Management VI

266 PART 4 | Leading

Learning Objectives

Teamwork 12 chapter

After studying Chapter 12, you should be

able to

LO1 Discuss how teams can contribute to an organization’s effectiveness.

LO2 Distinguish the new team environment from that of traditional work groups.

LO3 Summarize how groups become teams.

LO4 Explain why groups sometimes fail.

LO5 Describe how to build an effective team.

LO6 List methods for managing a team’s relationships with other teams.

LO7 Give examples of ways to manage conflict.

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CHAPTER 12 | Teamwork 267

LO1 Discuss how teams can contribute to an organization’s effectiveness

A

circuits and electro-optic devices) are structured entirely around

teams. 3M’s breakthrough products emerge through the use of

teams that are small entrepreneurial businesses within the larger

corporation.

Teams also can increase productivity, improve quality, and reduce costs. By adopting a team structure and culture, Battle Creek, Michigan–based Summit Pointe, a mental health

1 |  THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF TEAMS

Team-based approaches to work have generated excitement.

Used appropriately, teams can be powerfully effective as a build- ing block for organization structure. Organizations like Semco, Whole Foods, and Kollmorgen (a manufacturer of printed

s Cisco Systems has grown, the computer network-

ing giant has stayed nimble by delegating work

to teams whose membership crosses functional,

departmental, and national lines. 1 Sometimes—as in Cisco’s

case—teams “work,” but sometimes they don’t. The goal of this

chapter is to help make sure that your management and work

teams succeed rather than fail. Almost all companies now use

teams to produce goods and services, to manage projects, and

to make decisions and run the company. 2 For you this has two

vital implications:

1. You will be working in and perhaps managing teams.

2. The ability to work in and lead teams is valuable to your employer and important to your career.

Fortunately coursework focusing on team training can enhance

students’ teamwork knowledge and skills. 3

“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.”

— Halford E. Luccock

organization, has saved millions of dollars while improving

patient care. 4 A 12-person team from a Ford plant in Saarlouis,

Germany, solved a problem with its basecoat paint applica-

tions that resulted in annual costs savings of $2 million and

a reduction of 70 kg of volatile organic compounds (environ-

ment-damaging solvents that are released into the air as paint

dries). 5 At Nucor’s steel plant in Decatur, Alabama, general

manager Rex Query credits teamwork for high productivity and

improved safety. 6

Teams also can enhance speed and be powerful forces for innovation and change. To explore alternative forms of social connection and create new apps faster, Facebook recently

launched Facebook Creative Labs (FCL). The initiative

empowers small teams within the 6,000-employee company to

self-organize and “build standalone apps or other projects that

live outside the core Facebook experience.” FCL’s first off-

spring, a news feed reader app called Paper, promises to make

the news feed experience more intuitive and meaningful for

users. 7 General Mills uses a team approach to make decisions

about the packaging for its products. For product divisions such

as Big G cereals, Yoplait yogurt, or Green Giant vegetables,

Packaging Partners teams bring together employees from brand

design, engineering, production, research and development, and

other relevant functions to figure out how packaging can reduce

waste, cut costs, and send a clearer marketing message. In addi-

tion, Strategy Map teams convene employees from various

product divisions to study packaging using a particular material

and determine ways to work more efficiently with suppliers. 8

Teams also provide many benefits for their members. 9 The team is a useful learning mechanism. Members learn about

the company and themselves, and they acquire new skills

and performance strategies. The team can satisfy important

personal needs, such as affiliation and esteem. Team mem-

bers may receive tangible organizational rewards that they

could not have achieved working alone. After General Mills

acquired Pillsbury, the managers of the meals division decided

they needed to develop a common culture that would promote

employee engagement, so they set up a Spirit Team of staff

members to select activities. Realizing that just having fun

together would not develop a deeper sense of purpose, the team

decided to partner with a nonprofit organization, Perspectives

Family Center, and support this organization with several

events each year. Employees who participate feel great about

what they do, and they connect the experience with a sense that

their company cares about its local community. 10

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268 PART 4 | Leading

Team members can give

one another feedback; identify

opportunities for growth and

development; and train, coach,

and mentor. 11

A marketing rep-

resentative can learn about finan-

cial modeling from a colleague

on a new product development

team, and a financial expert can

learn about consumer marketing.

Experience working together in

a team, and developing strong

problem-solving capabilities, is

a vital supplement to specific job skills or functional expertise.

And the skills are transferable to new positions.

• A team is formed of people (usually a small number) with com- plementary skills who trust one another and are committed to a common purpose, common performance goals, and a common approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. 13

If you work for Google, chances are good that you will join one

or more teams. Its software engineers, the ones who are responsi-

ble for developing new products and services like Chromebooks,

Google Glass, and Google Hangouts. typically work in small

three- or four-person product development teams. Even a large

team of 20 or 30 engineers is broken into smaller teams that

work on specific parts of the overall project, such as redesigning

the Gmail website or making spam filters more effective. The

role of leader shifts among members depending on the project’s

particular requirements. Engineers have the freedom to switch

teams (without asking permission from management) and com-

mit to work on projects to which they feel they can contribute.

Shona Brown, Google’s vice president for operations, comments,

“. . . we want people to commit to things rather than be assigned

to things.” Google believes that this flexible and hands-off

approach to team management spurs innovation and creativity

at the firm.

Given the freedom and autonomy that employees have at

Google, the firm invests heavily in training their newly hired

software engineers, known as “Nooglers,” to work productively

in teams. The goal is to help new hires become fully produc-

tive as soon as possible. They undergo an orientation program

and attend lectures about the firm’s culture and practices deliv-

ered by senior engineers. Mentors are assigned to the new hires

so Nooglers can learn more about how teams function and

answer specific questions about the technical aspects of their

jobs and projects. After completing a two-week starter project,

Nooglers can organize or attend “Tech Talks,” which are vol-

untary, self-organized events in which engineers get together

to share knowledge with each other about a technical topic of

interest. 14

Organizations have been using groups for a long time, but

today’s workplaces are different. 15

Teams are used in many

different ways, and to far greater effect, than in the past.

Exhibit  12.1 highlights just a few of the differences between

the traditional work environment and the way true teams work

today. Ideally people are far more involved, they are better

trained, cooperation is higher, and the culture is one of learning

as well as producing.

2.1 |  Organizations Have Different Types of Teams

Your organization may have hundreds of groups and teams,

but they can be classified into just a few primary types. 16

Work teams make or do things such as manufacture, assem- ble, sell, or provide service. They typically are well defined,

● At Google, software engineers have freedom and autonomy regarding

which projects and teams to join. The firm invests heavily in training its

newly hired software engineers, Nooglers, to work productively in teams.

2 |  THE NEW TEAM ENVIRONMENT

The words group and team often are used interchangeably. 12 Modern managers sometimes use the word teams to the point that it has become cliché; they talk about teams while skeptics

perceive no real teamwork. So making a distinction between

groups and teams can be useful:

• A group is a collection of people who interact to undertake a task but do not necessarily perform as a unit or achieve significant per- formance improvements.

LO2 Distinguish the new team environment from that of traditional work teams

group a collection of people who interact to undertake a task but do not necessarily perform as a unit or achieve significant performance improvements

team a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable

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CHAPTER 12 | Teamwork 269

a clear part of the formal organizational structure, and

composed of a full-time, stable membership. Work teams

are what most people think of when they think of teams in

organizations. 17

Project and development teams work on long-term proj- ects, often over a period of years. They have specific assign-

ments, such as research or new product development, and

members usually must contribute expert knowledge and judg-

ment. These teams work toward a one-time product, disbanding

once their work is completed. Then new teams are formed for

new projects.

Parallel teams operate separately from the regular work structure of the firm on a temporary basis. Members often

come from different units or jobs and are asked to do work that

is not normally done by the standard structure. Their charge

is to recommend solutions to specific problems. They seldom

have authority to act, however. Examples include task forces

and quality or safety teams formed to study a particular prob-

lem. Whenever Baltimore’s Bradford Bank acquires or starts

up another operation, it assembles a team of employees drawn

from various divisions to smooth the transition for customers.

