BA105: Organizational Behavior Week 4: Managing Teams.

BA105: Organizational Behavior

Week 4:

Managing Teams

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Class agenda: Teams and Teamwork in Organizations

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of teams

Learn some techniques for effective team management

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What is a team?

“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable”

Kazenbach and Smith: “The discipline of teams”

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How important are teams in today’s organizations?

The team concept is central to the design of the modern horizontal organization

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Top Management

TeamTeamProcessCoordinators

TeamTeamProcessCoordinators

TeamTeamProcessCoordinators

New product development process

Order fulfillment process

Procurement, logistics process

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What kinds of teams exist?

• Executive teams• Off-line problem-solving teams

– Task forces– Quality circles; safety; productivity

• On-line production teams– E.g., NUMMI, Saturn

• Cross-functional process teams– Product development

• Boundary-spanning (Chrysler)

– Strategic planning– Customer service (e.g., Xerox)

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The myth of the executive team “The expression ‘top management team’ is a misnomer for the groups

that exist at the apex of many firms. Many such groups are simply constellations of executive talent: individuals who rarely come together (and then usually for perfunctory information exchange), who rarely collaborate, and who focus almost entirely on their own part of the enterprise.“Chief executives are resistant to teamwork at the top level, fearing either that it amounts to an abdication of their leadership role or that it runs counter to their company culture of unit accountability and initiative. What these executives do not understand is that an effective top management team greatly extends the capabilities of the chief executive; it rarely dilutes them.”

Donald C. Hambrick, Financial Times, Oct 11, 2001

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Teams have contributed to organizational effectiveness in a variety

of ways:• Cost savings (labor, materials) • Productivity • Quality (quality circles)• Customer service• Product development (“skunk works”)• Process development (NUMMI)

• Speed and cycle time

• Safety• Decreased absenteeism and turnover

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Teams are key to Southwest Air’s fast turnarounds

Southwest’s strategy relies on quick turnaround time. Airplanes arrive at the gate, are unloaded, serviced, reloaded, and depart in an average of 17 minutes, compared with the industry average of 43 minutes. Behind this strategy are cross-functional teams that coordinate up to 10 distinct functional groups, from pilots to cabin cleaners. Rather than add costly buffers between these different functional groups and have decisions made further up the hierarchy, Southwest has given frontline workers more decision-making responsibilities. These sets of cross-functional workers communicate often, work at improving their ability at working together rather than trying to blame one another for failures, and engage in rapid decision making as planes arrive at the gate. Team members keep each other informed of what is going on in to other parts of the airport about weather conditions.

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Why? What is so good about teams?

• Complementary skills and experiences• Greater flexibility• Motivation – fun, energizing, and commitment• Lowered resistance to change • Empowered people• Improved coordination & cooperation • Improved accountability & responsibility• Superior decision-making

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Are teams or individuals better at decision-making?

• Teams make more accurate decisions than their average member – greater likelihood of detection of error– greater memory of facts – greater probability that someone will know the right answer

• Teams bring together a greater diversity of skills, information, knowledge, points of view

• Teams, especially diverse teams, tend to be more creative

• People are more likely to accept a decision when they are involved in the decision-making process

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Process attributes of functional teams• Provisionalism

– Members encourage flexibility, experimentation, and creativity• Empathy

– Members attempt to listen and to understand each other’s views and values• Equality

– Members respect the positions of others and no one is made to feel inferior• Spontaneity

– Members express ideas freely and honestly without hidden motives• Problem Orientation

– Members openly discuss mutual problems without rushing to give solutions or insist on agreement

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What are the downsides to teamwork?

• Inefficiency; slow to produce results• Coordination costs (mutual adjustment)• Increased uncertainty and risk • Internal accountability/responsibility problems,

free ridership• Politics, division, stalemate• Groupthink

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The terrors of teamwork

….all those eyes intent on me. Devouring me. What? Only two of you? I thought there were more; many more. So this is hell. I'd never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the "burning marl." Old wives' tales!There's no need for red-hot pokers. HELL IS--OTHER PEOPLE!

