Ch10

Organizational Organizational Behavior, 9/EBehavior, 9/E

Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Schermerhorn, Hunt, and OsbornOsborn

Prepared byMichael K. McCuddyValparaiso University

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 10 2

Chapter 10 Study Questions

What is a the nature of teams and teamwork?

What is team building?How does team building improve

performance?How do teams contribute to the high-

performance workplace?


Study Question 1: What is the nature of team and teamwork?

A team is a small group of people with complementary skills, who work actively together to achieve a common purpose for which they hold themselves collectively accountable.

Teams are one of the major forces behind revolutionary changes in contemporary organizations.


Study Question 1: What is the nature of team and teamwork?Types of teams.

– Teams that recommend things.• Established to study specific problems and

recommend solutions to them.– Teams that run things.

• Have formal responsibility for leading other groups.

– Teams that make or do things.• Functional groups that perform ongoing tasks.



Teamwork occurs when group members actively work together in such a way that all their respective skills are well utilized to achieve a common purpose.



Characteristics of high performance teams.– They have strong core values.

– They turn a general sense of purpose into specific performance objectives.

– They have the right mix of skills.

– They possess creativity.



Characteristics of teams with homogeneous membership.– Members are similar with respect to such variables as

age, gender, race, experience, ethnicity, and culture.– Members can quickly build social relations and

engage in the interactions needed for teamwork.– Homogeneity may limit the team in terms of ideas,

viewpoints, and creativity.



Characteristics of teams with heterogeneous membership.– Members are diverse in demography, experiences, life

styles, and cultures, among other variables.– Diversity can help improve team problem solving and

increase creativity.– Diversity among team members may create

performance difficulties early in the team’s life or stage of development.



Characteristics of teams with heterogeneous membership (cont.).– Enhanced performance potential is possible once

short-run struggles are resolved.– Diversity can provide great advantages for high-

performance organizations.


Study Question 2: What is team building?

Work groups and teams must master challenges as they pass through the various stages of group development.

Team building is a sequence of planned activities designed to gather and analyze data on the functioning of a group and to initiate changes designed to improve teamwork and increase group effectiveness.


Study Question 2: What is team building?


Study Question 2: What is team building?Approaches to team building.

– Formal retreat approach.• Team building occurs during an offsite retreat.

– Continuous improvement approach.• The manager, team leader, or members take

responsibility for ongoing team building.– Outdoor experience approach.

• Members engage in physically challenging situations that require teamwork.


Study Question 3: How does team building improve performance?

New members are concerned about issues of:– Participation.– Goals.– Control.– Relationships.



Behavior profiles of coping with individual entry problems.– Tough battler.– Friendly helper.– Objective thinker.



Task and maintenance leadership.– Sustained high performance requires meeting both task

needs and maintenance needs.

– High-performance teams require distributed leadership.

– Distributive leadership is the sharing among team members of the responsibilities for task and maintenance contributions.





Groups members should avoid the following disruptive behaviors:– Being overly aggressive toward other members.– Withdrawing and refusing to cooperate with others.– Horsing around when there is work to be done.– Using the group as a forum for self-confession.– Talking too much about irrelevant matters.– Trying to compete for attention and recognition.


Study Question 3: How does team building improve performance?Roles and role dynamics.

– A role is a set of expectations associated with a job or position on a team.

– Role ambiguity — occurs when a person is uncertain about his/her role.

– Role overload — occurs when too much is expected and the person feels overwhelmed with work.

– Role underload — occurs when too little is expected and the person feels underutilized.



Roles and role dynamics (cont.).– Role conflict — occurs when a person is

unable to meet conflicting expectations.– Forms of role conflict.

• Intrasender role conflict.• Intersender role conflict.• Person-role conflict.• Interrole conflict.





Norms represent beliefs about how group or team members are expected to behave.

Norms are rules or standards of conduct.Managers and leaders should help their

groups adopt positive norms that support organizational goals.


Study Question 3: How does team building improve performance?Key norms that can have positive or

negative implications.– Performance norms.– Ethics norms.– Organizational and personal pride norms.– High-achievement norms.– Support and helpfulness norms.– Improvement and change norms.


Study Question 3: How does team building improve performance? Cohesiveness is the degree to which members are

attached to and motivated to remain a part of the team

High team cohesiveness occurs when:– Members are similar in age, attitudes, needs, and backgrounds.– Group size is small.– Members respect each others’ competencies.– Members agree on common goals.– Members work on interdependent tasks.– Groups are physically isolated from others. – Groups experience performance success or crisis.






Study Question 4: How do teams contribute to the high-performance workplace?

Problem-solving teams.– Employee involvements teams include a wide

variety of teams whose members meet regularly to collectively examine important workplace issues.

– Quality circle.• A special type of employee involvement team.• Team meets periodically to address problems

relating to quality, productivity, or cost.



Cross-functional teams.– Consist of members representing different

functional departments or work units.– Used to overcome functional silos problem.– Used to solve problems with a positive

combination of functional expertise and integrative systems thinking.



Advantages of virtual teams.– Cost-effectiveness and speed where members are

unable to meet easily face-to-face.– Computer power fulfills typical team needs for

information processing and decision making.– Communication is possible among people

separated by great distances.– Interaction and decision making are focused on

facts and objective information rather than emotional considerations.

– .



Disadvantages of virtual teams.

– The lack of personal contact between team

members.

– Group decisions are made in a limited social

context.





Advantages of self-managing teams.– Productivity and quality improvements.– Production flexibility and faster response to

technological change.– Reduced absenteeism and turnover.– Improved work attitudes and quality of work

life.



Disadvantages of self-managing teams.– Structural changes in job classifications and

management levels eliminate the need for first-line supervisors.

– Managers must learn to deal with teams rather than individuals.

– Supervisors who are displaced by self-managing teams may feel threatened.


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