For example, when Bradford signed a deal to acquire deposits

from American Bank, a team of employees from branch man-

agement, deposit services, and information technology studied

American’s products to make sure Bradford was ready to offer

similar services to its new customers. 18

Management teams coordinate and give direction to the subunits under their jurisdiction and integrate work among

subunits. 19

The management team is based on authority stem-

ming from hierarchical rank and is responsible for the over-

all performance of the business unit. Managers responsible

for different subunits form a team together, and at the top of

the organization resides the executive management team that

establishes strategic direction and manages the firm’s overall

performance.

Activity Traditional Work Environment New Team Work Environment

Work planning Managers do the planning. Managers and team members plan together.

Job definition Narrow set of tasks and duties. Broad set of skills and knowledge.

Information Mostly “management property.” Tends to be freely shared at all levels.

Risk taking Discouraged and punished. Measured risk taking is encouraged and supported.

Rewards Based on individual performance. Based on individual and team performance.

Work process Managers determine “best methods.” Everyone continuously improves work processes.

Source: Adapted from Leading Teams by J. Zenger and Associates. Reprinted by permission.

Exhibit 12.1 Comparing traditional and new team work environments

LISTEN & LEARN ONLINE

YOUNG MANAGERS

Speak Out! “ Teamwork is very important to any company or any organization because one they are working together, you know, cohesively and they are happy with what they are doing, it really reflects upon you and your leadership capabilities. ”

—Alicia Catalano , Sales Team Leader

work teams teams that make or do things like manufacture, assemble, sell, or provide service

project and development teams teams that work on long-term projects but disband once the work is completed

parallel teams teams that operate separately from the regular work structure, and exist temporarily

management teams teams that coordinate and give direction to the subunits under their jurisdiction and integrate work among subunits

transnational teams work groups composed of multinational members whose activities span multiple countries

Transnational teams are work teams composed of mul-

tinational members whose

activities span multiple coun-

tries. 20

Such teams differ from

other work teams not only by

being multicultural but also

by often being geographically

dispersed, being psychologi-

cally distant, and working on

highly complex projects hav-

ing considerable impact on

company objectives.

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270 PART 4 | Leading

virtual teams include ensuring that team members understand

how they are supposed to keep in touch, setting aside time at

the beginning of virtual meetings to build relationships, ensur-

ing that all participants in meetings and on message boards

have a chance to communicate, sharing meeting minutes and

progress reports, and recognizing and rewarding team mem-

bers’ contributions. 22

Transnational teams tend to be virtual teams , communi- cating electronically more than face-to-face, although other

types of teams may operate virtually as well. A virtual team

encounters difficult challenges: building trust, cohesion, and

team identity, and overcoming communication barriers and the

isolation of virtual team members. 21

Ways that managers can

overcome these challenges and improve the effectiveness of

C ompanies are increasingly differentiat- ing themselves by marketing new prod- ucts and services that are designed with a social or environmental message. For example, rather than launching a new laundry detergent that would require hot water (and more energy usage), Procter & Gamble developed a surfac- tant that would clean clothes well in cold water; this led to the introduction of Tide Coldwater. Regarding the new prod- uct, Adam Werbach, CEO of advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi, commented, “So there’s a solution good for the cli- mate, good for the consumer because it saved money and good for the business [Procter & Gamble] because it created a breakthrough product.”

Who helps design such innovative products? Managers often call on creative cross-functional teams from design firms like IDEO.org and Continuum. In addition to serving corporate clients, these design teams are increasingly working with socially oriented organizations like founda- tions and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to help them more effectively fulfill their missions. The goal is to use design as a way to bring innovative solutions to complex problems, like providing the impov- erished in developing countries with basic health services, sustainable agriculture, water, and sanitation.

Team members at IDEO.org combined forces with Hewlett-Packard, Unilever, the Rockefeller Foundation, VisionSpring (a New York–based social enterprise), and WSUP (a nonprofit working to improve safe, affordable water and sanitation) to design the following solutions for prob- lems in developing world contexts:

1. In Uganda: Designed a handheld device to aid in microfinance banking transac- tions like making payments or withdraw- ing funds. By having the “bank come to them,” borrowers in poor rural areas no longer have to make a day’s journey to the city each week to visit a bank.

2. In India: Provided affordable, compre- hensive eye care to children in rural vil- lages by organizing “eye camps” for kids, screening and awareness programs in schools, and promotion campaigns through self-help groups. The IDEO.org team discovered that Indian children want to be treated like adults, so they trained children to administer some of the eye exams for their young peers.

3. In Ghana: Developed an in-home sani- tation solution for many of the residents who do not have toilets. Those without toilets would either walk to the nearest public toilet or resort to “flying toilets” (plastic bags that are thrown out of the

home after use). IDEO.org’s idea also includes having local businesses make, supply, and service the portable toilets.

What’s the bottom line? Teams from design firms like IDEO.org are applying their expertise to create innovations that meet people’s needs and improve their lives.

Teams Make Social Impact by Design

IDEO.org team members like the one pictured

above use design as a way to bring solutions

to basic problems that affect the impoverished

in developing countries.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • Why do you think companies like

Procter & Gamble are launching new products and services that are designed to have a social or environ- mental impact? Can you think of other examples of products and services that have used design in a similar fashion?

• In order to acquire a thorough under- standing of the problems of the people in Uganda, India, and Ghana, the IDEO. org design team spends time getting to know the focal group, observing their daily behaviors, and interviewing them.

How could the team use these same research techniques to design new products and services for companies here in the United States?

SOURCES: Company website, www.ideo.com ; company website, http://continuuminnovation.com ; A. Sklar and S. Madsen, “Design for Social Impact,” Ergonomics in Design 18, no. 2 (2010), pp.  4–31; D.  Woodward, “Winning By Design,” Director 63, no. 5 (January 2010), pp. 50–54; and M. H. Meyer and T.  J.  Marion, “Innovating For Effectiveness: Lessons from Design Firms,” Research Technology Management 53, no. 5 (September/October 2010), pp. 21–29.

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CHAPTER 12 | Teamwork 271

of teammates or to fire people, and poorly managed conflict

may be a particular problem in self-managed teams. 26

But

when companies have introduced teams that reach the point of

being truly self-managed, results have included lower costs and

greater levels of team productivity, quality, and customer sat-

isfaction. 27

Overall, semiautonomous and autonomous teams

are known to improve the organization’s financial and overall

performance, at least in North America. 28

At video-game maker Valve Corp., the firm’s 300 employees

recruit fellow employees to work on projects, but also decide

on their pay and work hours. Eighty-three of General Electric’s

aviation-manufacturing facilities have no foreperson or shop

floor boss. The plant manager acts as the only leader by setting

production goals and helping resolve any problems that arise.

Employee teams manage themselves by meeting before each

shift to determine their own work schedules and workflow. The

team-based system has boosted productivity at the GE plants. 29

2.2 |  Self-Managed Teams Empower Employees

Today many different types of work teams exist, with many

different labels. The terms can be confusing and sometimes are

used interchangeably out of a lack of awareness of actual dif-

ferences. Generally speaking, some teams are more traditional

with little decision-making authority, being under the control

of direct supervision. Other teams have more autonomy, deci-

sion-making power, and self-direction. 23

Let’s define each

category:

• Traditional work groups have no managerial responsibilities. The first-line manager plans, organizes, staffs, directs, and controls them, and other groups provide support activities, including quality control and maintenance.

• Quality circles are voluntary groups of people drawn from var- ious production teams who make suggestions about quality but have no authority to make decisions or execute.

• Semiautonomous work groups make decisions about man- aging and carrying out major production activities but still get out- side support for quality control and maintenance.

• Autonomous work groups , or self-managing teams, control decisions about and execution of a complete range of tasks— acquiring raw materials and performing operations, quality control, maintenance, and shipping. They are fully responsible for an entire product or an entire part of a production process.

• Self-designing teams do all of that and go one step further— they also have control over the design of the team. They decide themselves whom to hire, whom to fire, and what tasks the team will perform.