From No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre

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Which naturally describes Dilbert’s world

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The problem of groupthink! (Janis, 1972)

Definition: when members fail to disagree, to bring up doubts and fears, or to bring up information that contradicts the team’s decision. Suddenly, they are going in a direction that makes no one happy simply because no one wants to cause conflict.

Components:– Illusion of invulnerability– Rationalizations collectively devised to discount negative feedback– Unquestioning belief by members in team’s inherent morality and stereotyped negative views

of external detractors– Direct pressure on any individual who expresses doubts about the team’s shared illusions or

questions validity of the majority view– Reluctance to deviate from what appears to be team consensus despite misgivings, and

tendency to minimize personal doubts– Escalation of commitment

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Process attributes of dysfunctional teams • Evaluation

– Members‘ manner of speech, tone of voice, or verbal content is perceived as critical or judgmental of others

• Control– Communication is perceived as an attempt to manipulate or dominate the

recipient• Strategems

– Members are seen as operating from hidden motives, playing games, feigning emotion, withholding information, or having private access to sources of data

• Superiority– Members convey an attitude of condescension toward others

• Dogmatism– Members insist that their own points are best and try to foist them on the team

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Elements of team design• Goals

– Clear direction – Well-defined performance objectives

• Task interdependence (meshing of roles)• Authority/empowerment• Diversity

– Skill and demographics • Appropriate size• Appropriate stability/maturity • Right mix of group- and individual incentives• Access to information• Thorough training • Sufficient material resources (e.g., space)

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The value of diversity and dissent (Based on Charlan Nemeth’s jury research)

• Exposure to minority viewpoints, even when they’re wrong, stimulates divergent thought and a search for information on both sides.  – Leads to better performance and decision-making, more creativity. –  Downsides are: conflict, low morale, persecution of minorities

• How about role playing at dissent: the devil’s advocate? – Doesn’t work. Need an authentic minority. Devil’s advocates can reinforce the

convictions of the group.

 We profit from people we underestimate. But we don’t give them credit. We get angry.   

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Fit or congruence issues in the design of teams• People

– Do people have the experience, training, & motivation necessary for teamwork?

• Culture– Is there a culture of participation & empowerment?

• Leadership– Is there genuine buy-in from top management?– Is management heroic or developmental? Coaches or bosses?

• Tasks– Are tasks and technology designed for teamwork?

• Formal structure– Are job designs & reporting hierarchies adapted to teamwork?

• Formal systems– Are information systems designed for teamwork?– Are appraisal and pay systems designed for teamwork?

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Teams were a bad fit to Levi’s In 1992, the company directed its U.S. plants to abandon the old piecework

system, under which a worker repeatedly performed a single, specialized task (like sewing zippers or attaching belt loops) and was paid according to the amount of work he or she completed.

In the new system, groups of 10 to 35 workers share(d) the tasks, and (were) paid according to the total number of trousers the group completed. Levi's figured that this would cut down on the monotony of the old system, and … enable stitchers to do different tasks, thus reducing repetitive-stress injuries…"This change," Max Cowan, Levi's operations vice president, wrote to workers in September 1992, "will lead to a self-managed work environment that will reduce stress and help employees become more productive." Instead, it led to a quagmire in which skilled workers.. found themselves pitted against slower colleagues, damaging morale and triggering corrosive infighting… Threats and insults became more common. Longtime friendships dissolved as faster workers tried to banish slower ones. The quantity of pants produced per hour worked plunged in 1993 to 77% of pre-team levels. Meanwhile, labor and overhead costs surged …At the same time, the wages of many top performers have fallen. Yet… lower-skilled workers often saw their pay increase, eliminating savings for Levi's.

"We created a lot of anxiety and pain and suffering in our people, and for what?" asks Ralph Pollard, a former Levi's manufacturing manager.

