The use of teams in the business world is increasing in frequency and this course follows
that trend to help you prepare for your career. This course relies on teams to reinforce learning
and to conduct case analyses. Teams can also provide synergies or create strengths more than
the sum of each individual's strengths.
This course uses self-managed teams. Each team determines, within the guidelines I
provide on the web page and reinforce in class, their objectives and how to reach these
objectives. The characteristics of good, self-managed teams1 include each team member's
responsibility for:
Collective responsibility for performance
Discretion in assigning work
Discretion in scheduling work
Ability to perform more that one job on a team
Training one another to develop multiple job skills
Evaluating one another's performance contributions
Responsibility for the total quality of team products
The effectiveness of each team is a function of task performance and human resource
performance. Task performance is measured in terms of the objective criteria for each area of
assessment (case analysis, presentations). Human resource performance, or the dynamics on
your team, is measured by your peer evaluations. Do not underestimate the importance of
human resource performance on your team. The most successful teams begin with high human
performance as a prerequisite to task performance. Highly skilled teams often perform at lower
levels because they do not or cannot have good human resource performance. With this in mind
I offer the following.
Stages of team development
 Forming: initial orientation and interpersonal testing
 Storming: conflict over tasks and ways of operating as a team
 Norming: a stage of consolidation around task and operating agenda
 Performing: a stage of teamwork and focused task performance
 Adjourning: task accomplishment and eventual disengagement
How to build positive team normss
 Be a role model for the desired behaviors
 Reinforce the desired behaviors with rewards
 Control results by performance reviews and regular feedback
 Recruit and select team members who demonstrate the desired behaviors
 Hold regular meetings to discuss progress and ways to improve performance (task and
human)
 Use team decision making methods to reach agreement
How to build a cohesive team
1
The characteristics of self-managed teams, stages of team development, norms, cohesiveness, and what can go
wrong are drawn from Schermerhorn, J.R. 2001. Management. John Wiley and Sons. Chapter 17.





Agreement on goals and objectives
Increase team homogeneity
Increase the quantity of interactions among the team
Decrease the team size
Reward team versus individual results
What can go wrong with a team





Social loafing: a team member does not perform his or her share of the work
Personality conflicts: work style and other attributes
Task ambiguity: unclear agenda and/or ill defined problem
Poor readiness to work: meetings lack structure, team members unprepared
Poor teamwork: failures in communication, unresolved conflict, decision making
This assignment provides the guidelines for writing a team contract, mission and vision.
Team contract, mission, and vision
The purpose of this assignment is for you to develop a team contract, mission and vision. This is
a team assignment. All businesses require teamwork to compete successfully in the long term.
Employment with an organization is an implicit contract to participate as a member of the team. During
the course of this semester you will work in teams to experience the interpersonal dynamics of working
with a group of people to accomplish business objectives. This contract is an explicit document that you
should use to state your individual and collective expectations for your team. Your contract should also
include mission and vision statements, and objectives that you want to accomplish. You can use the
sample team contracts listed in the BUS 470 section of my web page and the School of Business Mission
and Vision statements as guides for writing your contract.
I have two specific requirements dealing with team membership. Every member of the
class must be a member of one team. Your contract must include provisions for the following
situations:


When a team member wishes to voluntarily leave the team for another team, and
When team members want to “fire” a team member from their team.
I also suggest that you discuss the team characteristics listed above and develop (or least
consider) addressing these characteristics in your team contract.
The sample team contracts (on the web site) provide examples of the criteria previous teams used
for these situations. Remember, students “fired” from their team must find another team willing
to accept them.