Team Dynamics

McGraw-Hill/Irwin McShane/Von Glinow OB 5e

Copyright 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

What are Teams?

Groups of two or more people Exist to fulfill a purpose Interdependent -- interact and influence each other Mutually accountable for achieving common goals

Perceive themselves as a social entity

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Many Types of Teams

Departmental teams

Task force (project) teams Skunkworks Virtual teams Communities of practice

Production/service/ leadership teams

Self-directed teams Advisory teams

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Informal Groups

Groups that exist primarily for the benefit of their members Reasons why informal groups exist:
1. Innate drive to bond
2. Social identity -- we define ourselves by group

memberships 3. Goal accomplishment

4. Emotional support

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Teams

Advantages
Make better decisions, products/services Better information sharing Higher employee motivation/engagement - Fulfills drive to bond - Closer scrutiny by team members - Team members are benchmarks of comparison

Disadvantages
Individuals better/faster on some tasks Process losses - cost of developing and

maintaining teams Social loafing

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How to Minimize Social Loafing

Make individual performance more visible

Form smaller teams Specialize tasks

Measure individual performance

Increase employee motivation

Increase job enrichment Select motivated employees

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Team Effectiveness Model

Team Design Task characteristics Team size Organizational and Team Environment Team Processes Team development Team norms Team cohesiveness Team trust Team composition Accomplish tasks Satisfy member needs Maintain team survival Team Effectiveness

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Organization/Team Environment

Reward systems Communication systems Organizational structure Organizational leadership Physical space

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Teams Task Characteristics

Teams work better when tasks are clear, easy to implement

learn roles faster, easier to become cohesive ill-defined tasks require members with diverse

backgrounds and more time to coordinate

Teams preferred with higher task interdependence

Extent that employees need to share materials,

information, or expertise to perform their jobs.

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Levels of Task Interdependence

High Reciprocal
B C A

Sequential

Resource

Pooled Low
A B C

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Team Size

Smaller teams are better because:

need less time to coordinate roles and resolve

differences require less time to develop more member involvement, thus higher commitment

But team must be large enough to accomplish task

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Shell Looks for Team Players

Shell holds the 5-day Gourami Business Challenge in Europe, North America, and Asia to observe how well the university students work in teams. One of the greatest challenges is for students from different cultures and educational specializations to work together.

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Team Composition

Effective team members must be willing and able to work on the team Effective team members possess specific competencies (5 Cs)

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Five Cs of Team Member Competencies

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Team Composition: Diversity

Team members have with diverse knowledge, skills, perspectives, values, etc. Advantages
better for creatively solving complex problems broader knowledge base better representation of teams constituents

Disadvantages
take longer to become a high-performing team more susceptible to faultlines increased risk of dysfunctional conflict

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Stages of Team Development

Performing

Norming

Storming

Forming

Existing teams might regress back to an earlier stage of development

Adjourning

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Team Development as Membership and Competence

Two central processes in team development 1. Team membership formation
Transition from them to us Team becomes part of persons social identity

2. Team competence development

Forming routines with others Forming shared mental models

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Team Roles

A set of behaviors that people are expected to perform Some formally assigned; others informally Informal role assignment occurs during team development and is related to personal characteristics

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Team Building
Formal activities intended to improve the teams development and functioning Types of Team Building
Clarify teams performance goals

Improve teams problem-solving skills

Improve role definitions Improve relations

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Team Norms

Informal rules and shared expectations team establishes to regulate member behaviors Norms develop through:
Initial team experiences Critical events in teams history Experience/values members bring to the team

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Preventing/Changing Dysfunctional Team Norms

State desired norms when forming teams Select members with preferred values Discuss counter-productive norms Reward behaviors representing desired norms

Disband teams with dysfunctional norms

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Team Cohesion

The degree of attraction people feel toward the team and their motivation to remain members Both cognitive and emotional process Related to the team members social identity

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Influences on Team Cohesion

Member similarity
Similarity-attraction effect Some forms of diversity have less effect

Team size

Smaller teams tend to be more cohesive

Member interaction

Regular interaction increases cohesion Calls for tasks with high interdependence

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Influences on Team Cohesion

(cont)
Somewhat difficult entry
Team eliteness increases cohesion But lower cohesion with severe initiation

Team success

Successful teams fulfillmember needs Success increases social identity with team

External challenges

Challenges increase cohesion when not overwhelming

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Team Cohesion Outcomes

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Motivated to remain members Willing to share information Strong interpersonal bonds Resolve conflict effectively Better interpersonal relationships

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Team Cohesion and Performance

Team Norms Support Company Goals Moderately high task performance

High task performance

Team Norms Oppose Company Goals

Moderately low task performance

Low task performance

Low Team Cohesiveness

High Team Cohesiveness

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Trust Defined
Positive expectations one person has of another person in situations involving risk

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Three Levels of Trust

High

Identification-based Trust

Knowledge-based Trust

Calculus-based Trust
Low

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Self-Directed Teams Defined

Cross-functional work groups organized around work processes, that complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks, and that have substantial autonomy over the execution of those tasks.

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Self-Directed Team Success Factors

Responsible for entire work process High interdependence within the team Low interdependence with other teams Autonomy to organize and coordinate work Technology supports team communication/coordination

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Virtual Teams
Teams whose members operate across space, time, and organizational boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organizational tasks
Increasingly possible because of: - Information technologies - Knowledge-based work Increasingly necessary because of: - Organizational learning - Globalization

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Virtual Team Success Factors

Member characteristics
Technology savvy
Self-leadership skills Emotional intelligence

Flexible use of communication technologies Opportunities to meet face-to-face

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Team Decision Making Constraints

Time constraints
Time to organize/coordinate Production blocking

Evaluation apprehension
Belief that others are silently evaluating you

Peer pressure to conform

Suppressing opinions that oppose team norms

Groupthink
Tendency in highly cohesive teams to value consensus

at the price of decision quality Concept losing favor -- consider more specific features
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General Guidelines for Team Decisions

Team norms should encourage critical thinking Sufficient team diversity Ensure neither leader nor any member dominates Maintain optimal team size Introduce effective team structures

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Constructive Conflict

Courtesy of Johnson Space Center/NASA

People focus their discussion on the issue while maintaining respectfulness for others having different points of view. Problem: constructive conflict easily slides into personal attacks
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Rules of Brainstorming
1.

Speak freely

2.
3.

Dont criticize
Provide as many ideas as possible

4.

Build on others ideas

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Evaluating Brainstorming

Strengths
Produces more creative ideas
Less evaluation apprehension when team supports

a learning orientation Strengthens decision acceptance and team cohesiveness Sharing positive emotions encourages creativity

Weaknesses
Production blocking still exists Evaluation apprehension exists in many groups
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Electronic Brainstorming

Relies on networked computers to submit and share creative ideas Strengths -- more creative ideas, minimal production blocking, evaluation apprehension, or conformity problems Limitations -- too structured and technologybound

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Nominal Group Technique

Individual Activity

Team Activity Possible solutions described to others

Individual Activity

Describe problem

Write down possible solutions

Vote on solutions presented

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