Groups and Teamwork: How Groups Work and How to Lead Them

2. 6 Organizational Behavior core concepts McGraw-Hill/Irwin Organizational Behavior, Core Concepts Copyright © 2008 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Groups and Teamwork: How Groups Work and How to Lead Them

3. Learning Objectives • Describe stages of group development • Contrast roles and norms, and give four reasons why norms are enforced in organizations • Explain how a work group becomes a team, and identify five teamwork competencies

4. Learning Objectives • Summarize how managers can build trust • Describe self-managed teams and virtual teams • Identify symptoms of groupthink and social loafing and the ways to guard against them

5. Fundamentals of Group Behavior • Group • two or more freely interacting people with shared norms and goals and a common identity

6. Formal and Informal Groups • Formal group • formed by the organization. • Informal group • formed by friends

7. Functions of Formal Groups Organizational Functions 1. Accomplish complex, interdependent tasks that are beyond the capabilities of individuals. 2. Generate new or creative ideas and solutions. 3. Coordinate interdepartmental efforts. 4. Provide a problem-solving mechanism for complex problems requiring varied information and assessments. 5. Implement complex decisions. 6. Socialize and train newcomers.

8. Functions of Formal Groups Individual Functions 1. Satisfy the individual’s need for affiliation. 2. Develop, enhance, and confirm the individual’s self-esteem and sense of identity. 3. Give individuals an opportunity to test and share their perceptions of social reality. 4. Reduce the individual’s anxieties and feelings of insecurity and powerlessness. 5. Provide a problem-solving mechanism for personal and interpersonal problems.

9. Tuckman’s Five-Stage Theory of Group Development Figure 6-1

10. Group Development Stage 1: Forming • Group members tend to be uncertain and anxious about their roles, whose in charge and the group’s goals • Mutual trust is low

11. Group Development Stage 2: Storming • Time of testing • Individuals try to determine how they fit into the power structure • Procrastination may occur

12. Group Development Stage 3: Norming • Questions about authority and power are resolved through unemotional, matter-of-fact group discussion • Group cohesiveness – “we feeling” binding group members together

13. Group Development Stage 4: Performing • Activity focused on solving task problems • Climate of open communication, strong cooperation, and lots of helping behavior

14. Group Development Stage 5: Adjourning • Work is done • Time to move on to other things

15. Group Member Roles • Roles • expected behaviors for a given position • Task roles • task-oriented group behavior • Keep the group on track • Maintenance roles • relationship-building group behavior • Keep the group together

16. Task and Maintenance Roles

17. Norms • Norms • shared attitudes, opinions, feelings, or actions that guide social behavior • Ostracism • rejection by other group members

18. How Norms are Developed • Explicit statements by supervisors or co-workers • Critical events in the group’s history • Primacy • Carryover behaviors from past situations

19. Question? What is a small group with complementary skills who hold themselves mutually accountable for common purpose? • Group • Huddle • Team • Platoon

20. Teams, Trust, and Teamwork • Team • small group with complementary skills who hold themselves mutually accountable for common purpose, goals, and approach.

21. Teams • A group becomes a team when: • Leadership becomes a shared activity • Accountability shifts from strictly individual to both individual and collective • The group develops its own purpose or mission • Problem solving becomes a way of life, not a part-time activity • Effectiveness is measured by the group’s collective outcomes and products

22. Developing Teamwork Competencies • Helping the team understand its problem-solving situation • Helping the team get organized and measure its performance • Promoting a positive team environment • Handling conflict • Promoting one’s point of view appropriately

23. Trust reciprocal faith in other’ intentions and behavior. Trust: A Key Ingredient of Teamwork

24. Three Dimensions of Trust • Overall trust • expecting fair play, the truth, and empathy • Emotional trust • having faith that someone will not misrepresent you to others or betray you • Reliableness • believing that promises and appointments will be kept and commitments met

25. How to Build and Maintain Trust • Communication • Support • Respect • Fairness • Predictability • Competence

26. Self-Managed Teams • Self-managed teams • groups of employees granted administrative oversight for their work

27. Relating Scouting Persuading Empowering Indirect Influence Tactics of Self Managed Teams

28. Teams • Cross-functionalism • team made up of technical specialists from different areas

29. Effectiveness of Self Managed Teams • Have a positive effect on productivity • Have a positive effect on specific attitudes relating to self-management • No significant effect on general attitudes • No significant effect on absenteeism or turnover

30. Question? What type of team uses information technology to allow group members in different locations to conduct business? • Psychic team • Virtual team • Fundamental team • Internet team

31. Virtual Teams • Virtual team • information technology allows group members in different locations to conduct business.

32. Threats to Group and Team Effectiveness • Groupthink • Janis’s term for cohesive in-group’s unwillingness to realistically view alternatives. Read an article on groupthink

33. Threats to Group and Team Effectiveness • Symptoms of groupthink • Invulnerability • Inherent morality • Rationalization • Stereotyped views of opposition • Self-censorship • Illusion of unanimity • Peer pressure • Mindguards

34. Social Loafing • Social Loafing • decrease in individual effort as group size increases

35. Reasons for Social Loafing • Equity of effort • Loss of personal accountability • Motivational loss due to sharing of rewards • Coordination loss as more people perform the task