West Coast

CHAPTER 12 Teams and Teamwork: Two Heads Really Are Better Than One

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

- Helen Keller

Chapter Quick Start

Surely you’ve experienced the highs and the lows of teams and teamwork—as a team member and as a team leader. Teams and teammates can be inspirational and they can also be highly frustrating. People in teams can accomplish great things or end up doing very little. The more we know about teams, teamwork, and our personal tendencies toward team contributions, the better prepared we are to participate in today’s team-driven organizations.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

12.1  Explain the ways teams contribute to organizations.

12.2  Describe current trends in the use of teams in organizations.

12.3  Summarize the key processes through which teams work.

12.4  Discuss the ins and outs of team decision making.

Career Readiness – What to Look for Inside

“Sticks in a bundle are hard to break”—Kenyan proverb

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, determined people can change the world”—Margaret Mead, anthropologist

“Pick good people, use small teams and give them great tools so that they are very productive.”—Bill Gates, businessman and philanthropist

“Gettin’ good players is easy. Gettin’ 'em to play together is the hard part”—Casey Stengel, Hall of Fame Major League baseball manager

From proverbs to societies to sports to business, the operation of teams and teamwork has been a consistent focal point of collective organization and is widely recognized as a critical tool for accomplishing great things. 1  Even so, just the words group and team elicit both positive and negative reactions from people who have been involved—either as observers or participants—in these collectives. Although it is an embedded idiom in Western culture that “two heads are better than one,” we also are warned by an idiom equally embedded in our culture that “too many cooks spoil the broth.” A true skeptic of the collective action implied by groups or teams might say: “A camel is a horse put together by a committee.”

Teams have a great deal of performance potential but also are extremely complex in how they function. Teams can be a supercharged vehicle to achieve great successes, and they can also be the cause of equally monstrous failures. 2  More than a third of individuals participating in teams report dissatisfaction with teamwork. Less than half of team members report receiving training in team dynamics. 3  Still, many people prefer to work in teams than working alone. What is clear is that there is a great deal of variability in responses to—and the effectiveness of—teams in organizations today.

12.1 Teams in Organizations

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.1

Explain the ways teams contribute to organizations.

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· Teamwork pros

· Teamwork cons

· Meetings, meetings, meetings

· Organizations as networks of groups

A  team  is a relatively small set of people with complementary skills who regularly interact, and work interdependently to achieve shared goals. 4   Teamwork  is the process of team members working together to accomplish these goals. Managers must be prepared to perform at least the four important teamwork roles shown in  Figure 12.1 . A team leader serves as the appointed head of a team or a work unit. A team member serves as a contributing part of a project team. A network facilitator serves as a peer leader and networking hub for a special task force. A coach or developer serves as a team’s advisor to improve team processes and performance.

A team is a collection of people who regularly interact to pursue common goals.

Teamwork is the process of people actively working together interdependently to accomplish common goals.

FIGURE 12.1  Roles managers play in teams and teamwork.

A fundamental difference between teams and groups is whether members’ goals or outcomes require that they work interdependently or independently of one another. The  interdependence  characteristic of teams puts members in positions where they depend on each other to fulfill tasks and carry out their work. 5  Interdependence influences the way team members combine inputs such as ideas and efforts to create outcomes such as a completed task or project. 6  And when team members are interdependent, they tend to share information and communicate more often, as well as act cooperatively and helpfully toward one another. 7

Interdependence is the extent to which team members depend on one other to complete their work effectively.

Teamwork Pros

Although working effectively with other members can be hard work, the effort is worth it when the team meets anticipated performance expectations. 8  One great benefit of teams is their capacity to accomplish goals and performance expectations far greater than what’s possible for individuals alone. This collective performance potential is called  synergy , the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its individual parts.

Synergy is the creation of a whole greater than the sum of its individual parts.

Synergy pools individual talents and efforts to create extraordinary results through collective action. When Jens Voigt, a former Tour de France star, was asked to describe a “perfect cyclist,” he instead described this composite of his nine-member team: “We take the time trial legs of Fabian Cancellara, the speed of Stuart O’Grady, the climbing capacity of our leaders, and my attitude.” Voigt’s point was that the tour is simply too hard for a single rider to win based on individual talents alone. 9

Team connections can help everyone to do their jobs better—getting help, solving problems, sharing ideas, responding to favors, motivating one another, and avoiding roadblocks. Team relationships can also help satisfy important needs that may be difficult to meet in regular work or personal settings. Just being part of a team that offers positive interpersonal interactions can provide a sense of security, belonging, and emotional support. 10  In sum, it’s no secret that teams can be hard work. But it’s also true that they’re most often worth it. The many benefits of teams include the following.

· Performance gains through synergy

· More resources for problem solving

· Improved creativity and innovation

· Improved decision-making quality

· Greater member commitment to tasks

· Increased member motivation

· Increased need satisfaction of members

Teamwork Cons

We all know that the expected performance gains from teams don’t always materialize. Problems with team operations and between members can easily transform their great potential into frustration and failure. 11

Personality conflicts and work style differences can disrupt how teams function. Unclear tasks, ambiguous agendas, and ill-defined problems and roles can cause teams to work too long on the wrong things. Sometimes members start out motivated and then lose their motivation because teamwork takes too much time and effort away from other tasks, deadlines, and priorities. A lack of success also can hurt members’ morale. It’s also easy for members to lose motivation when the team is poorly organized and led, or when other members slack off. 12

Anyone who’s had any experience working in teams has encountered  social loafing . This is the presence of “free-riders” who slack off because responsibility is spread throughout the team and others are present to do the work, picking up the slack. 13  Although social loafing can be very frustrating and can hurt team performance, there are things that leaders or team members can do when others don’t do their work. The possibilities include making individual contributions more visible, rewarding individuals for their contributions, making task assignments more interesting, and keeping team sizes small so that free-riders are subject to more intense peer pressure and leader evaluation. 14

Social loafing is the tendency of some members to avoid responsibility by “free-riding” during group tasks.

Ethics: Know Right from Wrong

The student complained that free-riders were making it hard for his team to perform well.

Social Loafing Is Hurting Team Performance

1. Psychology study: A German researcher asked people to pull on a rope as hard as they could. First, individuals pulled alone. Second, they pulled as part of a group. The results from this study showed that people pull harder when working alone than when working as part of a team. Such “social loafing” is the tendency for individuals to reduce their level of effort when working with others.

2. Faculty office: A student wants to speak with the instructor about issues with his team’s performance on the last project. There were four members, but only two of them did almost all of the work. The other two largely disappeared, showing up only at the last minute to be part of the formal presentation. His point is that the team was disadvantaged because two free-riders were responsible for reduced performance capacity.

3. Telephone call from the boss: “John, I really need you to serve on this committee. Will you do it? Let me know tomorrow.” In thinking about this, John ponders: I’m overloaded, but I don’t want to turn down the boss. I’ll accept but let the committee members know about my situation. I’ll be active in discussions and try to offer viewpoints and perspectives that are helpful. However, I’ll let them know up front that I can’t be a leader or volunteer for any extra work.

What Do You Think?

What are the ethical issues involved in team situations when some members sit back and let others do more of the work the entire team is responsible for doing? When you join a team, do all of the team’s members have an ethical obligation to do a similar amount of work—why or why not? When it comes to John, does the fact that he intends to be honest with the other committee members make any difference? Isn’t he still going to be a social loafer while earning credit from his boss for serving on the committee? Is his approach ethical—or should he simply decline to participate on the committee? What factors would make you more/less comfortable with another member not pulling their weight on the team?

