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IM 7-1
CHAPTER 7
Working in Teams
Resource Guide
The opening page of each chapter in Communicating at Work lists desired learning outcomes. The
Resource Guide will assist you in locating activities and resources from the text and Instructor Manual
that are relevant to each objective.
Chapter Objectives
Resources
Identify the kinds of communication that
distinguish a group from a team.
Key terms: team; work group
In the text:
Activities: 1
Case Study: Learning Teamwork from
Firefighters, Comedians, and Musicians
Instructor’s Manual online:
Discussion Launchers: 1-4
Classroom Activities: 1
Explain the advantages and disadvantages of face-
to-face and virtual teams and describe ways to
address the disadvantages.
Key terms: virtual team
In the text:
Technology Tip: Working in Virtual Teams
Instructor’s Manual online:
Discussion Launchers: 5
Classroom Activities: 2
Compare and contrast various approaches to
leadership, leader-member relations and power
distribution and explain their impact on teams.
Key terms: authoritarian leadership style; coercive
power; connection power; contingency approaches
to leadership; democratic leadership style;
designated leader; emergent leader; expert power;
functional roles; information power; laissez-faire
leadership style; leader-member exchange (LMX);
life-cycle theory of leadership; position power;
referent power; reward power; self-directed work
teams; style approach to leadership; task roles; trait
approach to leadership
In the text:
Activities: 2, 6
Career Tip: How to Emerge as a Team Leader
Culture at Work: Japanese Baseball
Instructor’s Manual online:
Discussion Launchers: 6-8
Classroom Activities: 3,4
Written Application Exercises: 1, 2
Video Activities: 1,2
Identify and apply guidelines for effective
communication in teams with regard to roles, goals,
norms, cohesion, conformity and creativity.
Key terms: brainstorming; cohesiveness;
groupthink; hidden agenda; norms; relational roles;
risky shift
In the text:
Activities: 5, 6, 8, 9
Career Tip: Devil’s Advocate and Other Anti-
__Conformity Tools
Ethical Challenge:
The Unproductive Teammate
Self-Assessment: Evaluating Your Team’s
Communication Effectiveness
Instructor’s Manual online:
Personal Reflection for Journaling
Discussion Launchers: 9-13
Classroom Activities: 5-8
Video Activity: 3
About Chapter 7
Teams and groups are ubiquitous in business and industry today. This chapter Identifies key
characteristics of work groups and helps students recognize communication behaviors that set top
performing teams apart from mediocre work groups. Tips for working in virtual teams are presented
The chapter provides an overview of scholarly approaches to studying leadership. Leader-member
exchange and emergent leadership are discussed. Key sources of power and influence in groups are
discussed.
The importance of filling functional roles (both task and relational) and managing dysfunctional roles
is highlighted, building on the concepts of task and relational communication introduced in Chapter 4.
The interfacing of personal and team goals is discussed, and strategies are provided for addressing
destructive hidden agendas. Guidelines are given for creating and maintaining positive group norms.
Finally, the chapter compares healthy and unhealthy levels of cohesiveness. Seven factors that
promote an optimal level of cohesiveness are provided. The chapter closes with a set of guidelines for
avoiding excessive conformity (group think and risky shift).
This chapter provides an opportunity to re-emphasize many concepts and skills from preceding
chapters. As you teach this chapter, show how the communication concepts taught in Chapters 1-5 play
out in group work. For example, the transactional model of communication grows even more complex as
group participants simultaneously encode and decode messages, filtered through various contexts.
Organizational cultures strongly influence whether the ideas generated by teams are valued and put to
good use or left on the shelf. Evaluative listening is called for to prevent groupthink and risky shift.
If you assigned a group project earlier in the term, this would be a good time for those groups to
analyze their group process in light of the concepts presented in this chapter.
Personal Reflection for Individual Journaling Assignment
Consider a group you’ve participated in that exhibited characteristics of groupthink. What were
these characteristics? Using specific examples, describe how the tendency toward groupthink
impacted your group’s interaction, decisions, and interpersonal dynamics. Now that you know
how to reduce groupthink, propose some individual actions you might have taken to improve the
group’s involvement in critical thinking.
Discussion Launchers
1. What was the most productive work or community group you were ever part of? What made it
so? Try to identify the factors that contributed to its productivity.
2. What was the most ineffective work or community group you were ever part of? Identify the
factors that made it ineffective, and suggest how it could have become more effective.
3. Think of a group you’ve been a member of that did not function well as a team. Which
characteristics of a team did it lack? Suggest how you might have helped the group develop those
team characteristics.
