questions

Learning outcomes

1 Explain the good and bad of using teams.

The advantages of Teams

Companies are making greater use of teams because teams have been shown to improve customer satisfaction, product and service quality, speed and efficiency in product development, employee job satisfaction, and decision makings. For example, one survey indicated that 80 per cent of companies with more than 100 employees use teams, and a large percentage of all employees work part of their day in a team. Teams help businesses increase customer satisfaction in several ways. One way is to create work teams that are trained to meet the needs of specific customers. Businesses also create problem-solving teams and employee involvement teams to study ways to improve overall customer satisfaction and make recommendations for improvements. Teams also help companies improve product and service quality in several ways. In contrast to traditional organisational structures, in which management is responsible for organisational outcomes and performance, teams take direct responsibility for the quality of the products and services they produce and sell. One reason that teamwork can be more satisfying than traditional work is that it gives employees a chance to improve their skills. This is often accomplished through cross-training, in which team members are taught how to do all or most of the jobs performed by the other team members. The advantage for the organisation is that cross-training allows a team to function normally when one member is absent, quits or is transferred. The advantage for employees is that cross-training broadens their skills and increases their capabilities, while also making their work more varied and interesting. A second reason that teamwork is satisfying is that work teams often receive proprietary business information that is available only to managers at most companies. For example, at Whole Foods, the supermarket chain that sells groceries and health foods, team members are given full access to their store’s financial information and everyone’s salaries, including those of the store manager and the CEO. Team members also gain job satisfaction from unique leadership responsibilities when working in teams that typically are not available in traditional organisations. For example, rotating leadership among team members can lead to more participation and cooperation in team decision making and improved team performance. For instance, because team members possess different knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences, a team is able to view problems from multiple perspectives. This diversity of viewpoints increases the odds that team decisions will solve the underlying causes of problems and not just address the symptoms. The increased knowledge and information available to teams also make it easier for them to generate more alternative solutions, which is a critical part of improving the quality of decisions. Because team members are involved in decision-making processes, they are also likely to be more committed to making those decisions work. In short, teams can do a much better job than individuals in two important steps of the decision-making process: defining the problem and generating alternative solutions.

The disadvantages of teams

The first disadvantage of work teams is initially high turnover . Teams aren’t for everyone, and when teams are introduced into a traditional work setting some employees baulk at the responsibility, effort and learning required in team settings. Social loafing is another disadvantage of work teams. Social loafing occurs when employees withhold their efforts and fail to perform their share of the work. In fact, social loafing is more likely to occur in larger groups, where identifying and monitoring the efforts of individual team members can be difficult.15 In other words, social loafers count on being able to blend into the background, where their lack of effort isn’t easily spotted. From team-based class projects, most students already know about social loafers or ‘slackers’, who contribute poor, little or no work whatsoever. Not surprisingly, a study of 250 student teams found that the most talented students are typically the least satisfied with teamwork because of having to carry ‘slackers’ and do a disproportionate share of their team’s work. Perceptions of fairness are negatively related to the extent of social loafing within teams. Groupthink, where members of highly cohesive groups feel intense pressure not to disagree with each other so that the group can approve a proposed solution. Because groupthink restricts discussion and leads to consideration of a limited number of alternative solutions, it usually results in poor decisions. Also, team decision making takes considerable time, and team meetings can often be unproductive and inefficient. Another possible pitfall is minority domination, where just one or two people dominate team discussions, thus restricting consideration of different problem definitions and alternative solutions. Finally, team members may not feel accountable for the decisions and actions taken by the ‘team’.

When to use teams

2 Recognise and understand the different kinds of teams.

Kinds of teams

Autonomy – the key dimension

Figure 10.2 shows how five kinds of teams differ in terms of autonomy.

Let’s review each of these kinds of teams and their autonomy and responsibilities in more detail. The smallest amount of autonomy is found in traditional work groups, where two or more people work together to achieve a shared goal. In these groups, employees are responsible for doing the work or ‘executing the task’, but they do not have direct responsibility or control over their work .Employees report to managers, who are responsible for their performance and have the authority to hire and fire them, make job assignments and control resources.

