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Teams &
Leadership
MGMT20001, Organisational Behaviour
(OB)
Department of Management and
Marketing
Learning Objectives
•
Understand what happens when people gather together in groups
• Understand why a team isn’t just any old group of people
•
Understand what makes a team effective or ineffective in an organisation?
•
Understand what we mean by “Distributed Leadership” in the context of
teamwork
3
The Rise and Rise of Teamwork
Teamwork has important organisational advantages …
•
It is more productive (the creation of SYNERGY)
• It improves team members’ quality of working life
•
It improves an organisation’s problem solving capabilities
• Working in groups is a more “natural” form of organisation: it recognises
employees’ need to social needs
4
The Influence of Group
Membership
•
Through social interactions with others we acquire beliefs, attitudes, values,
and characteristic behaviours.
•
In this way, who we associate with has a crucial impact on our sense of
identity (Who am I? Who are we?)
•
Groups also create a social setting where we can exert influence on others
(e.g., exhortation, demonstration, coercion, bribery, shame, etc.).
• Groups satisfy important needs (social affiliation, common purpose,
recognition, etc.)
5
Formal and Informal Groups
Groups are important in OB because they are ubiquitous in organisations and
exert an important influence over the conduct of group members
Groups can be formal or informal (i.e., Human Relations School)
• In organisations, teams are formal groups intentionally created to achieve an
objective set by the organisation
• BUT informal groups can emerge spontaneously and reflect the common
interests of their members
6
What are Group Dynamics?
In OB 'group' takes on a specific meaning…
Two or more people acting interdependently to achieve a common
objective.
The “strength” of the interaction depends on the nature of the common
objective, the context in which it takes place and the temperament/social
skills of the group members.
7
What are Group Dynamics?
8
Teams vs. Groups
Information
Groups
Teams
May be shared
Shared and acted on
Contribution to organization Little awareness
Clear understanding
Interdependence between
members
May recognize
Understand value of synergy
Externally imposed
objective
Lacking – no specific purpose Clear objective
9
Team Effectiveness Model
10
Team Design
Task characteristics:
• Is the task complex?
• Could one person do it by themselves?
Team Size:
• How many team members? (5-7?)
• Process losses, coordination
Team Composition:
• Does it require different skill and knowledge sets?
• Who will be affected by the team’s work/task?
11
Team States
Norms: Do we have a shared understanding of how to work together?
Cohesion: Do we identify with the team? What’s the quality of relationships?
Team efficacy: Do we believe we can accomplish the task?
Trust: Can we rely on each other? Is it safe to experiment and take risks?
12
The Process of Team Development
•
Teams are dynamic social settings—they form and disband; their
membership changes; etc.
•
Team values and behavioural norms need to be established quickly
and be taught to new team members (or revisited/revised).
•
Alternative models of team development
13
Tuckman’s Model of Team
Development
14
Tuckman’s Model of Team
Development
15
Individual to Team Consciousness
16
Gersick’s Punctuated Equilibrium
Model
The punctuated equilibrium model for group development for two groups
17
Group Dynamics:
Task & Maintenance
Thinking about group dynamics in this way allows us to divide the activities of a
team into two generic types:
•
MAINTENANCE (sometimes called process) activities where the team is
working on its own internal processes and focuses its efforts on establishing
common purpose and effectiveness
• TASK activities where the team focuses its efforts on the job at hand
18
Downsides of Teamwork
•
“Groupthink”
•
Social Loafing
–
The “Ringelmann Effect”
•
Free-riding
•
Cultural differences – “Individualism” vs “Collectivism”
19
The Ringleman Effect
20
Leadership in Teams
•
Traditional conceptions of leadership are not always compatible with
teamwork.
•
This led Barry (1991) to develop the concept of “Distributed Leadership.”
•
Importantly, all these leadership qualities are unlikely to be found in one
person, and must be shared throughout the team.
•
Different kinds of teams require different kinds of leadership at different
times.
21
Distributed Leadership
There are four types of leadership that must be exercised for a team to be
successful:
1.
ENVISIONING – Creating a strong vision of the purpose of the team that
can easily be translated into a set of values (maintenance).
2.
ORGANISING – Providing structure through a focus on details, deadlines,
and structures (task & maintenance).
3. SPANNING – Networking, gathering information, championing the
team in the rest of the organisation, dealing with outsiders,
preventing the team from becoming isolated, etc.; importantly, the
spanning leader may have to coordinate the team’s activities with the
rest of the organisation (task & maintenance).
4. SOCIAL - Negotiation, conflict resolution, “surfacing” problems,
confronting anti-social behaviour (maintenance).
22
Distributed Leadership
23
Key Learning Points
•
Perceptions form the basis for much behavior in organisations.
• There are constraints (psychological, physiological and social) on our
perception.
•
These are likely to introduce bias to our judgments about others
•
This can introduce significant problems into organisational life (e.g.,
performance measurement, rewards, etc.).
•
One of the most important biases is in the area of self-perception (“unskilled
and unaware of it”).
• Management decision-making is rarely (if ever) “rational”: the importance of
bounded rationality and heuristics.
24
Components of Module 4
Learn key concepts
1. Lecture
Learn/Apply
Learn/Apply
•
Teams and
Leadership
2. Module 4
Preparation Quiz
3. Tutorial 4
Complete the Modules
in Canvas:
• Knowledge Testing
• Application of
Theory
25
Individual Assignment
•
Due 9 am, Friday 13th January (Week 4)
• Skills workshop – recording available on Canvas
•
Questions about special consideration or extensions need to go directly to
the Undergraduate Student Centre. Applications for both are available on
Canvas subject page.
•
Please check the Announcements section of the OB Canvas site regularly for
updates
26
Warning
This material has been reproduced and communicated to you by
or on behalf of the University of Melbourne pursuant to Part VB
of the Copyright Act 1968 (the Act).
The material in this communication may be subject to copyright
under the Act.
Any further copying or communication of this material by you
may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act.
Do not remove this notice