Building the Team - e
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Transcript Building the Team - e
BUILDING THE TEAM
What are Teams?
Groups of two or more people
Exist to fulfill a purpose
Interdependent -- interact and influence
each other
Mutually accountable for achieving
common goals
Perceive themselves as a social entity
Team as a collection of
individuals
Team as a collection of
individuals with a shared
common vision
Alignment of purpose
Groups versus Teams
All teams are groups
Some groups are just people assembled
together
Teams have task interdependence whereas
some groups do not (e.g., group of
employees enjoying lunch together)
Many Types of Teams
Departmental teams
Production/service/ leadership teams
Self-directed teams
Advisory teams
Skunkworks
Task force (project) teams
Virtual teams
Communities of practice
Why Informal Groups Exist
1. Innate drive to bond
2. Social identity
We define ourselves by group memberships
3. Goal accomplishment
4. Emotional support
Advantages of Teams
Compared with individuals working alone, teams
tend to:
Make better decisions
Make better products and services due to
more knowledge and expertise
Increase employee engagement
The Trouble With Teams
Individuals better/faster on some tasks
Process losses - cost of developing and
maintaining teams
Brooks’ Law -- more delays when adding
members to a team already behind schedule
Social loafing
Occurs when individuals exert less effort when
working in groups than alone
How to Minimize Social Loafing
Make individual performance more
visible
Form smaller teams
Specialize tasks
Measure individual performance
Increase employee motivation
Increase job enrichment
Select motivated employees
TEAM EFFECTIVENESS MODEL
AND COMPONENTS
Team Effectiveness Model
Team Design
•Task characteristics
•Team size
Organizational
•Team composition
and Team
Environment
Team Processes
•Team development
•Team norms
•Team cohesiveness
•Team trust
Team
Effectiveness
• Achieve
organizational
goals
• Satisfy member
needs
• Maintain team
survival
Team’s Task and Size
Task characteristics
Better when tasks are clear, easy to implement
Share common inputs, processes, or outcomes
Task interdependence
Team size
Smaller teams are better
But large enough to accomplish task
Levels of Task Interdependence
High
A
Reciprocal
B
Sequential
A
C
B
C
Resource
Pooled
Low
A
B
C
Team Composition
Effective team members must be willing and able to work
on the team
Effective team members are good at the 5 C’s:
Cooperating
Coordinating
Communicating
Comforting (psych support)
Conflict resolving
Team diversity
Homogeneous or heterogeneous, depending on task
requirements
Team Development
Team development involves:
Interpersonal knowledge and trust
Understand and agree on roles
Discover appropriate behaviors
Learn to coordinate with each other
Develop team mental models
Stages of Team Development
Performing
Norming
Storming
Forming
Existing teams
might regress
back to an
earlier stage of
development
Adjourning
Team Norms
Informal rules and shared expectations team
establishes to regulate member behaviors
Norms develop through:
Initial team experiences
Critical events in team’s history
Experience/values members bring to the team
Changing Team Norms
Introduce norms when forming teams
Select members with preferred values
Discuss counter-productive norms
Reward behaviors 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
Calculative -- members believe the team will
fulfill goals and needs
Emotional -- team is part of person’s social
identity
Influences on Team Cohesion
Member
similarity
• Similarity-attraction effect
• Some forms of diversity have less effect
Team
size
• Smaller teams more cohesive
Member
interaction
• Regular interaction increases cohesion
• Calls for tasks with high interdependence
Influences on Team Cohesion
(con’t)
Somewhat
difficult entry
• Team eliteness increases cohesion
• But lower cohesion with severe initiation
Team
success
• Successful teams fulfill member needs
• Success increases social identity with team
External
challenges
• Challenges increase cohesion when not
overwhelming
Team Cohesiveness Outcomes
1. Want to remain members
2. Willing to share information
3. Strong interpersonal bonds
4. Resolve conflict effectively
5. Better interpersonal relationships
Cohesiveness and Performance
Team Norms
Support Goals
Moderately
high task
performance
High task
performance
Team Norms
Oppose Goals
Moderately
low task
performance
Low task
performance
Low Team
Cohesiveness
High Team
Cohesiveness
Trust Defined
A psychological state comprising the
intention to accept vulnerability based
upon positive expectations of the intent or
behavior of another person
Three Levels of Trust
High
Identity-based Trust
Knowledge-based Trust
Calculus-based Trust
Low
Three Levels of Trust
(con’t)
Calculus-based trust
Based on deterrence
Fragile, limited, dependent on punishment
Knowledge-based trust
Based on predictability and competence
Fairly robust, develops over time
Identification-based trust
Based on common mental models and values
Increases with person’s social identity with team
SELF-DIRECTED TEAMS AND
VIRTUAL TEAMS
Self-Directed Team Attributes
Formal groups that complete an entire piece of work
requiring several interdependent tasks and have substantial
autonomy over the execution of these tasks.
1. Complete an entire piece of work requiring
interdependent tasks
2. Substantial autonomy over execution of the team’s tasks
Self-Directed Team Success
Factors
Responsible for entire work process
High interdependence within the team
Low interdependence with other teams
Autonomy to organize and coordinate work
Technology supports team
communication/coordination
Virtual Teams
Teams whose members operate across space,
time, and organizational boundaries and are
linked through information technologies to
achieve organizational tasks
Increasingly possible because of:
Information technologies
Knowledge-based work
Increasingly necessary because of:
Knowledge management
Globalization
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
Team Decision Making Constraints
Time constraints
Time to organize/coordinate
Production blocking
Evaluation apprehension
Belief that other team members are silently evaluating you
Conformity to peer pressure
Suppressing opinions that oppose team norms
Groupthink
Tendency in highly cohesive teams to value consensus at the
price of decision quality
Concept is losing favor -- need to consider specific features
instead (e.g. overconfidence)
General Guidelines for Team 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
Occurs when team members debate their
different perceptions about an issue in a way
that keeps the conflict focused on the task
rather than people.
Problem: constructive conflict easily slides
into personal attacks
Rules of Brainstorming
1. Speak freely
2. Don’t criticize
3. Provide as many ideas as possible
4. Build on others’ ideas
Evaluating Brainstorming
Strengths
Produces more innovative ideas
Strengthens decision acceptance and team
cohesiveness
Sharing positive emotions encourages creativity
Higher customer satisfaction if clients participate
Weaknesses
Production blocking still exists
Evaluation apprehension exists in many groups
Fewer ideas generated than when people work alone
Electronic Brainstorming
Participants share ideas using software
Usually in the same room, but may be
dispersed
Question posted, then participants submit
their ideas or comments on computer
Comments/ideas appear anonymously on
computer screens or at front of room
Evaluating Electronic Brainstorming
Strengths
Less production blocking
Less evaluation apprehension
More creative synergy
More satisfaction with process
Weaknesses
Too structured
Technology-bound
Candid feedback is threatening
Not applicable to all decisions
Nominal Group Technique
Describe
problem
Individual
Activity
Team
Activity
Write down
possible
solutions
Possible
solutions
described
to others
Individual
Activity
Vote on
solutions
presented