Employee involvement teams, which have somewhat more autonomy, meet within company time on a weekly or monthly basis to provide advice or make suggestions to management concerning specific issues, such as plant safety, customer relations or product quality.21 Though they offer advice and suggestions, they do not have the authority to make decisions. Membership on these teams is often voluntary, but members may be selected because of their expertise. The idea behind employee involvement teams is that the people closest to the problem or situation are best able to recommend solutions.

Semi-autonomous work groups not only provide advice and suggestions to management, but also have the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major tasks required to produce a product or service. Semi-autonomous groups regularly receive information about budgets, work quality and performance, and competitors’ products. Furthermore, members of semi-autonomous work groups are typically cross-trained in a number of different skills and tasks. In short, semi-autonomous work groups give employees the authority to make decisions that are typically made by supervisors and managers. That authority is not complete, however. Managers still play a role, though much reduced compared to traditional work groups, in supporting the work of semi-autonomous work groups. In semi-autonomous work groups, managers ask good questions, provide resources and facilitate performance of group goals.

Self-managing teams differ from semi-autonomous work groups in that team members manage and control all of the major tasks directly related to production of a product or service without first getting approval from management. This includes managing and controlling the acquisition of materials, making a product or providing a service and ensuring timely delivery. For example, at one large aluminium can factory, ‘The teams make and implement decisions regarding production, product quality, training, attendance, safety, maintenance and certain types of discipline. The teams can stop production lines without management approval, stop delivery of cans that do not meet quality standards, decide which workers should receive training, decide whether to grant leave requests and investigate and correct safety problems’ .

Self-designing teams have all the characteristics of self-managing teams, but they can also control and change the design of the teams themselves, the tasks they do and how and when they do them, and the membership of the teams.

Special kinds of teams

3 Understand the general characteristics of work teams.

Work team characteristics

• team norms • team cohesiveness • team size • team conflict • the stages of team development.

Team Size

There appears to be a curvilinear relationship between team size and performance. Very small or very large teams may not perform as well as moderately sized teams. For most teams, the right size is somewhere between six and nine members. This size is conducive to high team cohesion, which has a positive effect on team performance, as discussed above. A team of this size is small enough for the team members to get to know each other and for each member to have an opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way to the success of the team. At the same time, the team is also large enough to take advantage of team members’ diverse skills, knowledge and perspectives. It is also easier to instil a sense of responsibility and mutual accountability in teams of this size. By contrast, when teams get too large, team members find it difficult to get to know one another and the team may splinter into smaller subgroups. When this occurs, subgroups sometimes argue and disagree, weakening overall team cohesion.

Team Conflict

Conflict and disagreement are inevitable in most teams. But this shouldn’t surprise anyone. From time to time, people who work together are going to disagree about what and how things get done. What causes conflict in teams? Although almost anything can lead to conflict – casual remarks that unintentionally offend a team member or fighting over scarce resources – the primary cause of team conflict is disagreement over team goals and priorities.54 Other common causes of team conflict include disagreements over task-related issues, interpersonal incompatibilities and simple fatigue.

The stages of team development

Forming is the initial stage of team development. This is the getting acquainted stage, when team members first meet each other, form initial impressions and try to get a sense of what it will be like to be part of the team. Some of the first team norms will be established during this stage, as team members begin to find out what behaviours will and won’t be accepted by the team. During this stage, team leaders should allow time for team members to get to know each other, set early ground rules and begin to set up a preliminary team structure.

Conflicts and disagreements often characterise the second stage of team development, known as storming. As team members begin working together, different personalities and work styles may clash. Team members become more assertive at this stage and more willing to state opinions. This is also the stage when team members jockey for position and try to establish a favourable role for themselves in the team. In addition, team members are likely to disagree about what the group should do and how it should do it. Team performance is still relatively low, given that team cohesion is weak and team members are still reluctant to support each other. Since teams that get stuck in the storming stage are almost always ineffective, it is important for team leaders to focus the team on team goals and on improving team performance. Team members need to be particularly patient and tolerant with each other in this stage.

