Exploring Management Chapter 14 Teams and Teamwork

Chapter 14 Why is it important to understand teams and teamwork? What are the building blocks of successful teamwork? How can managers create and lead high-performance teams? Teams are an important part of management theory and practice.

Teams often suffer from common performance problems 14.1 Teams and Teamwork Teams offer synergy and other benefits to organizations and their members Teams often suffer from common performance problems Organizations are networks of formal teams and informal groups Much research shows that teamwork skills are highly valued by managers.

14.1 CONTINUED Teams and Teamwork Organizations use committees, task forces, and cross functional teams Virtual teams are increasingly common in organizations Self-managing teams are a form of job enrichment for groups Employees enjoy working in a high performing, cohesive team.

TEAMS AND TEAMWORK Teamwork Benefits collection of people with complementary skills who work together to accomplish shared goals while holding each other mutually accountable for performance results Many tasks are beyond the capabilities of one person alone. Team support is increasingly necessary.

TEAMS AND TEAMWORK Teamwork Benefits Synergy The creation of a whole that exceeds the sum of its parts Working together helps us to understand the strengths of teammates and creates synergy. Synergy is essential to high performance teams not only in sports, but for hospitals, firefighters, NASCAR teams and other work groups.

TEAMS AND TEAMWORK Teamwork Problems Social loafing The tendency of some people to avoid responsibility by free-riding in groups To prevent social loafing Keep groups small Make task assignments interesting Social loafing is evidence of a lack of commitment on the part of a team member.

TEAMS AND TEAMWORK Teamwork Problems More teamwork performance problems Personality conflicts Differences in work styles Competing goal and visions Overly ambitious agendas Poorly defined problems Conflicts with other work deadlines or personal priorities Bad experiences with teams in the past Team members won’t often tell you the reason for their lack of commitment.

TEAMS AND TEAMWORK Formal and Informal Formal teams Officially recognized and supported by the organization Department Work units Teams Divisions Members of formal teams usually have assigned roles which are often listed in a job description.

TEAMS AND TEAMWORK Formal and Informal Informal groups Grow spontaneously from co-worker relationships Interest groups Friendship groups Support groups There are probably as many informal groups in an organization as there are formal groups.

TEAMS AND TEAMWORK Types of Teams Committee brings together people outside of their daily job assignments to work in a small team for a specific purpose; the task agenda is specific and ongoing Project teams or task forces bring together people from various parts of the organization to work on common problems Cross-functional team has members from different functional units Employee-involvement team has members who meet on a regular basis to apply their expertise to continuous improvement Quality circle is a group of workers that meets regularly to discuss and plan specific ways to improve work quality Cross functional teams used to be the domain of large companies with large projects. Now they are used extensively in organizations of all sizes. A project team can be a form of a cross-functional team if the team members come from different functional units as they often do. Quality circle teams originated in Japan. Interesting enough, in was an American named Deming that introduced the concept to the Japanese

TEAMS AND TEAMWORK Types of Teams Virtual teams Use technology to work together from different locations Videoconferencing is becoming increasingly affordable and accessible. It’s a valuable tool as organizations become more global, use more independent contractors and when business travel becomes expensive.

TEAMS AND TEAMWORK Types of Teams Self-managing teams Have authority to make decisions about how they share and complete work Self-managing teams can be a way to add job enrichment.

Teams need the right members and inputs to be effective 14.2 Successful Teamwork Teams need the right members and inputs to be effective Teams need the right processes to be effective Teams move through different stages of development Understanding the elements of successful teams helps managers develop high performing teams.

14.2 CONTINUED Successful Teamwork Team performance is affected by norms and cohesiveness Team performance is affected by task and maintenance roles Team performance is affected by communication networks

SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK Effective Teams Effective teams have three output goals Task performance Member satisfaction Team viability NASCAR teams are highly trained teams with very specialized task performance.

SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK Effective Teams Getting a good start by addressing each of the Inputs is very critical to team success. This is very similar to the “open systems” view of organizations.

SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK Effective Teams Membership composition Mix of abilities, skills, backgrounds and experiences of the members Diverse teams Generally more effective A manager may have very little input into the membership composition of a team, but it helps to know the strengths and weaknesses of the make up of the group.

SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK Effective Teams Inputs that affect team performance Team size Nature of the task Organizational setting Team process The way members work together Firefighters are unique groups because of the requirement that they live together at times, their extensive training, the variety of situations under which they must perform and the culture of their organization.

SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK Team Development Stages of team development Forming team development, one of initial task orientation and interpersonal testing. Storming conflict over tasks and working as a team Norming coordination of task and operating agendas Performing Effective teamwork and focused task performance. Adjourning Completion of task, team may disband Not all teams adjourn. In the case of project teams, a good team may pick up another project.

SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK Performance Performance is affected by norms and cohesiveness Norms Expected behaviors Cohesiveness How committed team members are Team norms are likely to established by team leaders or team members depending on the cohesiveness of the team. Sports teams frequently have many formal norms or expectations.

SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK Performance Low team cohesiveness will lead to poor performance and high turnover.

SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK Roles Team performance is affected by task and maintenance roles Task activities contribute directly to the team’s purpose Maintenance activities support the emotional aspects of the team as a social system Training supports task activities and team building supports maintenance activities. Students may see some similarity to task and people orientation in leadership research.

SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK Roles Distributed leadership All members are responsible for recognizing when task or maintenance activities are necessary Disruptive behaviors cause problems Excessive joking Aggressiveness Non-participation Distributed leadership results from a strong commitment by team members. Disruptive behaviors result from a lack of commitment, or lack of understanding how important ones’ role is. A little clowning may be good for morale. Too much is just disruptive and attention-seeking.

SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK Communication Team performance is affected by use of communication networks Decentralized All members communicate directly Centralized Requires members to communicate through a central hub or center point Restricted Subgroups fail to communicate well, become antagonistic and restrict communication Many organizations are moving toward more decentralized communication networks. Restricted communication may be the cause or result of an “out-group”

SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK Communication Communication policies can create any of these situations via the Internet.

14.3 High Performance Teams Team building helps team members learn to better work together Team performance is affected by use of decision-making methods Team performance suffers when groupthink leads to bad decisions Team performance benefits from good conflict management

HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS Team building Involves activities to gather and analyze data on a team and make changes to increase its effectiveness Team building activities are helpful in increasing team communication and cohesiveness. It is an example of a maintenance activity.

HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS Team Decisions Decision making The process of making choices among alternative courses of action Consensus After thorough discussion most team members favor one decision and other members agree to support the decision Consensus requires a great deal of cooperation and trust.

HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS Team Decisions Group think Tendency of members of highly cohesive teams to lose their critical evaluative capabilities and make poor decisions Group think is the mistaken assumption that we all agree, so there isn’t any need for critical analysis of the issue. This can result in poor decisions. Historical examples include the “Bay of Pigs” invasion, the Challenger disaster and introduction of “new Coke”.

HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS Conflict Disagreement over issues of a substance and/or an emotional antagonism Substantive conflict Disagreements over goals, resources, rewards, policies, procedures, and job assignments Emotional Conflict Results from feelings of anger, distrust, dislike, fear, and resentment as well as from personality clashes Conflict can be either Substantive, Emotional or both.

HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS Conflict Five ways to deal with conflict Conflict can be either Substantive, Emotional or both.

HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS Conflict Conflict resolution Removing the substantive or emotional reasons for a conflict Collaboration Involves working through conflict differences and solving problems so everyone wins Conflict can be either Substantive, Emotional or both.