrounds.

Homogeneous vs. Heterogeneous Teams Heterogeneous teams can develop fault lines (divisions) among those who are different in the groups. This can lead to dysfunctional. This tends not to be a problems with homogeneous teams, and thus they can be better for emergency response teams Heterogeneous teams can draw from different prospective to solve problems. Heterogeneous teams can be better for executive teams.

Team Development Five Stages – 1. Forming- testing and orientation period. Where people learn about there group members – 2. Storming – Conflicts of team roles. What is your role in the group? – 3. Norming – Roles are established and everyone has their head looking at group objectives. – 4. Performing – Everybody is committed to the task at hand and are cooperating to complete the task efficiently. – 5. Adjourning – Ending time. “See you later.” “Lets go eat.”

Team Norms Definition: The informal rules and shared expectations that groups establish to regulate the behavior of their members.  Conforming – Peer pressure Ex. You are expected by your peers at work to not work as hard. And you do work harder than them. Then they will get mad at you and you would be going against a team norm.

Team Norms Development of Team Norms – They develop when teams develop because people need to know or anticipate how others will act. – Norms develop from reactions to certain events. Ex. If a co-worker or group thinks this or this happens than they will do something to keep it from happening again or use it daily. Preventing and Changing Dysfunction Select people with good values. Tell employees the norms from the start. Leaders should use persuasive communication tactics to get the message across. If all else fails make a new group.

Team Roles Roles are set during the storming stage. – Ex. In a sports team if everybody plays their role and doesn’t step out of there role and does it well than that team is better than a team that doesn’t know there roles. Because there are going to be gaps in the team.

Team Cohesiveness The degree of attraction people feel toward the team and their motivation to remain members. Very important to be successful. It’s the glue

Team Cohesiveness Influencing Factors – Member similarity the similar you are to your group members the more cohesive you will be. – Size Smaller is more cohesive than bigger. – Member interaction The more you interact or talk to each other the more cohesive – Exclusive The more exclusive the more cohesive. Value of membership – Team Success The more you win the more cohesive. The more cohesive the more you win. – External competition and challenges The harder the task the more cohesive your team will be. Competition

Team Cohesiveness Consequences of Team Cohesiveness – Highly Cohesive Teams Spend more time Share information more frequently More satisfied w/ each other Better support More sensitive Conflict is dealt with quickly and effectively Better performance Lower task performance

Trouble with Teams Process Losses – Resources expended toward team development and maintenance rather than the task – Teams Cost more than individuals Brook’s law – Adding a team member makes project later. – Because you have to bring them up to where the team is at. Social Loafing People exert less effort when working in groups than working alone. More likely in large teams Low task interdependence, so some people do more and some people do less.

Trouble with Teams Minimize Social Loafing – Form smaller teams – Specialize tasks – Measure individual performance – Increase job enrichment – Motivating jobs – more skill – Select the right people – Motivated

Question and Answer 1. How many stages are there in team development? a. 1 b.7 c.3 d.5 Answer: d 2. What is a characteristic of a highly cohesive team? (the best answer) a. Spends little time with each other. b. Do not support each other. c. Conflict is dealt with quickly and efficiently. d. Higher task performance Answer: c 3. True or False. The more similar you are to your team members the more cohesive you will be? Answer: True 4. True or False. Heterogeneous teams are better suited for emergency response teams because they tend to have less conflict Answer: False 5. The extent to which a team achieves its objectives is called: a. Team Effectiveness b. Task Characteristics c. Communities of Practice d. Dysfunction Answer: a

The End