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

“Meetings are unproductive and inefficient.”

“Meetings keep me from completing my own work.”

“Meetings come at the expense of deep thinking.”

The prior comments come from a survey of senior managers.15 How do they stack up with your experiences? What do you think when someone says: “Let’s have a meeting”? Are you ready and willing to attend? Or are you apprehensive and even irritated to have to set aside time and participate?

Good meetings don’t happen by accident. People have to work hard and work together to make meetings productive and rewarding. Face-to-face and virtual meetings are where lots of information is shared, decisions get made, and people gain understanding of the issues and of one another. They’re important and necessary. This is why knowing more about teams and teamwork is so useful.

Organizations as Networks of Teams

Formal teams are officially recognized and supported by the organization. They may be called departments (e.g., market research department), units (e.g., audit unit), groups (e.g., customer service group), or divisions (e.g., office products division). These formal teams create interlocking networks that serve as the foundation of the organization’s structure, and managers are key “linking pins” among them. Managers lead formal teams at one level while also serving as members of teams at the next higher level as well as teams formed across functional areas.16

A formal team is an officially recognized collective that is supported by the organization.

Informal groups  also are important in all organizations. They emerge from natural or spontaneous relationships. Some informal groups are interest groups where members join together to pursue a common cause, such as better working conditions. Some emerge as friendship groups that develop for personal reasons, including shared non-work interests and social connections. Others exist as support groups, where members help one another to do their jobs or to cope with problems.

An informal group is unofficial and emerges spontaneously from relationships and shared interests among members.

Analysis: Make Data Your Friend

Meetings are frequent, but many employees say the ones they attend are ineffective.

Unproductive Meetings Are Major Time Wasters

A survey of some 38,000 workers around the world links low productivity with bad meetings, poor communication, and unclear goals.

· 69% of meetings attended are considered ineffective.

· 32% of workers complain about team communication.

· 31% complain about unclear objectives and priorities.

Your Thoughts?

Do the results from this survey match your own experiences with team meetings? Given the common complaints about meetings, what can a team leader do to improve them? Think about recent meetings you have attended. In what ways were the best meetings different from the worst meetings? Did your own behavior play a significant role in both of these cases? How do the interactions of team members influence the quality of these meetings? Why?

Although informal groups can become forums for airing dissatisfactions and spreading rumors, the social connections they offer also play many positive roles in organizations. Tapping into relationships can help speed workflow and “get things done” in ways not possible within the formal structure. Being part of informal groups can satisfy needs that are otherwise left unmet in one’s job, including opportunities for friendship, security, support, and a sense of belongingness.

Learning Check

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.1

Explain the ways teams contribute to organizations.

Be Sure You Can

· define team and teamwork

· explain why interdependence is a key characteristic of teams

· identify four roles managers perform in teams

· define synergy

· explain teamwork pros and cons

· discuss the implications of social loafing

· explain the potential benefits of informal groups

12.2 Trends in the Use of Teams

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.2

Describe current trends in the use of teams in organizations.

WileyPLUS

See Author Video

Learn More About

· Committees, project teams, and task forces

· Cross-functional teams

· Self-managing teams

· Virtual teams

· Team building

The trend is toward greater empowerment in organizations. In practice, one way this shows up is in the expanded use of committees, project teams, task forces, cross-functional teams, self-managing teams, and virtual teams.

Committees, Project Teams, and Task Forces

A  committee  brings employees together outside of their daily job duties to work together for a specific purpose. A committee’s agenda is typically narrow, focused, and ongoing. Organizations usually have a variety of permanent or standing committees dedicated to a wide variety of issues, such as diversity, quality, and product development. Committees are led by a designated head or chairperson, who is accountable for the committee’s performance.

A committee is designated to work on a special task on a continuing basis.

Project teams  or  task forces  bring people together to work on common problems, but on a temporary basis. The goals and task assignments are specific and completion deadlines are clear. Creativity and innovation may be part of the agenda. Project teams, for example, can be formed to develop a new advertising campaign, redesign an office layout, or streamline a work process.17

A project team or task force is convened for a specific purpose and disbands when its task is completed.

Cross-Functional Teams

Many organizations use  cross-functional teams  that pull together members from across different functional units to work on common goals. These teams help reduce the  functional chimneys problem  by eliminating “walls” that can limit communication and cooperation between different departments and functions. Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel, for example, says that his firm uses cross-functional teams from “merchandising, marketing, design, communications, presentation, supply chain and stores” to create and bring new limited-edition fashions to customers.18

A cross-functional team operates with members who come from different functional units of an organization.

The functional chimneys problem is a lack of communication across functions.

Self-Managing Teams

Traditional work teams consisting of first-level supervisors and their subordinates are increasingly being replaced in a growing number of organizations with  self-managing work teams . As shown in  Figure 12.2 , members of these teams have a high degree of task interdependence, authority to make decisions about how they work, and collective responsibility for results.19 The expected advantages are better performance, reduced costs, greater engagement, and higher morale.

Members of a self-managing work team have the authority to make decisions about how they share and complete their work.

FIGURE 12.2 Organizational and management implications of self-managing work teams.

Ethics: Know Right from Wrong

The student complained that free-riders were making it hard for his team to perform well.

Social Loafing Is Hurting Team Performance

1. Psychology study: A German researcher asked people to pull on a rope as hard as they could. First, individuals pulled alone. Second, they pulled as part of a group. The results from this study showed that people pull harder when working alone than when working as part of a team. Such “social loafing” is the tendency for individuals to reduce their level of effort when working with others.

2. Faculty office: A student wants to speak with the instructor about issues with his team’s performance on the last project. There were four members, but only two of them did almost all of the work. The other two largely disappeared, showing up only at the last minute to be part of the formal presentation. His point is that the team was disadvantaged because two free-riders were responsible for reduced performance capacity.

3. Telephone call from the boss: “John, I really need you to serve on this committee. Will you do it? Let me know tomorrow.” In thinking about this, John ponders: I’m overloaded, but I don’t want to turn down the boss. I’ll accept but let the committee members know about my situation. I’ll be active in discussions and try to offer viewpoints and perspectives that are helpful. However, I’ll let them know up front that I can’t be a leader or volunteer for any extra work.

What Do You Think?

What are the ethical issues involved in team situations when some members sit back and let others do more of the work the entire team is responsible for doing? When you join a team, do all of the team’s members have an ethical obligation to do a similar amount of work—why or why not? When it comes to John, does the fact that he intends to be honest with the other committee members make any difference? Isn’t he still going to be a social loafer while earning credit from his boss for serving on the committee? Is his approach ethical—or should he simply decline to participate on the committee? What factors would make you more/less comfortable with another member not pulling their weight on the team?

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

“Meetings are unproductive and inefficient.”

“Meetings keep me from completing my own work.”

“Meetings come at the expense of deep thinking.”

The prior comments come from a survey of senior managers.15 How do they stack up with your experiences? What do you think when someone says: “Let’s have a meeting”? Are you ready and willing to attend? Or are you apprehensive and even irritated to have to set aside time and participate?

Good meetings don’t happen by accident. People have to work hard and work together to make meetings productive and rewarding. Face-to-face and virtual meetings are where lots of information is shared, decisions get made, and people gain understanding of the issues and of one another. They’re important and necessary. This is why knowing more about teams and teamwork is so useful.

