Transcript Chapter Nineteen - University of Mississippi

Mgmt 371
Chapter Nineteen
Managing Work Groups and Teams
Much of the slide content was created by Dr, Charlie Cook, Houghton Mifflin, Co.©
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Groups and Teams in
Organizations
 Group

Two or more people who interact regularly to
accomplish a common purpose or goal.
 Types of Groups and Teams



Functional groups
Informal or interest groups
Task groups
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Types of Groups in Organizations
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Groups and Teams in
Organizations
 Team - A group of workers who function as a
unit, often with little or no supervision, to carry
out work-related tasks, functions, and
activities.

Sometimes called self-managed teams, crossfunctional teams, self-directed work teams or
high performance teams.
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Groups and Teams in
Organizations (Benefits)
 Benefits of teams

Give more responsibility for task
performance to the workers who do
the tasks.

Empower workers by giving them
greater authority and decision-making
freedom.

Allow organizations to capitalize on
the knowledge and motivation of their
workers.

Enable the organization to shed its
bureaucracy and to promote flexibility
and responsiveness.
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Groups and Teams in
Organizations
 Why People Join Groups and Teams





Interpersonal attraction
Group activities
Group goals
Need satisfaction
Instrumental benefits
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Types of Teams
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Stages of Group
Development
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Characteristics of
Groups and Teams
 Role
 The part an individual plays in helping the group
reach its goals.
 Task-specialist role
 Socioemotional role
 Role Structures
 The set of defined roles and interrelationships
among those roles that the group or team members
define and accept.
 Emerge as a result of role episodes in which
the expected role is translated and defined
into the enacted role.
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Characteristics of
Groups and Teams
 Expected Role – the degree to which all
members of a group believe what behaviors
are appropriate to the focal person’s role.
 Sent Role – role expectations sent to the focal
person.
 Perceived Role – what the focal person
thought his or her role entailed.
 Enacted Role – the way the focal person
actually acts out his or her role.
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The Development of a Role
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Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (cont’d)
 Role Structures

Role ambiguity occurs when the sent role is
unclear.

Role overload occurs when role expectations
exceed an individual’s capacities.
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Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (Role conflict )
 Role conflict occurs when the messages
and cues comprising the sent role are clear
but contradictory or mutually exclusive.
conflict – worker overtime or
taking your kid to a movie [Good employee
v. good dad]
 Interrole
 Intrarole
conflict - conflicting demands in
a single role [manager is told to reduce
tardiness by her boss, while subordinates
are pressing her to cut them some slack].
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Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (Role conflict )
conflict – when a person
receives contradictory communications.
[The Department chair says increase
academic in classes in the morning then
emphasizes retention in the afternoon].
 Intrasender
conflict – the requirements of
the role conflict with personal values [you
are asked to terminate an employee who
you know to be in dire financial straits].
 Person-role
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Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (Norms)
 Behavioral Norms
 Norms
 Are standards of acceptable and
unacceptable behaviors that a group sets for
its members.
 Norm generalization – finance faculty
wearing ties to lecture. (external)
 Different groups with in the same
organization develop different norms.
 Norm variation some members are afforded
idiosyncratic behavior. (internal)
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Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (Norms)

Individual responses to norm conformity:



Adopt the norms of the group.
Try to obey the “spirit” of the norms while
retaining individuality.
Socialization

Norm conformity that occurs when a person
makes the transition from being an outsider to
being and insider in the organization.
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Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (Cohesiveness)
 Cohesiveness
The extent to which members are loyal and
committed to the group; the degree of
mutual attractiveness within the group.
 The degree to which they conform to group
norms.

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Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (Cohesiveness)
 Consequences of Cohesiveness

The interaction between cohesiveness and
performance norms
 The best situation: high cohesiveness
combined with high performance
 The worst situation: high cohesiveness
and low performance
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Factors That Influence Group
Cohesiveness
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The Interaction Between Cohesiveness and
Performance Norms
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Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (Formal Leaders)
 Formal leaders

Have been elected or designated to
engage in leadership activities by the
group members or has been formally
appointed or recognized by the
organization as the leader for the group.
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Characteristics of Groups and
Teams (Informal Leaders)
 Informal leaders
Engage in leadership activities but their
right to do so has not been formally
recognized by the organization or group.
 May also be the formal leader for the group
or may supplement the formal leader in
fulfilling leadership roles.
 Draw on referent or expert power to
establish themselves as leaders.
 Task and social leaders often emerge.

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Interpersonal and Intergroup
Conflict
 Conflict -
A disagreement between two or more
individuals, groups, or organizations.

There is an optimal level of conflict in an organization:
 Too little conflict and the organization becomes
complacent and apathetic, and lacking in
innovation and underperforms.
 Too much conflict creates a dysfunctional
organization where hostility and non-cooperation
predominate, and suffers from low performance.
 A moderate level of conflict in an organization
fosters motivation, creativity, innovation, and
initiative and can raise performance.
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Interpersonal and Intergroup
Conflict (Causes of Conflict)
 Interpersonal Conflict
Personality clash
 Differing beliefs or
perceptions
 Competitiveness
 Intergroup Conflict
 Interdependence
 Different goals
 Competition for
scarce resources

 Conflict Between
Organization and the
Environment
 Conflict with
competition
 Conflict with
consumer groups
 Conflict with
employees
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Methods for Managing Conflict
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