COMMERCE 2BA3 ORGANIZATIONAL

BEHAVIOURClass 5

Groups and Teamwork

Dr. Christa Wilkin

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Brain Teasers

LANG4UAGE search

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Last Class

Content and process theories of motivation

Money and job design as a motivator

THIS CLASS Groups and teamwork

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Agenda

Team development Team structure Team decision-making Types of teams Ultimate Student Chair task

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CH 7: GROUPS AND TEAMWORK

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Question

What is your best/worst team experience? Describe the behaviours of team

members/ team as a whole and what made it so good/bad?

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Teams vs. Groups

Teams are generally distinguished from groups by: Team goals: groups don’t need to have goals Shared leadership Shared accountability Self-developed mission Continuous problem-solving

Formal vs. Informal Established by organizations vs. emerging

naturally E.g., work on project vs. play on softball

team

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Typical Stages of Team Development

Teams develop through a series of stages over time

Each stage presents the members with a series of challenges they must master in order to achieve the next stage

Not all teams go through these stages

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Individual Task: Put the Stages in Order

Storming: Conflict often emerges; sorting out roles and responsibilities is often at issue

Adjourning: Group disperses after achieving goals

Forming: What are we doing here?, what are others like?, what is our purpose?

Performing: The group devotes its energies toward task accomplishment

Norming: Norms are agreed on and the group becomes more cohesive

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Punctuated Equilibrium Model

How teams with deadlines are affected by first meetings and crucial midpoint transitions

Phase 1: first meeting to midpoint of existence, little progress is made

Midpoint Transition: need to move forward is apparent

Phase 2: decisions and approaches are played out

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Comparing Both Models11

Team Structure

What is the ultimate team size? Additive Task

Team performance is dependent on the sum of the performance of individual members

Disjunctive Task Team performance is dependent on the

performance of the best member Conjunctive Task

Team performance is limited by the performance of the poorest member

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Team Size

As groups become larger, they suffer process losses Performance difficulties that result from the

problems of motivating and coordinating larger groups

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Diversity in Teams

Diverse teams might take longer to do their forming, storming and norming

Diverse teams sometimes perform better when the task requires cognitive, creativity-demanding tasks and problem solving rather than routine work

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Question

When will teams perform better than individuals?

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Teams vs. Individuals

Group members differ in skills and abilities

Some division of labour can occur

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Quiz Question

One reason for members reporting less satisfaction in larger groups is

A) individual members can identify less easily with the success of the group.

B) opportunities for participation increase in larger groups.

C) people are less inhibited about participating in larger groups.

D) conflict and dissension are less likely in larger groups.

E) they have more time to develop friendships with other group members.

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Team Norms

Acceptable standards of behaviour within a team

Agreed upon by members Relate to

Performance e.g., how hard to work

Appearance Social interaction Allocation of resources

e.g., assignments

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Team Roles

Positions in a group that have a set of expected behaviours attached to them

Role ambiguity Lack of clarity of job goals or methods

Role Conflict Exists when faced with incompatible role

expectations Something unethical, demands in other roles at home

Both can result in job disatisfaction, stress reactions, lower commitment, and turnover

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Team Cohesiveness

The degree to which a group is especially attractive to its members.

Increase cohesiveness: Threat: External threat to the survival of a

group Success: Groups become more cohesive when

they successfully accomplish an important goal Size: Larger groups have a more difficult time

becoming and staying cohesive Toughness of initiation: Groups that are tough

to get into tend to be more attractive than those easy to join

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Team Cohesiveness

Consequences of Cohesiveness More participation in group activities More conformity More success

In more cohesive groups, individual performance is similar

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Question

What is social loafing?

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Social Loafing

Members exert less effort when working in teams than working alone

Factors that affect: Team size (+) Team produces single output (e.g., report)

(+) Interestingness of the task (-) Importance of objective (-) Value team membership and objectives (-)

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How to Manage Social Loafing

Discuss expectations Make individual performance more visible

Specialize tasks Feeling that inputs are necessary for team success

Increase performance feedback Might not be aware of poor performance

Make tasks more interesting and important Divide tasks based on expertise and

preference Punishment warnings in advance (deter)

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Question

Why would you want to use groups to make decisions rather than individuals?

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Group Decision Making

Groups or teams can make higher-quality decisions than individuals Generate more ideas and evaluate them better

Increases decision acceptance and commitment

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Disadvantages

Time Conflict Domination Groupthink

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Groupthink (Teamthink)

The capacity for group pressure to damage the mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment of decision making groups

Develops because of too much cohesiveness, concern for approval and isolation of the group

E.g., video of Asch experiment

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Video Clip

Challenger Disaster

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Question

Take a moment to think about three concepts from the lecture that you can apply to your groups

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Types of Teams

Process-improvement teams e.g., Team to improve efficiency of

manufacturing a product Self-managed teams

e.g., Teams in class Cross-functional

e.g., Team with people from HR, marketing, accounting

Virtual Teams e.g., Team that spans the globe

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Ultimate Student Chair

Team Simulation Exercise Simulating a virtual, cross-functional

team with a very big challenge Form teams of 5 people Representing two separate offices of a

full-service consulting company

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Ultimate Student Chair

Client briefing details on handout

20 minutes to prepare Each team will have half of its members

located on one side of the room and can only communicate with them via email.

Five minutes (max) to present your ideas One or two people per team will present

to class

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Ultimate Student Chair

How was the coordination among team members? and across offices, specifically?

How did you make decisions? What did you do well / not so well?

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QUESTIONS?

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Summary

Team progress will depend on which stage team is in

Teams are not necessarily more effective than individuals Require management: Establish norms

(expectations), divide up labour/assign roles, build cohesiveness, manage social loafing

Hopefully Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM)

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For Next Class

Read chapter 8 on influence, socialization, and culture, and chapter 9 on leadership

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