Organizations as Networks of Teams

Formal teams are officially recognized and supported by the organization. They may be called departments (e.g., market research department), units (e.g., audit unit), groups (e.g., customer service group), or divisions (e.g., office products division). These formal teams create interlocking networks that serve as the foundation of the organization’s structure, and managers are key “linking pins” among them. Managers lead formal teams at one level while also serving as members of teams at the next higher level as well as teams formed across functional areas.16

A formal team is an officially recognized collective that is supported by the organization.

Informal groups  also are important in all organizations. They emerge from natural or spontaneous relationships. Some informal groups are interest groups where members join together to pursue a common cause, such as better working conditions. Some emerge as friendship groups that develop for personal reasons, including shared non-work interests and social connections. Others exist as support groups, where members help one another to do their jobs or to cope with problems.

An informal group is unofficial and emerges spontaneously from relationships and shared interests among members.

Analysis: Make Data Your Friend

Meetings are frequent, but many employees say the ones they attend are ineffective.

Unproductive Meetings Are Major Time Wasters

A survey of some 38,000 workers around the world links low productivity with bad meetings, poor communication, and unclear goals.

· 69% of meetings attended are considered ineffective.

· 32% of workers complain about team communication.

· 31% complain about unclear objectives and priorities.

Your Thoughts?

Do the results from this survey match your own experiences with team meetings? Given the common complaints about meetings, what can a team leader do to improve them? Think about recent meetings you have attended. In what ways were the best meetings different from the worst meetings? Did your own behavior play a significant role in both of these cases? How do the interactions of team members influence the quality of these meetings? Why?

Although informal groups can become forums for airing dissatisfactions and spreading rumors, the social connections they offer also play many positive roles in organizations. Tapping into relationships can help speed workflow and “get things done” in ways not possible within the formal structure. Being part of informal groups can satisfy needs that are otherwise left unmet in one’s job, including opportunities for friendship, security, support, and a sense of belongingness.

Learning Check

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.1

Explain the ways teams contribute to organizations.

Be Sure You Can

· define team and teamwork

· explain why interdependence is a key characteristic of teams

· identify four roles managers perform in teams

· define synergy

· explain teamwork pros and cons

· discuss the implications of social loafing

· explain the potential benefits of informal groups

12.2 Trends in the Use of Teams

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.2

Describe current trends in the use of teams in organizations.

WileyPLUS

See Author Video

Learn More About

· Committees, project teams, and task forces

· Cross-functional teams

· Self-managing teams

· Virtual teams

· Team building

The trend is toward greater empowerment in organizations. In practice, one way this shows up is in the expanded use of committees, project teams, task forces, cross-functional teams, self-managing teams, and virtual teams.

Committees, Project Teams, and Task Forces

A  committee  brings employees together outside of their daily job duties to work together for a specific purpose. A committee’s agenda is typically narrow, focused, and ongoing. Organizations usually have a variety of permanent or standing committees dedicated to a wide variety of issues, such as diversity, quality, and product development. Committees are led by a designated head or chairperson, who is accountable for the committee’s performance.

A committee is designated to work on a special task on a continuing basis.

Project teams  or  task forces  bring people together to work on common problems, but on a temporary basis. The goals and task assignments are specific and completion deadlines are clear. Creativity and innovation may be part of the agenda. Project teams, for example, can be formed to develop a new advertising campaign, redesign an office layout, or streamline a work process.17

A project team or task force is convened for a specific purpose and disbands when its task is completed.

Cross-Functional Teams

Many organizations use  cross-functional teams  that pull together members from across different functional units to work on common goals. These teams help reduce the  functional chimneys problem  by eliminating “walls” that can limit communication and cooperation between different departments and functions. Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel, for example, says that his firm uses cross-functional teams from “merchandising, marketing, design, communications, presentation, supply chain and stores” to create and bring new limited-edition fashions to customers.18

A cross-functional team operates with members who come from different functional units of an organization.

The functional chimneys problem is a lack of communication across functions.

Self-Managing Teams

Traditional work teams consisting of first-level supervisors and their subordinates are increasingly being replaced in a growing number of organizations with  self-managing work teams . As shown in  Figure 12.2 , members of these teams have a high degree of task interdependence, authority to make decisions about how they work, and collective responsibility for results.19 The expected advantages are better performance, reduced costs, greater engagement, and higher morale.

Members of a self-managing work team have the authority to make decisions about how they share and complete their work.

FIGURE 12.2 Organizational and management implications of self-managing work teams.

Multitasking is a key feature of all self-managing teams, whose members have the skills to perform several different jobs. Within a team the emphasis is always on participation. Team members share tasks and take responsibility for management functions traditionally performed by supervisors. These “self-management” responsibilities include planning and scheduling work, training members in various tasks, distributing tasks, meeting performance goals, ensuring high quality, and solving day-to-day problems. In some self-managing teams, members have the authority to “hire” and “fire” members.

Virtual Teams

Scene: U.S.-based IT manager needs to meet with team members in Brazil, the Philippines, and Poland. Rather than pay for everyone to fly to a common location, he checks world time zones, sends e-mail and messages to schedule a virtual meeting. Probably working from home, he turns on his tablet to join team members online using any number of virtual meeting platforms.

Members of  virtual teams , also called distributed teams, work together through computer mediation rather than face to face.20 Their use can save time, lowever travel costs when members work in different locations, and reduce complications for members working on different time schedules.21 Virtual teams can also be very efficient because members adhere to time schedules and are less prone to stray off task. Members of virtual teams are also less likely to get sidetracked by interpersonal difficulties. A vice president of human resources at Marriott, for example, once called electronic meetings “the quietest, least stressful, most productive meetings you’ve ever had.”22

Members of a virtual team work together and solve problems through computer-mediated interactions.

Virtual teams do have potential disadvantages, ones that need to be addressed through good team leadership. The lack of face-to-face interaction limits the role of emotions and nonverbal cues in communication, and can cause ineffective communication and feelings of depersonalization.23 “Human beings are social animals for whom building relationships matters a great deal,” says one scholar. “Strip away the social side of teamwork and, very quickly, people feel isolated and unsupported.”24 The following guidelines can help keep the possible downsides of virtual teamwork to a minimum.25

· Select team members high in initiative and capable of self-starting.

· Select members who will join and engage the team with positive attitudes.

· Select members known for working hard to meet team goals.

· Begin with social messaging that allows members to exchange information about each other in order to personalize the process.

· Assign clear goals and roles so that members can focus while working alone and also know what others are doing.

· Gather regular feedback from members about how they think the team is doing and how it might work more effectively.

· Provide regular feedback to team members about team accomplishments.

Team Building

Anyone interested in sports knows only too well that even the most experienced teams run into problems. Long seasons take their tolls, teams have losing streaks, players have slumps, and teammates come and go with injuries and trades. And don’t forget the arguments and complaints that cause frictions among team members. When such things happen, the best coaches and managers don’t let things go too far. They step in and take actions to restore the teamwork needed for performance success. Work teams face similar challenges and need similar “tune ups.”

Team building  is a sequence of planned activities used to analyze the functioning of a team and to make constructive, systematic changes in how it operates.26 The process begins with creating awareness that a problem already exists or may develop in the near future. Members then work together to gather data and fully understand the problem, make plans to correct it, implement the plans the team develops, and evaluate results from the plan. This process is repeated as difficulties or new problems are discovered.

