Managing Groups and Teams

Module 13
LIS 580: Spring 2006
Instructor- Michael Crandall

Roadmap

Groups and teams

Characteristics of teams
Reasons for team failure
Leading teams
Improving team performance

May 9, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

Groups and Teams

Group
Two or more persons who are interacting in
such a way that each person influences
and is influenced by each other person.

Team
A group of people committed to a common
purpose, set of performance goals, and
approach for which the team members hold
themselves mutually accountable.
G.Dessler, 2003

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Comparing Work Teams and

Work Groups

Prentice Hall, 2002

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LIS580- Spring 2006

The Popularity of Teams

Teams typically outperform individuals when
tasks require multiple skills, judgment, and
experience
Teams are a better way to utilize individual
employee talents
The flexibility and responsiveness of teams is
essential in a changing environment
Empowered teams increase job satisfaction
and morale, enhance employee involvement,
and promote workforce diversity
Prentice Hall, 2002

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LIS580- Spring 2006

Types of Work Teams

Prentice Hall, 2002

May 9, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

Virtual Team
Virtual Team
Groups of geographically and/or organizationally
dispersed coworkers who interact using a
combination of telecommunications and
information technologies to accomplish an
organizational task.
Virtual teams may be temporary, existing only to
accomplish a specific task. Or they may be
permanent and address ongoing matters.
Membership is often fluid, evolving according to
changing task requirements.
G.Dessler, 2003

May 9, 2006

LIS580- Spring 2006

Group Dynamics
Group Norms
The informal rules that groups adopt to
regulate and regularize group members
behavior.

Group Cohesiveness
The degree of interpersonal attractiveness
within a group, dependent on factors like
proximity, similarities, attraction among the
individual group members, group size,
intergroup competition, and agreement
about goals.
G.Dessler, 2003

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LIS580- Spring 2006

What It Takes to Be a Team

Player
Personality
Individualism versus collectivism

Interpersonal Skills
Conflict management skills
Collaborative problem solving skills
Communication skills

Management Skills
Develop and establish goals
Control, monitor, provide feedback
Set work roles and assign tasks
G.Dessler, 2003

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Team Member Roles

Prentice Hall, 2002

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Challenges to Creating Team

Players
Managers attempting to introduce teams
into organization face the most difficulty:
When individual employee resistance to
teams is strong
Where the national culture is individualistic
rather than collectivist
When an established organization places

Prentice Hall, 2002

May 9, 2006

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Workforce Diversitys
Effects on Teams
Fresh and multiple perspectives on issues
help the team identify creative or unique
solutions and avoid weak alternatives
The difficulty of working together may make it
harder to unify a diverse team and reach
agreements
Although diversitys advantages dissipate with
time, the added-value of diverse teams
increases as the team becomes more
cohesive
Prentice Hall, 2002

May 9, 2006

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Checklist 13.1
How to Build a Productive Team

Have clear mission/purpose.

Set specific performance goals.
Compose the right team size and mix.
Have an agreed-upon structure appropriate to
the task.
Delegate the authority to make the decisions
needed, given their mission.
Provide access to or control of the resources
needed to complete their mission.
Offer a mix of group and individual rewards.
Foster longevity and stability of membership.
G.Dessler, 2003

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Characteristics of Highperforming Work Teams

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Prentice Hall, 2002

14

Why Teams Fail: The Leadership, Focus,

and Capability Pyramid

Source: Adapted
from Steven
Rayner, Team
Traps: What
They Are, How to
Avoid Them.
National
Productivity
Review. Summer
1996, p. 107.
Reprinted by
permission of
John Wiley &
Sons, Inc.

FIGURE 133
G.Dessler, 2003

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Checklist 13.2
Symptoms of Unproductive Teams
Nonaccomplishment of goals.
Cautious, guarded
communication.
Lack of disagreement.
Malfunctioning meetings.
Conflict within the team.
G.Dessler, 2003

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The Challenge of Team

Leadership
Becoming an effective team leader
requires:
Learning to share information
Developing the ability to trust others
Learning to give up authority
Knowing when to leave their teams alone
and when to intercede

New roles that team leaders take on

Managing the teams external boundary
Facilitating the team process
Prentice Hall, 2002

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Leading Productive Teams

Team Leader Skills

Team Leader Values

Coaching, not
bossing
Help define, analyze,
and solve problems
Encourage
participation by
others
Serve as a facilitator

Respecting fellow
team members
Trusting fellow team
members
Putting the team first

G.Dessler, 2003

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Team Leader Roles

Prentice Hall, 2002

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Team Leader Behaviors

Druskat, V.U. & J.V. Wheeler. (2004). How to Lead a Self-Managing Team

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Typical Leader Transition

Problems

Perceived Loss of Power or Status

Unclear Team Leader Roles
Job Security Concerns
The Double Standard Problem

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Stages of Team Development

Prentice Hall, 2002

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The Leaders Role in Creating a

Self-Managing Team
Forming
The teams and their leaders begin working out
their specific responsibilities.
Training is the leaders main task.

