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Chapter
14
Teamwork
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Management, 7/e
Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Learning Objectives
 After Studying Chapter 14, You will know
 How teams contribute to your organization’s
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effectiveness.
What makes the new team environment
different from the old.
How groups become teams.
Why groups sometimes fail.
How to build an effective team.
How to manage your team’s relationships with
other teams.
How to manage conflict.
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The Contributions of Teams
 Well-managed teams are powerful forces that
can deliver all desired results
 Teams can increase productivity, improve
quality, and reduce costs
 Teams can enhance speed and be powerful
forces for innovation and change
 Teams can be useful learning mechanisms
 Team members can provide one another with
feedback, identify opportunities for growth and
development, train, coach, and mentor
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The New Team Environment
 The words group and team
are often used
interchangeably hover
they are not the same
 A working group is a
collection of people who
work in the same area
 A team is formed of people
with complementary skills
who trust one another and
are committed to a
common purpose, common
performance goals, and a
common approach for
which they hold
themselves mutually
accountable.
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The New Team Environment
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Types of Teams
 Work teams make or do things such as manufacture,
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assemble, sell, or provide service
Project and development teams work on long-term
projects but disband once the work is completed
Parallel teams operate separately from the regular
work structure of the firm on a temporary basis
Management teams coordinate and provide direction
to the subunits under their jurisdiction and integrate
work among subunits
Transnational teams are work teams composed of
multinational members whose activities span multiple
countries
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Self Managed Teams
 Self-managed teams are autonomous work
groups in which workers ware trained to do
all or most of the jobs in a unit, have no
immediate supervisor, and make decisions
previously made by first-line supervisors
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Self Managed Teams
 Traditional Work Groups have no managerial
responsibilities
 Quality circles are voluntary groups of people drawn
from various production teams who make suggestions
about quality
 Semiautonomous work groups make decisions about
managing and carrying out major production activities
 Autonomous work groups control decisions about and
execution of a complete range of tasks
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How Groups Become Real Teams
 Groups become true
teams via
 Basic group
activities
 Passage of time
 Team development
activities
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Why Groups Sometimes Fail
 Failure lies in not knowing and doing what
makes teams successful
 Team is often just a word used by
management to describe merely putting people
into groups
 Teams sometimes are launched with little or
no training or support system
 Teams are not truly empowered
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Building Effective Teams
 Team effectiveness is defined by three
criteria
 Productive output of the team meets or
exceeds the standards of quantity and quality
 Team members realize satisfaction of their
personal needs
 Team members remain committed to working
together again
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Motivating Teamwork
 When working in a group individuals may display
one of the following characteristics
 Social loafing occurs when individuals work less
hard and are less productive in a group
 Social facilitation effect occurs when individuals
work harder when in a group than when working
alone
 To motivate individual members of the team it
helps if:
 Group members are held accountable
 Rewards are tied to team performance
 The team’s task is motivating
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Building Effective Teams: Norms and
Roles
 Norms are shared beliefs about how people
should think and behave
 Roles are different sets of expectations for
how different individuals should behave
 Task specialist is an individual who has more
advanced job-related skills and abilities than
other group members
 Team maintenance specialist is an individual
who develops and maintains team harmony
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Building Effective Teams: Norms and
Roles
 Leaders may perform one of the following
roles
 Relating includes exhibiting more social and
political awareness
 Scouting means seeking information from
managers, peers, and specialists
 Persuading means not only influencing the
team, but also obtaining external support
 Empowerment includes delegating authority,
being flexible regarding team decisions, and
coaching
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Building Effective Teams: Cohesiveness
 Cohesiveness refers to how attractive the
team is to its members, how motivated the
members are to remain in the team, and the
degree to which team members influence one
another
 Cohesiveness is important because
 It contributes to member satisfaction
 It has a major impact on performance
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Building Effective Teams: Cohesiveness
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Building Cohesiveness and High
Performance Norms
 Recruit members with similar attitudes,
values and backgrounds
 Maintain high entrance and socialization
standards
 Keep the team small
 Help the team succeed, and publicize its
success
 Present a challenge from outside the team
 Tie rewards to team performance
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Managing Lateral Relationships
 Gatekeeper is a team member who keeps abreast
of current developments and provides the team
with relevant information
 Informing is a team strategy that entails making
decisions with the team and then informing
outsiders of its intentions
 Parading is a team strategy that entails
simultaneously emphasizing internal team
building and achieving external visibility
 Probing is a team strategy that requires team
members to interact frequently with outsiders,
diagnose their needs, and experiment with
solutions
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Lateral Role Relationships
 Work-flow relationships emerge as materials
are passed from one group to another
 Service relationships exist when top
management centralizes an activity to which
a large number of other units must gain
access
 Advisory relationships are created when
teams with problems call on centralized
sources of expert knowledge
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Lateral Role Relationships
 Audit relationships develop when people not
directly in the chain of command evaluate
the methods and performances of other
teams
 Stabilization relationships involve auditing
before the fact
 Liaison relationships involve intermediaries
between teams
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Conflict
 The complex maze of interdependencies
throughout organizations provides boundless
opportunity for conflict to arise
 Many things cause great potential for
destructive conflict
 The sheer number and variety of contacts
 Ambiguities in jurisdiction and responsibility
 Differences in goals
 Inter-group competition for scarce resources
 Different perspectives held by members of
different unites
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Conflict
 People believe they have benefited from a
conflict when
 A new solution is implemented, the problem is
solved, and it is unlikely to emerge again
 Work relationships have been strengthened
and people believe they can work together
productively in the future
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Conflict Styles
 Avoidance is a common reaction to conflict in
which people do nothing to satisfy
themselves or others
 Accommodation means cooperating on behalf
of the other party but not being assertive
about your own interests
 Compromise involves moderate attention to
both parties concerns
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Conflict Styles
 Competing is a highly competitive response
in which people focus strictly on their own
wishes and are unwilling to recognize the
other person’s concerns
 Collaboration emphasizes both cooperation
and assertiveness, the goal is to maximize
satisfaction for both parties
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Conflict Styles
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Conflict
 When conflict arises the best solutions come
from collaboration and focusing on super
ordinate goals
 Super ordinate goals are higher-level goals
that take priority over specific individual or
group goals
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Being a Mediator
 Managers spend a lot of time trying to resolve
conflict between other people
 This is known as being a mediator
 Four step strategy
 Investigate the dispute
 Decide how to resolve the dispute
 Take action by explaining the decision and
reasoning
 Follow up by making sure everyone
understands the solution
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Looking Ahead
 Chapter 15 Communicating
 The important advantages of two-way
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communication.
Communication problems to avoid.
When and how to use the various communication
channels.
Ways to become a better “sender” and “receiver” of
information.
How to improve downward, upward, and horizontal
communication.
How to work with the company grapevine.
The advantages and characteristics of the
boundaryless organization.
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Group Activities
 Group activities include
 Forming – group members attempt to lay down
ground rules for acceptable behavior
 Storming – hostilities and conflict arise as people
jockey for positions of power and status
 Norming – group members agree on their shared
goals and norms
 Performing – the group channels its energies into
performing its tasks
Return
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Passage of Time
 Groups pass through
critical periods, or
times, when they are
particularly open to
formative
experiences
 The initial meeting
when rules, roles
are established
 Meeting the initial
deadline
Return
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Developmental Sequence
Return