Team building is a sequence of activities to analyze a team and make changes to improve its performance.

There are many ways to gather data for team building, including structured and unstructured interviews, survey questionnaires, and team meetings. Regardless of the method used to understand what’s happening, the basic principle of team building remains the same. It is a careful and collaborative assessment of all of the various aspects of the team, ranging from how members work together to the results they achieve.

Team building can be done with consulting assistance or under the direction of a manager. It can also be done in the workplace or take place at outside locations. A popular approach is to bring members together in special outdoor settings where their capacities for teamwork are tested through unusual and physically demanding experiences, such as obstacle courses. There’s lots of room for innovation, with options including activities like scavenger hunts, work with charities, cooking schools, building, sculpting, and competitive activities.27 Says one team-building trainer: “We throw clients into situations to try and bring out the traits of a good team.”28

Learning Check

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.2

Describe current trends in the use of teams in organizations.

Be Sure You Can

· differentiate a committee from a task force

· explain the benefits of cross-functional teams

· discuss potential advantages and disadvantages of virtual teams

· list the characteristics of self-managing work teams

· explain how self-managing teams are changing organizations

· describe the typical steps in team building

12.3 How Teams Work

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.3

Summarize the key processes through which teams work.

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· Team inputs

· Stages of team development

· Norms and cohesiveness

· Task and maintenance roles

· Communication networks

An  effective team  does three things well—performs its tasks, satisfies its members, and remains viable for the future.29 On the task performance side, a team is expected to transform resource inputs (such as ideas, materials, and information) into product outputs (such as a report, decision, service, or commodity). With respect to member satisfaction, members should take pleasure from both the team’s accomplishments and their contributions toward making these happen. As to future viability, the team should have a social fabric and work climate that makes its members willing and able to work well together in the future, again and again as needed.

An effective team achieves high levels of task performance, membership satisfaction, and future viability.

FIGURE 12.3 An open-systems model of team effectiveness.

You sometimes hear top executives saying that team effectiveness comes from having “the right players in the right seats on the same bus, headed in the same direction.”30 The open-systems model in  Figure 12.3  supports this view. It shows that a team’s effectiveness is influenced by inputs—“right players in the right seats”—and by process—“on the same bus, headed in the same direction.”31 You can remember the implications of this figure by the following  Team Effectiveness Equation .32

Team Effectiveness Equation Team effectiveness = Quality of inputs + (Process gains − Process losses).

Team effectiveness = Quality of inputs + ( Process gains − Process losses )

Team Inputs

Among the important inputs that influence team effectiveness are membership characteristics, resources and setting, nature of the task, and team size.33 You can think of them as drivers that prepare the team for action. A team with the right inputs has a greater chance of having a positive process and being effective.

Membership Characteristics

The right blend of member characteristics on a team is critical for success. Teams need members with the right abilities, or skill sets, to master and perform tasks well. Teams must also have members whose attitudes, values, and personalities are sufficiently compatible for everyone to work well together. How often, for example, have you read or heard about college sports teams where a lack “chemistry” among talented players leads to subpar team performance? As one of the chapter opening quotes states: “Gettin’ good players is easy. Gettin’ 'em to play together is the hard part.”34

Team diversity , in the form of different values, personalities, identities, experiences, demographics, and cultures among members, affects how teams work.35 It is easier to manage relationships among members of more homogeneous teams—teams where members share similar characteristics. It is harder to manage relationships among the members of more heterogeneous teams—where members are more dissimilar to one another. As team diversity increases, so does the complexity of members’ interpersonal relationships. But the potential complications of membership diversity also come with special performance opportunities. When heterogeneous teams are well managed, the variety of ideas, perspectives, and experiences can be a valuable problem-solving and performance asset.

Team diversity represents the differences in values, personalities, experiences, demographics, and cultures among members.

Choices: Think before You Act

“There is no ‘I’ in team!” is a common cry. But basketball superstar Michael Jordan once responded: “There is an ‘I’ in win.”

Creating Disharmony to Build a Better Team

“There is no ‘I’ in team!” is a common cry. But basketball superstar Michael Jordan once responded: “There is an ‘I’ in win.” What’s the point here? Jordan is suggesting that someone as expert in task direction as himself shouldn’t always be subordinated to the team. Rather, the team’s job may be to support his or her talents so that they shine to their brightest potential.

In his book, There Is an I in Team: What Elite Athletes and Coaches Really Know about High Performance, Cambridge University scholar Mark de Rond notes that sports metaphors abound in the workplace. We talk about “heavy hitters” and ask teammates to “step up to the plate.” The real world of teamwork is dominated by the quest for cooperation, perhaps at the cost of needed friction. And that, according to de Rond, is a potential performance problem. “When teams work well,” de Rond says, “it is because, not in spite, of individual differences.”

Those in favor of de Rond’s views are likely to argue that even if superstars bring a bit of conflict to the team, the result may well be added creativity and a performance boost. Instead of trying to make everyone happy, perhaps it’s time for managers and team leaders to accept that disharmony can be functional, adding a needed edge. A bit of team tension may be a price worth paying for high performance. Those worried about de Rond’s views might say there’s a fine line between a superstar’s real performance contribution and the collateral damage or negative impact caused by personality and temperament clashes. That line is a hard one to spot and to manage.

Your Take?

Given what we know about teams and your personal experiences with them, should we be finding ways to accommodate superstars on a team … or avoid them?

Resources and Tasks

Resources and organizational setting also influence how well team members use and pool their talents to accomplish team tasks. Teams function best when members have good information, resources, technology, supportive structures, and rewards. The physical work space also is critical, and many organizations are now architecturally designed to increase collaboration and teamwork.

The nature of the tasks teams are responsible for not only sets standards for the talents needed by members, it also affects how they work together. Clearly defined tasks are easier to deal with. Complex tasks require a lot more in terms of information sharing and coordinated action.36 The next time you fly, check out the ground crews. You should notice some similarities between them and NASCAR pit crews. There’s even a chance that some have been through “Pit Crew U.” United is among the organizations sending employees to Pit Instruction & Training in Mooresville, North Carolina. That is where NASCAR racing crews train workers to work intensely and under pressure while meeting goals through teamwork.37

Team Size

Team size affects how well members work together, handle disagreements, and make decisions. Having an odd numbers of members, such as in juries, helps prevent “ties” when votes need to be taken. And importantly, the number of potential interactions among team members increases geometrically as teams get bigger. Large team size creates communication and relationship problems for members and leaders. It’s also easier for individuals to hide and engage in social loafing in larger teams.

The general conclusions from social science research are that very small teams—four members or fewer—may be dominated by one or two strong members. Six- to eight-member teams are probably best for creative problem solving because their members are better able to form trusting relationships and function more like families. When teams get larger than this, the added size and complexity can be difficult to manage.38 Amazon.com’s founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has a simple rule when it comes to the of product development teams: No team should be larger than two pizzas can feed.39 Have you ever been on a team that was too large or too small? How did the members interact? And, how well did the team perform?

Stages of Team Development

Although having the right inputs is critical, it doesn’t guarantee team effectiveness.  Team process  also plays an important role. This is the way that the members of a team actually work together as they transform inputs into output. Also called group dynamics, the process aspects of any group or team include how members develop norms and cohesiveness, share roles, make decisions, communicate, and handle conflicts.40 Importantly, teams experience different process challenges as they pass through the stages of team development—forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.41

Team process is the way team members work together to accomplish tasks.

