Transcript Lecture 9 Teams

Building and
Managing Teams
Dr. Fred Mugambi Mwirigi
JKUAT
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Defining and
Classifying Groups

Group (s): Two or more individuals interacting and interdependent,
who have come together to achieve particular objectives

Formal Group: A designated work group defined by the
organisation’s structure
 Command Group
 Task Group
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Informal Group: A group that is neither formally structured nor
organisationally determined; appears in response to the need for
social contact
 Interest Group
 Friendship Group
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The Progression…
Individuals
Group
Work
Group
Team
Work
Team
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Why People Join
Groups
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Security
Status
Self-esteem
Affiliation
Power
Goal Achievement
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Stages of Group
Development
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Group Properties/
Characteristics
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Roles
Norms
Status
Size
Cohesiveness
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Group Properties—
Roles
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Role(s): A set of expected behaviour patterns attributed
to someone occupying a given position in a social unit
Role Identity: Certain attitudes and behaviours
consistent with a role
Role Perception: An individual’s view of how he or she
is supposed to act in a given situation
Role Expectations: How others believe a person should
act in a given situation
 Psychological Contract: An unwritten agreement that
sets out what management expects from the
employee and vice versa
Role Conflict: A situation in which an individual is
confronted by divergent role expectation.
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Group Properties—
Norms
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Norms
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Acceptable standards of behaviour within a group
that are shared by the group’s members
Classes of Norms
 Performance norms
 Appearance norms
 Social arrangement norms
 Allocation of resources norms
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Group Properties—
Status
Power over
Others
Ability to
Contribute
Group Member
Status
Level of
Interaction
Personal
Characteristics
Status: A socially defined position or rank given to
groups or group members by others
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Status
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Performance of a group is also influenced by
the status created in the group.
Status is derived from one of three sources:
1. the power a person wields over others;
2. a person’s ability to contribute to group’s
goals;
3. individual’s personal characteristics.
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Status and Norms
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High-status members of groups often are given more
freedom to deviate from norms than other group
members.
High-status people also are better able to resist
conformity pressures.
The previous findings explain why many star athletes,
famous actors, top-performing salespeople, and
outstanding academics seem oblivious to appearance or
social norms.
But this is true only as long as the high-status person’s
activities aren’t severely detrimental to group goals.
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Status and Group
Interaction
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Interaction is influenced by status
High-status people tend to be more assertive
Status differences inhibit diversity of ideas
and creativity in groups
In situations where lower-status members
possess expertise and insights that could aid
the group, they tend to be less active and their
ideas not fully utilised, thus reducing the
group’s overall performance
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Status and equity
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When inequity is perceived, it creates disequilibrium that
results in corrective behaviour.
The trappings of formal positions are also important
elements in maintaining equity.
Employees expect what an individual has and receives to
be congruent with his/her status. For example: pay, office
space, etc.
Groups generally agree within themselves on status
criteria. Individuals can find themselves in a conflict
situation when they move between groups whose status
criteria are different or when they join groups whose
members have heterogeneous backgrounds.
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Group Properties—
Size
Social Loafing: The tendency for individuals to expend less effort
when working collectively than when working individually
Performance
Other Conclusions
 Odd number groups do
better than even.
 Groups of 5 to 7 perform
better overall than larger
or smaller groups.
Group Size
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Social loafing
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Social loafing is the tendency for individuals to expend
less effort when working collectively than when working
individually.
In the late 1920s, a German psychologist named Max
Ringelmann compared the results of individual and
group performance on a rope-pulling task.
Ringelmann’s results showed that groups of three
people exerted a force only two-and-a-half times the
average individual performance. Groups of eight
collectively achieved less than four times the solo rate.
Increases in group size are inversely related to individual
performance.
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Group Properties—
Cohesiveness
Cohesiveness
Degree to which group members are attracted to
each other and are motivated to stay in the group
Increasing Group Cohesiveness
 Make the group smaller
 Encourage agreement with group goals
 Increase the time members spend together
 Increase group status and admission difficulty
 Stimulate competition with other groups
