Teams groups of 2 or more people

Influence each other

Mutually accountable for achieving common goals
Exist to fulfill purpose
Interdependent
Exist when perceive themselves as a team

Types of Teams departmental, task force, production, skunk works, self-

directed, virtual, advisory

Informal Groups exist primarily for benefit of their members

Reasons why innate drive to bond

Social identity
Goal accomplishment
Emotional support

Teams/Groups All team are groups because people with unifying

unifying relationships
Not all groups are team because some groups aren’t for
organizational objectives

Advantages of Teams Make better decisions

Better information sharing
Increase employee motivation (bond drives, more
motivated, closer scrutiny)

Disadvantages of Teams Not as effective as by themselves

Process losses
Social loafing

Social loafing When people exert less effort hen working in teams
then alone

Process losses Resources expended towards team development &

maintenance rather than the task

Brooks’ Law That adding more people to a late software project only
makes it later.

Minimize Social Loafing Make individual performance more visible (form

smaller teams, specialize tasks, individual performance)
Increase employee motivations (job enrichment, select
motivated employees)
Team Effectiveness Model:

Team’s Task Characteristics Complex (require teamwork)

High interdependence

Team Size Large enough to perform work

Yet small enough for efficient coordination and
meaningful involvement

Team Composition Composed of people with competencies and

motivation to perform task in team environment

5 C’s Cooperating
Comforting
Coordinating
Conflict Resolving
Communicating

Diversity Members have diverse knowledge, skills,

perspectives, and values

Pros of Diversity Different perspectives

Big knowledge base

Cons of Diversity Faultiness

Dysfunctional conflict risk
Take longer to be high-performing
4 Team Processes Development
Norms
Cohesion
Trust

Development Stages

-existing teams might regress back to an earlier stage of development

Team Roles A set of behaviors that people are expected to perform
Assigned formally & informally

Team Building Activities intended to improve the team’s development

& functioning

2 Central Processes Team membership formation (from “them” to “us”)

in Team Development Team competence development(form routine w others)

Norms Informal rules and shred expectations team establishes

to regulate member behaviors

Why Norms To regulate and guide member behavior

Norms influenced by Initial experiences

Critical events
Experience & values team members bring to table

Preventing State desired norms when forming team

Dysfunctional Select members with same values
Team Norms Discuss counter productive norms
Rewards that counter dysfunctional norms

Team Cohesion Degree of attraction people have toward team

Motivation to remain members
Cognitive & emotional process
Related to members social identity

Influences on Team Cohesion:

1. Member similarity: similarity-attraction effect

2. Team Size: smaller teams = more cohesion
3. Member Interaction: high interdependence + interaction = cohesion
4. Somewhat difficult entry: elatedness = cohesion
5. Team Success: successful teams fulfill members needs
6. External Challenges: challenges = cohesion when not overwhelming

Team Cohesion Outcomes:

1. Motivated to remain members
2. Willing to share information
3. Strong interpersonal bonds
4. Resolve conflict effectively
5. Better interpersonal relationship
6. Better performance (if norms aligned)
Team Cohesion & Performance

Trust Positive expectations one person has of another in situations

involving risk

Swift Trust New members have higher trust in co-workers

Trust is fragile in new relationships (easily broken)

3 Levels of Trust High = Identification based trust

Medium = knowledge based trust
Low = calculus base trust

Self-Directed Teams Complete an entire piece of work requiring several

interdependent tasks
Have substantial autonomy over the execution of
their tasks

Success Factors Responsible for all work process

High Interdependence
Autonomy

Virtual Teams Operate across space, time, organizational boundaries

Are linked through information technologies to achieve
organizational tasks

More effective when Team members have certain competencies

Team has freedom to choose the preferred
communication channels
Members meet face-to-face at beginning
Success Factors Member characteristics
Flexible use of communication technologies
Fairly high task structure
Opportunities to meet face-to-face

Constraints on team decisions:

1. Time constraints
2. Evaluation apprehension
3. Peer pressure to conform
4. Groupthink

4 structures aimed at improving team decision making:

1. Structure conflict
2. Brainstorming
3. Electronic brainstorming
4. nominal group techiques