4. Suggest five tasks that would be best suited for group work and five tasks that would be best
suited for individual work. Have you ever participated in a group that was attempting to
accomplish a task that would have been better suited for an individual? What happened?
5. Have you ever participated in a virtual group? Describe your experience. What was satisfying?
What was frustrating? If you were to participate in another virtual group, what might you do
differently?
6. How does leadership emerge in a group that has no common history? Give examples from groups
you’ve been part of or observed. Can you think of situations where leadership didn’t follow the
norms presented in the text?
7. Who is the best leader you’ve ever worked for or observed? What kind of leadership did that
person employ? What made that person effective?
8. How does your perception of power vary or coincide with the description in the book? Describe
different types of power you have in different groups you belong to, and explain why you classify
your powers as you do.
9. Using some of the groups you belong to, cite examples of differences between your individual
goals and the group’s goals.
10. What impact is created when a group member violates one of the group’s norms? Suggest
productive ways to manage this impact.
11. Have you ever been a member of a group that is not cohesive, or that is too cohesive? What have
you, as one person, tried to do to increase (or decrease) cohesiveness? If you haven’t tried to
improve the level of cohesiveness, why not?
12. Have you ever participated in a group that displayed the characteristics of groupthink or risky
shift? What happened? Why did this happen? How might you have prevented groupthink from
occurring?
13. If a friend came to you for advice for improving the cohesiveness of a college study group to
which she belongs, what would you tell her?
Classroom Activities
1. Team Characteristics
Objective: Students will learn about team characteristics through direct observation.
Procedure: Assign students at least one week ahead of time to visit a meeting of a task group meeting.
Ideas include city councils, faculty meetings, library resource groups, environmental advocacy groups,
church board meetings, and the like. During the meeting, students will note which characteristics of
effective teamwork were present and which were absent. For a list of qualities to look for, see the section
titled “What Makes a Group a Team.”
Class Discussion: The day the assignment is due, lead a discussion in which you elicit examples of each
of the productive characteristics identified by Larson and LaFasto. Next, ask students to point out
characteristic that seemed ineffective. Finally, elicit ways students can use this information to improve the
functioning of groups they belong to.
2. Participate in Your Own Virtual Meeting
Objective: Students will experience a virtual meeting first-hand.
Procedure: Students will need computer access for this activity, so you may need to assign it as
homework or sign up for the computer lab for one class session. If you have a limited number of
computers available, teammates can work as pairs rather than as individuals. To prevent students from
relying on face-to-face communication if they have problems, you should be present in the lab or ensure
that teammates are not working in the same room. Ask students to form teams with about five members
(or five pairs of members). Each team member will need to register at www.eroom.net.
The team will simulate the first organizational meeting of a hypothetical ongoing team project. The tasks
for this organizational meeting are:
• Exchange names and contact information (e-mail and phone)
• Draw up a set of team norms (both task and relational)
• Assign task and relational roles to team members (including facilitator)
• Schedule the team’s next three hypothetical one-hour meetings (NOT during class time)
at times when all members can be present
• Designate a meeting location
• Select a team name
Class Discussion: After teams have completed their first virtual meeting, debrief students.
• What was rewarding about your virtual team experience?
• What was challenging about your virtual team experience?
• Which specific activities were the most difficult to complete? Why?
• What difficulties might you encounter if you were using a virtual team meeting to make a
complex business decision?
• What suggestions would you give to a team that had to rely on virtual technology to
complete all its business?
3. Assessing Leaders
Objective: The purpose of this activity is to give students the opportunity to examine and evaluate the
role of group “leader.”
Procedure: Divide the class into groups of about five students. Instruct each group to attend a formal
meeting of an established small group outside the classroom (e.g., a civic group, community group,
religious group, counseling group, or work group). Using the characteristics of leaders and their use of
power described in the text, have students evaluate the leadership of the group.
Class Discussion: After completing this activity, the following questions could be used to facilitate class
discussion.
• Which styles of leadership did you witness? Give specific examples.
• How was power used in each group situation you observed?
• Were these leaders effective? Why or why not?
• What could the leader have done to be more effective?
4. Leadership Grid
Objective: Students will be able to distinguish behaviors that illustrate each of the five leadership styles
identified by Blake and Mouton in their Leadership Grid. They also should be able to assess the
effectiveness of each style in various situations.
Procedure: Review the characteristics of the five styles of leadership illustrated in Figure 7-1. Label five
columns on the board, corresponding to the leadership types. Describe several situations to the class. For
each situation, ask students to identify which style of leadership Blake and Mouton would recommend.
