Transcript Organizational Behavior 1e

Organizational Behavior
6
core concepts
Groups and Teamwork: How
Groups Work and How to
Lead Them
6-2
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Organizational Behavior, Core Concepts
Copyright © 2008 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives
• Describe stages of group development
• Contrast roles and norms, and give four
reasons why norms are enforced in
organizations
• Explain how a work group becomes a
team, and identify five teamwork
competencies
6-3
Learning Objectives
• Summarize how managers can build trust
• Describe self-managed teams and virtual
teams
• Identify symptoms of groupthink and
social loafing and the ways to guard
against them
6-4
Fundamentals of Group Behavior
• Group
– two or more freely interacting people with
shared norms and goals and a common
identity
6-5
Formal and Informal Groups
• Formal group
– formed by the organization.
• Informal group
– formed by friends
6-6
Functions of Formal Groups
Organizational Functions
1. Accomplish complex, interdependent tasks
that are beyond the capabilities of individuals.
2. Generate new or creative ideas and solutions.
3. Coordinate interdepartmental efforts.
4. Provide a problem-solving mechanism for
complex problems requiring varied information
and assessments.
5. Implement complex decisions.
6. Socialize and train newcomers.
6-7
Functions of Formal Groups
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Individual Functions
1. Satisfy the individual’s need for affiliation.
2. Develop, enhance, and confirm the individual’s
self-esteem and sense of identity.
3. Give individuals an opportunity to test and share
their perceptions of social reality.
4. Reduce the individual’s anxieties and feelings of
insecurity and powerlessness.
5. Provide a problem-solving mechanism for
personal and interpersonalproblems.
Tuckman’s Five-Stage Theory of
Group Development
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Figure 6-1
Group Development
Stage 1: Forming
• Group members tend to be uncertain and
anxious about their roles, whose in
charge and the group’s goals
• Mutual trust is low
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Group Development
Stage 2: Storming
• Time of testing
• Individuals try to determine how they fit
into the power structure
• Procrastination may occur
6-11
Group Development
Stage 3: Norming
• Questions about authority and power are
resolved through unemotional, matter-offact group discussion
• Group cohesiveness – “we feeling”
binding group members together
6-12
Group Development
Stage 4: Performing
• Activity focused on solving task problems
• Climate of open communication, strong
cooperation, and lots of helping behavior
6-13
Group Development
Stage 5: Adjourning
• Work is done
• Time to move on to other things
6-14
Group Member Roles
• Roles
– expected behaviors for a given position
• Task roles
– task-oriented group behavior
– Keep the group on track
• Maintenance roles
– relationship-building group behavior
– Keep the group together
6-15
Task and Maintenance Roles
6-16
Norms
• Norms
– shared attitudes, opinions, feelings, or
actions that guide social behavior
• Ostracism
– rejection by other group members
6-17
How Norms are Developed
1. Explicit statements by supervisors or
co-workers
2. Critical events in the group’s history
3. Primacy
4. Carryover behaviors from past
situations
6-18
Question?
What is a small group with complementary
skills who hold themselves mutually
accountable for common purpose?
A. Group
B. Huddle
C. Team
D. Platoon
6-19
Teams, Trust, and Teamwork
• Team
– small group with complementary skills who
hold themselves mutually accountable for
common purpose, goals, and approach.
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Teams
• A group becomes a team when:
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– Leadership becomes a shared activity
– Accountability shifts from strictly individual to
both individual and collective
– The group develops its own purpose or
mission
– Problem solving becomes a way of life, not a
part-time activity
– Effectiveness is measured by the group’s
collective outcomes and products
Developing Teamwork Competencies
• Helping the team understand its problemsolving situation
• Helping the team get organized and
measure its performance
• Promoting a positive team environment
• Handling conflict
• Promoting one’s point of view
appropriately
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Trust: A Key Ingredient of Teamwork
• Trust
– reciprocal faith in
other’ intentions
and behavior.
6-23
Three Dimensions of Trust
• Overall trust
– expecting fair play, the truth, and empathy
• Emotional trust
– having faith that someone will not
misrepresent you to others or betray you
• Reliableness
– believing that promises and appointments
will be kept and commitments met
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How to Build and Maintain Trust
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
6-25
Communication
Support
Respect
Fairness
Predictability
Competence
Self-Managed Teams
• Self-managed teams
– groups of employees granted administrative
oversight for their work
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Indirect Influence Tactics of
Self Managed Teams
•
•
•
•
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Relating
Scouting
Persuading
Empowering
Teams
• Cross-functionalism
– team made up of technical specialists from
different areas
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Effectiveness of Self Managed
Teams
• Have a positive effect on productivity
• Have a positive effect on specific
attitudes relating to self-management
• No significant effect on general attitudes
• No significant effect on absenteeism or
turnover
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Question?
What type of team uses information
technology to allow group members in
different locations to conduct business?
A. Psychic team
B. Virtual team
C. Fundamental team
D. Internet team
6-30
Virtual Teams
• Virtual team
– information technology allows group
members in different locations to conduct
business.
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Threats to Group and Team
Effectiveness
• Groupthink
– Janis’s term for cohesive in-group’s
unwillingness to realistically view
alternatives.
6-32
Read an article on
groupthink
Threats to Group and Team
Effectiveness
• Symptoms of groupthink
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– Invulnerability
– Inherent morality
– Rationalization
– Stereotyped views of opposition
– Self-censorship
– Illusion of unanimity
– Peer pressure
– Mindguards
Social Loafing
• Social Loafing
– decrease in individual effort as group size
increases
6-34
Reasons for Social Loafing
• Equity of effort
• Loss of personal accountability
• Motivational loss due to sharing of
rewards
• Coordination loss as more people
perform the task
6-35