Management 507
Organizational Behavior (OB)
Mini-Case on teams
• Tom is leading a sales project team on
developing new clients. The group consists of 3
high performing sellers, one district manager
and one regional manager. Tom is the regional
manager. He begins the first meeting by saying,
Our assignment is to develop new sales clients.
• We need to develop a process to help our agents do that. To speed
up the process, I would like each of you to develop a list of
requirements that would help us to guide the factors that you would
consider most likely to yield new clients such as industry, firm size,
current product user (How do we stack up against the competition)
etc.. I think we can pretty much do this by email. One more
meeting to discuss it all and then I will write a report that
summarizes the issues we raise. I will then give all of you a chance
to provide feedback on it. And Then Submit it. We should be able
to wrap this up in one month. When should we have our next
meeting to discuss the points raised in the emails?
• They set a common date in two weeks and then depart after a 20
minutes.
Discussion questions
• What were the good aspects of this
meeting. What are the potential
problems?
• What do you think was Tom’s motivations
for acting as he did. Think about personal
motivations or external pressures.
• On a scale of 1-10 estimate how useful will
this report be? Why do you say that.
Goals Today
• Go through syllabus (central issue)
• Purpose of course and expectations.
• Introduction to Teams
Syllabus
• Contact information.
• Purpose of Course is two fold. Teams and
Change.
• Outline of topics (lets be flexible).
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Expectations
Questions
?????
Teams
• Are effective teams magical. Serendipity
Or
Can effective Teams be made through
diligent effort (prefer working smartly)?
Think about personal relationships?
My job in part is to help you build
functional teams
• I can’t do the work
• I can provide information, experiences that
you can use. Its up to you to apply that
information. Information tends to be broad.
• Not any different than any other class.
• My response. Magic is the ease in which
team gels.
• Not clear if the best teams have easy gel
or more difficult gel that is sucessfully
resolved.
• Regardless either requires work.
What is the difference between a
team and group?
Curious
• What are some of the “smarts” that you
have learned over the years. What makes
effective teams. Write them down on a
sheet of paper.
• What do you most dislike about your
previous team experiences?
Which do you aspire to have in
your collectives in the MBA?
• Why? Discuss in teams. Need to be
candid. There are plusses and minuses of
each.
Types of Groups/Teams
• Manager led
• The supervisor sets the goals and
monitors the collectives performance.
Supervisor has a lot of control.
• Book uses team, but is this most
appropriate noun? Group or other word
more appropriate?
• Self-Managing teams. The Goals are set
by supervisor. Members monitor own
performance. Self-correct if performance
problems.
• Self directing teams. Team does the
goals, monitors, and works towards goals.
• Management provides context—such as a
mission statement, the client,
(parameters).
• Self-governing teams do it all. Not that
common. Top management team usually
is self-governing. Saving Private Ryan.
Very broad parameter. Profound flexibility.
• Why is this one so uncommon.
Questions
• Your teams in here are what?
• Most common business one is Managerial
lead.
• What problems does one experience as
on moves to self-managed teams?
• Which is most common (report survey
results).
Team Contracts
• Want you to form a team contract.
• Examples.
Contract sample
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We will try to keep the focus on the issues not on personalities.
We will try to make scheduled meetings and will let the group know when
we cannot.
We will try to meet group deadlines and will let others know if we cannot.
We will try to actively listen to others and avoid interruptions, side
conversations, or the reading notes when someone is speaking.
We will try to use "I" statements and avoid "you" statements.
We will try to give everyone an opportunity to speak by not speaking again
until everyone has a chance to talk.
We will try to keep in mind that feeling statements are neither right nor
wrong.
Where possible, we will try to use personal examples rather than third
person accounts.
We will agree on a method of resolving disagreements and try to use if
necessary.
We will try to call a "time out" if the rules are not honored.
We will seek assistance if we cannot resolve a major conflict.
Second sample
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Confidentiality
Respect
Group sets own agenda
Welcome new members
Respect for other group members
One person speaks at a time
Chance for every -one to have a say
Manage time efficiently
Commitment to group/negotiate absence
No violence/no cell phones/no smoking!
• Who has the enforcement roles? Both
positive and negative.
• Share them with cohort.
• This is only first draft. More on this next
week. Take notes.
• The final version will be a part of the team
dynamics report.
Why are self-managed teams so
widely used?
• Read pages 5-7
• Teams as a source of competitive
advantage. Decision making.
• Problems with teams p.11-15
• Why do we put you into self-managed
teams?
What will you need to work on.
• Lots of things.
• We will talk about problems of teams in
more detail. Accurate diagnosis of
problems. Tendency to overreact to every
problem. Superficial problems.
• Theory based intervention. Theory is
useful. If not useful then lousy theory.
• We will be discussing numerous theories
in this course. Up to you to apply them
properly. Know the limits of each theory.
• Receptivity to feedback about work
processes.
• Hard to criticize others constructively.
Hard for people to accept constructive
feedback.
• Expert learning is the process of continual
experimentation and investigation.
Attitude. Process, not outcome.
• I hope you approach this class with an
open attitude. Everyone can get better.
• Avoid finger pointing which limits expert
learning.
• Learning is about changing oneself. If you
know it all, then why are you here?
• Goes beyond that. Learning at work is
important too. Why?
• Hope you can develop a learning attitude.