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Roles in teams: leaders & followers

Leadership roles

• Ask questions• Get the group to solve problems• Promote real participation• Help resolve conflict• Train others• Positive reinforcement• Encourage high performance goals• Encourage self-evaluation• Tell the truth, even when it’s disagreeable• Liaison with higher management

A definition of teamwork: leader and follower roles rotate smoothly and continuously among the members of a group

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L

L

L

L

L = Leader

Start - up

Transitional

Experienced

Mature

C. Manz & H. SimsBusiness Without BossesJohn Wiley, 1993

Leaders are most important in the early stages of team development

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How dysfunctional leaders arise• Formal leader abdicates authority

• Criticisms become personal

• Divergent team goals (revenge, bigotry, disinterest, time)

• Low information flow

• No rules of engagement, etc

• Bad time management

• Decision biases

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Effective leadership in a dysfunctional team

• Adopt a Socratic leadership style

• Attack data and logic, not persons

• Don’t polarize others in group against you

• Remain calm

• Don’t reveal an explicit position that can be attacked – appear neutral

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Roles that enhance team processExplicitly define and fill the following critical roles:

– Facilitator: Moderator of group process. Makes sure the group stays on target and points out issues that may derail the group. Not the decision maker (the group is), so does not have final say on any decision.

– Timekeeper: In charge of making sure the group stays on track (e.g., you don’t stay up until 4:00am working on a marketing project).

– Recorder: In charge of taking notes. Effectively, the “group memory”, charged with ensuring that good ideas are not lost.

– Jester: Self-appointed position; usually the person with the worst PowerPoint or Excel skills. Helps the group keep a sense of humor about the fact that it is 4:00am & you have just started phase II of the project that is due at 8:20am. (Please note that the timekeeper & facilitator should be shot for this.)

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Roles that impair team process• Blocker

– Stubbornly resists all attempts by the team to move ahead, is constantly negative, and frequently returns to rejected issues & ideas

• Recognition seeker– Calls attention to him/herself by boasting and acting as if he

or she were superior• Bully/dominator

– Manipulates the team to pursue his/her agenda; interrupts others; tries to gain attention

• Avoider– Isolate; passive resister

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Instrumental (task-oriented) actions• Initiating: Stating the goal or problem,making proposals

– “Let’s set up an agenda..” • Seeking information or opinions:

– “What do you think would be the best approach to this, Jack”• Providing information and opinions:

– “I worked on a similar problem last year, and..”• Clarifying: Helping one another understand ideas and suggestions

– “What you mean, Sue, is that we could…”• Elaborating: “Building on Don’s idea, we could…”• Summarizing: Reviewing points covered & ideas expressed so decisions are made on

full information– Appointing a recorder to take notes

• Consensus testing: Testing if group is near decision or needs to continue discussion– “Is the group ready to decide about this…”

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Maintenance or expressive actions • Harmonizing: Mediating conflict, reconciling differences, relieving

tensions– “Don, I don’t think you and Sue really see the question that

differently.”• Compromising: Admitting error at times of conflict

– “Well, I’d be willing to change if you provided some help on…”• Gatekeeping: Making sure all members have a chance to express ideas

and feelings– “Sue, we haven’t heard from you on this issue.”

• Encouraging: Helping a member make his or her point; creating climate of acceptance– “I think what you started to say is important, Jack. Please continue.”

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Training for teamwork

Meeting skills, time management Conflict management Problem-solving, TQM Group dynamics, team building Change management Coaching and feedback skills Business knowledge (e.g., customer service)

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Outward Bound and similar team-building programs may help

• Break down status and role distinctions

• Foster real interdependence & cooperation

• Cognitive dissonance builds commitment

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Steps in team strategy

Prioritize/GoalsDecision Making

Action Items

Gather Information/Brainstorming

Success

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Thursday

• Lecture tie-up, business

• Analyze case: “The team that wasn’t”

• Project team discussions