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Team dynamics

Chapter 8. Team dynamics. Learning Objectives. 8.1 Explain why employees join informal groups, and discuss the benefits and limitations of teams 8.2 Outline the team effectiveness model and discuss how task characteristics, team size and team composition influence team effectiveness

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Team dynamics

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  1. Chapter 8 Team dynamics

  2. Learning Objectives 8.1 Explain why employees join informal groups, and discuss the benefits and limitations of teams 8.2 Outline the team effectiveness model and discuss how task characteristics, team size and team composition influence team effectiveness 8.3 Discuss how the four team processes—team development, norms, cohesion and trust—influence team effectiveness 8.4 Discuss the characteristics and factors required for the success of self-directed teams and virtual teams 8.5 Identify four constraints on team decision making and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of four structures aimed at improving team decision making

  3. Self-Managed Teams at RPG At RPG Group, the introduction of work teams is based on the assumption that empowered employees will contribute to a high-performance work culture. To support this initiative, team members are trained to work together, identifying and solving work-related problems with minimal supervision

  4. What are Teams? • Groups of two or more people • Exist to fulfil a purpose • Interdependent—interact and influence each other • Mutually accountable for achieving common goals • Perceive themselves as a social entity

  5. Many Types of Teams • Departmental teams • Production/service/ leadership teams • Self-directed teams • Advisory teams • Task force (project) teams • Skunkworks • Virtual teams • Communities of practice

  6. Informal Groups • Groups that exist primarily for the benefit of their members • Reasons why informal groups exist: • Innate drive to bond • Social identity—we define ourselves by group memberships • Goal accomplishment • Emotional support

  7. Advantages/Disadvantages of Teams • Advantages • Make better decisions, products and services • Better information sharing • Increase employee motivation and engagement • Fulfils drive to bond • Closer scrutiny by team members • Team members are benchmarks of comparison • Disadvantages • Individuals better/faster on some tasks • Process losses—cost of developing and maintaining teams • Social loafing

  8. How to Minimise Social Loafing • Make individual performance more visible • Form smaller teams • Specialise tasks • Measure individual performance • Increase employee motivation • Increase job enrichment • Select motivated employees

  9. Team Effectiveness Model

  10. Organisation/Team Environment • Reward systems • Communication systems • Organisational structure • Organisational leadership • Physical space

  11. Team’s Task Characteristics • Teams work better when tasks are clear and easy to implement • Learn roles faster, easier to become cohesive • Ill-defined tasks require members with diverse backgrounds and more time to coordinate • Teams preferred with higher task interdependence • Extent that employees need to share materials, information or expertise to perform their jobs

  12. Levels of Task Interdependence

  13. Team Size • Smaller teams are better because they: • Need less time to coordinate roles and resolve differences • Require less time to develop more member involvement, thus higher commitment • But the team must be large enough to accomplish the task

  14. Going Ape for Teams at Flight Centre • Following evolutionary principles, Flight Centre and Symantec started to break up large work teams, and to reduce their managers’ direct reports • Small Flight Centre families report to village-sized clusters of five teams, which in turn form a Flight Centre tribe of up to 25 teams <<Insert Ape Image p. 258>>

  15. Team Composition • Effective team members must be willing and able to work on the team • Effective team members possess specific competencies (5 Cs)

  16. Five Cs of Team-member Competencies

  17. Team Composition: Diversity • Team members have diverse knowledge, skills, perspectives, values, etc. • Advantages • View problems and possible solutions from different perspectives • Broader knowledge base • Better representation of team’s constituents • Disadvantages • Take longer to become a high-performing team • More susceptible to ‘fault lines’ • Increased risk of dysfunctional conflict

  18. Stages of Team Development

  19. Team Development as Membership and Competence • Two central processes in team development: • Team membership formation • Transition from ‘them’ to ‘us’ • Team becomes part of person’s social identity • Team competence development • Forming routines with others • Forming shared mental models

  20. Team Roles • A set of behaviours that people are expected to perform • Some formally assigned; others informally • Informal role assignment occurs during team development and is related to personal characteristics

  21. Team Building • Formal activities intended to improve the team’s development and functioning • Types of team building • Clarify team’s performance goals • Improve team’s problem-solving skills • Improve role definitions • Improve relations