Movement from left to right on the continuum corresponds

with more and more worker participation. Toward the right,

the participation is not trivial and not merely advisory. It has

real substance, going beyond suggestions to include action and

impact.

The trend today is toward self-managed teams , in which workers are trained to do all or most of the jobs in the unit,

they have no immediate supervisor, and they make decisions

previously made by first-line supervisors. 24

Self-managed

teams are most often found in manufacturing. People may

resist self-managed work teams, in part because they don’t

want so much responsibility and the change is difficult. 25

In

addition, many people don’t like to do performance evaluation

virtual teams teams that are physically dispersed and communicate electronically more than face-to-face

traditional work groups groups that have no managerial responsibilities

quality circles voluntary groups of people drawn from various production teams who make suggestions about quality

autonomous work groups groups that control decisions about and execution of a complete range of tasks

semiautonomous work groups groups that make decisions about managing and carrying out major production activities but get outside support for quality control and maintenance

self-designing teams teams with the responsibilities of autonomous work groups, plus control over hiring, firing, and deciding what tasks members perform

self-managed teams autonomous work groups in which workers are trained to do all or most of the jobs in a unit, have no immediate supervisor, and make decisions previously made by first- line supervisors

LO3 Summarize how groups become teams

3 |  HOW GROUPS BECOME REAL TEAMS

As a manager, you will want your group to become an effective

team. To accomplish this, you need to understand how groups

can become true teams and why groups sometimes fail to

become teams. Groups become true teams through basic group

activities, the passage of time, and team development activities.

3.1 |  Group Activities Shift as the Group Matures

Assume you are the leader of a newly formed group—actually

a bunch of people. What will you face as you attempt to

develop your group into a high-performing team? If groups are

to develop successfully, they will typically progress through

four broad stages as described in Exhibit  12.2 . 30

Groups that

deteriorate move to a declining stage, and temporary groups add an adjourning or terminating stage. Groups terminate when

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272 PART 4 | Leading

In the initial meeting, the group should establish desired

norms, roles, and other determinants of effectiveness, which

are discussed throughout this chapter. At the second critical

period (the midpoint), groups should renew or open lines of

communication with outside constituencies. The group can

use fresh information from its external environment to revise

its approach to performing its task and ensure that it meets the

needs of customers and clients. Without these activities, groups

may get off on the wrong foot from the beginning, and members

may never revise their behavior in the appropriate direction. 33

3.3 |  Some Groups Develop into Teams

As a manager or group member, you should expect the

group to engage in all the activities just discussed at various

times. But groups are not always successful. They do not

they complete their task or when they disband due to failure or

loss of interest and new groups form, as the cycle continues.

Virtual teams also go through these stages of group devel-

opment. 31

The forming stage is characterized by unbridled

optimism: “I believe we have a great team and will work well

together. We all understand the importance of the project and

intend to take it seriously.” Optimism turns into reality shock

in the storming stage: “No one has taken a leadership role. We

have not made the project the priority that it deserves.” The

norming stage comes at about the halfway point in the project

life cycle, in which people refocus and recommit: “You must

make firm commitments to a specific time schedule.” The per-

forming stage is the dash to the finish, as teammates show the

discipline needed to meet the deadline.

3.2 |  Over Time, Groups Enter Critical Periods

A key aspect of group development is the passage of time.

Groups pass through critical periods, or times when they are

particularly open to formative experiences. 32

The first such crit-

ical period is in the forming stage, at the first meeting, when

rules and roles are established that set long-lasting precedents.

A second critical period is the midway point between the ini-

tial meeting and a deadline (for instance, completing a project

or making a presentation). At this point, the group has enough

experience to understand its work; it comes to realize that time is

becoming a scarce resource and the team must “get on with it”;

and enough time remains to change its approach if necessary.

Exhibit 12.2 Stages of team development

Group members lay the ground rules for what

types of behavior are acceptable.

Forming

Hostilities and conflict arise, and people jockey for

positions of power and status.

Storming

Group members agree on their

shared goals, and norms and closer

relationships develop.

Norming

The group channels its energies into performing its

tasks.

Performing

● Coworkers stand atop a post during a team building exercise at Outward

Bound, an organization that teaches cooperation, problem solving, and

decision making—for both in and out of the workplace—through various

outdoor challenges.

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CHAPTER 12 | Teamwork 273

4 |  WHY DO GROUPS SOMETIMES FAIL?

Team building does not necessarily progress smoothly through

such a sequence, culminating in a well-oiled team and superb per-

formance. 35

Some groups never do work out. Such groups can be

frustrating for managers and members, who may feel that teams

are a waste of time and that the difficulties outweigh the benefits.

There are several potential barriers that can impede team

success. Ineffective communication can occur between team

members, or between the leader and members of the team. Some

people overcommunicate while others rarely speak up, even

when they have something important to contribute. The team

leader can help by seeking all members’ input. Another com-

mon barrier is when the team lacks a charter, vision, or goals.

Early in the development process, the team leader and members

should define the team’s direction and the roles of each con-

tributor. When teams experience a drop in morale and produc-

tivity, persistence, communication, and forward movement can

help them return to previous levels of performance. A final bar-

rier can occur if team members do not trust each other or their

team leader. When trust

is low, members may

spend more time trying

to influence team dynam-

ics to protect their own

interests than perform-

ing their actual jobs. 36

In contrast, when trust

is present, teams achieve

higher performance. 37

It is not easy to build

high-performance teams.

Teams is often just a word used by manage-

ment to describe merely

putting people into

groups. “Teams” some-

times are launched with

little or no training or

support systems. For

example, both managers

and group members need

new skills to make a

group work. These skills

include learning the art

of diplomacy, tackling

“people issues” head on,

always engage in the developmental activities that turn them

into effective, high-performing teams.

A useful developmental sequence is depicted in Exhibit 12.3 .

The figure shows the various activities as the leadership of the

group moves from traditional supervision, through a more par-

ticipative approach, to true team leadership. 34

At the traditional

supervisory leadership level, the team leader handles most (if not all) of the leadership duties, including assigning tasks, mak-

ing and explaining decisions, training team members, managing

members one-on-one, and so forth. As the group evolves to a

more participative leadership approach, the team leader seeks input from group members for decisions, provides assignments

and experiences to develop members’ skills and abilities, coor-

dinates group effort, and the like. At the team leadership level, the team leader’s job focuses on building trust and inspiring

teamwork, facilitating and supporting team decisions, broaden-

ing team capabilities through projects and assignments, creating

a team identity, and so forth.

It is important to understand a couple of points about this

model. Groups do not necessarily keep progressing from one

“stage” to the next; they may remain permanently in the super-

visory level or become more participative but never make it to

true team leadership. As a result, progress on these dimensions

must be a conscious goal of the leader and the members, and all

should strive to meet these goals. Your group can meet these

goals—and become a true team—by engaging in the activities

in the figure.

Supervisory leadership Team leadershipParticipative leadership

G

Exhibit 12.3 The path to team leadership

Source: Adapted from Leading Teams by J. Zenger and Associates. Reprinted by permission.

LO4 Explain why groups sometimes fail

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274 PART 4 | Leading

stretch their skills. Team members were enthusiastic and realized great pride and satisfaction in their work.

3. Team members remain committed to working together again; that is, the group doesn’t burn out and disintegrate after a grueling project. Looking back, the members are glad they were involved. In other words, effective teams remain viable and have good pros- pects for repeated success in the future. 44

For help in developing these qualities, teams may use team-

building activities or work with an outside coach. Team build-

ing usually involves activities focused on relationships among

team members. Whether these activities are as simple as a group

discussion or as elaborate as a weekend retreat with physical

challenges, the team-building event should be followed by an

opportunity for participants to evaluate what they learned and

how they will apply those lessons at work. 45

Coaching a team

should be different from coaching individual team members

because it focuses on how the group as a whole operates and

how it can improve interactions so that it will accomplish its

goals. 46

The process doesn’t have the confidentiality of one-

on-one coaching, and the coach has to pace the process so that

everyone is included. Team coaching addresses issues such

as what the team is focused on, how it sets goals, and how it

can improve communication and decision making. Ideally

the coaching helps a team develop enough that it can begin to

coach itself.

