Managing Work
Teams
Chapter 17
Learning Objectives
Explain the importance of work teams.
 Identify four types of work teams.
 State the meaning and determinants of team
effectiveness.
 Describe the internal team processes that can
affect team performance.
 Explain how to diagnose and remove barriers
to poor team performance.

Work Teams and Other Groups
A group is two or more individuals who
come into personal and meaningful
contact on a continuing basis.
 A work team consists of a small
numbers of employees with
complementary skills who collaborate
on a project, are committed to a
common purpose, and are jointly
accountable for performing tasks that
contribute to achieving an organization’s
goals.

Terms for Work Teams
(adapted from Figure 17.1)
Empowered teams
Autonomous work groups
Crews
Self-managing teams
Cross-functional teams
Quality circles
Project teams
Task forces
High-performance teams
Emergency response teams
Committees
Councils
Work Teams and Other
Groups (cont.)

An informal group consists of a small number
of individuals who frequently participate in
activities and share feelings for the purpose
of meeting their mutual needs.
Increase innovation
and creativity
Improve speed of
product development
and other tasks
Increase quality of
goods and services
Reduce costs
Types of Work Teams

A problem-solving work team consists of
employees from different areas of an
organization whose goal is to consider how
something can be done better.
Quality Circles
 Task Forces

Types of Work Teams (cont.)



A functional work team includes members from a
single department who have the common goal of
considering issues and solving problems within their
area of responsibility and expertise.
A multidisciplinary work team consists of employees
from various functional areas and sometimes several
organizational levels who collectively work on
specific tasks.
A self-managing work team consists of employees
who work together daily to make an entire product
or deliver an entire service.
Members of a Self-Managing
Work Team (adapted from Figure 17.2)
Other team
leaders and
managers
Software team
Budget team
Self-managing team
Communications
-Participate in selection of
team
new members
-Train new members
-Order supplies and obtain other needed resources
-Communicate with suppliers and customers
-Set goals
-Schedule work
-Design work processes
Training team
Recognition
and compensation
team
Effectiveness Criteria
Effectiveness criteria measure the
outcomes achieved by individual
members and the team as a whole.
Team
Processes
Team
Performance
 Cohesiveness  Innovation
 Trust
 Managing
conflict
 Decision
making
 Quality
 Speed
 Cost
Team
Satisfaction of
Preparedness
Individual
For Future
Members
 Trust in
team
 With team
process
 Ability to
adapt to
change
 With team
members
 With own
development
Effectiveness Criteria for Work
Teams (adapted from Figure 17.3)
Task completion
Accuracy
Team Effectiveness
Team development
Team cohesiveness
Speed
Team flexibility
Creativity
Team preparedness for
new tasks
Stakeholder satisfaction
Customer satisfaction with
team’s procedures and outputs
Team satisfaction with team’s
outputs and outputs
Satisfaction of other team’s with
the team’s procedures and outputs
Cost
Task Performance
Speed
Individual Effectiveness
Relationships with others
Increased understanding of
other perspectives
Accuracy
Build other’s trust in you
Creativity
Efficiency
New friendships
Personal development
Develop competencies (teamwork,
communication, strategic action,
global awareness, planning, and
administration, and self-awareness)
Develop network of colleagues
within and outside the organization
Gain technical knowledge and skills
Effectiveness Determinates

Effectiveness is determined by three main
sets of influences;
the external context in which the team operates,
 team design, and
 internal team processes.

