Journal article analysis

Figure 8.1 - When team members notice an obstacle to their team effectiveness (lack of skill, technology, resources, or the like), a plan is designed to uncover the root cause and address it. Various data gathering techniques are used including questionnaires, interviews, or group discussions.

Team members collectively address questions that focus on the problem. For example, “How well are we doing in meeting our goal? What is standing in our way?”

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How can we create high performance teams?

Formal retreat approach

Team building occurs during an offsite “retreat.”

Outdoor experience approach

Members engage in a variety of physically challenging situations that require teamwork.

Continuous improvement approach

The manager, team leader, or group members take responsibility for ongoing team building.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Team-building retreats offer opportunities for intense and concentrated efforts to examine group accomplishments and operations. Often a consultant is hired to assist with the team building process.

By having to work together in the face of difficult obstacles, team members are supposed to experience

increased self-confidence, more respect for others’ capabilities, and a greater commitment to teamwork.

Continuous improvement of teamwork is essential to the themes of total quality and total service management so important to organizations today.

How can team processes be improved?

New members may worry about:

Participation

Goals

Control

Relationships

Processes

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Special difficulties are likely to occur when members first get together in a new group or work team, or when new members join an existing one. Problems arise as new members try to understand what is expected of them while dealing with the anxiety and discomfort of a new social setting.

Coping Mechanisms Used by New Team Members

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The defense mechanisms of insecure new members may hinder team performance. Teams must address the insecurities by discussions that include clarifying the team goals and expectations and clarifying each member’s role.

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Team Role Preferences

Score Interpretation

12 to 15 High preference

8 to 11 Moderate preference

3 to 7 Low preference

Encourager - People who score high on this dimension have a strong tendency to praise and support the ideas of other team members, thereby showing warmth and solidarity to the group.

Gatekeeper - People who score high on this dimension have a strong tendency to encourage all team members to participate in the discussion

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Sustained high performance requires meeting both task needs and maintenance needs of team members.

Maintenance activities can include team members or leaders encouraging the participation of others, trying to harmonize differences of opinion, praising the contributions of others and agreeing to go along with the popular course of action.

Team Role Preferences

Harmonizer - People who score high on this dimension have a strong tendency to mediate intragroup conflicts and reduce tension.

Initiator - People who score high on this dimension have a strong tendency to identify goals for the meeting, including ways to work on those goals.

Summarizer - People who score high on this dimension have a strong tendency to keep track of what was said in the meeting (i.e., act as the team’s memory).

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Sustained high performance requires meeting both task needs and maintenance needs of team members.

Maintenance activities can include team members or leaders encouraging the participation of others, trying to harmonize differences of opinion, praising the contributions of others and agreeing to go along with the popular course of action.

Distributed Leadership

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Distributed leadership is the sharing of responsibility for meeting group task and maintenance needs. Task activities directly contribute to the performance of important group tasks. While maintenance activities deal with social and interpersonal relationships among team members.

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How can team processes be improved?

Role

Set of expectations associated with a job or position on a team.

Role ambiguity

Occurs when a person is uncertain about his or her role and what is expected.

Role overload

Occurs when too much is expected of the individual.

Role underload

Occurs when too little is expected of the individual.

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When team members are unclear about their roles or experience conflicting role demands, performance problems can occur. Although this is a common problem, it can be managed through awareness of role dynamics and their causes.

How can team processes be improved?

Role conflict

Occurs when a person is unable to respond to role expectations that conflict with one another.

Forms of role conflict

Intrasender, Intersender, Person-role, Inter-role.

Role negotiation

Process for discussing and agreeing upon what team members expect of one another.

Team members meet to discuss, clarify, and agree on their individual role expectations each holds for the other.

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The individual understands what needs to be done but for some reason cannot comply.

The resulting tension can reduce satisfaction and affect both an individual’s performance

and relationships with other group members.

How can team processes be improved?

Norms

Represent ideas or beliefs about how members are expected to behave.

Considered rules or standards of conduct that are supposed to guide members.

Help members to guide their own behavior and predict what others will do.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Managers and leaders should help their groups adopt positive norms that support organizational goals.

Norms help clarify the expectations associated with a person’s membership in a group.

How can team processes be improved?

Key norms that can have positive or negative implications.

Performance norms.

Ethics norms.

Organizational and personal pride norms.

High-achievement norms.

Support and helpfulness norms.

Improvement and change norms.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Groups also commonly have norms regarding how to deal with supervisors, colleagues, and customers, as well as norms establishing guidelines for honesty and ethical behaviors.

Norms are often evident in the everyday conversations and actions of people at work.

How can team processes be improved?

Cohesiveness

The degree to which members are attracted to a group and motivated to remain a part of it.

There is a strong relationship between cohesiveness, conformity to group norms, and performance.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Persons in a highly cohesive group value their membership and strive to maintain positive relationships with other group members. In this sense, cohesive groups and teams are good for their members.

How can team processes be improved?

Ways to achieve positive inter-team dynamics

Refocusing members on a common enemy or goal.

Negotiating directly.

Engaging members, of different teams, in activities learning how to work cooperatively together.

Refocusing reward systems to emphasize contributions to overall organizational performance and on how much teams help one another.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

It is important to avoid win-lose reward systems in which one group must lose something in order for the other to gain. Cooperation tends to increase as interaction between groups increases.

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Figure 8.5 Interaction patterns and communication networks found in teams

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Avoiding groupthink

Leader refrains from announcing any position.

Every team member acts as critical evaluator.

Different sub-groups explore same problems.

Bring in outside experts to evaluate information, realism of goals, and plans for action.

Assign someone to be a “devil’s” advocate at each team meeting. Rotate an appointed team "devil's advocate" so that no one particular person appears to dissent.