B0H4M CHAPTER 15

15.1 Teams in Organization  Team ◦ A small group of people with complementary skills, who work together to achieve a shared purpose and hold themselves mutually accountable for performance results.  Teamwork ◦ The process of people actively working together to accomplish common goals

 Team and teamwork roles for managers : ◦ Supervisor — serving as the appointed head of a formal work unit. ◦ Network facilitator — serving as a peer leader an network hub for a special task force. ◦ Participant — serving as a helpful contributing member of a project team. ◦ External coach — serving as the external convener or sponsor of a problem-solving team staffed by others.

 Synergy ◦ The creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. ◦ A team uses its membership resources to the fullest and thereby achieves through collective action far more than could be achieved otherwise.

 Usefulness of teams: ◦ More resources for problem solving. ◦ Improved creativity and innovation. ◦ Improved quality of decision making. ◦ Greater commitments to tasks. ◦ Higher motivation through collective action. ◦ Better control and work discipline. ◦ More individual need satisfaction.

 Common problems in teams: ◦ Personality conflicts. ◦ Individual differences in work styles. ◦ Ambiguous agendas. ◦ Ill-defined problems. ◦ Poor readiness to work.  Lack of motivation.  Conflicts with other deadlines or priorities.  Lack of team organization or progress.  Meetings that lack purpose or structure.  Members coming to meetings unprepared.

 Formal groups  Teams that are officially recognized and supported by the organization for specific purposes.  Specifically created to perform essential tasks.  Managers and leaders serve “linking pin” roles.  Informal groups  Not recognized on organization charts.  Not officially created for an organizational purpose.  Emerge as part of the informal structure and from natural or spontaneous relationships among people.  Include interest, friendship, and support groups.  Can have positive performance impact.  Can help satisfy social needs.

15.2 Trends in the use of teams  Committees, project teams, and task forces  Cross-functional teams  Virtual teams  Self-managing work teams  Team building

15.3 how teams work  Effective teams ◦ achieve and maintain high levels of task performance. ◦ achieve and maintain high levels of member satisfaction. ◦ retain viability for the future.

 Resource input factors that influence group process in the pursuit of team effectiveness: ◦ Nature of the task. ◦ Organizational setting. ◦ Team size. ◦ Membership characteristics.

 Team effectiveness may be summarized as … Management 2e - Chapter 1511 Team Effectiveness = Quality of Inputs + (Process Gains - Process Losses)

Group process Team diversity  Stages of team development: ◦ Forming — initial orientation and interpersonal testing. ◦ Storming — conflict over tasks and ways of working as a team. ◦ Norming — consolidation around task and operating agendas. ◦ Performing — teamwork and focused task performance. ◦ Adjourning — task accomplishment and eventual disengagement.

 Norms ◦ Behaviour expected of team members. ◦ Rules or standards that guide behaviour. ◦ May result in team sanctions.  Performance norms ◦ Define the level of work effort and performance that team members are expected to contribute to the team task.

 Cohesiveness ◦ The degree to which members are attracted to and motivated to remain part of a team. ◦ Can be beneficial if paired with positive performance norms.

 Effects of team cohesiveness and norms: ◦ Positive norms + high cohesiveness  high performance and strong commitments to positive norms. ◦ Positive norms + low cohesiveness  moderate performance and weak commitments to positive norms. ◦ Negative norms + low cohesiveness  low to moderate performance and weak commitments to negative norms. ◦ Negative norms + high cohesiveness  low performance and strong commitments to negative norms.

 Task activities ◦ Actions by team members that contribute directly to team’s performance purpose. ◦ Include:  Initiating  Information sharing  Summarizing  Elaborating  Opinion giving

 Maintenance activities ◦ Support emotional life of a team as an ongoing social system. ◦ Include:  Gatekeeping  Encouraging  Following  Harmonizing  Reducing tension

 Distributed leadership roles … ◦ Make every member responsible for recognizing when task and/or maintenance activities are needed and taking actions to provide them. ◦ Leading through task activities focuses on solving problems and achieving performance results. ◦ Leading through maintenance activities helps strengthen and perpetuate the team as a social system.

