Managing Work Teams

1. Chapter 17 Managing Work Teams

2. Learning Objectives • Explain the importance of work teams. • Identify four types of work teams. • State the meaning and determinants of team effectiveness. • Describe the internal team processes that can affect team performance. • Explain how to diagnose and remove barriers to poor team performance.

3. Work Teams and Other Groups • A group is two or more individuals who come into personal and meaningful contact on a continuing basis. • A work team consists of a small numbers of employees with complementary skills who collaborate on a project, are committed to a common purpose, and are jointly accountable for performing tasks that contribute to achieving an organization’s goals.

4. Empowered teams Autonomous work groups Crews Self-managing teams Cross-functional teams Quality circles Project teams Task forces High-performance teams Emergency response teams Committees Councils Terms for Work Teams(adapted from Figure 17.1)

5. Work Teams and Other Groups (cont.) • An informal group consists of a small number of individuals who frequently participate in activities and share feelings for the purpose of meeting their mutual needs.

6. Why Organizations Use Work Teams Increase innovationand creativity Improve speed ofproduct developmentand other tasks Increase quality ofgoods and services Reduce costs

7. Types of Work Teams • A problem-solving work team consists of employees from different areas of an organization whose goal is to consider how something can be done better. • Quality Circles • Task Forces

8. Types of Work Teams (cont.) • A functional work team includes members from a single department who have the common goal of considering issues and solving problems within their area of responsibility and expertise. • A multidisciplinary work team consists of employees from various functional areas and sometimes several organizational levels who collectively work on specific tasks. • A self-managing work team consists of employees who work together daily to make an entire product or deliver an entire service.

9. Members of a Self-Managing Work Team (adapted from Figure 17.2) Other team leaders and managers Software team • Self-managing team • Participate in selection of • new members • Train new members • Order supplies and obtain other needed resources • Communicate with suppliers and customers • Set goals • Schedule work • Design work processes Communications team Budget team Training team Recognition and compensation team

10. Effectiveness Criteria Effectiveness criteria measure the outcomes achieved by individual members and the team as a whole. TeamPreparednessFor Future Satisfaction ofIndividual Members Team Processes Team Performance • Cohesiveness • Trust • Managing conflict • Decision making • Innovation • Quality • Speed • Cost • Trust inteam • Ability to adapt to change • With team process • With team members • With own development

11. Team Effectiveness Task completionTeam developmentStakeholder satisfaction Accuracy Team cohesiveness Customer satisfaction with team’s procedures and outputs Speed Team flexibility Team satisfaction with team’s outputs and outputs Creativity Team preparedness for Satisfaction of other team’s with new tasks the team’s procedures andoutputs Cost Individual Effectiveness Task PerformanceRelationships with othersPersonal development Speed Increased understanding of Develop competencies (teamwork, other perspectives communication, strategic action, global awareness, planning, and administration, and self-awareness) Accuracy Build other’s trust in you Develop network of colleagues within and outside the organization Creativity New friendships Gain technical knowledge and skills Efficiency Effectiveness Criteria for Work Teams (adapted from Figure 17.3)

12. Effectiveness Determinates • Effectiveness is determined by three main sets of influences; • the external context in which the team operates, • team design, and • internal team processes.

13. A Model of Work Team Functioning(adapted from Figure 17.4) External Context Culture Member Selection Team Training Reward System Team Design - Team Size - Team Location Internal Processes - Development stages - Feelings - Behavioral Norms Effectiveness Criteria - Team - Individual

14. Internal Team Processes • Development of the work team over time, personal feelings, and behavioral norms • Work teams may develop along: • a continuum of maturity, which ranges from low or immature (e.g., inefficient and ineffective) to high or mature (e.g., efficient and effective) AND • a continuum of time together, which ranges from start (e.g., the first team encounter) to end (e.g., the point at which the team adjourns)

15. The Development of Work Teams (adapted from Figure 17.5) High End or recycle Performing End or recycle Adjourning Norming End or recycle Degree of Maturity Storming End or recycle Forming Low Start End Time Together

