Chapter Nine Using Teams in Organizations. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9-2 Chapter Objectives Differentiate teams from groups.

Chapter Nine

Using Teams in Organizations

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 9-2

Chapter Objectives

• Differentiate teams from groups.

• Discuss the benefits and costs of teams in organizations.

• Describe various types of teams.

• Explain how organizations implement the use of teams.

• Discuss other essential team issues.


Team

• Team– A small number of people with complementary

skills who are committed to:• a common purpose• common performance goals• an approach for which they hold themselves mutually

accountable

• Having a common purpose and shared performance goals sets the tone and direction of a team.


Differentiating Teams and Groups

• Groups vs. Teams– Group – refers to an assemblage of people or objects

gathered together– Team – refers to people or animals organized to work

together; places more emphasis on concerted action than a group

• Work group – the collection of people who happen to report to the same supervisor or manager– members may be satisfying their own needs in the group and

have little concern for a common objective.– This is where a team and a group differ because in a team, all

members are committed to a common goal.


Table 9.1: Differences Between Teams and Traditional Work Groups


Differentiating Between Teams and Groups

• Job Categories– The work of conventional groups is usually described

in terms of highly specialized jobs that require minimal training and moderate effort.

– In teams, members have many different skills that fit into one or two broad job categories.

• Authority– In conventional work groups the supervisor directly

controls workers’ daily activities.– In teams, members discuss what activities need to be

done and determine who has the necessary skills and who will do each task.


Differentiating Between Teams and Groups (continued)

• Reward Systems– The traditional reward and compensation systems

suitable for individual motivation are not appropriate in a team-based organization.

• In a conventional setting, employees are usually rewarded on the basis of their individual performance, seniority, or job classification.

• In a team-based situation, team members are rewarded for mastering a range of skills needed to meet team performance goals, and rewards are sometimes based on team performance.


Team-Oriented Reward Systems

• Skill-Based Pay– Requires team members to acquire a set of the core skills

needed for their particular team plus additional special skills, depending on career tracks or team needs

– Employees can increase their base pay by acquiring special skills

• Gain-Sharing Systems– Rewards all team members from all teams based on the

performance of the organization, division, or plant– Requires a baseline performance that team members must

exceed to receive some share of the gain over the baseline measure


Team-Oriented Reward Systems (continued)

• Team Based Plans– Similar to gain-sharing plans except that

the unit of performance and pay is the team rather than a plant, a division, or the entire organization

– For the plan to be effective, each team must have specific performance targets or baseline measures that it considers realistic.


Benefits of Teams in Organizations

• Enhanced Performance– May take many forms, including improved

productivity, quality, and customer service.• Such enhancements result from pooling individual efforts

in new ways and continuously striving to improve for the benefit of the team.

• Employee Benefits:– Teams can provide the sense of self-control,

human dignity, identification with work, and sense of self-worth and self-fulfillment for which current workers seem to strive.


Benefits of Teams in Organizations (continued)

• Reduced Costs– As empowered teams reduce scrap, make fewer

errors, file fewer worker compensation claims, and reduce absenteeism and turnover, resulting in significant cost reductions.

• Organizational Enhancements– Other improvements in organizations that result

from moving from a hierarchically based, directive culture to a team-based culture include increased innovation, creativity, and flexibility.


Table 9.2: Benefits of Teams in Organizations


Costs of Teams in Organizations

• Costs of Teams– The costs of teams are usually expressed in terms

of the difficulty of changing to a team-based organization.

– The primary costs include:• Perception by traditional groups that their roles are

threatened• Slowness of the process of full team development• Premature abandonment of the change to a team-base

organization


Types of Teams

• Quality Circles– Small groups of employees from the same work

area who regularly meet to discuss and recommend solutions to workplace problems

• Work Teams– All the people working in an area, are relatively

permanent, and do the daily work, making decisions regarding how the team's work is done


Types of Teams (continued)

• Problem-Solving Teams– Temporary teams established to attack

specific problems in the workplace

• Management Teams– Consist of managers from various areas

that coordinate work teams


Types of Teams (continued)

• Product Development Teams– Combinations of work teams and problem-solving

teams that create new designs for products or services that will satisfy customer needs

• Work Teams– Work together via computer and other electronic

communication utilities; members move in and out of meetings and the team itself as the situation dictates


Implementing Teams in Organizations

• Planning the Change– The change to a team-based organization requires

a great deal of analysis and planning before it is implemented.

• Making the Decision– Prior to making the decision, top management

needs to:• establish the leadership for the change• develop a steering committee• conduct a feasibility study• make the go/no-go decision


Implementing Teams in Organizations (continued)

• Preparing for implementation consists of the following five steps:

1.Clarifying the mission

2.Selecting the site for the first work teams

3.Preparing the design team

4.Planning the transfer of authority

5.Drafting the preliminary plan



• Phases of Implementation– Phase 1: Start Up

• Team members are selected and prepared to work in teams.

– Phase 2: Reality and Unrest• Team members are confused about and frustrated with the

new situation.• For employees, unfamiliar tasks, more responsibility, and

worry about job security replace hope for the opportunities presented by the new approach.

– Phase 3: Leader-Centered Teams• Team develops an identity and focuses on a single

member as the team leader.



• Phases of Implementation (continued)– Phase 4: Tightly Focused Teams

• Team has confidence in itself, is solving problems, and is resolving internal conflicts.

• Communication with external team begins to diminish, the team covers up for underperforming members, and inter-team rivalries can turn sour, leading to unhealthy competition.

– Phase 5: Self-Managed Teams• Phase 5 is the end result of the months or years of

planning and implementation.• Mature teams are meeting or exceeding their performance

goals.


Figure 9.1: Phases of Team Implementation


Team Performance

• Team Performance– Organizations typically expect too much

too soon when they implement teams.


Figure 9.2: Performance and Implementation of Teams

Reference: From The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High Performance Organization by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K Smith. Boston, MA 1993, p. 84. Copyright 1993 McKinley &Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business School Publishing.


Start at the Top

• Change starts at the top in every successful team implementation.

• Top management has three important roles to play:1. Top management must decide to go to a team-based

organization for sound, business performance-related reasons; a major cultural change cannot be made simply because it is the fad.

2. Top management is instrumental in communicating to the rest of the organization the reasons for the change.

3. Top management must support the changed effort during difficult times.

Chapter Nine Using Teams in Organizations. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.9-2 Chapter Objectives Differentiate teams from groups.

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