Principles and Practices for Tomorrow’s Leaders
Gary Dessler
CHAPTER
Managing Groups
and Teams
13
The Environment of Managing
PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook
Copyright © 2004 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter Objectives
After studying this chapter and the case exercises at
the end, you should be able to:
1. Specify the level of employee involvement in a
team situation.
2. Analyze a team situation and list at least six
specific reasons why the team is not
performing effectively, and what you would
suggest doing about it.
3. Analyze a team situation and discuss at least
seven reasons why you believe the team does
or does not have the necessary characteristics
to perform productively.
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13–2
Chapter Objectives (cont’d)
4. Explain specifically why you believe a person
is or is not a potential “team player.”
5. Conduct a productive group decision-making
meeting.
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13–3
Teams: Employee Involvement In Action
• Employee Involvement Program
 Any formal program that lets employees participate in
formulating important work decisions or in supervising
all or part of their own work activities.
• Reasons for Organizing Work Teams
 Improving product quality
 Improving productivity
 Improving employee morale
 Improving staffing flexibility
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13–4
Employee Involvement in Your Company:
An Informal Checklist
1. Information sharing: Managers make decisions on their own, announce
them, and then respond to any questions employees may have.
2. Managers usually make the decisions, but only after seeking the views of
employees.
3. Managers often form temporary employee groups to recommend solutions
for specified problems.
4. Managers meet with employee groups regularly—once per week or so—to
help them identify problems and recommend solutions.
5. Intergroup problem solving: Managers establish and participate in crossfunctional employee problem-solving teams.
6. Ongoing work groups assume expanded responsibility for a particular
issue, like cost reduction.
7. Employees within an area function full time, with minimal direct
supervision.
8. Total self-direction: Traditional supervisory roles do not exist; almost all
employees participate in self-managing teams.
Source: Adapted from Jack Osborn et al., Self-Directed Work Teams (Homewood, IL: Business One Irwin, 1990), p. 30.
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FIGURE 13–1
13–5
Groups and Teams
• Group
 Two or more persons who are interacting in such a
way that each person influences and is influenced by
each other person.
• Team
 A group of people committed to a common purpose,
set of performance goals, and approach for which the
team members hold themselves mutually
accountable.
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13–6
Group Dynamics
• Group Norms
 The informal rules that groups adopt to regulate and
regularize group members’ behavior.
• Group Cohesiveness
 The degree of interpersonal attractiveness within a
group, dependent on factors like proximity,
similarities, attraction among the individual group
members, group size, intergroup competition, and
agreement about goals.
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13–7
Teams At Work
• Suggestion Team
 A team formed to work in the short term on a given
issue such as increasing productivity.
• Problem-solving Team
 A team formed to identify and solve work-related
problems.
• Quality Circle
 A team of 6 to 12 employees who meet about once
per week on company time to solve problems
affecting their work area.
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13–8
Teams At Work
• Venture (also Project or Development) Team
 A small team that operates as a semiautonomous unit
to create and develop a new idea.
• Transnational Team
 A work team composed of multinational members
whose activities span many countries.
 Make transnational teams more effective by:
 Clarifying
the team’s goal.
 Facilitating communications.
 Building trust and teamwork.
 Demonstrating mutual respect.
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13–9
Virtual Team
• Virtual Team
 Groups of geographically and/or organizationally
dispersed coworkers who interact using a
combination of telecommunications and information
technologies to accomplish an organizational task.
 Virtual teams may be temporary, existing only to
accomplish a specific task. Or they may be
permanent and address ongoing matters.
 Membership is often fluid, evolving according to
changing task requirements.
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13–10
Web-Based Tools for Virtual Teams
Source: Adapted from Gina Imperato, “Read Tools for Virtual Teams,” Fast Company July 2000, p. 382.
Copyright © 2004 Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
FIGURE 13–2
13–11
Self-Directed Work Teams
• Self-managing/Self-directed Work Team
 A highly trained team of employees, including 6 to 18
people on average, who are fully responsible for
turning out a well-defined segment of finished work.
 They
are empowered to direct and do virtually all of
their own work
 Their work results in a singular, well-defined item or
service.
 They represent the highest level of employee
involvement.
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13–12
Why Teams Fail:
The Leadership,
Focus, and
Capability
Pyramid
Source: Adapted from Steven Rayner, “Team Traps: What They Are, How to Avoid Them.”
National Productivity Review. Summer 1996, p. 107. Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Copyright © 2004 Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
FIGURE 13–3
13–13
Checklist 13.1
How to Build a Productive Team








Have clear mission/purpose.
Set specific performance goals.
Compose the right team size and mix.
Have an agreed-upon structure appropriate to
the task.
Delegate the authority to make the decisions
needed, given their mission.
Provide access to or control of the resources
needed to complete their mission.
Offer a mix of group and individual rewards.
Foster longevity and stability of membership.
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13–14
Checklist 13.2
Symptoms of Unproductive Teams





Nonaccomplishment of goals.
Cautious, guarded communication.
Lack of disagreement.
Malfunctioning meetings.
Conflict within the team.
