Final Paper

MSL 630

Leading Productive Teams

Belhaven University

Unit 6

 Networks

 Virtual Teams

 Dysfunction of a Team

 Tangible Gifts

1

In Unit Six, the Course Level Competencies are:

 Objective 1.2: Articulate and evaluate effectiveness of

leadership practices in motivating others.

 Objective 2.1: Define and identify components of best practices

of productive teams.

 Objective 3.2: Identify key components in developing

appreciation in the workplace.

 Objective 4.2: Apply methods for identifying perceptions,

emotions, and non-verbal communication in the workplace.

 Objective 5.1: Demonstrate professional conduct in oral

communication, written communication, and punctuality.

 Objective 5.2: Identify Christian perspectives as they relate to

the course.

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Objectives

MSL 630

Leading Productive Teams

Belhaven University

Unit 6.1

 Teamwork

 External Roles

 Networks

 Social Capital

3

In-n-Out Burgers, CA

Teamwork

 Teamwork and taskwork are related, but they are not the

same thing.

• Taskwork - involves members’ interactions with

tasks, tools, machines, and systems to

accomplish a team’s mission.

• Teamwork – the process by which team

members interact with and relate to one another.

• A strong taskwork tie indicates that two members

of a team share many tasks and tools together.

Taskwork and Teamwork

 At least three factors affect the taskwork-teamwork

network structure:

• Closure – how interconnected the team members

are.

• Centralization – refers to the extent to which most of

the interaction is centered around one or a few core

team members.

• Specialization – refers to the degree to which team

members have unique knowledge and expertise.

Factors that Affect Network Structures

Taskwork and Teamwork, cont.

 Identifying and understanding the roles that team

members play vis-à-vis the flow of information in and out

of the team is an important predictor of team productivity

and performance.

 Often, roles are not formally assigned but instead are

taken on by team members through a team negotiation

process.

External Roles of Team Members

 A listing of the most common and important roles

observed in real workgroups:

• Boundary spanner

• Bufferer

• Interpreter

• Advisor

• Gatekeeper

• Lobbyist

• Negotiator or Mediator

• Spokesperson

• Strategist

• Coordinator

External Roles of Team Members,

cont.

 Despite the benefits of boundary spanning for teams,

boundary spanning can be stressful and challenging,

requiring significant effort and time.

 Role overload occurs when a person has too much

work in the time available.

External Roles of Team Members,

cont.

Boundary Loosening vs. Boundary Tightening

• Boundary loosening activities are activities that

focus team members outside the team and

organization.

• Boundary tightening activities are activities that

focus team members inward on the team and

organization.

Organizational Networks

Sharing Knowledge

• In an ideal organizational environment, there is

clear and consistent knowledge-sharing among

the different functional and geographic units.

• Knowledge-sharing quickly disperses innovation,

reduces unnecessary duplication of effort, and

facilitates the implementation of best practices.

Organizational Networks, cont.

Insider vs. Outsider Knowledge Valuation

• The source of the knowledge makes a big difference in

whether team members feel threatened or intrigued by

information.

• People are more likely to value knowledge that comes

from an external network source and devalue knowledge

that comes from an internal member of the team.

Organizational Networks, cont.

Human Capital and Social Capital

• Human capital - The organizational value that

intelligent, educated, and experienced people bring to

their organization.

• Social capital - The value people add to their team

and organization through their ties to other people.

• While human capital refers to individual ability,

social capital refers to opportunities created

through relationships.

Organizational Networks, cont.

• Clique network - close-knit, self-contained network

with redundant communication structures.

Human Capital and Social Capital

 Informal systems of connections and relationships between

people develop over time, and guide the flow of information

between people and teams.

• Perceived network – people who have an astute

knowledge of network links and have a good assessment

of what people and coalitions are powerful in an

organization.

Organizational Networks, cont.

Team Social Capital

 Team social capital is the configuration of team

members’ social relationships within two categories:

• Social relationships within a group.

• Social relationships in the structure of the broader

organization.

Organizational Networks, cont.

Team Social Capital

• Some teams have greater social capital “liquidity”

because their members have positions in the overall

social structure of the organization.

• The optimal configuration of work-related social ties

was a moderate level of internal closure within the

group and a large number of “bridging” relationships

to other groups’ leaders.

Organizational Networks, cont.

 People in teams bond along three specific types of ties:

• Friendship ties – close, interpersonal ties

between people, characterized by positive, amicable

relationships.

• Trust ties – involve both an affective (social exchange)

and a cognitive (reliability) relationship perspective.

• Advice ties – represent instrumental rather than

expressive relationships and represent the exchange of

expertise and information necessary to complete one’s

task.