Forming Stage

The forming stage involves the first entry of individual members into a team. This is a time of initial task orientation and interpersonal testing. When people first come together, they ask questions: “What can or does this team offer me?” “What will I be asked to contribute?” “Can my needs be met while I serve the task needs of the team?”

In the forming stage individuals begin to identify with other members and with the team itself. They are concerned about getting acquainted, establishing relationships, discovering what behavior is acceptable, and learning how others perceive the team’s task. This may also be a time when some members rely on others who appear “powerful” or especially “knowledgeable.” Prior experience with team members in other situations and personal impressions of organization culture, goals, and practices may affect emerging relationships between members. Difficulties in the forming stage tend to be greater in more culturally and demographically diverse teams.

Storming Stage

Figure 12.4  shows the storming stage as part of a “critical zone” in team development. It is a period of high emotionality and can be hard to pass through successfully. Tensions often emerge over tasks and interpersonal concerns. There may be periods of outright hostility and infighting. Coalitions or cliques may form around personalities or interests. Subgroups may form around faultlines defined by areas of agreement and disagreement. Conflict also may develop as members compete to impose their preferences on other members and to become influential.

Important changes occur in the storming stage as task agendas become clarified and members begin to understand one another’s styles. Attention begins to shift toward obstacles that stand in the way of task accomplishment. Efforts are made to find ways to meet team goals while also satisfying members’ individual needs. Getting through this zone with success can create long-term gains while failures create long-lasting problems.

FIGURE 12.4 Storming and norming in the critical zone of team development.

Norming Stage

It is in the norming stage that team members begin to cooperate. Shared rules of conduct emerge and the team develops a sense of leadership members start to occupy and fulfill key roles. Interpersonal hostilities start to diminish and harmony is emphasized, but minority viewpoints may still be discouraged.

The norming stage also is part of the critical zone of team development. As members develop initial feelings of closeness, a division of labor, and shared expectations, this helps protect the team from disintegration. In fact, holding the team together may seem more important than accomplishing important tasks.

Performing Stage

Teams in the performing stage are more mature, organized, and well functioning. They score high on the criteria of team maturity shown in  Figure 12.5 .42 Performing is a stage of integration in which members are able to deal in creative ways with complex tasks and interpersonal conflicts. The team operates with a clear and stable structure, and members are motivated by team goals. The primary challenges in the performing stage are to continue to refine how the team operates and to build relationships that keep everyone working well together as an integrated unit.

Adjourning Stage

The final stage of team development is adjourning, when team members prepare to achieve closure and disband. Temporary committees, task forces, and project teams should disband with a sense that important goals have been accomplished. This can be an emotional period after team members have worked together intensely for a period of time. Adjourning is a time when it is important to acknowledge everyone’s contributions, praise them, and celebrate the team’s success. A team ideally disbands with everyone feeling they would like to work together again in the future.

Norms and Cohesiveness

A team norm is a behavioral expectation of team members.43 It is a “rule” or “standard” that guides behavior. Typical norms relate to things like helpfulness, participation, timeliness, work quality, creativity, and innovation. A team’s performance norm is critical, as it defines the level 

of work effort and performance that members are expected to contribute. Work groups and teams with positive performance norms are more successful accomplishing task objectives than teams with negative performance norms.

A team norm is a behavioral expectation, rule, or standard to be followed by team members.

FIGURE 12.5  Criteria for assessing the maturity of a team.

Managing Team Norms

Team leaders should help and encourage members to develop positive norms. During the forming and storming stages of development, norms relating to expected attendance and levels of commitment are important. By the time the performing stage is reached, norms relating to adaptability and change become relevant. Here are some things leaders can do to help their teams build positive norms: 44

· Act as a positive role model.

· Reinforce desired behaviors with rewards.

· Control results by performance reviews and regular feedback.

· Train and orient new members to adopt desired behaviors.

· Recruit and select new members who exhibit desired behaviors.

· Hold regular meetings to discuss progress and ways of improving.

· Use team decision-making methods to reach agreement.

There is growing research interest in the extent to which members of teams display virtuousness and share a commitment to moral behavior.  Team virtuousness  is described as the extent to which members adopt norms that encourage shared commitments to moral behavior. Scholars highlight five norms of moral behavior for special attention by team leaders and members alike. 45  Optimism expects team members to strive for success even after setbacks. Forgiveness expects team members to forgive one another’s mistakes and avoid assigning blame. Trust expects team members to be courteous and interact in respectful, trusting ways. Compassion expects team members to help and support one another and show kindness in difficult times. Integrity expects team members to be honest in what they do and say while working together.

Team virtuousness indicates the extent to which members adopt norms that encourage shared commitments to moral behavior.

Managing Team Cohesiveness

Team members vary in their adherence to established group norms. Conformity to norms is largely determined by  team cohesiveness , the degree to which members are attracted to and motivated to remain part of a team. 46  Members of teams that are highly cohesive value their membership and strive to maintain positive relationships with other members. Because of this, they tend to conform to team norms. In the extreme, violation of a norm on a highly cohesive team can result in a member being expelled or socially ostracized.

team cohesiveness is the degree to which members are attracted to and motivated to remain part of a team.

Figure 12.6  shows the power of cohesiveness. The “best-case” scenario is a team with high cohesiveness and a high performance norm. Strong conformity to norms by members of “high-high” teams is likely to have a beneficial effect on team performance. Contrast this with the “worst-case” scenario of high cohesiveness and a low performance norm. Members of “high-low” teams conform to the low performance norm and restrict their work efforts to adhere to the norm.

FIGURE 12.6  How cohesiveness and norms influence team performance.

We’ve already discussed ways to build positive norms. But, managers and team leaders also must be good at building cohesiveness as well. This can be done in the following ways:

· Create agreement on team goals.

· Reward team rather than individual results.

· Increase membership homogeneity.

· Increase interactions among members.

· Decrease team size.

· Introduce competition with other teams.

· Provide physical isolation from other teams.

Task and Maintenance Roles

Research on collectives such as groups and teams identifies two types of roles or activities that are essential if members are to work well together. 47   Task activities  contribute directly to the team’s performance purpose, while  maintenance activities  support the emotional life of the team as an ongoing social system.

A task activity is an action taken by a team member that directly contributes to the team’s performance purpose.

A maintenance activity is an action taken by a team member that supports the emotional life of the team.

Although the team leader or supervisor should give these activities special attention, the responsibility for task and maintenance activities also should be shared and distributed among all team members. Anyone can help lead a team by satisfying these needs. The concept of  distributed leadership  makes every member continually responsible for recognizing when task or maintenance activities are needed, and taking actions to provide them.

Distributed leadership is when all members of a team contribute helpful task and maintenance behaviors.

Leading through task activities involves making an effort to define and solve problems, and to advance work activities toward performance results. Without the relevant task activities such as initiating agendas, sharing information, and others shown in  Figure 12.7 , teams have difficulty accomplishing their objectives. Leading through maintenance activities, by contrast, helps strengthen the team as a social system. When maintenance activities such as gatekeeping, encouraging others, and reducing tensions are performed, good interpersonal and working relationships are achieved, increasing the probability that the team will stay together over the longer term.

FIGURE 12.7  Distributed leadership helps teams meet task and maintenance needs.

Both team task and maintenance activities stand in contrast to  disruptive activities  such as showing incivility toward others, withdrawing from discussions, and fooling around. These and any similar behaviors are self-serving and detract from team effectiveness. Unfortunately, very few teams are immune to dysfunctional behavior. Every team member shares responsibility for minimizing it.