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13–15
What It Takes to Be a Team Player
• Personality
 Individualism versus collectivism
• Interpersonal Skills
 Conflict management skills
 Collaborative problem solving skills
 Communication skills
• Management Skills
 Develop and establish goals
 Control, monitor, provide feedback
 Set work roles and assign tasks
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13–16
Leading Productive Teams
• Team Leader Skills
 Coaching, not bossing
 Help define, analyze,
and solve problems
 Encourage
participation by others
 Serve as a facilitator
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• Team Leader Values
 Respecting fellow team
members
 Trusting fellow team
members
 Putting the team first
13–17
Typical Leader Transition Problems
• Perceived Loss of Power or Status
• Unclear Team Leader Roles
• Job Security Concerns
• The Double Standard Problem
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13–18
The Leader’s Role in Creating a SelfManaging Team
• Forming
 The teams and their leaders begin working out their
specific responsibilities.
 Training is the leader’s main task.
• Storming
 Questions typically arise regarding who is leading the
team and what its structure and purpose should be.
 The leader ensures that team members continue to
learn and eventually exercise leadership skills.
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13–19
The Leader’s Role in Creating a SelfManaging Team (cont’d)
• Norming
 Team members agree on purpose, structure, and
leadership and are prepared to start performing.
 The leader’s job is to emphasize the need for the
team to temper cooperation with the responsibility to
supervise its own members.
• Performing
 A period of productivity, achievement, and pride as
the team members work together to get the job done.
• Adjourning
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13–20
How to Improve Team Performance
• Select members for skill
and teamwork.
• Establish challenging
performance standards.
• Emphasize the task’s
importance.
• Assign whole tasks.
• Send the right signals.
• Encourage social support.
• Make sure there are
unambiguous team rules.
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• Challenge the group
regularly with fresh facts
and information.
• Train and cross-train.
• Provide the necessary
tools and material
support.
• Encourage “emotionally
intelligent” team behavior.
13–21
Providing an Organizational Context
That Supports Teams
Organizational
Structure
Organizational
Systems
Team Work
Approach
Organizational
Policies
Employee
Skills
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13–22
Designing Organizations to Manage Teams
Source: Adapted from James H. Shonk, Team-Based
Organizations (Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1997), p. 36.
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FIGURE 13–5
13–23
Pros and Cons of Group Decision Making
Pros
Cons
• More points of view
• More ways to define the
problem
• More possible
solutions/alternatives
• More creative decisions
• Stronger commitment to
decisions
• More disagreement and
less problem solving
• Desire for consensus
(groupthink)
• Domination by a single
individual
• Less of commitment to
the group decision
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13–24
Signs That Groupthink May Be a Problem
Source: Adapted from information provided in Irving James, Group Think: Psychological
Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascos, 2nd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982).
Copyright © 2004 Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
FIGURE 13–7
13–25
Improving Group Decision Making
• Devil’s-Advocate Approach
 The group appoints a person to prepare a detailed
counterargument that lists what is wrong with the
group’s favored solution and why the group should
not adopt it.
 The aim is to ensure a full and objective consideration
of the solution proposal.
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13–26
Improving Group Decision Making
(cont’d)
• Brainstorming
 A creativity-stimulating technique in which prior
judgments and criticisms are specifically forbidden
from being expressed and thus inhibiting the free flow
of ideas, which are encouraged.
 Brainstorming rules:
 Avoid
criticizing others’ ideas until all suggestions are
out on the table.
 Share even wild suggestions.
 Offer many suggestions and comments as possible.
 Build on others’ suggestions to create your own.
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13–27
Improving Group Decision Making
(cont’d)
• The Delphi Technique
 A multistage group decision-making process aimed at
eliminating inhibitions or groupthink through obtaining
the written opinions of experts working independently.
 Process steps
 Identify
the problem.
 Solicit the experts’ individual opinions on the problem.
 Analyze, distill, and then resubmit these opinions to
other experts.
 Continue this process for several more rounds until the
experts reach a consensus.
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13–28
Improving Group Decision Making
(cont’d)
• The Nominal Group Technique
1. Each group member writes down his or her ideas for
solving the problem at hand.
2. Each member then presents his or her ideas orally,
and the person writes the ideas on a board for other
participants to see.
3. After all ideas are presented, the entire group
discusses all ideas simultaneously.
4. Group members individually and secretly vote on
each proposed solution.
5. The solution with the most individual votes wins.
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13–29
Improving Group Decision Making
(cont’d)
• The Stepladder Technique
1. Individuals A and B are given a problem to solve, and
each produces an independent solution.
2. A and B develop a joint decision, and meet with C,
who has analyzed the problem and arrived at a
decision.
3. A, B, and C discuss the problem and arrive at a
consensus decision, and are joined by D, who has
analyzed the problem and arrived at a decision.
4. A, B, C, and D jointly develop a final group decision.
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13–30
Improving Group Decision Making
(cont’d)
• How to Lead a Group Decision-Making
Discussion
1. See that all group members participate and
contribute.
2. Distinguish between idea getting and idea
evaluation.
3. Do not respond to each participant or dominate the
discussion.
4. Direct the group’s effort toward overcoming
surmountable obstacles.
5. Don’t sit down.
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13–31