  22. Team Norms • Informal rules and shared expectations that the team establishes to regulate member behaviours • Norms develop through: • Initial team experiences • Critical events in team’s history • Experience and values members bring to the team

  23. Preventing/Changing Dysfunctional Team Norms • State desired norms when forming teams • Select members with preferred values • Discuss counter-productive norms • Reward behaviours representing desired norms • Disband teams with dysfunctional norms

  24. Team Cohesion • The degree of attraction people feel toward the team and their motivation to remain members • Both cognitive and emotional process • Related to the team member’s social identity

  25. Influences on Team Cohesion Membersimilarity • Similarity-attraction effect • Some forms of diversity have less effect Teamsize • Smaller teams tend to be more cohesive Memberinteraction • Regular interaction increases cohesion • Calls for tasks with high interdependence

  26. Influences on Team Cohesion continued Somewhat difficult entry • Team eliteness increases cohesion • But lower cohesion with severe initiation Teamsuccess • Successful teams fulfil member needs • Success increases social identity with team External challenges • Challenges increase cohesion when not overwhelming

  27. Team Cohesion Outcomes • Motivated to remain members • Willing to share information • Strong interpersonal bonds • Resolve conflict effectively • Better interpersonal relationships • Better performance (if norms aligned)

  28. Team Cohesion and Performance

  29. Trust Defined • Positive expectations one person has of another person in situations involving risk

  30. Three Levels of Trust

  31. Self-Directed Teams • SDTs are cross-functional work groups organised around work processes • They complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks • They have substantial autonomy over the execution of those tasks

  32. Self-Directed Team Success Factors • Responsible for entire work process • High interdependence within the team • Low interdependence with other teams • Autonomy to organise and coordinate work • Work site and technology support team communication/coordination

  33. Multicultural teams • Teams built from employees around the globe • Can be affected by cultural differences: • Norms (about power, communicating and decision making) • Values • Local versus global perspectives

  34. Managing Multicultural Teams • Managers of multicultural teams can make one of three kinds of interventions: • Encourage adaptation • Implement a structural intervention • Direct manager intervention

  35. Virtual Teams • Teams whose members operate across space, time and organisational boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organisational tasks • Increasingly possible because of: • Information technologies • Knowledge-based work • Increasingly necessary because of: • Organisational learning • Globalisation

  36. Virtual Team Success Factors • Member characteristics • Technology savvy • Self-leadership skills • Emotional intelligence • Flexible use of communication technologies • Opportunities to meet face-to-face

  37. Team Decision-Making Constraints • Time constraints • Time to organise/coordinate • Production blocking • Evaluation apprehension • Belief that others are silently evaluating you • Peer pressure to conform • Suppressing opinions that oppose team norms • Groupthink • Tendency in highly cohesive teams to value consensus at the price of decision quality • Concept losing favour—consider more specific features

  38. General Guidelines forTeam Decisions • Team norms should encourage critical thinking • Sufficient team diversity • Ensure neither leader nor any member dominates • Maintain optimal team size • Introduce effective team structures

  39. Constructive Conflict Courtesy of Johnson Space Center/NASA • People focus their discussion on the issue while maintaining respectfulness for others having different points of view • Problem: constructive conflict easily slides into personal attacks

  40. Rules of Brainstorming • Speak freely • Don’t criticise • Provide as many ideas as possible • Build on others’ ideas

  41. Evaluating Brainstorming • Strengths • Produces more creative ideas • Less evaluation apprehension when team supports a learning orientation • Strengthens decision acceptance and team cohesiveness • Sharing positive emotions encourages creativity • Weaknesses • Production blocking still exists • Evaluation apprehension exists in many groups

  42. Electronic Brainstorming • Relies on networked computers to submit and share creative ideas • Strengths—more creative ideas, minimal production blocking, evaluation apprehension or conformity problems • Limitations—too structured and technology-bound

  43. IndividualActivity IndividualActivity TeamActivity Write down possible solutions Possible solutions described to others Vote on solutions presented Nominal Group Technique Describe problem

  44. Summary • People have a drive to bond. As such, they join informal groups and work in teams • A team is effective when able to achieve its objectives, fulfil the needs of its members and maintain its survival • The model of team effectiveness considers the team and organisational environment, team design and team processes • Different team types (SDTs, virtual or multicultural) have different challenges and conditions for success

  45. Chapter 8 Team dynamics

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