Based on years of studying team performance, Harvard profes-

sor Richard Hackman has identified principles of team effective-

ness, including this simple rule: teams need to properly define

their membership. However, many don’t, perhaps because people

hate to exclude someone. When a team problem came to light at

a financial services company, the chief executive determined that

the chief financial officer was unable to collaborate effectively with

others on the executive team. So the CEO asked the financial exec-

utive to skip the “boring” team meetings, keeping their communi-

cations one-on-one. Without the CFO, the executive team began to

function much better.

and walking the fine line between encouraging autonomy and

rewarding team innovations without letting the team get too

independent and out of control. 38

Giving up some control is dif-

ficult for managers from traditional systems, but they have to

realize they will gain control in the long run by creating stron-

ger, better-performing units.

Teams should be truly empowered, as we discussed earlier.

The benefits of teams are reduced when they are not allowed to

make important decisions—in other words, when management

doesn’t trust them with important responsibilities. If teams

must obtain permission for every innovative idea, they will

revert to making safe, traditional decisions. 39

Empowerment enhances team performance even among vir-

tual teams. Empowerment for virtual teams includes thorough

training in using the technologies and strong technical support

from management. Some virtual teams have periodic face-to-face

interactions, which help performance; empowerment is particu-

larly helpful for virtual teams that don’t often meet face-to-face. 40

Failure lies in not knowing and doing what makes teams

successful. To be successful, you must apply clear thinking and

appropriate practices. 41

That is what the rest of the chapter is

about.

LO5 Describe how to build an effective team

5 |  BUILDING EFFECTIVE TEAMS

All the considerations just described form the building blocks

of an effective work team. But what does it really mean for

a team to be effective? What, precisely, can a manager do to

design a truly effective team? Team effectiveness is defined by

three criteria: 42

1. The productive output of the team meets or exceeds the stan- dards of quantity and quality; the team’s output is acceptable to

“Teamwork is what makes common people capable of uncommon results.”

— Pat Summitt , former head coach of the University of Tennessee ladies’ basketball team

the customers, inside or outside the organization, who receive the team’s goods or services. At Lockheed Martin, Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson’s group designed, built, and flew the first U.S. tactical jet fighter, XP80, in 143 days. 43

2. Team members realize satisfaction of their personal needs. Johnson gave his Lockheed teams the freedom to innovate and

Another barrier: People tend to focus too much on harmony,

assuming that when team members feel good about their partic-

ipation, the team is effective. Actually, effectiveness comes first:

team members feel satisfied when their team works effectively. In

a study of symphony orchestras, satisfaction came from how the

musicians felt after a performance.

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CHAPTER 12 | Teamwork 275

their goods and services.

External customers typically

provide the most honest, and

most crucial and useful, per-

formance feedback. 55

When

managers at Intuit, the soft-

ware development company, noticed that customers were

not posting positive recommendations on the web about

the firm’s new products, they took action. They assembled

a team of nine coaches (“innovation catalysts”) from across

the company to help internal work groups create new pro-

totypes and learn from customers. The goal of the new

“Design for Delight” program is to create products that excite

customers. 56

5.2 |  Managers Motivate Effective Teamwork

Sometimes individuals work less hard and are less produc-

tive when they are members of a group. Such social loafing occurs when individuals believe that their contributions are

not important, others will do the work for them, their lack

of effort will go undetected, or they will be the lone sucker

if they work hard but others don’t. Perhaps you have seen

social loafing in some of your student teams. 57

Conversely,

sometimes individuals work harder when they are members

of a group than when they are working alone. This social facilitation effect occurs because individuals usually are more motivated in the presence of others, are concerned with

what others think of them, and want to maintain a positive

self-image.

A social facilitation effect is maintained—and a social loaf-

ing effect can be avoided—under the following conditions: 58

• Group members know each other.

• They can observe and communicate with one another.

• Clear performance goals exist.

• The task is meaningful to the people working on it.

• Group members believe that their efforts matter and that others will not take advantage of them.

• The culture supports teamwork.

Under ideal circumstances, everyone works hard, contrib-

utes in concrete ways to the team’s work, and is accountable

to other team members. Accountability to one another, rather

than just to “the boss,” is an essential aspect of good teamwork.

Accountability inspires mutual commitment and trust. 59

Trust

in your teammates—and their trust in you—may be the ulti-

mate key to effectiveness.

Team effort is also generated by designing the team’s task to

be motivating. Techniques for creating motivating tasks appear

in the guidelines for job enrichment discussed in Chapter 11.

Tasks are motivating when they use a variety of member skills

and provide high task variety, identity, significance, autonomy,

and performance feedback.

A third mistake Hackman encounters is the assumption that

team members can be together too long, to the point that the team

runs out of ideas. But aside from research and development teams,

which should periodically add new members, Hackman has found

that a more frequent problem is the opposite: team members hav-

en’t been together long enough to learn to work well together.

Airplane cockpit crews, for example, perform much better when

they have flown together previously. 47

5.1 |  Effective Teams Focus on Performance

The key element of effective teamwork is commitment to a

common purpose. 48

The best teams are those that have been

given an important performance challenge by management and

then have reached a common understanding and appreciation

of their purpose. Without such understanding and commitment,

a group will be just a bunch of individuals.

The best teams also work hard at developing a common

understanding of how they will work together to achieve their

purpose. 49

They discuss and agree on such details as how tasks

and roles will be allocated and how team members will make

decisions. The team should develop norms for examining its

performance strategies and be amenable to changing them

when appropriate. For example, work teams usually standard-

ize at least some processes, but they should be willing to try

creative new ideas if the situation calls for them. 50

With a clear,

strong, motivating purpose and effective performance strate-

gies, people will pull together into a powerful force that has a

chance to achieve extraordinary things.

The team’s general purpose should be translated into spe-

cific, measurable performance goals. 51

You already learned

about how goals motivate individual performance. Performance

can be defined by collective end products, instead of an accu-

mulation of individual products. 52

Team-based performance

goals help define and distinguish the team’s product, encourage

communication within the team, energize and motivate team

members, provide feedback on progress, signal team victo-

ries (and defeats), and ensure that the team focuses clearly on

results. Teams with both difficult goals and specific incentives

to attain them achieve the highest performance levels. 53

The best team-based measurement systems inform top man-

agement of the team’s level of performance and help the team

understand its own processes and gauge its own progress. Ideally

the team plays the lead role in designing its own measurement

system. This responsibility is a great indicator of whether the

team is truly empowered. 54

Teams, like individuals, need feedback on their perfor-

mance. Feedback from customers is especially crucial. Some

customers for the team’s products are inside the organization.

Teams should be responsible for satisfying them and should

be given or should seek performance feedback. Better yet,

wherever possible, teams should interact directly with exter-

nal customers who make the ultimate buying decisions about

social loafing working less hard and being less productive when in a group

social facilitation effect working harder when in a group than when working alone

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276 PART 4 | Leading

type of motivation works because Nucor teams are empow-

ered to make decisions aimed at improving their productiv-

ity, and the company actively shares performance data with its

employees. 62

If team performance is difficult to measure validly, then

desired behaviors, activities, and processes that indicate good

teamwork can be rewarded. Individuals within teams can be

given differential rewards based on teamwork indicated by

active participation, cooperation, leadership, and other contri-

butions to the team.

If team members are to be rewarded differentially, such

decisions are better not left only to the boss. 63 They should be made by the team itself, through peer ratings or multirater eval-

uation systems. Why? Team members are in a better position

to observe, know, and make valid reward allocations. Finally,

the more teams the organization has, and the more a full team

orientation exists, the more valid and effective it will be to

distribute rewards via gainsharing and other organizationwide

incentives.

5.3 |  Effective Teams Have Skilled Members

Team members should be selected and trained so that they

become effective contributors to the team. The teams them-

selves often hire their new members. 64

MillerCoors Brewing

Company and Eastman Chemical teams select members

based on the results of tests designed to predict how well

they will contribute to team success in an empowered

environment.

