8/12/2010
Module 15
Module 15
Teams and Teamwork
• Why is it important to understand teams
and teamwork?
• What are the building blocks of successful
teamwork?
• How can managers create and lead highperformance teams?
15.1
15.1 CONTINUED
Teams and Teamwork
Teams and Teamwork
• Teams offer synergy and other benefits to
organizations and their members
• Teams often suffer from common
performance problems
• Organizations are networks of formal
teams and informal groups
• Organizations use committees, task
forces, and cross functional teams
• Virtual teams are increasingly common in
organizations
• Self-managing teams are a form of job
enrichment for groups
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TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Teamwork Benefits
Teamwork Benefits
• Team
• Synergy
– collection of people with complementary skills
who work together to accomplish shared
goals
g
while holding
g each other mutuallyy
accountable for performance results
– Results of a team effort can create results far
beyond the sum of individual efforts
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Teamwork Problems
Formal and Informal
• Social loafing
• Formal teams
– Team members who “coast” or allow other
members to do the work.
– To prevent social loafing
• Keep groups small
• Make task assignments
interesting
– Officially assigned by the organization for a
purpose
•
•
•
•
Department
Work units
Teams
Divisions
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TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Formal and Informal
Types of Teams
• Informal groups
– Grow spontaneously from co-worker
relationships
• Interest groups
• Friendship groups
• Support groups
Committee • brings together people outside of th i d il j b
their daily job assignments to work in a small team for a specific purpose; the task agenda is specific and ongoing
Project teams or task forces
• bring together people from various parts of i
t f
the organization to work on common problems
Cross‐functional team
• has members from different f ti
functional units
l it
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
TEAMS AND TEAMWORK
Types of Teams
Types of Teams
• Virtual teams
• Self-managing teams
– Use technology to work together from different
locations
Employee‐
involvement team
• has members who meet on a regular basis to l b i t
apply their expertise to continuous improvement
Quality circle
• is a group of workers that meets regularly t
l l
to discuss and plan specific ways to improve work quality
– Have authority to make decisions about how
they share and complete work
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15.2
15.2 CONTINUED
Successful Teamwork
Successful Teamwork
• Teams need the right members and inputs
to be effective
• Teams need the right processes to be
effective
• Teams move through different stages of
development
• Team performance is affected by norms
and cohesiveness
• Team performance is affected by task and
maintenance roles
• Team performance is affected by use of
communication networks
SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK
SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK
Effective Teams
Effective Teams
• Effective teams have three output goals
– Task performance
– Member satisfaction
– Viability for future action
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SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK
SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK
Effective Teams
Effective Teams
• Membership composition
• Inputs that affect team performance
– Mix of abilities, skills, backgrounds and
experiences of the members
• Diverse teams
– Generally more effective
– Team size
– Nature of the task
– Organizational setting
• Team process
• Homogenous teams
– The way members
work together
– May be easier to manage
SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK
SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK
Team Development
Performance
• Stages of team development
• Performance is affected by norms and
cohesiveness
– Norms
• Expected behaviors
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning
• team
development,
one of initial
task orientation
and
interpersonal
testing.
• conflict over
tasks and
working as a
team
• coordination of
task and
operating
agendas
• Effective
teamwork and
focused task
performance.
• Completion of
task, team may
disband
– Cohesiveness
• How committed team
members are
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SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK
SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK
Performance
Roles
• Team performance is affected by task and
maintenance roles
– Task activities contribute directly to the team’s
purpose
– Maintenance activities support the emotional
aspects of the team as a social system
SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK
SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK
Roles
Communication
• Distributed leadership
• Team performance is affected by use of
communication networks
– All members are responsible for recognizing
when task or maintenance activities are
necessary
• Disruptive behaviors cause
problems
– Excessive joking
– Aggressiveness
– Non-participation
– Decentralized
• All members communicate directly
– Centralized
• Requires members to communicate through a
central hub or center point
– Restricted
• Subgroups fail to communicate well, become
antagonistic and restrict communication
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SUCCESSFUL TEAMWORK
15.3
Communication
High Performance Teams
• Team building helps team members learn
to work together
• Team performance is affected by use of
decision making methods
decision-making
• Team performance suffers when
groupthink leads to bad decisions
• Special techniques can increase creativity
in team decision making
HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS
HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS
Team building
Team Decisions
• Team building
• Decision making
– Collaborative activities to assess team
function and increase effectiveness
– Selecting a course of action
• Consensus
– After
Aft th
thorough
h di
discussion
i mostt tteam
members favor one decision and
other members agree to support
the decision
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HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS
HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS
Team Decisions
Encouraging Creativity
• Group think
• Brainstorming
– Tendency of members of highly cohesive
teams to lose their critical evaluative
capabilities
p
and make p
poor decisions
– Contributing ideas in an open group
discussion without concern for practicality
• Nominal Group Technique
– Uses a structured agenda to encourage
participation and restrict criticism
Module 15 Case
• NASCAR – Fast cars, passion and
teamwork create wins
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