Chapter 10
Managing Teams
© 2014 Cengage Learning
MGMT6
10-1 explain the good and bad of using teams
10-2 recognize and understand the different kinds of
teams
10-3 understand the general characteristics of work
teams
10-4 explain how to enhance work-team effectiveness
© 2014 Cengage Learning
The Advantages of Teams
Teams improve…
•
•
•
•
Customer satisfaction
Product and service quality
Product development speed and efficiency
Employee job satisfaction
– Cross-training
• Decision making
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-1
The Disadvantages of Teams
• Initially high turnover
• Social loafing
• Groupthink
• Minority domination
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-1
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-1
Autonomy
The degree to which workers have the
discretion, freedom, and independence to
decide how and when to accomplish their jobs.
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-2
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-2
Special Kinds of Teams
• Cross-functional teams
• Virtual teams
• Project teams
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10-2
Work Team Characteristics
• Team norms
• Team cohesiveness
• Team size
• Team conflict
• Stages of team development
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-3
Team Norms
Informally agreed-on standards that
regulate team behavior.
• Regulate the everyday actions that
allow teams to function effectively
• Teams with negative norms influence
team member to engage in negative
behaviors
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-3
Team Cohesiveness
The extent to which team members are
attracted to a team and motivated to remain
in it.
•Make sure that all team members are
present at team activities.
•Create additional opportunities for
teammates to work together.
•Engage in nonwork activities.
•Make employees feel they are part of a
special organization.
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-3
Team Size
• In very large teams, members find it
difficult to get to know one another, and
team can splinter into subgroups.
• Very small groups may lack diversity
and knowledge found in large teams.
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-3
Team Conflict
• Cognitive conflict
– members disagree because of different
experiences and expertise
• Affective conflict
– results in hostility, anger, resentment,
distrust, cynicism, apathy
• Emphasizing c-type conflict is not
enough
10-3
© 2014 Cengage Learning
Having a Good Fight
• Work with more, not less, information
• Develop multiple alternatives to enrich
debate
• Establish common goals
• Inject humor into the workplace
• Maintain a balance of power
• Resolve issues without forcing a consensus
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-3
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-3
Setting Team Goals and Priorities
• Increasing a team’s performance is
inherently more complex than just
increasing one person’s performance.
• Challenging team goals affect how hard
team members work.
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-4
Stretch Goals
Extremely ambitious goals that workers
don’t know how to reach.
•Teams must have a high degree of autonomy
•Teams must be empowered with control over
resources
•Structural accommodation
•Bureaucratic immunity
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-4
Selecting People
• Individualists
– put their own welfare and interests first
• Collectivists
– put group interests ahead of self
• Team level
– the average level of ability, experience,
personality, or any other factor on a team
• Team diversity
– variances or differences in ability, personality,
or any other factor on a team
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-4
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-4
Team Training
• Interpersonal skills
• Decision making skills
• Problem solving skills
• Conflict resolution skills
• Technical training
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-4
Team Compensation
• Skill-based pay
– pay employees for learning additional skills or
knowledge
• Gainsharing
– companies share the financial value of
performance gains with their workers
• Nonfinancial rewards
– vacations, T-shirts, awards, certificates
© 2014 Cengage Learning
10-4
Holden Outerwear
1.
2.
3.
<click screenshot for video>
What type of team did Nikki
Brush participate in when
she was a freelancer?What
type of team does she
participate in as a full-time
employee at Holden?
What are the advantages and
disadvantages of using teams
at Holden? What can
managers do to help avoid
the disadvantages?
What steps do the leaders of
Holden take to insure that
their workgroups have high
levels of cohesion?
© 2014 Cengage Learning