Generally the skills required by teams include technical or

functional expertise, problem-solving and decision-making

skills, and interpersonal skills. Some managers and teams mis-

takenly overemphasize some skills, particularly technical or

functional ones, and underemphasize the others. In fact, social

skills can be critical to team functioning; one worker with a

persistently negative attitude—for example, someone who bul-

lies or constantly complains—can and often does put an entire

team into a downward spiral. 66

It is vitally important that all

three types of skills be represented, and developed, among

team members.

5.4 | Norms Shape Team Behavior Norms are shared beliefs about how people should think and behave. For example, some people like to keep information

and knowledge to themselves, but teams should try to estab-

lish a norm of knowledge sharing because it can improve team

performance. 67

From the organization’s standpoint, norms

can be positive or negative. In some teams, everyone works

hard; in other groups, employees are opposed to management

and do as little work as possible. Some groups develop norms

of taking risks, others of being conservative. 68

A norm could

dictate that employees speak of the company either favorably

or critically. Team members may show concern about poor

safety practices, drug and alcohol abuse, and employee theft,

Ultimately teamwork is motivated by tying rewards to team

performance. 60

If team performance can be measured validly,

team-based rewards can be given accordingly. It is not easy

to move from a system of rewards based on individual per-

formance to one based on team performance and cooperation.

It also may not be appropriate unless people are truly inter-

dependent and must collaborate to attain true team goals. 61

Team-based rewards are often combined with regular sala-

ries and rewards based on individual performance. At Nucor,

where production employees work in teams of 12 to 20, team

members earn bonuses based on the tons of steel shipped each

week. To ensure high quality, the amount of any bad prod-

uct is subtracted from total shipments—and if defective prod-

ucts reach the customer, the amount subtracted is multiplied

by 3. On average, the amount of the team bonuses equals

170 to 180 percent of the team members’ base salary. This

Dealing with slackers on your student teams You have probably been on a team where one or two stu- dents missed meetings and did little (if any) work, but received the same grade as everyone else on the team. This is a very frustrating situation. You may not be able to control all of the following factors, but try to use the ones you can to prevent students from slacking off during the team project:

• Keep the group size as small as possible (about three to four students).

• Build cohesion among team members by socializing early in the project.

• Assign each student a task that fits with his or her skills and abilities.

• Set a few specific, clear objectives with due dates before the project is due.

• Hold each member accountable for his or her work. • Meet right before or after class (if possible) to increase

attendance. • As soon as a team member starts to slack off, provide her

or him with immediate feedback on how to correct the behavior (use a constructive approach).

Many students ask their instructors to intervene when a team member is underperforming. Some instructors will help, but others will let the team figure out how to deal with the situation. The latter approach parallels more closely what is expected in the working world.

study tip 12

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CHAPTER 12 | Teamwork 277

5.5 |  Team Members Must Fill Important Roles

Roles are different sets of expectations for how different indi- viduals should behave. Although norms apply generally to

all team members, different roles exist for different members

within the norm structure.

Two important sets of roles must be performed: 71

1. Task specialist roles are filled by individuals who have particu- lar job-related skills and abilities. These employees keep the team moving toward accomplishment of the objectives.

2. Team maintenance specialists develop and maintain harmony within the team. They boost morale, give support, provide humor, soothe hurt feelings, and generally exhibit a concern with mem- bers’ well-being.

Note the similarity between these roles and the important

task performance and group maintenance leadership behaviors

you learned about in Chapter 10. As suggested there, some of

these roles will be more important than others at different times

and under different circumstances. But these behaviors need

not be carried out only by one or two leaders; any member of

the team can assume them at any time. Both types of roles can

or they may not care about these issues (or may even con-

done such practices). Health consciousness is the norm among

executives at some companies, but smoking is the norm at

tobacco companies. Some groups have norms of distrust and

of being closed toward one another, but as you might guess,

norms of trust and open discussion about conflict can improve

group performance. 69

A professor described his consulting experiences at two

companies that exhibited different norms in their manage-

ment teams. 70

At Federal Express Corporation, a young

manager interrupted the professor’s talk by proclaiming that

a recent decision by top management ran counter to the pro-

fessor’s point about corporate planning. He was challenging

top management to defend its decision. A hot debate ensued,

and after an hour everyone went to lunch without a trace

of hard feelings. But at another corporation, the professor

opened a meeting by asking a group of top managers to

describe the company’s culture. There was silence. He asked

again. More silence. Then someone passed him an unsigned

note that read, “Dummy, can’t you see that we can’t speak

our minds? Ask for the input anonymously, in writing.” As

you can see, norms are important, and can vary greatly from

one group to another.

A recent survey by Ernst & Young asked business executives in Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas this question: “Which of the following do you consider to be the key attributes of a high- performance team?” 65 Did You

Know?

0 25 Percent

50

40.9%

44.0%

39.1%

33.0%

27.2%

Clear roles and responsibilities

Sense of purpose

Shared commitment

Clear, achievable goals

Clear processes and procedures

norms shared beliefs about how people should think and behave

roles different sets of expectations for how different individuals should behave

task specialist an individual who has more advanced job-related skills and abilities than other group members possess

team maintenance specialist individual who develops and maintains team harmony

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278 PART 4 | Leading

have a dampening effect on the team’s openness and auton-

omy. The role of the coach, then, is to help the team under-

stand its role in the organization and to serve as a resource for

the team. The coach can provide information, resources, and

insight that team members do not or cannot acquire on their

own. And the coach should be an advocate for the team in the

rest of the organization.

5.6 |  Cohesiveness Affects Team Performance

One of the most important properties of a team is cohesive-

ness. 76

Cohesiveness refers to how attractive the team is to its members, how motivated members are to remain in the team,

and the degree to which team members influence one another.

In general, it refers to how tightly knit the team is.

The Blue Angels are a very cohesive team. A total of 16 Navy

and Marine Corps officers voluntarily serve with the Navy’s

premier flight demonstration squandron. The Commanding

Officer flies the Number 1 jet while the officers fly Numbers 2

through 7. 77

Touring around the world, the squadron performs a

wide variety of aerial maneuvers that are tightly choreographed

and delivered with the utmost precision.

be performed by different individuals to maintain an effectively

functioning work team.

What roles should leaders perform? Superior team leaders

are better at several things: 72

(as illustrated in Exhibit 12.4 ):

• Relating —exhibiting social and political awareness, caring for team members, and building trust.

• Scouting —seeking information from managers, peers, and special- ists, and investigating problems systematically.

• Persuading —influencing team members, as well as obtaining external support for teams.

• Empowering —delegating authority, being flexible regarding team decisions, and coaching.

Leaders also should roll up their sleeves and do real work

to accomplish team goals, not just supervise. 73

Finally, recall

from Chapter 10 the importance of shared leadership, in which

group members rotate or share leadership roles. 74

Self-managed teams report to a management representative

who sometimes is called the coach. In true self-managed teams, the coach is not an actual member of the team.

75 The reason is

that the group is supposed to make its own decisions, and also

the perceived power of the management representative could

Traditional Thinking Team leaders are directive, assign tasks, and monitor performance.

The Best Managers Today Support team members, obtain external support, and delegate

authority to the team.

Exhibit 12.4 Superior team leaders excel at these behaviors

PersuadingScouting

Relating

Superior team

leadership

Empowering

The Importance of Cohesiveness Cohesiveness is important for two primary reasons:

1. It contributes to member satisfaction. In a cohesive team, members communicate and get along well with one another. They feel good about being part of the team. Even if their jobs are unfulfilling or the organization is oppressive, people gain some satisfaction from enjoy- ing their coworkers.

2. It has a major impact on performance. 78 A recent study of manufacturing teams led to a conclusion that perfor- mance improvements in both quality and productivity occurred in the most cohesive unit, whereas conflict within another team prevented any quality or produc- tivity improvements. 79 Sports fans read about this all the time. When teams are winning, players talk about the team being close, getting along well, and knowing one another’s games. In contrast, losing is attributed to infighting and divisiveness.

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CHAPTER 12 | Teamwork 279

which decision making is not

the primary task, cohesiveness

can enhance performance. But

that depends on the group’s per-

formance norms. 82

Performance Norms Some groups are better than others at ensuring that their members behave the way the group prefers.

