Team dynamics

Team dynamics

Chapter 8

8-2Copyright © 2013 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty LtdMcShane, Olekalns, Travaglione, Organisational Behaviour, 4e

Learning Objectives 8.1 Explain why employees join informal groups, and

discuss the benefits and limitations of teams

8.2 Outline the team effectiveness model and discuss how task characteristics, team size and team composition influence team effectiveness

8.3 Discuss how the four team processes—team development, norms, cohesion and trust—influence team effectiveness

8.4 Discuss the characteristics and factors required for the success of self-directed teams and virtual teams

8.5 Identify four constraints on team decision making and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of four structures aimed at improving team decision making


Self-Managed Teams at RPGAt RPG Group, the introduction of work teams is based on the assumption that empowered employees will contribute to a high-performance work culture. To support this initiative, team members are trained to work together, identifying and solving work-related problems with minimal supervision


What are Teams?• Groups of two or more people • Exist to fulfil a purpose• Interdependent—interact and influence each other• Mutually accountable for achieving common goals• Perceive themselves as a social entity


Many Types of Teams

• Departmental teams• Production/service/

leadership teams• Self-directed teams• Advisory teams

• Task force (project) teams

• Skunkworks• Virtual teams• Communities of

practice


Informal Groups• Groups that exist primarily for the benefit of

their members• Reasons why informal groups exist:

– Innate drive to bond– Social identity—we define ourselves by group

memberships– Goal accomplishment– Emotional support


Advantages/Disadvantages of Teams• Advantages

– Make better decisions, products and services

– Better information sharing

– Increase employee motivation and engagement Fulfils 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


How to Minimise Social Loafing• Make individual performance more visible

– Form smaller teams– Specialise tasks– Measure individual performance

• Increase employee motivation– Increase job enrichment– Select motivated employees


Team Effectiveness Model


Organisation/Team Environment

• Reward systems • Communication systems• Organisational structure• Organisational leadership • Physical space


Team’s Task Characteristics• Teams work better when tasks are clear and

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


Levels of Task Interdependence


Team Size• Smaller teams are better because they:

– Need less time to coordinate roles and resolve differences

– Require less time to develop more member involvement, thus higher commitment

• But the team must be large enough to accomplish the task


Going Ape for Teams at Flight Centre

• Following evolutionary principles, Flight Centre and Symantec started to break up large work teams, and to reduce their managers’ direct reports

• Small Flight Centre families report to village-sized clusters of five teams, which in turn form a Flight Centre tribe of up to 25 teams

<<Insert Ape Image p. 258>>


Team Composition

• Effective team members must be willing and able to work on the team

• Effective team members possess specific competencies (5 Cs)


Five Cs of Team-member Competencies


Team Composition: Diversity• Team members have diverse knowledge,

skills, perspectives, values, etc.• Advantages

– View problems and possible solutions from different perspectives

– Broader knowledge base– Better representation of team’s constituents

• Disadvantages– Take longer to become a high-performing team– More susceptible to ‘fault lines’– Increased risk of dysfunctional conflict


Stages of Team Development


Team Development as Membership and Competence• Two central processes in team development:• Team membership formation

– Transition from ‘them’ to ‘us’– Team becomes part of person’s social identity

• Team competence development– Forming routines with others– Forming shared mental models


Team Roles• A set of behaviours that people are expected

to perform• Some formally assigned; others informally • Informal role assignment occurs during team

development and is related to personal characteristics


Team Building• Formal activities intended to improve the

team’s development and functioning• Types of team building

– Clarify team’s performance goals– Improve team’s problem-solving skills– Improve role definitions– Improve relations


Team Norms• Informal rules and shared expectations that

the team establishes to regulate member behaviours

• Norms develop through:– Initial team experiences – Critical events in team’s history – Experience and values members bring to the

team


Preventing/Changing Dysfunctional Team Norms• State desired norms when forming teams• Select members with preferred values• Discuss counter-productive norms • Reward behaviours representing desired

norms• Disband teams with dysfunctional norms


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 member’s social identity


Teamsize

Memberinteraction

• Smaller teams tend to be more cohesive

• Regular interaction increases cohesion• Calls for tasks with high interdependence

Membersimilarity

• Similarity-attraction effect• Some forms of diversity have less effect

Influences on Team Cohesion


Teamsuccess

External challenges

• Successful teams fulfil member needs• Success increases social identity with team

• Challenges increase cohesion when not overwhelming

Somewhat difficult entry

• Team eliteness increases cohesion• But lower cohesion with severe initiation

Influences on Team Cohesion continued


Team Cohesion Outcomes• Motivated to remain members• Willing to share information• Strong interpersonal bonds • Resolve conflict effectively• Better interpersonal relationships• Better performance (if norms aligned)


Team Cohesion and Performance


Trust Defined• Positive expectations one person has of

another person in situations involving risk


Three Levels of Trust


Self-Directed Teams• SDTs are cross-functional work groups

organised around work processes• They complete an entire piece of work

requiring several interdependent tasks• They have substantial autonomy over the

execution of those tasks


Self-Directed Team Success Factors• Responsible for entire work process• High interdependence within the team• Low interdependence with other teams• Autonomy to organise and coordinate work• Work site and technology support team

communication/coordination


Multicultural teams • Teams built from employees around the

globe• Can be affected by cultural differences:

– Norms (about power, communicating and decision making)

– Values – Local versus global perspectives


Managing Multicultural Teams• Managers of multicultural teams can make

one of three kinds of interventions:– Encourage adaptation– Implement a structural intervention– Direct manager intervention


Virtual Teams• Teams whose members operate across

space, time and organisational boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organisational tasks– Increasingly possible because of:

Information technologies Knowledge-based work

– Increasingly necessary because of: Organisational learning Globalisation


Virtual Team Success Factors• Member characteristics

– Technology savvy– Self-leadership skills– Emotional intelligence

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


Team Decision-Making Constraints• Time constraints

– Time to organise/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 favour—consider more specific features


General Guidelines forTeam 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


Constructive Conflict

• 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

Courtesy of Johnson Space Center/NASA


Rules of Brainstorming• Speak freely• Don’t criticise• Provide as many ideas as possible• Build on others’ ideas


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


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 technology-bound


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Summary• People have a drive to bond. As such, they

join informal groups and work in teams • A team is effective when able to achieve its

objectives, fulfil the needs of its members and maintain its survival

• The model of team effectiveness considers the team and organisational environment, team design and team processes

• Different team types (SDTs, virtual or multicultural) have different challenges and conditions for success

Team dynamics

Chapter 8

Team dynamics

Documents

organisational behaviour

mcgrawhill australia

team size

team dynamicschapter

e team effectiveness

team membersteam members

team decision making8

team processesteam development