A Model of Work Team Functioning
(adapted from Figure 17.4)
External Context
Culture
Team Design
- Team Size
- Team Location
Member
Selection
Team
Training
Internal
Processes
- Development stages
- Feelings
- Behavioral Norms
Reward
System
Effectiveness
Criteria
- Team
- Individual
Internal Team Processes
 Development of the work team over time, personal
feelings, and behavioral norms
 Work teams may develop along:
 a continuum of maturity, which ranges from low
or immature (e.g., inefficient and ineffective) to
high or mature (e.g., efficient and effective) AND
 a continuum of time together, which ranges from
start (e.g., the first team encounter) to end (e.g.,
the point at which the team adjourns)
The Development of Work
Teams (adapted from Figure 17.5)
Degree of Maturity
High
End or
recycle
Performing
End or
recycle
Adjourning
Norming
End or
recycle
End or
recycle
Storming
Forming
Low
Start
Time Together
End
 Rules of behavior that are widely shared and
enforced by members of a work team
 Norms may specify:
How much work to do
How customers should be treated
Importance of high quality
What members should wear
What kinds of jokes are acceptable
How members should feel about the organization
How they should deal with their managers, and so on
 Exists When Three Criteria Have Been Met
There is a performance standard of
appropriate behavior for team members
Members must generally agree on the
standard
Members must be aware that the team
supports the particular standard through
a system of rewards and punishments
 Free rider: a team member who isn’t contributing fully
to team performance but still shares in
team rewards
 Groupthink: an agreement-at-any-cost mentality that
results in ineffective work team decision making and
may lead to poor solutions; Likelihood increases when:
 Peer pressure to conform is great
 A highly directive leader presses for a particular
interpretation of the problem and course of action
 Need exists to process a complex and unstructured
issue under crisis conditions
 Group is isolated
 Productive controversy: when team members
value different points of view and seek to draw
them out to facilitate creative problem solving
 Focus on issues rather than people
 Defer decisions until issues and ideas are
explored
 Follow procedures that equalize sharing
of power and responsibility
 Managers can help shape norms
 Internal Processes
 External System:
Team design
Member
selection
Culture
Reward
system
Team
training
Causes of Poor Team Performance:
Team Design
 Team Size
 For innovative decision making, ideal work
team is probably between five and nine
members
 If large teams required, consider use
of subteams
 With large teams be aware of backlash
through clique lobbies
(continued)
 Team size—large team size tends to have the
following effects
 Demands on leader time and attention are greater;
leader becomes more psychologically distant from the
team members
 Team’s tolerance of direction from the leader is greater
and team’s decision making becomes more centralized
 Team atmosphere is less friendly, communications are
less personal, more cliques form within the team
 Team’s rules and procedures become more formalized
 Likelihood of some members being free riders increases
Team proximity
 Proximity to other work teams and members
of the organization
 Team members’ proximity to each other
 Ideal proximity among teams depends on
work being done
 Virtual teams often create special challenges
Differences in societal cultures
Language differences
Weak or poor organizational culture
 Incompatible personality traits among
members
 Traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness
needed
 Communication and teamwork
competencies needed
Causes of Poor Team Performance:
Team Training
 Poor or no team training
 Leadership development for managers
or team leaders needed
 Team training needed for:
 how to manage meetings
 how to support disagreement
 how to commit to a decision
 how to use group-based technologies
Choices in Designing Reward Systems for Work
Teams
 How can nonmonetary rewards be used to recognize
excellent team performance?
 What portion of a person’s total monetary rewards
should be linked to performance of the team
(versus the performance of the individual or the
business unit)?
 If rewards are to be linked to results, which
effectiveness criteria should be used to evaluate
team results? Individual results?
(continued)
Choices in Designing Reward Systems for Work
Teams (cont’d)
 How should rewards be distributed among the
members of a team? Should they all receive
equal rewards? If not, on what basis should
people receive differential rewards?
 Who should be responsible for the allocation of
rewards among team members: team members,
a team leader, someone outside the team?
 For global teams, how should cultural differences
among members of the team and the pay systems
used in different countries be addressed?
Causes of Poor Team
Performance

Team Design
Team Size
 Team Location

 Virtual

Work Team
Information Technology
Culture
 Team Member Selection
 Team Training
 Reward Systems

Examples of Tasks Performed in
Self-Managing Work Teams (from Figure 17.6)
• Dismiss members
• Discipline members
• Allocate monetary rewards
• Select suppliers
• Appraise member performance
• Share leadership tasks
• Select new members
• Select effectiveness criteria to measure
• Determine team budget
• Determine production/service schedules
• Purchase equipment and supplies
Level of Team Self-Management
High
• Monitor spending
• Arrange work and
vacation schedules
• Monitor team
performance
Moderate • Cross-train team members
Moderate
High
Degree of Managerial Competencies Required