Cohesive groups are more effective than noncohesive groups

at norm enforcement. But the next question is, Do they have

norms of high or low performance?

As Exhibit  12.5 shows, the highest performance occurs

when a cohesive team has high-performance norms. But if a

highly cohesive group has low-performance norms, that group

will have the worst performance. In the group’s eyes, it will

have succeeded in achieving its goal of poor performance.

Noncohesive groups with high-performance norms can be

effective from the company’s standpoint. However, they won’t

be as productive as they would be if they were more cohesive.

Noncohesive groups with low-performance norms perform

poorly, but they will not ruin things for management as effec-

tively as cohesive groups with low-performance norms.

5.7 |  Managers Can Build Cohesiveness and High- Performance Norms

Managers should build teams that are cohesive and have

high-performance norms. The following actions (listed in

Exhibit 12.6 ) can help create such teams: 83

• Recruit members with similar attitudes, values, and backgrounds. Similar individuals are more likely to get along with one another. Don’t do this, though, if the team’s task requires heterogeneous

● The Blue Angels is the United States Navy’s flight demonstration squadron.

The Blue Angels’ six demonstration pilots fly the F/A-18 Hornet in more than 70

shows at 34 locations throughout the United States annually. They still employ

many of the same practices and techniques used in aerial displays from 1946.

But this interpretation is simplistic; exceptions to this intuitive

relationship occur. Tightly knit work groups can also be disrup-

tive to the organization, such as when they sabotage the assem-

bly line, get their boss fired, or enforce low performance norms.

When does high cohesiveness lead to good performance, and

when does it result in poor performance? The ultimate outcome

depends on two things:

1. The task.

2. Performance norms.

The Task If the task is to make a decision or solve a prob- lem, cohesiveness can lead to poor performance. Groupthink

occurs when a tightly knit group

is so cooperative that agreeing

with one another’s opinions and

refraining from criticizing others’

ideas become norms. For a cohe-

sive group to make good deci-

sions, it should establish a norm

of constructive disagreement. This

type of debating is important for

groups up to the level of boards

of directors. 80

In top manage-

ment teams it has been shown to

improve the financial performance

of companies. 81

The effect of cohesiveness on

performance, in contrast, can be

positive, particularly if the task is

to produce some tangible output.

In day-to-day work groups for

cohesiveness the degree to which a group is attractive to its members, members are motivated to remain in the group, and members influence one another

Exhibit 12.5 Cohesiveness, performance norms, and group performance

Low High

PERFORMANCE NORMS

LowC O

H E

S IV

E N

E S

S

Poor goal attainment and task performance

High

High goal attainment (group’s perspective)

and lowest task performance (management’s perspective)

High goal attainment and task performance

Moderate goal attainment

and task performance

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280 PART 4 | Leading

training process will be proud of their accomplishment and feel more attachment to the team.

• Keep the team small (but large enough to get the job done). The larger the group, the less important members may feel. Small teams make individuals feel like large contributors.

• Help the team succeed, and publicize its successes. You read about empowerment in the preceding chapter; you can empower teams as well as individuals. 85 Be a path–goal leader who facili- tates success; the experience of winning brings teams closer together. Then, if you inform superiors of your team’s successes, members will believe they are part of an important, prestigious unit. Teams that get into a good performance track continue to perform well as time goes on, but groups that don’t often enter a downward spiral in which problems compound over time. 86

• Be a participative leader. Participation in decisions gets team members more involved with one another and striving toward goal accomplishment. Too much autocratic decision making from above can alienate the group from management.

• Present a challenge from outside the team. Competition with other groups makes team members band together to defeat the enemy

skills and inputs—a homogeneous committee or board might make poor decisions because it will lack different information and view- points and may succumb to groupthink. Recent research has shown that educational diversity and national diversity provide more bene- fits than limitations to groups’ use and application of information. 84

• Maintain high entrance and socialization standards. Teams and organizations that are difficult to get into have more pres- tige. Individuals who survive a difficult interview, selection, or

Take Charge of Your Career Playing devil’s advocate can help your team make better decisions

A t some point in your career, you have prob-ably witnessed how members of highly cohesive teams fall prey to groupthink when they always agree with one another and stop questioning each other’s ideas. This phenom- enon often leads groups to make suboptimal decisions. As a team member, you can help your team decrease the influence of group- think, and thereby help it make better decisions by playing devil’s advocate. In this role, your job is to point out the flaws in other’s ideas.

Obviously this task requires good inter- personal skills and the ability to present your feedback as constructive in nature, not conde- scending or personally insulting. For example, you may want to preface your feedback with “Let me play devil’s advocate for a moment” or “Let’s consider some of the potential issues that may come up later.” If successful, you can help your team explore and discuss addi- tional perspectives regarding the problem at

hand, which can ultimately produce more and better alternative decisions.

David Ogilvy, the legendary advertising executive, would play devil’s advocate when his agency’s staff created a new advertising cam- paign. Ogilvy would take on this role “to test his decision-making criteria about what constitutes a good campaign vs. what doesn’t.” Whenever a campaign that he originally considered to be ineffective, succeeded, Ogilvy would revise the framework for his original decision. Project managers of teams at firms like Agile software development (owned by Oracle) are advised to play devil’s advocate to help improve the quality of the team’s decision-making process.

How can you learn how to play devil’s advo- cate? Use observation and practice. Observe how others perform this role, and note how the other people in the meeting or room react to the advocate’s feedback. Try out your new role with a non-work-related group—perhaps an organization for which you volunteer or with a group of friends. Once you can deliver critical feedback in a constructive and even- handed manner, you can begin playing devil’s advocate to help your work teams make better decisions. Your team leader or other manag- ers in your organization are likely to appreci- ate your taking on this role.

Sources: H. Gregersen, “A.G. Lafley’s Innovation Skills Will Weather P&G’s Storm,” Bloomberg Businessweek (online), June 3, 2013, www.businessweek.com ; H. Greimel and M. Rechtin, “Toyota Adopts ‘Devil’s Advocate’ in Quest to Restore Quality, Confidence,” Advertising Age 82, no. 4 (January 24, 2011), p. 3; J. McAvoy and T. Butler, “The Role of Project Management in Ineffective Decision Making within Agile Software Development Projects,” European Journal of Information Systems, no. 18 (2009), pp. 372–83; and R. Gandossy and J. Sonnenfeld, “‘I See Nothing, I Hear Nothing’: Culture, Corruption and Apathy,” International Journal of Disclosure and Governance 2, no. 3 (September 2005), pp. 228–44.

Assuming the role of devil’s advocate can help

your team make better, more informed decisions.

1. Recruit members with similar attitudes, values, and backgrounds.

2. Maintain high entrance and socialization standards.

3. Keep the team as small as possible.

4. Help the team succeed, and publicize its successes.

5. Be a participative leader.

6. Present a challenge from outside the team.

7. Tie rewards to team performance.

Exhibit 12.6 Ways managers can build cohesive teams with high-performance norms

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CHAPTER 12 | Teamwork 281

production bottlenecks and

implement new processes and

also for working with suppliers

on quality issues. 90

Thus some

activities crucial to the team

are those that entail dealing

with people outside the group.

6.1 |  Some Team Members Should Manage Outward

Several vital roles link teams to

their external environments—

that is, to other individuals and

groups inside and outside the

organization. A specific type of

role that spans team boundaries

is the gatekeeper , a team member who stays abreast of current information in scientific and other fields and tells the group

about important developments. Information useful to the group

can also include resources, trends, and political support through-

out the corporation or the industry. 91

The team’s strategy dictates the team’s mix of internally

versus externally focused roles and the ways the mix changes

over time. There are several general team strategies: 92

• The informing strategy entails making decisions with the team and then telling outsiders of the team’s intentions.

• Parading means the team’s strategy is to simultaneously empha- size internal team building and achieve external visibility.

• Probing involves a focus on external relations. This strategy requires team members to interact frequently with outsiders; diag- nose the needs of customers, clients, and higher-ups; and experi- ment with solutions before taking action.