16. Internal Team Processes: Behavioral Norms • Rules of behavior that are widely shared and enforced by members of a work team • Norms may specify: • How much work to do • How customers should be treated • Importance of high quality • What members should wear • What kinds of jokes are acceptable • How members should feel about the organization • How they should deal with their managers, and so on

17. Internal Team Processes: Performance Norms • Exists When Three Criteria Have Been Met • There is a performance standard of appropriate behavior for team members • Members must generally agree on the standard • Members must be aware that the team supports the particular standard through a system of rewards and punishments

18. Internal Team Processes: Performance Norms • Free rider: a team member who isn’t contributing fully to team performance but still shares in team rewards • Groupthink: an agreement-at-any-cost mentality that results in ineffective work team decision making and may lead to poor solutions; Likelihood increases when: • Peer pressure to conform is great • A highly directive leader presses for a particular interpretation of the problem and course of action • Need exists to process a complex and unstructured issue under crisis conditions • Group is isolated

19. Internal Team Processes: Performance Norms • Productive controversy: when team members value different points of view and seek to draw them out to facilitate creative problem solving • Focus on issues rather than people • Defer decisions until issues and ideas are explored • Follow procedures that equalize sharing of power and responsibility • Managers can help shape norms

20. Causes of Poor Team Performance • Internal Processes • External System: Team design Culture Rewardsystem Memberselection Teamtraining

21. Causes of Poor Team Performance: Team Design • Team Size • For innovative decision making, ideal work team is probably between five and nine members • If large teams required, consider useof subteams • With large teams be aware of backlash through clique lobbies (continued)

22. Causes of Poor Team Performance: Team Design • Team size—large team size tends to have the following effects • Demands on leader time and attention are greater; leader becomes more psychologically distant from the team members • Team’s tolerance of direction from the leader is greater and team’s decision making becomes more centralized • Team atmosphere is less friendly, communications are less personal, more cliques form within the team • Team’s rules and procedures become more formalized • Likelihood of some members being free riders increases

23. Causes of Poor Team Performance: Team Design • Team proximity • Proximity to other work teams and members of the organization • Team members’ proximity to each other • Ideal proximity among teams depends on work being done • Virtual teams often create special challenges

24. Causes of Poor Team Performance: Culture • Differences in societal cultures • Language differences • Weak or poor organizational culture

25. Causes of Poor Team Performance: Team Member Selection • Incompatible personality traits among members • Traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness needed • Communication and teamwork competencies needed

26. Causes of Poor Team Performance: Team Training • Poor or no team training • Leadership development for managers or team leaders needed • Team training needed for: • how to manage meetings • how to support disagreement • how to commit to a decision • how to use group-based technologies

27. Causes of Poor Team Performance: Reward System • Choices in Designing Reward Systems for Work Teams • How can nonmonetary rewards be used to recognize excellent team performance? • What portion of a person’s total monetary rewards should be linked to performance of the team (versus the performance of the individual or the business unit)? • If rewards are to be linked to results, which effectiveness criteria should be used to evaluate team results? Individual results? (continued)

28. Causes of Poor Team Performance: Reward System • Choices in Designing Reward Systems for Work Teams (cont’d) • How should rewards be distributed among the members of a team? Should they all receive equal rewards? If not, on what basis should people receive differential rewards? • Who should be responsible for the allocation of rewards among team members: team members, a team leader, someone outside the team? • For global teams, how should cultural differences among members of the team and the pay systems used in different countries be addressed?

29. Causes of Poor Team Performance • Team Design • Team Size • Team Location • Virtual Work Team • Information Technology • Culture • Team Member Selection • Team Training • Reward Systems

30. Examples of Tasks Performed in Self-Managing Work Teams(from Figure 17.6) High • Dismiss members • Discipline members • Allocate monetary rewards • Select suppliers • Appraise member performance • Share leadership tasks • Select new members • Select effectiveness criteria to measure • Determine team budget • Determine production/service schedules • Purchase equipment and supplies Level of Team Self-Management • Monitor spending • Arrange work and • vacation schedules • Monitor team • performance • Cross-train team members Moderate Moderate High Degree of Managerial Competencies Required