Friendship, Trust, and Advice Ties

Organizational Networks, cont.

 Personality and education affect network relationships.

 Advice, friendship, and trust ties are mutually exclusive.

 Four interplaying characteristics determine the extent to

which negative relationships hurt team and

organizational effectiveness:

• Relationship strength

• Reciprocity

• Cognition

• Social distance

Friendship, Trust, and Advice Ties

Organizational Networks, cont.

 Strategic network expansion involves connecting to

people and teams in such a way that the person is filling

a structural hole.

 To see the difference between typical network

expansion versus strategic network expansion.

 From the point of view of the employee, organizational

benefits are maximized in a large network of

nonredundant contacts – in short, it is better to know a

lot of people who don’t know one another.

Increasing Your Social Capital

 Consider the following strategies and steps for individuals,

teams, and organizations to build more connections across

functional groups:

• Analyze your social network

• Identify “structural holes” in your organization.

• Expand the size of the network.

• Diversify networks

• Build hierarchical networks.

• Recognize gender scripts in networks.

• Reputation management.

Increasing Your Social Capital, cont.

Unit 6.1 Recap

 Ending 6.1 and getting into 6.2

 Social Interaction

 Virtual Teams

MSL630

Leading Productive Teams

Belhaven University

Unit 6.2

 Social Interaction

 Virtual Teams

22

Think about how God uses

you in your networks?

Leading Teams

 The Place-Time model considers teams in terms of

their geographic location and temporal relationship.

 Richness is the potential information-carrying

capacity of a communications medium.

 Face-to-Face communication is relatively “rich” in the

information it conveys because it allows the

simultaneous observation of several cues, including

body language, facial expression, and tone of voice,

and provides people with a greater awareness of

context.

Place-Time Model of Social Interaction

 There are four types of communication possibilities in the

Place-Time model of social interaction:

• Face-to-Face communication (FTF)

• Same time, different place

• Different time, same place

• Different place, different time

Place-Time Model of Social Interaction,

cont.

Place-Time Model of Social Interaction,

cont.

 Face-to-face communication:

• Crucial in the initiation of relationships and collaboration.

• People are more cooperative when interacting face-to-face.

• Ideal when teams must wrestle with complex problems.

• Without face-to-face contact, work groups form more slowly and

perhaps never fully.

• People rely primarily on nonverbal signals to help them navigate

social interactions.

• Rapport-building through nonverbal signals.

• Not the best modality for all types of teamwork (brainstorming).

Interaction Types and Workplace Effects

Place-Time Model of Social Interaction,

cont.

 Same time, different place:

• Loss of informal communication.

• Disconnected feedback.

• Loss of informal modeling.

• Out-of-the-loop employees.

• Advantages: better preparation, reducing micromanagement.

• Edmondson provides four tactics to help people reframe their purpose

on their team.

• People communicate in real time but are not physically in the

same place.

Interaction Types and Workplace Effects

Place-Time Model of Social Interaction,

cont.

 Different time, same place:

• Teams in these types of work environments can rely on

the physical environment too much for information and

cues.

• This type of dependence can be a limitation for groups

that find it impossible to work outside the idiosyncratic

confines of their workspace.

• Team members interact asynchronously, but share

the same work space.

Interaction Types and Workplace Effects

Place-Time Model of Social Interaction,

cont.

 Different place, different time:

• Lost in translation – communicating via email strips the message

of the paralinguistic and nonverbal cues that enable us to richly

communicate.

• People in this work mode communicate asynchronously

in different places.

• Skim effect -- the tendency for most people to skim email

messages and respond to only one element.

• Egocentrism -- people believe they convey a message in the

correct tone when , in fact, the message is misunderstood.

Place-Time Model of Social Interaction,

cont.

 Key things to expect when interactions with a team are via

information technology:

• Reduced status differences: “The weak get strong effect”.

• Equalization of participation.

• Increased time to make decisions.

• Communication frequency decreases and lowers inhibitions.

• Groups make riskier decisions and exhibit greater polarization.

• Social norms change and negative interactions increase.

• Task performance and decision quality – research findings.

• Formation of trust and rapport more difficult.

Information Technology and Social

Behavior

 A virtual team is a group of people working together

across time and space using electronic information

technology.

 Three factors distinguish virtual, hybrid, and traditional

teams:

• Physical distance

• Technology support

• Percentage of time the group members spent apart.

Virtual, Hybrid, and Traditional Teams

 Team formation:

• Location challenges can be overcome more easily than talent

shortages.

Strategies for Enhancing Virtual Teamwork

• Companies should immerse virtual employees in the organization’s

culture.