The balance between an internal and external strategic focus

and between internal and external roles depends on how much

the team needs information, support, and resources from out-

side. When teams have a high degree of dependence on out-

siders, probing is the best strategy. Parading teams perform at

an intermediate level, and informing teams are likely to fail.

They are too isolated from the outside groups on which they

depend.

Informing or parading strategies may be more effec-

tive for teams that are less dependent on outside groups—

for example, established teams working on routine tasks

in stable external environments. But for most important

work teams—task forces, new product teams, and strategic

decision-making teams tackling unstructured problems in a

rapidly changing external environment—effective perfor-

mance in roles that involve interfacing with the outside will

be vital.

(witness what happens to school spirit before the big game against an archrival). Some of the greatest teams in business and in sci- ence have been completely focused on winning a competition. 87 But don’t you become the outside threat. If team members dislike you as a boss, they will become more cohesive—but their perfor- mance norms will be against you, not with you.

• Tie rewards to team performance. To a large degree, teams are motivated just as individuals are: they do the activities that are rewarded. Make sure that high-performing teams get the rewards they deserve and that poorly performing groups get fewer rewards. You read about this earlier. Bear in mind that not just monetary rewards but also recognition for good work are powerful motiva- tors. Recognize and celebrate team accomplishments. The team will become more cohesive and perform better to reap more rewards. Performance goals will be high, the organization will ben- efit from higher team motivation and productivity, and team mem- bers’ individual needs will be better satisfied. Ideally, membership on a high-performing team that is recognized as such throughout the organization will become a badge of honor. 88

But keep in mind that strong cohesiveness encouraging “agree-

ableness” can be dysfunctional. For problem solving and deci-

sion making, the team should establish norms promoting an

open, constructive atmosphere including honest disagreement

over issues without personal conflict and animosity. 89

● Self-managed teams can have a positive impact on productivity. But

people often resist self-managed teams, in part because they don’t want

to accept so much responsibility and it is difficult for them to adjust to the

change in the decision-making process.

LO6 List methods for managing a team’s relationships with other teams

6 |  MANAGING LATERAL RELATIONSHIPS

Teams do not function in a vacuum; they are interdependent

with other teams. For example, at Texas Instruments, teams

are responsible for interfacing with other teams to eliminate

gatekeeper a team member who keeps abreast of current developments and provides the team with relevant information

informing a team strategy that entails making decisions with the team and then informing outsiders of its intentions

parading a team strategy that entails simultaneously emphasizing internal team building and achieving external visibility

probing a team strategy that requires team members to interact frequently with outsiders, diagnose their needs, and experiment with solutions

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282 PART 4 | Leading

7 | CONFLICT HAPPENS Conflict is a normal part of life in organizations. Keep in mind

there are many different ways to manage and resolve it.

7.1 |  Conflicts Arise Both Within and Among Teams

The complex maze of interdependencies throughout organiza-

tions provides many opportunities for conflict to arise among

groups and teams. Conflict is defined as a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or neg-

atively affected by another party. 95

It can occur between indi-

viduals on the same team or among different teams. Many

people’s view of conflict is that it should be avoided at all costs.

However, early management science contributor Mary Parker

Follett was the first of many to note its potential advantages. 96

Typically conflict can foster creativity when it is about ideas

rather than personalities. In contrast, at a nonprofit organiza-

tion, team members were committed to maintaining harmony

during meetings, but their unresolved differences spilled over

into nasty remarks outside of the office. 97

Many factors cause great potential for destructive con-

flict: the sheer number and variety of contacts, ambiguities

in jurisdiction and responsibility, differences in goals, inter-

group competition for scarce resources, different perspectives

held by members of different units, varying time horizons in

which some units attend to long-term considerations and others

focus on short-term needs, and others. Tensions and anxieties

are likely to arise in teams that are demographically diverse,

include members from different parts of the organization, or

are composed of contrasting personalities. Both demographic

and cross-functional heterogeneity initially lead to problems

such as stress, lower cooperation, and lower cohesiveness. 98

Over time and with communication, diverse groups actu-

ally tend to become more cooperative and perform better than

do homogeneous groups. Norms of cooperation can improve

performance, as does the fact that cross-functional teams

engage in more external communication with more areas of the

organization. 99

7.2 |  Conflict Management Techniques

Teams inevitably face conflicts and must decide how to manage

them. The aim should be to make the conflict productive—that

is, to make those involved believe they have benefited rather

than lost from the conflict. 100

People believe they have bene-

fited from a conflict when they see the following outcomes:

6.2 |  Some Relationships Help Teams Coordinate with Others in the Organization

Managing relationships with other groups and teams means

engaging in a dynamic give-and-take that ensures proper coor-

dination throughout the management system. To many man-

agers, this process often seems like a free-for-all. To help

understand the process and make it more productive, we can

identify and examine the different types of lateral role rela-

tionships and take a strategic approach to building constructive

relationships.

Different teams, like different individuals, have roles to per-

form. As teams carry out their roles, several distinct patterns of

working relationships develop: 93

• Work flow relationships emerge as materials are passed from one group to another. A group commonly receives work from one unit, processes it, and sends it to the next unit in the process. Your group, then, will come before some groups and after others in the process.

• Service relationships exist when top management centralizes an activity to which a large number of other units must gain access. Common examples are technology services, libraries, and clerical staff. Such units must assist other people to help them accomplish their goals.

• Advisory relationships are created when teams with problems call on centralized sources of expert knowledge. For example, staff members in the human resources or legal department advise work teams.

• Audit relationships develop when people not directly in the chain of command evaluate the methods and performances of other teams. Financial auditors check the books, and technical auditors assess the methods and technical quality of the work.

• Stabilization relationships involve auditing before the fact. In other words, teams sometimes must obtain clearance from others—for example, for large purchases—before they act.

• Liaison relationships involve intermediaries between teams. Managers often are called on to mediate conflict between two organizational units. Public relations people, sales managers, purchasing agents, and others who work across organizational boundaries serve in liaison roles as they maintain communications between the organization and the outside world.

Teams should assess each working relationship with another

unit by asking basic questions: “From whom do we receive

work, and to whom do we send work? What permissions do

we control, and to whom must we go for authorizations?” In

this way, teams can better understand whom to contact and

when, where, why, and how to do so. Coordination through-

out the working system improves, problems are avoided or

short-circuited before they get too serious, and performance

improves. 94

LO7 Give examples of ways to manage conflict

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CHAPTER 12 | Teamwork 283

clear the air. When Paul Forti was a middle manager in a man-

agement consulting firm, he was passed over for a promotion,

and the organization brought in an outsider who was at first too

busy to discuss his disappointment and future role in the firm.

He handled the situation with avoidance, and as a result, their

working relationship suffered for weeks. 103

Accommodation means cooperating on behalf of the other party but not being assertive about one’s own interests.

Compromise involves moderate attention to both parties’ con- cerns, being neither highly cooperative nor highly assertive.

This style results in satisficing but not optimizing solutions.

Competing is a strong response in which people focus strictly on their own wishes and are unwilling to recognize the other

person’s concerns. Finally, collaboration emphasizes both cooperation and assertiveness. The goal is to maximize satisfac-

tion for both parties. Collaboration changed Paul Forti’s rela-

tionship with his boss at the consulting firm. The new approach

literally started by accident, when the senior manager slipped

on some ice, Forti came to her aid, and she commented that she

would like to get to know him better. Over lunch, she expressed

her respect for Forti, and they developed a better working rela-

tionship in which she gave him interesting assignments and

made sure clients knew about his expertise. Thus, although

• A new solution is implemented, the problem is solved, and it is unlikely to emerge again.

• Work relationships have been strengthened, and people believe they can work together productively in the future.

People handle conflict in different ways. You have your own

style; others’ styles may be similar or may differ. Their styles

depend in part on their country’s cultural norms. For example,

the Chinese are more concerned with collective than with indi-

vidual interests, and they are more likely than managers in the

United States to turn to higher authorities to make decisions

rather than resolve conflicts themselves. 101

But culture aside,

any team or individual has several options regarding how they

deal with conflicts. 102

These personal styles of dealing with

conflict, shown in Exhibit 12.7 , are distinguished based on how

much people strive to satisfy their own concerns (the assertive-

ness dimension) and how much they focus on satisfying the

other party’s concerns (the cooperation dimension).

