UGBA105:
Organizational Behavior
Week 4:
Managing Teams
Class agenda: Teams and
Teamwork in Organizations
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Defining and describing teams in organizations
The goods and bads of teams and the problem of “fit”
Steps in team design
Excerpts from “12 Angry Men”
Leadership in teams
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What is a team?
“A team is a small number of people with
complementary skills who are committed
to a common purpose, set of performance
goals, and approach for which they hold
themselves mutually accountable.”
Katzenbach and Smith: “The Discipline of Teams”
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Top
Management
Process
Coordinators
The team concept is
central to the design of
the modern horizontal
organization
Team
Team
New product development process
Process
Coordinators
Team
Team
Order fulfillment process
Process
Coordinators
Team
Procurement, logistics process
Team
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Read your way to a better team!
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What kinds of
teams exist in
organizations?
• Executive and entrepreneurial teams
• Off-line problem-solving teams
– Task forces
– Quality circles; safety; productivity
• On-line production teams
– E.g., NUMMI, Saturn
• Cross-functional (and cross-product) process teams
– Product development
• Boundary-spanning (Chrysler)
• Customer service (e.g., Xerox)
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“The myth of the executive team”
“The expression ‘top management team’ is a misnomer for the groups that
exist at the apex of many firms. Many such groups are simply constellations
of executive talent: individuals who rarely come together (and then usually
for perfunctory information exchange), who rarely collaborate, and who
focus almost entirely on their own part of the enterprise.
Donald C. Hambrick, Financial Times, Oct 11, 2001
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An entrepreneurial team
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A product development team in a
mature corporation
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What’s so good about teams?
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Better coordination & cooperation
Flexibility & responsiveness
Empowered & motivated people
Reduced resistance to change
More accountability & responsibility
Superior decision-making
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Are teams or individuals better at
decision-making?
• Teams bring together greater diversity of
skills, knowledge, points of view
• Teams (diverse ones) are more creative
• Teams make more accurate decisions
– But may not be best for deep learning
• Greater acceptance of decisions by team
members
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What are the
downsides to
teamwork?
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Slowness, inefficiency
Coordination costs
Increased uncertainty and risk
Accountability problems
Politics, conflict, stalemate
Groupthink
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The problem of groupthink
Definition: When members fail to disagree, to bring up doubts and
fears, or to bring up information that contradicts the team’s decision.
Suddenly, they are going in a direction that makes no one happy
simply because no one wants to cause conflict.
Components:
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Illusion of invulnerability
Rationalizations collectively devised to discount negative feedback
Belief in team’s morality & shared negative views of external detractors
Pressure to conform on anyone who doubts about the majority view
Reluctance to deviate from what appears to be the team consensus
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A contemporary example
On February 7, 1999, the audit committee of
Enron Corporation’s board of directors gathered in
London to hear rather startling news. The company’s
auditors described Enron’s accounting practices as
“high risks.” David B. Duncan, who headed up the
Arthur Anderson L.L.P. team at the company, informed
the committee that Enron’s accounting was “pushing
the limits” and was “’at the edge’ of acceptable
practice”. However, none of the directors “objected to
the procedures described by the auditors, requested a
second opinion, or demanded a more prudent
approach.”
--John A. Byrne (Feb 2002) Business Week
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The “risky shift”
(Group polarization)
An extension of groupthink
The tendency for decisions of a group to be
more extreme (whether risky or cautious) than
those made by individuals acting alone.
People with moderate viewpoints assume that
teammates hold more extreme views, so they
alter their own views to conform (groupthink).
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The value of diversity and dissent
(Based on Charlan Nemeth’s jury research)
• Exposure to minority viewpoints, even when they’re wrong,
stimulates divergent thought and a search for information
– Leads to better performance and decision-making, more creativity.
– Downsides are: conflict, low morale, persecution of minorities
• How about role playing at dissent: The devil’s advocate?
– Doesn’t work. Need an authentic minority. Devil’s advocates can reinforce
the convictions of the group.
We profit from people with whom we disagree. But we don’t give them
credit – we get angry.
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Making teams work in
YOUR organization
Achieving “fit” to:
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Strategy
People
Culture
Management & leadership
Tasks and technology
Formal and informal structure
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Teams were a bad fit for Levi’s
(S)killed workers.. found themselves pitted against slower colleagues, damaging
morale and triggering corrosive infighting… Longtime friendships dissolved as
faster workers tried to banish slower ones. The quantity of pants produced per hour
worked plunged in 1993 to 77% of pre-team levels. Meanwhile, labor and overhead
costs surged …At the same time, the wages of many top performers have fallen.
"We created a lot of anxiety and pain and suffering in our people, and for what?"
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asks Ralph Pollard, a former Levi's manufacturing manager.
But teams are key to Southwest
Air’s fast turnarounds
Airplanes arrive at the gate, are unloaded, serviced, reloaded, and depart in
an average of 17 minutes, compared with the industry average of 43 minutes.