 Technology:

• Key is to not let the technology drive the entire virtual team, rather

technology should support the team.

• A key barrier to effective virtual teamwork is successful user adoption of

new technology.

Enhancing Virtual Teamwork

Strategies for Enhancing Virtual Teamwork

 Initial face-to-face experience:

• It is much easier for people to work together if they have initially

met face-to-face.

• Face-to-face contact humanizes people and creates expectations

for team members to use in their long-distance work together.

• Schmoozing (a.k.a. virtual handshake) refers to contact between

people that involves the exchange of some basic personal

information and results in the expedited operation of virtual teams.

Enhancing Virtual Teamwork, cont.

 Integrity:

• Four steps a team member can take to demonstrate

their integrity to their virtual team members:

Strategies for Enhancing Virtual Teamwork

– Be truthful and forthright.

– Avoid sarcasm, joking, and teasing.

– Maintain confidences, don’t spread gossip.

– Handle sensitive material properly.

Enhancing Virtual Teamwork, cont.

Unit 6.2 Recap

 Ending 6.2 and getting into 6.3

 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

 Tangible Gifts

 Columbia Mission

MSL630

Leading Productive Teams

Belhaven University

Unit 6.3

 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

 Tangible Gifts

 Columbia Mission

37

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

by Patrick Lencioni

Members of teams with an

absence of trust….

• Conceal their weaknesses and

mistakes from one another

• Hesitate to ask for help or

provide constructive feedback

• Jump to conclusions Hesitate to

offer help outside their own areas

of responsibility about the

intentions and aptitudes of others

without attempting to clarify

them

Members of trusting teams...

• Admit weaknesses and mistakes

• Ask for help

• Accept questions and input about

their areas of responsibility

• Give one another the benefit of

the doubt before arriving at a

negative conclusion

• Take risks in offering feedback

and assistance

DYSFUNCTION 1: Absence of Trust

 Get to know one another (lunch, activities, etc.)