For example, a common reaction to conflict is avoidance . In this situation, people do nothing to satisfy themselves or

others. They either ignore the problem by doing nothing at all

or address it by merely smoothing over or deemphasizing the

disagreement. This, of course, fails to solve the problem or

Uncooperative

Competing Collaborating

Avoiding Accommodating

Cooperative COOPERATION

Unassertive

Assertive

A S

S E

R T

IV E

N E

S S

Compromising

Exhibit 12.7 Conflict management strategies

Source: K. Thomas, “Conflict and Conflict Management.” In Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, ed. M. D. Dunnette. Copyright © 1976. Reprinted by permission of the Kenneth W. Thomas.

conflict a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party

avoidance a reaction to conflict that involves

ignoring the problem by doing nothing at all, or deemphasizing the disagreement

accommodation a style of dealing with conflict involving cooperation on behalf of

the other party but not being assertive about one’s own interests

compromise a style of dealing with conflict involving moderate attention to both parties’ concerns

competing a style of dealing with conflict involving strong focus on one’s own goals and little or no concern for the other person’s goals

collaboration a style of dealing with conflict emphasizing both cooperation and assertiveness to maximize both parties’ satisfaction

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284 PART 4 | Leading

Forti hadn’t gotten the promo-

tion, he did get many opportu-

nities to develop his career. 104

Imagine that you and a

friend want to go to a movie

together, and you have dif-

ferent movies in mind. If he

insists that you go to his movie, he is showing the competing

style. If you agree, even though you prefer another movie, you

are accommodating. If one of you mentions a third movie that

neither of you is excited about but both of you are willing to live

with, you are compromising. If you realize you don’t know all

the options, do some research, and find another

movie that you’re both enthusiastic about, you

are collaborating.

Different approaches are necessary at dif-

ferent times. 105

For example, competing can be

necessary when cutting costs or dealing with

other scarce resources. Compromise may be

useful when people are under time pressure,

when they need to achieve a temporary solu-

tion, or when collaboration fails. People should

accommodate when they learn they are wrong

or to minimize loss when they are outmatched.

Even avoiding may be appropriate if the issue is

trivial or resolving the conflict should be some-

one else’s responsibility.

But when the conflict concerns important

issues, when both sets of concerns are valid and

important, when a creative solution is needed, and

when commitment to the solution is vital to imple-

mentation, collaboration is the ideal approach.

Collaboration can be achieved by airing feelings

and opinions, addressing all concerns, and avoid-

ing goal displacement by not letting personal

attacks interfere with problem solving. An important technique

is to invoke superordinate goals —higher-level organizational goals toward which everyone should be striving and that ultimately

need to take precedence over personal or unit preferences. 106

Collaboration offers the best chance of reaching mutually satisfac-

tory solutions based on the ideas and interests of all parties, and of

maintaining and strengthening work relationships.

7.3 |  Mediating Can Help Resolve a Conflict

Managers spend a lot of time trying to resolve conflict between

other people. You already may have served as a mediator , a “third party” intervening to help settle a conflict between other

people. Third-party intervention, done well, can improve working

relationships and help the parties improve their own conflict man-

agement, communication, and problem-solving skills. 107

Some insight comes from a study of human resource (HR)

managers and the conflicts with which they deal. 108

HR man-

agers encounter every type of conflict imaginable: interpersonal

difficulties from minor irritations to jealousy to fights; operations

superordinate goals higher-level goals taking priority over specific individual or group goals

mediator a third party who intervenes to help others manage their conflict

issues, including union issues, work assignments, overtime, and

sick leave; discipline over infractions ranging from drug use and

theft to sleeping on the job; sexual harassment and racial bias;

pay and promotion issues; and feuds or strategic conflicts among

divisions or individuals at the highest organizational levels.

In the study, the HR managers successfully settled most of

the disputes. As illustrated in Exhibit 12.8 , these managers typ-

ically follow a four-stage strategy:

1. They investigate by interviewing the disputants and others and gath- ering more information. While talking with the disputants, they seek both parties’ perspectives, remaining as neutral as possible. The discussion should stay issue-oriented, not personal.

Exhibit 12.8 A four-stage strategy to resolve disputes

Investigate

DecideFollow up

Take action

In 2013, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s private sector mediation program resolved approximately 9,000 complaints, resulting in $160.9 million in monetary benefits for complainants. 109

Did You Know?

2. They decide how to resolve the dispute, often in conjunction with the disputants’ bosses. In pre- paring to decide what to do, blame should not be assigned prematurely; at this point they should be exploring solutions.

3. They take action by explaining their decisions and the reasoning, and advise or train the dispu- tants to avoid future incidents.

4. They follow up by making sure everyone under- stands the solution, documenting the conflict and the resolution, and monitoring the results by check- ing back with the disputants and their bosses.

Throughout, the objectives of the HR people are

to be fully informed so that they understand the

conflict; to be active and assertive in trying to

resolve it; to be as objective, neutral, and impartial

as humanly possible; and to be flexible by modi-

fying their approaches according to the situation.

Here are some other recommendations for

more effective conflict management. 110

Don’t

allow dysfunctional conflict to build, or hope or

assume that it will go away. Address it before it escalates. Try to

resolve it, and if the first efforts don’t work, try others. Even if

disputants are not happy with your decisions, there are benefits

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CHAPTER 12 | Teamwork 285

harmony rather than assertively attempting to negotiate inte-

grative solutions—had no effect on performance. Collaboration

had a positive effect on performance. The researchers also

uncovered two surprises: compromise hurt performance, and

competition helped performance. Compromises hurt because

they often are watered-down, middle-of-the-road, suboptimal

solutions. Competitive behavior was useful because the virtual

teams were temporary and under time pressure, so having some

individuals behave dominantly and impose decisions to achieve

efficiency was useful rather than detrimental.

When people have problems in business-to-business e-com-

merce (e.g., costly delays), they tend to behave competitively

and defensively rather than collaboratively. 113

Technical prob-

lems and recurring problems test people’s patience. The conflict

will escalate unless people use more cooperative, collaborative

styles. Try to prevent conflicts before they arise; for example,

make sure your information system is running smoothly before

linking with others. Monitor and reduce or eliminate problems

as soon as possible. When problems arise, express your willing-

ness to cooperate, and then actually be cooperative. Even tech- nical problems require the social skills of good management.

to providing fair treatment, making a good-faith effort, and giv-

ing them a voice in the proceedings. Remember, too, that you

may be able to ask HR specialists to help with difficult conflicts.

7.4 |  Conflict Isn’t Always Face-to-Face

When teams are geographically dispersed, as is often the case

for virtual teams, team members tend to experience more con-

flict and less trust. 111

Conflict management affects the success

of virtual teams. 112

In a recent study, avoidance hurt perfor-

mance. Accommodation—conceding to others just to maintain

● Conflict between team members and coworkers is inevitable. There are

several strategies that can help you get past the conflict and stay productive.

● Conflicts can arise for any team—the trick is to make them productive.

This ad promotes the American Arbitration Association’s mission to train

professionals on how to effectively minimize and manage conflict—“before

the mud starts flying.”

Study Che klist Did you tear out the perforated student review card at

the back of the text to revisit learning objectives and key terms and definitions?

Connect ® Management is available for M Management. Additional resources include:

Interactive Applications: • Case Analysis: Team Leadership • Drag & Drop: How Do These Teams Perform?

• Drag & Drop: How Do We Manage Conflict? • Video Case: Teams at One Smooth Stone

LearnSmart—Multiple choice questions help you determine what you already know, are not sure about, or need to practice based on your score. And with SmartBook, you can read the relevant section in the eBook as well as practice and recharge what you’ve learned.

Chapter Video: Zappos’ Teams & Family Spirit

Young Manager Speaks Out: Alicia Catalano, Sales Team Leader

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