1. Understanding Work Teams
Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 8/e
Stephen P. Robbins
Chapter 8
Understanding Work Teams
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2. After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
Explain the growing popularity of teams in organizations
Contrast teams with groups
Describe four types of teams
Identify resources and other contextual influences that make teams effective
Explain composition variables that determine team effectiveness
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3. After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
Describe the role of work design in making effective teams
Identify process variables that affect team performance
Explain how organizations can create team players
Identify the role that teams play in quality management
Describe conditions when teams are preferred over individuals
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4. Why have teams become so popular?
Outperform on tasks requiring multiple skills, judgment, and experience
Better utilization of employee talents
More flexible and responsive to changing events
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5. Why have teams become so popular?
Facilitate employee participation in operating decisions
Effective in democratizing the organization and increasing employee motivation
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6. Work Group
A group who interacts primarily to share information and to make decisions to help one another perform within each member’s area of responsibility
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7. Work Team Generates positive synergy through coordinated effort
Individual efforts result in a level of performance that is greater than the sum of those individual inputs
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8. Comparing Work Groups and Work Teams
Share information
Neutral (sometimes negative)
Individual
Random and varied
Goal
Synergy
Accountability
Skills
Collective performance
Positive
Individual and mutual
Complementary
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9. Four Types of Teams
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10. Problem-Solving Teams
Share ideas or offer suggestions on how work processes and methods can be improved
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11. Problem-Solving Teams
Rarely given authority to unilaterally implement any of their suggested actions
Typically composed of 5-12 hourly employees from the same department
Example: Quality Circles
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12. Self-Managed Work Teams
Collectively control pace of work
Determine work assignments
Organize breaks
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13. Self-Managed Work Teams
Collectively choose inspection procedures
Select their own members and evaluate each other’s performance
Generally composed of people
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14. Cross-Functional Teams
Members from diverse areas within and between organizations
Exchange information
Develop new ideas and solve problems
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15. Cross-Functional Teams
Coordinate complex projects
Development is time-consuming due to complexity and diversity
Examples: Task Force and Committees
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16. Virtual Teams
Computer technology ties physically dispersed members together to achieve a common goal
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17. Virtual Teams Differentiating factors from other teams
Absence of para-verbal and non-verbal cues
Limited social context
Ability to overcome time and space constraints
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18. Creating Effective Teams
Effectiveness of teams is defined by:
Objective measures of the team’s productivity
Manager’s ratings of team performance
Aggregate measures of member satisfaction
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19. Key Components of Teams
Context
Composition
Work Design
Process
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20. Context Presence of adequate resources Effective leadership
Climate of trust
Performance evaluation and reward system that reflects team contributions
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21. Composition Abilities of members Personality Allocating roles
Diversity
Size of teams
Member flexibility
Member preferences
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22. Work Design Freedom & Autonomy Skill variety Task identity
Task significance
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23. Process Member commitment to a common purpose
Establishment of specific team goals
Team efficacy
Managed level of conflict
Minimizing social loafing
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24. Shaping Team Players
Selection
Training
Rewards
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25. Teams and Quality Management
Teams provide the natural vehicle for employees to share ideas and to implement improvements
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26. Teams and Quality Management
Teams should:
(1) be small enough to be efficient and effective
(2) be properly trained in the skills their members will need
(3) be allocated enough time to work on the problems they plan to address
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27. Teams and Quality Management
Teams should:
(4) be given the authority to resolve the problems and implement corrective action
(5) have a designated “champion”
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28. Can the work be done better by more than one person?
How do you know if the work of your group would be better done in teams?
Can the work be done better by more than one person?
Does the work create a common purpose or set of goals for the people in the group?
Are the members of the group interdependent?
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29. Summary Explained the growing popularity of teams in organizations
Contrasted teams with groups
Described four types of teams
Identified resources and other contextual influences that make teams effective
Explained composition variables that determine team effectiveness
© 2005 Prentice-Hall

30. Summary Described the role of work design in making effective teams
Identified process variables that affect team performance
Explained how organizations can create team players
Identified the role that teams play in quality management
Described conditions when teams are preferred over individuals
© 2005 Prentice-Hall