• Personal histories exercise

• Team effectiveness exercises

• Personality and Behavioral Preferences Profiles

• 360 Degree Feedback Exercises

• Experiential Team Exercises

• Ground Rules

Overcoming Dysfunction 1: Absence of

Trust

Teams that fear conflict…

• Have boring meetings

• Create environments where back-

channel politics and personal attacks

thrive

• Ignore controversial topics that are

critical to team success

• Fail to tap into all the opinions and

perspectives of team members

• Waste time and energy with posturing

and interpersonal risk management

Teams that engage in conflict…

• Have lively, interesting

meetings

• Extract and exploit the ideas of

all team members

• Solve real problems quickly

• Minimize politics

• Put critical topics on the table

for discussion

DYSFUNCTION 2: Fear of Conflict

 Mine for conflict, perhaps have even a person designated to

mine for conflict

 Give real time permission for conflict—when debate starts

and things get uncomfortable, stop and tell the debaters

how important it is what they are doing

 If you are the leader, do not jump in too quickly to protect

 As a leader model healthy conflict

Overcoming Dysfunction 2: Fear of

Conflict

A team that fails to commit…

• Creates ambiguity among the

team about direction and priorities

• Watches windows of opportunity

close due to excessive analysis

and unnecessary delay

• Breeds lack of confidence and fear

of failure

• Revisits discussions and decisions

again and again

• Encourages second-guessing

among team members

A team that commits… • Creates clarity around direction

and priorities

• Aligns the entire team around

common objectives

• Develops an ability to learn from

mistakes

• Takes advantage of opportunities

before competitors do

• Moves forward without hesitation

• Changes direction without

hesitation or guilt

DYSFUNCTION 3: Lack of

Commitment

 Cascading Messages

 Deadlines

 Contingency and Worst Case Scenario Planning

 Low Risk Exposure Therapy

 Create a “FIRST TEAM” mentality at the top

Overcoming Dysfunction 3: Lack of

Commitment

A team that avoids

accountability…

• Creates resentment among

team members who have

different standards of

performance

• Encourages mediocrity

• Misses deadlines and key

deliverables

• Places an undue burden on the

team leader as the sole source

of discipline

A team that holds one another

accountable…

• Ensures that poor performers feel

pressure to improve

• Identifies potential problems quickly

by questioning one another’s

approaches without hesitation

• Establishes respect among team

members who are held to the same

high standards

• Avoids excessive bureaucracy around

performance management and

corrective action

DYSFUNCTION 4: Avoidance of

Accountability

 Publication of Goals and Standards

 Simple and Regular Progress Reviews

 Team Rewards

 “Enter the Danger” with one another

 Leader must still accept and carry out the role of

final arbiter of discipline

Overcoming Dysfunction 4: Avoidance of

Accountability

A team that is not focused on

results…

• Stagnates/fails to grow

• Rarely defeats competitors

• Loses achievement-oriented

employees

• Encourages team members to

focus on their own careers

and individual goals

• Is easily distracted

A team that focuses on collective

results…

• Retains achievement-oriented

employees

• Minimizes individualistic behavior

• Enjoys success and suffers failure

acutely

• Benefits from individuals who

subjugate their own goals/interest for

the good of the team

• Avoid distractions

DYSFUNCTION 5: Inattention to

Results

 Public Declaration of Results

 Measurable and Specific, when possible

 Results Based Rewards

 Leader must value Results and get the Board to

value Results

 Leader allows anything else, excuses, gives

permission for everyone to walk away from

results!

Overcoming Dysfunction 5: Inattention

to Results

The Five Languages of

Appreciation in the Workplace By Dr. Gary Chapman & Dr. Paul White

49

Tangible Gifts

The key to an effective gift in the workplace is the “thought,” not the

amount of money spent. Taking time to notice what your colleagues

enjoy (chocolate, coffee, cashews), observing their hobbies and

interests (sports, books, crafts) and buying them a small related gift

shows that you are getting to know them as a person and understand

what is important to them.

Tangible Gifts, cont.

 A clique network is closed, dense, and self-

contained; a boundary-spanning network is less

dense, more unique, and more varied.

 One advantage of a clique network is high cohesion;

one advantage of a boundary-spanning network is

greater innovation and diversity.

 Managers and team members can increase their

social capital by determining the brokers in their

networks, identifying structural holes in their

organization, and diversifying their networks.

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Recap: Hitting the Highlights

 People in teams’ bond along three specific types of

ties: friendship, trust, and advice. Trust-ties involve )

an emotional and cognitive component; advice-ties

involve instrumental relationships.

 One method for most effectively increasing a team's

social capital is by expanding the size of that team's

network which does not mean increasing the size of

the team, but rather increasing the number and

diversity of people with whom the team comes into

contact.

52

Recap: Hitting the Highlights, cont.

 Managers with more social capital get higher returns

on their human capital because they are in a position

to identify and develop more rewarding opportunities.

 People are their most cooperative when

communicating face-to-face.

 Face-to-face meeting with clients is a communication

situations that has the highest message "richness," or

potential information-carrying capacity.

Recap: Hitting the Highlights, cont.

 People primarily rely on nonverbal signals to help

them conduct social interaction. One estimate is 93%

of the meaning of messages is contained in the

nonverbal part of communication.

 Face-to-face interaction allows people to have the

feeling of being "in sync" with another person. The

degree of rapport between people determines the

efficiency and the quality of progress toward goal

achievement, and whether the goal is ever achieved.

Recap: Hitting the Highlights, cont.

 Geographically distributed teams experience more

relationship and task conflict than do co-located

teams.

 An investigation of performance appraisals revealed

that people receiving feedback were most negative

about electronic feedback versus feedback received

on paper or via face-to-face.

Recap: Hitting the Highlights, cont.

Recap, cont.

Week Six is the

Columbia Mission.

 Complete reading assignments  Read Chapter 6 “The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the

Workplace”

 Read The Five Dysfunctions of Teams

 Read 2 Corinthians 9:10-14

 Review all web links provided

 Complete writing assignments  Discuss dysfunctions at your workplace.

 Answer discussion questions

 Complete unit quiz

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What’s Next?

Chapman, G. D., & White, P. E. (2012). The 5 languages of appreciation in the

workplace: Empowering organizations by encouraging people.

Chicago: Northfield Pub.

Lencioni, P. M. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: a leadership fable(1st

ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Lencioni, P. M. (2003, Summer). The trouble with teamwork. Leader to Leader,

(29), 35-40.

Thompson, L. L. (2016). Making the team: a guide for managers (5th ed.). NY,

NY: Pearson.

Weinberg, R. S. & Gould, D. (2012). Foundations of sport and exercise

psychology (5th ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

58

References

Image References

Hamburger photo [Digital image]. Retrieved from

https://denver.eater.com/2017/11/30/16720732/in-n-out-burger-

colorado-springs-Denver

Harvard Business Publishing Education. (2018). Retrieved from

https://hbsp.harvard.edu/library

Garrett, E. [Digital images].

Google Images (2018). Retrieved from

https://images.google.com/

Lencioni, P. M. (2003, Summer). The trouble with teamwork. Leader to

Leader, (29), 35-40.