 Give rewards to the group, not individuals
 Physically isolate the group.
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Relationship Between Group
Cohesiveness, Performance Norms, and
Productivity
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Group Decision
Making
Strengths
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More complete
information
Increased diversity of
views
Higher quality of
decisions (more
accuracy)
Increased acceptance of
solutions
Weaknesses
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More time consuming
(slower)
Increased pressure to
conform
Domination by one or a
few members
Ambiguous responsibility
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Group Decision-making
Techniques
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Normal Interactions: Typical groups, in which the
members interact with each other face-to-face
Nominal Group Technique: A group decision-making
method in which individual members meet face-toface to pool their judgments in a systematic but
independent fashion
Brainstorming: An idea-generation process that
specifically encourages any and all alternatives while
withholding any criticism of those alternatives
Electronic Meeting: A meeting in which members
interact on computers, allowing for anonymity of
comments and aggregation of votes
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Conformity in Groups
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Groups can place strong pressures on individual members to
change their attitudes and behaviours to conform to the
group’s standard.
Individuals conform to the important groups to which they
belong or hope to belong (especially the reference group).
All groups do not impose equal conformity pressures on their
members.
Important groups are referred to as reference groups.
The reference group is one where the person is aware of the
others; the person defines himself or herself as a member, or
would like to be a member; and the person feels that the
group members are significant to him/her.
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Work Teams
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Outline
Difference between groups and teams
Types of teams
Creating effective teams
Turning individuals into team players
Teams aren’t always the answer
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Comparing Work
Groups and Work Teams
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Types of Teams
1.
2.
Problem-solving Teams
 Groups of 5 to 12 employees from
the same department who meet for
a few hours each week to discuss
ways of improving quality,
efficiency, and the work
environment
Self-Managed Work Teams
 Groups of 10 to 15 people who
take on the responsibilities of their
former supervisors
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Types of Teams
(cont’d)
3.
Cross-Functional Teams
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Employees from about the same hierarchical level,
but from different work areas, who come together to
accomplish a task
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Task forces
Committees
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Types of Teams (cont’d)
4. Virtual Teams
Teams that use computer
technology to tie together
physically dispersed members
in order to achieve a common
goal
Characteristics of Virtual Teams
 The absence of verbal and nonverbal cues
 A limited social context
 The ability to overcome time and space constraints
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A TeamEffectiveness Model
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Creating Effective
Teams: Diversity
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Group Demography
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The degree to which members of a group share a common
demographic attribute, such as age, sex, race, educational
level, or length of service in the organisation, and the impact
of this attribute on turnover
Cohorts
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Individuals who, as part of a group, hold a common attribute
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Effects of Group
Processes
Potential group
effectiveness
+
Process gains
—
=
Process losses
Actual group
effectiveness
Goal: Maximise process gains while minimising
process losses!
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Turning Individuals
into Team Players
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The Challenges
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Overcoming individual resistance to team membership
Countering the influence of individualistic cultures
Introducing teams in an organisation that has historically valued
individual achievement
Shaping Team Players
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Selecting employees who can fulfil their team roles
Training employees to become team players
Reworking the reward system to encourage cooperative efforts
while continuing to recognise individual contributions
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Contribution of Teams
to Strategy
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Teams contribute positively to strategy
only if they:
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Are small enough to be efficient and effective.
Are properly trained in required skills.
Are allocated enough time to work on problems.
Are given authority to resolve problems and take
corrective action.
Have a designated 'champion' to call on when
needed.
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Testing Team
Effectiveness
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Three tests to see if a team fits the
situation:
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Is the work complex and is there a need for
different perspectives?
Does the work create a common purpose or set of
goals for the group that is larger than the
aggregate of the goals for individuals?
Are members of the group involved in
interdependent tasks?
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End
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