During norming, the third stage of team development, team members begin to settle into their roles as team members. Positive team norms will have developed by this stage and teammates should know what to expect from each other. Petty differences should have been resolved, friendships will have developed and group cohesion will be relatively strong. At this point, team members will have accepted team goals, be operating as a unit and, as indicated by the increase in performance, be working together effectively. This stage can be very short and is often characterised by someone on the team saying, ‘I think things are finally coming together’. Note, however, that teams may also cycle back and forth between storming and norming several times before finally settling into norming.

In the last stage of team development, performing, performance improves because the team has finally matured into an effective, fully functioning team. At this point, members should be fully committed to the team and think of themselves as ‘members of a team’ and not just ‘employees’. Team members often become intensely loyal to one another at this stage and feel mutual accountability for team successes and failures. Trivial disagreements, which can take time and energy away from the work of the team, should be rare. At this stage, teams get a lot of work done, and it is fun to be a team member.

The team should not become complacent, however, because without effective management, its performance may begin to decline as the team passes through the stages of de-norming, de-storming and de-forming.66 Indeed, as one senior manufacturing manager has said, ‘The books all say you start in this state of chaos and march through these various stages, and you end up in this state of ultimate self- direction, where everything is going just great. They never tell you it can go back in the other direction, sometimes just as quickly’.

4 Explain how to enhance work team effectiveness.

• the setting of team goals and priorities

Having specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely (i.e. SMART) goals is one of the most effective means for improving individual job performance. Fortunately, team goals also improve team performance. In fact, team goals lead to much higher team performance 93 per cent of the time.69 For example, a steel company sets specific, challenging hourly goals for each of its production teams, which consist of first-line supervisors and production and maintenance workers. The average in the steel industry is 10 tons (just over 9000 kg) of steel per hour. Company production teams have a goal of 8 tons (around 7200 kg) per hour, but get a 5 per cent bonus for every ton over 8 tons that they produce each hour. With no limit on the bonuses they can receive, production teams produce an average of 35 to 40 tons (around 31 000 to 36 000 kg) of steel per hour! Without a specific, challenging goal for the team itself (the last of the four goals listed), team members may head off in all directions at once pursuing these other goals. Consequently, setting a specific, challenging goal for the team clarifies team priorities by providing a clear focus and purpose. Specific, challenging team goals also affect how hard team members work. In particular, challenging team goals greatly reduce the incidence of social loafing. When faced with difficult goals, team members necessarily expect everyone to contribute. Consequently, they are much more likely to notice and complain if a teammate isn’t doing his or her share. In fact, when teammates know each other well, when team goals are specific, when team communication is good and when teams are rewarded for team, there is only a one in 16 chance that teammates will be social loafers.

Teams need structural accommodation. Structural accommodation means giving teams the ability to change organisational structures, policies and practices if doing so helps them meet their stretch goals. Finally, teams need bureaucratic immunity. Bureaucratic immunity means that teams no longer have to go through the frustratingly slow process of multilevel reviews and sign-offs to get management approval before making changes. Once granted bureaucratic immunity, teams are immune from the influence of various organisational groups and are accountable only to top management. Therefore, teams can act quickly and even experiment with little fear of failure.

• how work team members are selected

• how work teams are trained

Most commonly, members of work teams receive training in interpersonal skills, such as listening, communicating, questioning and providing feedback. All of these skills enable people to have effective working relationships with others. Because of teams’ autonomy and responsibility, many companies also give team members training in decision-making and problem-solving skills to help them do a better job of cutting costs and improving quality as well as customer service.

• how work teams are compensated

Employees can be compensated for team participation and accomplishments in three ways:

• skill-based pay

• gainsharing

• non-financial rewards.

Non- financial rewards are another way to reward teams for their performance. These rewards, which can range from vacation trips to T-shirts, plaques and coffee mugs, are especially effective when coupled with management recognition, such as awards, certificates and praise.93 Non-financial rewards tend to be most effective when teams or team- based interventions, such as total quality management, are first introduced.