Teams – Benefits, Team
Formation, and Design features
Lecture 1
What are the benefits of working in
teams?
1. Motivation:
- People motivated not by money but by
recognition.
- Teams allow recognition to take place.
- (Promote one another’s success)
2. Uniqueness:
- Team members must assume responsibility for
their actions.
- Use individual strengths and abilities.
What are the benefits of working in
teams?
3) Communication
- Members rather than managers take
responsibility for their work.
- Success of a team depends upon members
sharing information with each other.
- Team work skills – trust building, relationships,
conflict management come from communication.
4) Creativity
- Workers both PLAN and DO
- Workers are self directed.
What are the benefits of working in
teams?
5) Fun
- If team members have positive relationships
they want to help each other.
- This often leads to a common desire to
achieve team success.
- Positive interdependence (can’t succeed
without others)
What are the benefits of working in
teams?
General organizational benefits:
1) Reduced costs
2) Reduced workforce
3) Increased profits
4) Closer to customers
5) Fewer layers of management
6) Shorter time to market products
7) Increased employee recognition and motivation.
The problem with teams……
Social Loafing
How to overcome this problem?
Form smaller teams
Specialise tasks
Measure individual performance
Increase job enrichment
Select motivated employees
How do you form a good team?
Stage 1 – Forming
Stage 2 – Storming
Stage 3 – Norming
Stage 4 - Performing
Forming
- Team members are often holding on to the
past.
- Some are “in denial” and are not interested in
the new proccess. - DENIAL
- Team members have different ideas about the
project.
- Team members are unsure and lack trust.
SHOCK
- Team members socialize and are polite, and
tend to follow the leader.
Storming
• Team members begin to understand the goals
of the team.
• Team members discuss the goals and begin to
become aware of their role. AWARENESS.
• Team members have conflict as they compete
for roles.
• At this stage Management must make a choice
as to how they resolve conflict and
communicate.
Norming
• Team members, through understanding begin
to accept the roles of team members
ACCEPTANCE
They search for common goals and arrive at a
common understanding of how those goals
are to be achieved.
SEARCH
- Trust is developed
Performing
• At this stage the team has agreed upon and
accepts:
- The Task
- The people in their team
- The importance of the group, and the trust
they have in the group.
- The environment in which they work
(communication, and position in the group)
This means that greater efficiency is achieved.
Team Design Features
• Task Characteristics
• Team Size
• Team composition
• Team diversity
Environmental Design Features
Reward systems
Communications systems
Physical space
Organizational structure and leadership