Disruptive activities are self-serving behaviors that interfere with team effectiveness.

Communication Networks

There is considerable research on the team interaction patterns and communication networks shown in  Figure 12.8 . 48  When team members must interact intensively and work closely together on complex tasks, this need is best met by a  decentralized communication network . Sometimes called the all-channel or star communication network, this is where all members communicate directly with one another. At other times team members can work on tasks independently, with the required work divided among them. This creates a  centralized communication network , sometimes called a wheel or chain communication structure. In this pattern of interaction, activities are coordinated and results pooled by a central point of control.

A decentralized communication network allows all members to communicate directly with one another.

In a centralized communication network, communication flows only between individual members and a hub, or center point.

When teams are composed of subgroups with issue-specific disagreements, such as a over the best way to achieve a goal, the resulting interaction pattern often involves a  restricted communication network . Here, polarized subgroups may even engage in conflict. Communication between subgroups is limited and biased, with negative consequences for group process and effectiveness.

In a restricted communication network, subgroups have limited communication with one another.

The best teams use these communication networks in the right ways and at the right times. Centralized communication networks seem to work better on simple tasks. 49  These tasks lend themselves to more centralized control because they require little creativity, information processing, problem solving, or collaborative effort. The reverse is true for more complex tasks, for which interacting groups perform better. Decentralized communication networks support the more intense interactions and information sharing required sharing required to perform complicated tasks. Even conflicting groups can be useful. When teams get complacent, the conflict that emerges can be a source of creativity and critical evaluation. But when these subgroups stop communicating and helping one another, task accomplishment typically suffers.

FIGURE 12.8 Interaction patterns and communication networks in teams.

Learning Check

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.3

Summarize the key processes through which teams work.

Be Sure You Can

define team effectiveness

identify inputs that influence effectiveness

discuss how membership diversity influences team effectiveness

list five stages of group development

define group norm and list ways to build positive group norms

define cohesiveness and list ways to increase group cohesion

explain how norms and cohesiveness influence team performance

differentiate between task, maintenance, and disruptive activities

describe the use of decentralized and centralized communication networks

12.4 Decision Making in Teams

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.4

Discuss the ins and outs of team decision making.

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Ways teams make decisions

Advantages and disadvantages of team decisions

Groupthink

Decision making is the process of making choices among alternative courses of action. And, it is one of the most important processes that occurs in teams. The best teams use a variety of decision-making methods as they face different kinds of problems.50 But as with other aspects of teamwork, decision making can be very challenging.51 Edgar Schein, a respected scholar and consultant, says all this can be better understood when we recognize that teams use at least six methods to make decisions: lack of response, authority rule, minority rule, majority rule, consensus, and unanimity.52

Decision making is the process of making choices among alternative possible courses of action.

Ways Teams Make Decisions

In decision by lack of response, one idea after another is suggested without any discussion taking place. When the team finally accepts an idea, all others have been bypassed by simple lack of response rather than by critical evaluation. The last alternative is chosen by default.

In decision by authority rule, the leader, manager, committee head, or other authority figure makes a decision for the team. This can be done with or without discussion and is very time-efficient. Whether the decision ultimately is good or bad, however, depends on whether the authority figure has the necessary information and expertise, and on how well this approach is accepted by other team members.

In decision by minority rule, two or three people are able to dominate or “railroad” the team into making a particular decision. This often is done by providing a suggestion and then forcing quick agreement by challenging the team with such statements as “Does anyone object? No? Well, let’s go ahead then.”

One of the most common things teams do, particularly when signs of disagreement emerge, is to take a vote and arrive at a decision by majority rule. Although this is broadly consistent with the democratic political process, it has some problems. The very act of voting can create coalitions as some members become “winners” and others “losers.” Those in the minority—the “losers”—may feel left out without having had a fair say. They may be unenthusiastic about implementing the decision of the “majority,” and lingering resentments may decrease team effectiveness. Such possibilities are well illustrated in the political arena, where candidates receiving small and controversial victory margins end up struggling against entrenched opposition from the losing party.

Teams often are encouraged to achieve decision by consensus. This is where full discussion leads to one alternative being favored by most members, and the other members agree to support it. When consensus is reached, even those who may have opposed the decision know that their views have been heard. Consensus does not require unanimous support, but it does require that members be able to argue, engage in reasonable conflict, and still get along with and respect one another.53 True consensus occurs only when dissenting members have been able to speak their mind and know they’ve been heard.54

A decision by unanimity may be the ideal situation. “Unanimity” means that everyone agrees on what the team will do. This is a logically perfect method, but it also is extremely difficult to achieve in practice. One of the reasons that teams sometimes turn to authority decisions, majority voting, or even minority decisions is the difficulty of managing team processes to achieve consensus or unanimity.

Insight: Learn about Yourself

Sports teams whose members play together the longest win more because the players get to know each other’s moves and playing tendencies.

Don’t Short Your Team Contributions

Positive team contributions are things that members do to help their team succeed at their tasks and help one another enjoy the experience of being on the team.

Scene—Hospital operating room: Scholars notice that heart surgeons have lower death rates for similar procedures performed in hospitals where they do more operations than in hospitals where they do fewer operations.

Why? Researchers say the operations are more likely to be successful because the doctors in the better hospitals spend more time working together with members of their surgical teams. It’s not only the surgeon’s skills that count; they say “The skills of the team, and of the organization, matter.” The ability to practice together increases how effectively the skills of the members of the surgical team can be integrated with one another. Practice increases the potency of team contributions.

Scene—NBA basketball court: Scholars find that basketball teams win more games the longer the players have been together.

Why? Researchers claim it’s a “teamwork effect.” Sports teams whose members have played together the longest tend to win more games because the players get to know each other’s moves and playing tendencies. Players develop a sense, over time, of what their teammates are thinking and where they will be on the court before they get there. Knowledge of other team members increases the benefits of team contributions.

A large part of your career success will depend on how well you work in and lead teams. Take a look at the list of “must have” team skills presented here. Do you have the skills portfolio and personal commitment to make truly valuable team contributions?

“Must Have” Team Skills

Encouraging and motivating others

Accepting suggestions

Listening to different points of view

Communicating information and ideas

Persuading others to cooperate

Resolving and negotiating conflict

Building consensus

Fulfilling commitments

Avoiding disruptive acts and words

Get To Know Yourself Better

Have a serious conversation with others who know and work with you about your performance as a team member and team leader. What do you expect that they’ll say? Ask for suggestions on how you could improve your team contributions. Prepare a short presentation to a potential employer describing your team skills. Write a set of notes on how you will describe yourself and what examples you will give to support your potential as a team leader and member.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Team Decisions

When teams take time to make decisions by consensus or unanimity, they gain special advantages over teams relying more on individual or minority decision methods.55 The process of making a true team decision increases the availability of useful information, knowledge, and expertise. It expands the number of action alternatives that teams examine, and helps to avoid bad decisions that emerge through tunnel vision and the consideration of only one or a few options. Team decisions also increase members’ understanding and acceptance. This helps to build commitment to work hard to implement decisions the team has made together.

The potential disadvantages of team decision making trace largely to difficulties with group processes. It can be hard to reach agreement when many people are trying to make a team decision. There may be social pressure to conform and even minority domination, where some members feel forced or “railroaded” into accepting a decision advocated by one vocal individual or small coalition. The time required to make team decisions also can be a real disadvantage. As more people are involved in the dialogue and discussion, decision making takes longer. This added time may be costly, even prohibitively so under certain circumstances.

