12
Teams
When the work to be done is
difficult, complicated, and
important—such as building a
bridge, flying a spacecraft to the
moon, or performing cardiac
surgery—people turn to teams.
When a group becomes a true
team, it is transformed into a
complex, adaptive, dynamic
task-performing system. Teams
are groups, but not all groups
are teams.
 Are teams groups?
 How does the team’s
composition influence
effectiveness?
 What group processes mediate
the input-output relationship?
 How effective are teams, and
how can they be improved?
Preview
Teams
The Nature
of Teams
Building the
Team
Working in
Teams
Team
Performance
History of
teams
The team
player
Team
processes
Evaluating
teams
What is a
team?
KSAs
Cognitive
processes
Suggestions
Types of
teams
Diversity
Cohesion
Systems
model
Men &
Women
History of
teams
The first documented use of the
word team to describe groups of
humans working collectively did
not occur until the 1600s:
Twere like falling into a whole
Shire of butter: they had need be a
teeme of Dutchmen, should draw
him out”
(Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fayre)
Team: from the
old English and
Norse word “for a
bridle and thence
to a set of draught
animals harnessed
together” (Annett
& Stanton, 2001,
p. 1045).
Half of the
workers in the
United States
now belong to
at least one
team at work.
Percentage of
Organizations Relying on
Teams by Type of Industry
Corporate
Industry
Nonprofit
0
50
100
Data Source: Devine et al., 1999
Interaction
What is a team?
Teams are
“extreme”
groups, for each
of the qualities
of a typical
group are
exhibited, to an
extreme degree,
in a team
Goals
Interdependence
Structure
Unity
•concentrated
•continuous
• performance/outcome
focused
• collective goals rather than
only individualistic ones
• tightly coupled dependencies
• member’s have interlocking
abilities, skills…
• clearly defined roles and
norms
• explicit lines of authority
communication are
• cohesive
• collective efficacy
Types of
teams
Management
Project
Executive
Negotiation
Command
Commission
Design
Advisory
Work
Action
Expeditions
• Mobile, exploration focused
Service
Performance
Production
Medical
Crews
Response
• Make use of tools,
equipment
Military
Task Forces
Transportation
• Specific project,Sports
time
limited
Types of
teams
Hackman identifies
four types of teams
based on responsibility
for setting procedures
and goals
•
Manager-led
•
Self-managing
•
Self-designing
•
Self-governing
Cross-functional teams (project groups
composed of people with differing types of
functional expertise) are common in many
organizations, but they tend to be unstable
and not particularly effective.
When
teams?
Task Demands
Psychological &
Interpersonal Demands
 How difficult is the
 Desire for company
task?
 How complex is the
task?
 How important is the
task?
 How monotonous/dull
is the task?
(work partners)
 Diffusion of
responsibility
 Social loafing
 “Romance of Teams”
Systems
model
The I-P-O Model of Teams
The Nature
of Teams
Building the
Team
The team
player
Working in
Teams
Example:
The
Team
1980
US Hockey
Performance
Team
 Strong composition effects
(fit of members)
KSAs
 Presence of “team players”
 Individual level of skill and
Diversity
experience
Men& Low diversity and high
Women
cohesion
 Outstanding leadership
Building the
Team
The team
player
Teamwork and
Personality
.05
Emotional
Stability
.12
.16
.25
.24
Extraversion
Openness
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Adjustment
Dominance
Flexibility
Trust
Dependability
Self-esteem
Affiliation
Cooperation
Dutifulness
Social
perceptiveness
Achievement
Efficacy
Expressivity
Performance
KSAs
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
In general, great teams
require great group members
Additive
effects
Most Groups
Rare
(baffling)
groups
Skills, training of individual members
Synergy
effect
Weakest link
effect
Bad apple
effect
Diversity
Broader range of KSAs
 Increased creativity, less traditional solutions and
outlooks
Advantages of
Heterogeneous
Teams

Advantages of
Homogenous
Teams
 Stronger social identity, fewer schisms,
subgroups
 More cohesive
 Reduced conflict, misunderstanding
Dealing with Team Diversity
 Surface diversity easy to deal with,
deep diversity more difficult
 Organizational support
 Reduce tendency to subgroup
Mixing Men and Women in Teams:
bonding effects, sexism, tradition,
“civilizing” effects, tokenism, etc.
The Nature
of Teams
Building the
Team
Working in
Teams
Team
Performance
Team
processes
Team Processes: How well do members combine
Cognitive
their knowledge, skills,
abilities and resources
processes
through a coordinated
series of actions
Cognitive Processes:Cohesion
Do
members share an
understanding of the team’s
tasks, resources, and
procedures?
Cohesion: Is the group
unified?
Team
processes
Transition
Processes
Mission
analysis
Goal
specification
Strategy
formulation
Action
Process
Interpersonal
Process
Monitoring
progress
Conflict
management
Monitor int/ext
resources/
demands
Motivation
Monitor/tweak
“teamwork”
Affect /cohesion
management
Coordination
Social support
Team
Processes
Team
Cognition
Transactive memory: a
process by which
information to be
remembered is
distributed to various
members of the group
who can ten be relied
upon to provide that
information when it is
needed
High performing teams
 Capitalize on transactive
memory processes: different
members are trusted to know
specific areas of information
 Train as a team, rather than
individually
 Review their work regularly and
identify methods to improve
Team
Learning
Team
Cohesion
Social Cohesion
Task Cohesion
Collective Cohesion
Emotional Cohesion
Structural Cohesion
Sources
• A teams’s
cohesiveness
derives on a
number of
sources, such as
attraction,
commitment to
a task, and so
on.
The Nature
of Teams
Building the
Team
Working in
Teams
Team
Performance
Evaluating
teams
Suggestions
Is he right?
Empirical
evidence is
mixed
Hackman maintains
that teams should:
1.
Meet standards of
quantity, quality,
and timeliness
2.
The team should
improve over time.
3.
The team should
contribute in
positive ways to
members’ wellbeing and learning
 Case studies and field
Suggestions:





studies generally support
the
effectiveness
of teams
Make
certain that so-called
teams
actually are
teams
Experimental
studies
identify a number of
Train
individuals
to
work
in
limitations for working in
teams and to lead teams
teams
Surveysorganizational
of workers find
Provide
(and
financial)
support
to teams
widespread
dissatisfaction
(Remember
quality
circle!)
with teamsthe
(and
leaders)
Review
Teams
The Nature
of Teams
Building the
Team
Working in
Teams
Team
Performance
History of
teams
The team
player
Team
processes
Evaluating
teams
What is a
team?
KSAs
Cognitive
processes
Suggestions
Types of
teams
Diversity
Cohesion
Systems
model
Men &
Women