Behind this strategy are cross-functional teams that coordinate up to 10
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distinct functional groups, from pilots to cabin cleaners
The set-up
• Size
• Goals
The resources
• Authority/empowerment
• Material resources
• Information
The structure
• Roles and skills
• Demographics
• Incentives
The culture
• Values and norms
• Training
Designing
effective teams
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Roles every team should have:
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Facilitator: Moderator of group process. Makes sure the group stays
on target and points out issues that may derail the group. Not the
decision maker (the group is), so does not have final say on any
decision.
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Timekeeper: In charge of making sure the group stays on track (e.g.,
you don’t stay up until 4:00am working on a marketing project).
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Recorder: In charge of taking notes. Effectively, the “group memory”,
charged with ensuring that good ideas are not lost.
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Comic relief: Self-appointed position; usually the person with the
worst PowerPoint or Excel skills. Helps the group keep a sense of
humor about the fact that it is 4:00am & you have just started phase II
of the project that is due at 8:20am. (Please note that the timekeeper &
facilitator should be shot for this.)
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Roles teams should watch out for
• Blocker: Stubbornly resists all attempts by the team to
move ahead, is constantly negative, and frequently
returns to rejected issues & ideas
• Recognition seeker: Calls attention to him/herself by
boasting and acting as if he or she were superior
• Bully/dominator: Manipulates the team to pursue his/her
agenda; interrupts others; tries to gain attention
• Avoider: Isolated; passive resister
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Develop these:
Cultural patterns of functional teams
• Openness: Members encourage flexibility, experimentation, and
creativity
• Empathy: Members listen and to try to understand one other’s
views and values
• Equality: Members respect the positions of others and no one is
made to feel inferior
• Spontaneity: Members express ideas freely and honestly without
hidden motives
• Problem orientation: Members openly discuss mutual problems
without rushing to give solutions or insist on agreement
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Guard against these:
Cultural patterns of dysfunctional teams
• Evaluation: Members’ manner of speech, tone of voice, or verbal content
is perceived as critical or judgmental of others
• Control: Communication is perceived as an attempt to manipulate or
dominate the recipient
• Strategems: Members are seen as operating from hidden motives, playing
games, feigning emotion, withholding information, or having private
access to sources of data
• Superiority: Members convey an attitude of condescension toward others
• Dogmatism: Members insist that their own points are best and try to foist
them on the team
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Guess which describes Dilbert’s world
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Training for teamwork
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Meeting skills, time management
Conflict management
Problem-solving
Group dynamics, team building
Change management
Communication
Coaching and feedback skills
Business knowledge (e.g., customer service)
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Outward Bound and similar
team-building programs may help
• Break down status and
role distinctions
• Foster real
interdependence &
cooperation
• Cognitive dissonance
builds commitment
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And now, our feature
presentation ...
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Leadership in teams
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(Formal) leaders are most
important in the early stages of
team development
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Mature
= Leader
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Experienced
Transitional
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Start - up
C. Manz & H. Sims
Business Without Bosses
John Wiley, 1993 31
Leadership - followership roles
rotate in mature teams
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Teamwork implies rotation of
leader and follower roles
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Leadership behaviors:
Instrumental (task-oriented)
• Initiating: Stating the goal or problem,making proposals
– “Let’s set up an agenda..”
• Seeking information or opinions:
– “What do you think would be the best approach to this, Jack”
• Providing information and opinions:
– “I worked on a similar problem last year, and..”
• Clarifying: Helping one another understand ideas and suggestions
– “What you mean, Sue, is that we could…”
• Elaborating: “Building on Don’s idea, we could…”
• Summarizing: Reviewing points covered & ideas expressed so decisions are
made on full information
– Appointing a recorder to take notes
• Consensus testing: Testing if group is near decision or needs to continue
discussion
– “Is the group ready to decide about this…”
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Leadership behaviors:
Maintenance (socio-emotional)
• Harmonizing: Mediating conflict, reconciling differences, relieving tensions
– “Don, I don’t think you and Sue really see the question that differently.”
• Compromising: Admitting error at times of conflict
– “Well, I’d be willing to change if you provided some help on…”
• Gate-keeping: Making sure all members have a chance to express ideas and
feelings
– “Sue, we haven’t heard from you on this issue.”
• Encouraging: Helping a member make his or her point; creating climate of
acceptance
– “I think what you started to say is important, Jack. Please continue.”
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Leading a dysfunctional team
• Adopt a Socratic
leadership style
• Attack data and logic, not
persons
• Don’t polarize others in
group against you
• Remain calm
• Don’t reveal an explicit
position that can be
attacked – appear neutral
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Key points to remember
• Just any old group of people is not a team
• Teams are not always the answer
• To ensure success, teams must be carefully
designed and supported
• Being a good team member requires effort
• Leading teams is tricky business
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Wednesday
• Lecture tie-up, business
• Prepare case: “The team that wasn’t”
• Project team discussions
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