Storming
Questions typically arise regarding who is leading
the team and what its structure and purpose
should be.
The leader ensures that team members continue
to learn and eventually exercise leadership skills.
G.Dessler, 2003

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The Leaders Role in Creating a

Self-Managing Team (contd)
Norming
Team members agree on purpose, structure, and
leadership and are prepared to start performing.
The leaders job is to emphasize the need for the
team to temper cooperation with the responsibility
to supervise its own members.

Performing
A period of productivity, achievement, and pride as
the team members work together to get the job
done.

Adjourning
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How to Improve Team

Performance
Select members for skill
and teamwork.
Establish challenging
performance standards.
Emphasize the tasks
importance.
Assign whole tasks.
Send the right signals.
Encourage social
support.
Make sure there are
unambiguous team
rules.

Challenge the group

regularly with fresh facts
and information.
Train and cross-train.
Provide the necessary
tools and material
support.
Encourage emotionally
intelligent team
behavior.
G.Dessler, 2003

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Providing an Organizational Context

That Supports Teams
Organizational
Organizational
Structure
Structure
Organizational
Organizational
Systems
Systems

Team
TeamWork
Work
Approach
Approach

Organizational
Organizational
Policies
Policies
Employee
Employee
Skills
Skills

G.Dessler, 2003

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Designing Organizations to
Manage Teams

Source: Adapted from James H. Shonk, Team-Based

Organizations (Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1997), p. 36.

May 9, 2006

FIGURE 135
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Pros and Cons of Group Decision

Making
Pros

Cons

More points of view

More ways to define the
problem
More possible
solutions/alternatives
More creative decisions
Stronger commitment to
decisions

More disagreement and

less problem solving
Desire for consensus
(groupthink)
Domination by a single
individual
Less of commitment to
the group decision

G.Dessler, 2003

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Signs That Groupthink May Be a

Problem

Source: Adapted from information provided in Irving James, Group Think: Psychological
Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascos, 2nd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982).

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FIGURE 137
G.Dessler, 2003

29

Improving Group Decision

Making
Devils-Advocate Approach
The group appoints a person to prepare
a detailed counterargument that lists
what is wrong with the groups favored
solution and why the group should not
adopt it.
The aim is to ensure
a full and objective
consideration of the
solution proposal.
G.Dessler, 2003

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Improving Group Decision

Making (contd)
Brainstorming
A creativity-stimulating technique in which prior
judgments and criticisms are specifically forbidden
from being expressed and thus inhibiting the free
flow of ideas, which are encouraged.
Brainstorming rules:
Avoid criticizing others ideas until all suggestions are out
on the table.
Share even wild suggestions.
Offer many suggestions and comments as possible.
Build on others suggestions to create your own.
G.Dessler, 2003

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Improving Group Decision

Making (contd)
The Delphi Technique
A multistage group decision-making process aimed
at eliminating inhibitions or groupthink through
obtaining the written opinions of experts working
independently.
Process steps
Identify the problem.
Solicit the experts individual opinions on the problem.
Analyze, distill, and then resubmit these opinions to other
experts.
Continue this process for several more rounds until the
experts reach a consensus.
G.Dessler, 2003

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Improving Group Decision

Making (contd)
The Nominal Group Technique
1. Each group member writes down his or her ideas
for solving the problem at hand.
2. Each member then presents his or her ideas orally,
and the person writes the ideas on a board for
other participants to see.
3. After all ideas are presented, the entire group
discusses all ideas simultaneously.
4. Group members individually and secretly vote on
each proposed solution.
5. The solution with the most individual votes wins.
G.Dessler, 2003

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Improving Group Decision

Making (contd)
The Stepladder Technique
1. Individuals A and B are given a problem to solve,
and each produces an independent solution.
2. A and B develop a joint decision, and meet with C,
who has analyzed the problem and arrived at a
decision.
3. A, B, and C discuss the problem and arrive at a
consensus decision, and are joined by D, who has
analyzed the problem and arrived at a decision.
4. A, B, C, and D jointly develop a final group
decision.
G.Dessler, 2003

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Improving Group Decision

Making (contd)
How to Lead a Group Decision-Making
Discussion
1. See that all group members participate and
contribute.
2. Distinguish between idea getting and idea
evaluation.
3. Do not respond to each participant or dominate the
discussion.
4. Direct the groups effort toward overcoming
surmountable obstacles.
5. Dont sit down.
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Next Time
Guest Lecturer:
Martha Choe, Director of Global Libraries
Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Read the articles, and come prepared to
discuss library leadership issues

May 9, 2006

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