Groupthink

One of the potential downsides of team decision making is what psychologist Irving Janis called  groupthink , the tendency for highly cohesive teams to lose their critical evaluative capabilities.56 Although it may seem counterintuitive, a high level of cohesiveness can be a disadvantage if strong feelings of team loyalty make it hard for members to criticize and evaluate one another’s ideas and suggestions objectively.

Groupthink is a tendency for highly cohesive teams to lose their evaluative capabilities.

Members of very cohesive teams may feel so strongly about the group that they won’t say or do anything that might harm it. They end up publicly agreeing with actual or suggested courses of action that they have serious private, unspoken doubts or objections about. Teams experiencing groupthink display the following symptoms.

· Illusions of invulnerability—Members assume that the team is too good for criticism or is beyond attack.

· Rationalizing unpleasant and disconfirming data—Members refuse to accept contradictory data or to thoroughly consider alternatives.

· Belief in inherent group morality—Members act as though the group is inherently right and above reproach.

· Stereotyping competitors as weak, evil, and stupid—Members refuse to look realistically at other groups.

· Applying direct pressure to deviants to conform to group wishes—Members refuse to tolerate anyone who suggests the team may be wrong.

· Self-censorship by members—Members refuse to communicate personal concerns to the whole team.

· Illusions of unanimity—Members accept consensus prematurely, without testing its completeness.

· Mind guarding—Members protect the team from hearing disturbing ideas or outside viewpoints.

Groupthink occurs as the desire to hold the team together and avoid disagreements results in poor decisions. Janis suggests that this played a role in well-known historical disasters such as the lack of preparedness of U.S. naval forces for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Bay of Pigs invasion under President Kennedy, the many roads that led to the United States’ difficulties in the Vietnam War, and the space shuttle Challenger explosion.

When you are leading or are part of a team heading toward groupthink, don’t assume there’s no way out. After suffering the Bay of Pigs fiasco, for example, President Kennedy approached the Cuban missile crisis quite differently. He purposely did not attend some cabinet discussions and allowed the group to deliberate without him. His absence helped the cabinet members talk more openly and to be less likely to say things that were consistent with his own thinking. When a decision was finally reached, the crisis was successfully resolved.

In addition to having the leader stay absent for some team discussions, Janis has other advice on how to get a team that is moving toward groupthink back on track. You can assign one member to act as a critical evaluator or “devil’s advocate” during each meeting. Subgroups can be assigned to work on issues and then share their findings with the team as a whole. Outsiders can be brought in to observe and participate in team meetings and offer their advice and viewpoints on both team processes and tentative decisions. The team can also hold a “second chance” meeting after an initial decision is made to review, change, or even cancel the decision. With actions like these available, there’s no reason to let groupthink lead a team down the wrong pathways.

Learning Check

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.4

Discuss the ins and outs of team decision making.

Be Sure You Can

· illustrate how groups make decisions by authority rule, minority rule, majority rule, consensus, and unanimity

· list advantages and disadvantages of group decision making

· define groupthink and identify its symptoms

Management Learning Review: Get Prepared for Quizzes and Exams

Summary

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.1

Explain the ways teams contribute to organizations.

· A team is a collection of people working together interdependently to accomplish a common goal.

· Teams help organizations perform through synergy—the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

· Teams help satisfy important needs for their members by providing sources of job support and social satisfactions.

· Social loafing and other problems can limit the performance of teams.

· Organizations operate as networks of formal and informal teams and groups.

For Discussion Why do people often tolerate social loafers at work?

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.2

Describe current trends in the use of teams in organizations.

· Committees and task forces are used to accomplish special tasks and projects.

· Cross-functional teams bring members together from different departments and help improve lateral relations and integration in organizations.

· New developments in information technology are making virtual teams commonplace at work, but virtual teams also pose special management challenges.

· Self-managing teams are changing organizations, as team members perform many tasks previously done by their supervisors.

· Team building engages members in a process of assessment and action planning to improve teamwork and future performance.

For Discussion What are some of the things that virtual teams probably can’t do as well as face-to-face teams?

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.3

Summarize the key processes through which teams work.

· An effective team achieves high levels of task performance, member satisfaction, and team viability.

· Important team inputs include the organizational setting, nature of the task, size, and membership characteristics.

· A team matures through various stages of development, including forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.

· Norms are the standards or rules of conduct that influence team members’ behavior; cohesion is the attractiveness of the team to its members.

· In highly cohesive teams, members tend to conform to norms; the best situation is a team with positive performance norms and high cohesiveness.

· Distributed leadership occurs as members share in meeting a team’s task and maintenance needs.

· Effective teams make use of alternative communication structures, such as centralized and decentralized networks, to best complete tasks with distinct communication requirements.

For Discussion What can be done if a team gets trapped in the storming stage of group development?

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 12.4

Discuss the ins and outs of team decision making.

· Teams can make decisions by lack of response, authority rule, minority rule, majority rule, consensus, and unanimity.

· Although group decisions often make more information available for problem solving and generate more understanding and commitment, they are slower than individual decisions and may involve social pressures to conform.

· Groupthink is the tendency for members of highly cohesive teams to lose their critical evaluative capabilities and make poor decisions.

For Discussion Is it possible that groupthink doesn’t only occur when groups are highly cohesive, but also when they are pre-cohesive?

Self-Test 12

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. When a group of people is able to achieve more than what its members could by working individually, this is called .

1. a. social loafing

2. b. consensus

3. c. viability

4. d. synergy

2. One of the recommended strategies for dealing with a group member who engages in social loafing is to .

1. a. redefine tasks to make individual contributions more visible

2. b. ask another member to encourage this person to work harder

3. c. give the person extra rewards and hope he or she will feel guilty

4. d. just forget about it

3. In an organization operating with self-managing teams, the traditional role of  is replaced by the role of team leader.

1. a. chief executive officer

2. b. first-line supervisor

3. c. middle manager

4. d. general manager

4. An effective team is defined as one that achieves high levels of task performance, member satisfaction, and .

1. a. resource efficiency

2. b. future viability

3. c. consensus

4. d. creativity

5. In the open-systems model of teams, the  is an important input factor.

1. a. communication network

2. b. decision-making method

3. c. performance norm

4. d. set of membership characteristics

6. The team effectiveness equation states the following: Team effectiveness = Quality of inputs + (_ − Process losses).

1. a. Process gains

2. b. Leadership impact

3. c. Membership ability

4. d. Problem complexity

7. A basic rule of team dynamics states that the greater the  in a team, the greater the conformity to norms.

1. a. membership diversity

2. b. cohesiveness

3. c. task structure

4. d. competition among members

8. Members of a team tend to start to get coordinated and comfortable with one another in the  stage of team development.

1. a. forming

2. b. norming

3. c. performing

4. d. adjourning

9. One way for a manager to build positive norms within a team is to .

1. a. act as a positive role model

2. b. increase group size

3. c. introduce groupthink

4. d. isolate the team

10. To increase the cohesiveness of a group, a manager would be best off .

1. a. starting competition with other groups

2. b. increasing the group size

3. c. acting as a positive role model

4. d. introducing a new member

11. Groupthink is most likely to occur in teams that are .

1. a. large in size

2. b. diverse in membership

3. c. high-performing

4. d. highly cohesive

12. A team member who does a good job at summarizing discussion, offering new ideas, and clarifying points made by others is providing leadership by contributing  activities to the group process.