 Dysfunctional activities that detract from team effectiveness: ◦ Being aggressive ◦ Blocking ◦ Self-confessing ◦ Seeking sympathy ◦ Competing ◦ Withdrawal ◦ Horsing around ◦ Seeking recognition

 Communication networks ◦ Decentralized  All members communicate directly with one another. ◦ Centralized  Activities are coordinated and results pooled by central point of control. ◦ Restricted  Polarized subgroups contest one another.  Subgroups may engage in antagonistic relations.

15.4 Decision making in teams  Methods of team decision making: ◦ Lack of response ◦ Authority rule ◦ Minority rule ◦ Majority rule ◦ Consensus ◦ Unanimity

 Symptoms of groupthink: ◦ Illusions of group invulnerability. ◦ Rationalizing unpleasant and disconfirming data. ◦ Belief in inherent group morality. ◦ Negative stereotypes of competitors. ◦ Pressure to conform. ◦ Self-censorship of members. ◦ Illusions of unanimity. ◦ Mind guarding.

 Methods for dealing with groupthink : ◦ Have each group member be a critical evaluator. ◦ Don’t appear to favour one course of action. ◦ Create subteams to work on the same problems. ◦ Have team members discuss issues with outsiders. ◦ Have outside experts observe and provide feedback on team activities. ◦ Assign a member to the devil’s advocate role. ◦ Hold a second-chance meeting.

 Creativity in team decision- making  Brainstorming  Engages group members in an open, spontaneous discussion of problems and ideas.  Nominal group technique  Structures interaction among team members discussing problems and ideas.

15.5 Conflict  Conflict. ◦ A disagreement between people on:  Substantive issues regarding goals and tasks, allocation of resources, distribution of rewards, policies and procedures, and job assignments.  Emotional issues arising from feelings of anger, distrust, dislike, fear, and resentment, as well as personality clashes. ◦ Conflict that is well managed can help promote creativity and high performance.

 Functional conflict. ◦ Moderately intense conflict. ◦ Constructive and stimulates people toward greater work efforts, cooperation, and creativity.  Dysfunctional conflict. ◦ Low-intensity and very high-intensity conflict. ◦ Destructive and hurts task performance.

 Causes of conflict: ◦ Role ambiguities. ◦ Resource scarcities. ◦ Task interdependencies. ◦ Competing objectives. ◦ Structural differentiation. ◦ Unresolved prior conflicts. RESOLVING CONFLICTS

 People’s conflict management styles reflect different combinations of cooperative and assertive behaviour. ◦ Cooperativeness is the desire to satisfy the other party’s needs and concerns. ◦ Assertiveness is the desire to satisfy one’s own needs and concerns.

Conflict management styles: ◦ Avoidance (withdrawal).  Uncooperative and unassertive. ◦ Accommodation (smoothing).  Cooperative and assertive. ◦ Competition (authoritative command).  Uncooperative and assertive. ◦ Compromise.  Moderately cooperative and assertive. ◦ Collaboration (problem solving).  Cooperative and assertive. ◦ Lose-lose conflict.  Management by avoidance or accommodation. ◦ Win-lose conflict.  Management by competition and compromise. ◦ Win-win conflict.  Management by collaboration.

15.6 NEGOTIATION  Negotiation the process of making joint decisions when the parties involved have different preferences. All negotiation situations are susceptible to conflict and require exceptional communication and interpersonal skills.  Negotiation goals and approaches: ◦ Substance goals. ◦ Relationship goals. ◦ Effective negotiations ◦ Distributive negotiation ◦ Principled (or integrative) negotiation

 Gaining integrative agreements: ◦ Separate the people from the problem. ◦ Focus on interests, not on positions. ◦ Generate many alternatives before deciding what to do. ◦ Insist that results are based on some objective standard.

 Gaining integrative agreements: ◦ Separate the people from the problem. ◦ Focus on interests, not on positions. ◦ Generate many alternatives before deciding what to do. ◦ Insist that results are based on some objective standard.

 Approaches to avoiding negotiation pitfalls: ◦ Mediation  Involves a neutral third party who tries to improve communication between negotiating parties and keep them focused on relevant issues. ◦ Arbitration  Involves a neutral third party who acts as a judge and issues a binding decision.

 Ethical issues in negotiation ◦ High ethical standards should be maintained. ◦ Profit motive and the competitive desire to win sometimes lead to unethical behaviour. ◦ Unethical negotiating behaviour can lead to short-term gains but long-term losses.