1. a. required

2. b. task

3. c. disruptive

4. d. maintenance

13. A  decision is one in which all members agree on the course of action to be taken.

1. a. consensus

2. b. unanimous

3. c. majority

4. d. nominal

14. A team performing very creative and unstructured tasks is most likely to succeed using .

1. a. a decentralized communication network

2. b. decisions by majority rule

3. c. decisions by minority rule

4. d. more task than maintenance activities

15. Which of the following approaches can help groups avoid groupthink in situations where there is a very strong leader?

1. a. Have the leader stay absent from some team meetings.

2. b. Be sure to make decisions by minority rule.

3. c. Always vote when disagreements arise.

4. d. Remind everyone about the inherent morality of the group.

Short-Response Questions

16. How can a manager improve team effectiveness by modifying inputs?

17. What is the relationship among a team’s cohesiveness, performance norms, and performance results?

18. List two symptoms that would alert a manager that a team is suffering from groupthink. What could this manager do to counteract each of these symptoms?

19. What makes a self-managing team different from a traditional work group?

Essay Question

20. Marcos Martinez has just been appointed manager of a production team operating the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift in a large manufacturing firm. An experienced manager, Marcos is pleased that the team members really like and get along well with one another, but they also appear to be restricting their task outputs to the minimum acceptable levels. What could Marcos do to improve things in this situation, and why should he do them?

Career Skills & Competencies: Make Yourself Valuable!

Evaluate Career Situations

What Would You Do?

1. New Task Force

It’s time for the first meeting of the task force that you have been assigned to lead. This is a big opportunity, since it’s the first time your supervisor has given you this level of responsibility. There are seven members of the task force, all of whom are your peers and co-workers. The task is to develop a proposal for increased use of flexible work schedules and telecommuting in the organization. What will your agenda be for the first meeting, and what opening statement will you make?

2. Declining Performance

You’ve been concerned for quite some time about a drop in the performance of your work team. Although everyone seems to like one another, the “numbers” in terms of measured daily performance are on the decline. It’s time to act. What will you look at, and why, to determine where and how steps might be taken to improve the effectiveness of the work team?

3. Groupthink Possibilities

The members of the executive compensation committee that you are chairing show a high level of cohesiveness. It’s obvious that they enjoy being part of the committee and are proud to be on the board of directors. But the committee is about to approve extraordinarily high bonuses for the CEO and five other senior executives. This is occurring at a time when executive pay is getting a lot of criticism from the press, unions, and the public at large. What can you do to make sure groupthink isn’t causing this committee to potentially make a bad decision? What clues might you use to determine whether groupthink is having an influence on what is taking place?

Reflect on the Self-Assessment

Team Leader Skills

Instructions

Consider your experience in groups and work teams while completing the following inventory. Rate yourself on each item using the following scale (circle the number that applies).57

Question: “How do I behave in team leadership situations?”

Self-Assessment Scoring

The inventory measures seven dimensions of team leadership. Add your scores for the items listed next to each dimension below to get an indication of your potential strengths and weaknesses.

Interpretation

The higher your score, the more confident you are on the particular skill and leadership capability. Consider giving this inventory to people who have worked with you in teams and have them rate you. Compare the results to your self-assessment. Also, remember it is doubtful that any one team leader is capable of exhibiting all of the skills listed. More and more, organizations are emphasizing teams that blend a variety of skills, rather than depending on the vision of the single, heroic leader figure. As long as the necessary leadership skills are represented within the membership of the team, it is more likely that the team will be healthy and achieve a high level of performance. Of course, the more skills you bring with you to team leadership situations, the better the team is likely to perform.

Contribute to the Class Exercise

Work Team Dynamics

Preparation

Think about your class work group, a work group you are involved in for another course, or any other group suggested by your instructor. Use this scale to indicate how often each of the following statements accurately reflects your experience in the group.58

1. All the time

2. Very often

3. Sometimes

4. Never happens

1. My ideas get a fair hearing.

2. I am encouraged to give innovative ideas and take risks.

3. Diverse opinions within the group are encouraged.

4. I have all the responsibility I want.

5. There is a lot of favoritism shown in the group.

6. Members trust one another to do their assigned work.

7. The group sets high standards of performance excellence.

8. People share and change jobs a lot in the group.

9. You can make mistakes and learn from them in this group.

10. This group has good operating rules.

Instructions

Form teams as assigned by your instructor. Ideally, this will be the group you have just rated. Have all members share their ratings, and then make one overall rating for the team as a whole. Circle the items for which there are the biggest differences of opinion. Discuss those items and try to determine what accounts for these differences. In general, the better a team scores on this instrument, the higher its creative potential. Make a list of the five most important things members believe they can do to help the team perform better. Nominate a spokesperson to summarize your discussion for the class as a whole.

Manage a Critical Incident

The Rejected Team Leader

You have been a team leader at a big-box electronics store for three years, and the team you supervise is great. Everyone is hard working, gets along really well, comes in early, stays late, helps one another, and gets the job done. The members go out together after work and are good friends with each other and with you. A week ago, your team was assigned exclusive responsibility for designing and setting up the upcoming product display for tablets and other mobile devices in an entire section of the store. Crystal—one of your team members—was especially excited about the project. She has been taking online courses at the local technical college and wants to move into advertising design as a career. Because the team works so well together, you had expected the whole process to go smoothly with a bunch of great display formats figured out for you to choose from. But by the end of the week, you’d only gotten one proposal from the team, and it wasn’t very good. You talked to each team member individually. They all stood behind the design the team had submitted. They got mad at you for suggesting that they come up with another design, and wouldn’t even listen to you. They wouldn’t tell you how they came up with the design, how they figured things out, or share any information with you at all. Even though you are the supervisor, you are also a friend, so it was hard when they reacted in such a hostile way to your feedback—particularly in light of the looming deadline.

Questions

What is happening in this team? These employees know and trust you, but you can’t even get them to talk to you about what’s happening—why? What can you do to get through the wall they’ve put around themselves? Why have you been shut out of the team in this way? What does it mean for the project and how you handle the team moving forward?

Collaborate on the Team Project

Superstars on the Team

During a period of reflection following a down cycle for his teams, Sasho Cirovski, head coach of the two-time NCAA Division I University of Maryland men’s soccer team, came to a realization. “I was recruiting talent,” he said. “I wasn’t doing a very good job of recruiting leaders.” With a change of strategy, his teams moved back to top-ranked national competition.

Question

What do you do with a “superstar” on your team?

Instructions

1. Everywhere you look—in entertainment, in sports, and in business—a lot of attention goes to the superstars. What is the record of teams and groups with superstars? Do they really outperform the rest?

2. What is the real impact of a superstar’s presence on a team or in the workplace? What do they add? What do they cost? Consider the potential cost of having a superstar on a team within the equation: Benefits = Cost − Value. What is the bottom line of having a superstar on the team?

3. Interview the athletic coaches on your campus. Ask them the previous questions about superstars. Compare and contrast their answers. Interview players from various teams, and ask them the same questions.

4. Develop a set of guidelines for creating team effectiveness in a situation where a superstar is present. Be thorough and practical.

Analyze the Case Study

Auto Racing

When the Driver Takes a Back Seat

Go to  Management Cases for Critical Thinking  at the end of the book to find this case.