Write the scenario in the appropriate column. Here are some examples of situations you could suggest:
• Social Loafer: You are the leader of a student group in which one student is clearly a “social
loafer.” The other students in the group are becoming resentful. What style of leadership
should you use?
• Forced Overtime: You are the manager of a group of engineers charged with developing cell
phone components that can withstand super-heated temperatures. The group has been
making fairly good progress, but the deadline is fast approaching, and the project is not yet
completed. It is mid-December and several engineers have requested time off, but you realize
that overtime work seems to be the only way to get the product out on time. What style of
leadership should you use?
• High School Teacher: You are a newly hired high school teacher. At first you were pleased
with the way your classes were progressing, but now several students are testing your
authority by disrupting the class with loud and impolite comments. What style of leadership
should you use?
• False Positives: You are the quality-control manager at a toy manufacturing plant. Your
employees work as teams, checking for items with defective parts, which they should take off
the assembly line. You have recently found several “false positive” items (items that should
have been recalled but were not pulled out by the employees) in the finished product bin of
one of your teams. What style of leadership should you use?
If you have time, elicit additional scenarios from students.
Class Discussion: After you have identified styles of leadership for three or four different situations,
discuss advantages and disadvantages of each style.
• Does one style seem to be more effective than others in all situations, or does the best choice
of style depend on the situation?
• Which styles seem to be effective most often? Why?
• Which styles seem least effective in most cases? Why?
• Which styles might be most difficult to learn to use? Why?
• How might you go about learning to exhibit an effective style of leadership?
5. Observing and Identifying Group Roles
Objective: The purpose of this activity is to provide students an opportunity to identify task and
maintenance roles in a group.
Procedure: There are several ways to promote observation and identification of group roles. The class
can be divided into halves or quarters, depending on its size. Each two groups should form concentric
circles (a fish bowl) so that one part (half or quarter) of the class is seated in an outer circle in order to
observe the other part, which forms an inner discussion circle. You may either spend one day with half
the class observing the other half and switch roles in the following class period, or set a time limit and
switch roles in the same class period. Students in the outer circle should be given the Group Observation
Form located at the end of this section. Everyone in the outer circle may observe everyone in the inner
circle, or you may assign each outer–circle member to observe a specific person in the inner circle. But
also allow him or her to comment on his or her observations of any other person in the inner circle.
Assign or allow the inner circle to choose one of the group tasks.
1. Each student in the class will receive between 1 and 50 points for class participation this
semester. Devise a plan to determine the number of participation points each student should
receive.
2. The budget for the Communication Department has been increased. Create and prioritize a
list of items that, if funded, would best satisfy student needs.
3. Money has been allocated for three new support positions at our college. These are not
instructor positions, but they may be any type of support services. Provide a plan for use of
these funds.
4. This group is a student liaison committee to facilitate communication between students and
administration. There is no additional money. Provide a directive to the administration citing
the three most significant things the administration could do to benefit students at no
additional cost.
5. Money has been allocated for grounds and physical plant improvements at our college. How
could the physical environment be improved to meet student academic, social, and safety
needs? Prepare a concrete list of ideas and prioritize them.
Class Discussion: After completing this activity, the following questions could be used to facilitate class
discussion.
• Who filled which roles?
• Which roles were unfilled? Why?
• Did you observe competition for roles by group members? Which roles?
• Why would group members see their own performance differently than other members?
6. Roles in Group Discussion
Objective: After completing this activity, students should be able to identify and understand the various
roles people fill during group discussions. Further, they should be able to recognize the specific methods
for capitalizing on constructive roles and minimizing the interference of destructive roles. Finally, group
members should be able to indicate how communication skills can facilitate effective group discussion.
Procedure: Organize students into groups, and give each group member one of the role descriptions
listed below. Each group member should also receive The Bob Lee Case Study, located at the end of this
section. The discussion of the case study should take 10–15 minutes. After each group has reached a
decision, have the students discuss their observations and reactions to each of the roles they enacted or
observed. The discussions should focus on a description of each person’s behavior, trying to ascertain the
assigned role. Students should also describe their reactions to each of the roles and report the effect of the
roles on group communication.
• Authoritarian Leader: You are the leader of this group. You should control the procedures
and decisions made by the group. You may ask for others’ opinions, but the final decision is
yours.
• Silent Member: You do not want to participate in this group because you feel you have
nothing important to contribute. If others ask for your opinion, you usually say “I don’t
know” or switch the focus to some other group member. You are attentive but silent.
• Peacemaker: It makes you uncomfortable to witness disagreements, conflicts, or opposing
opinions. You try very hard to get everyone to be at peace, smile at one another, and agree
with one another. Creating agreement is more important than finding the best answer.
• Clown: You do not take the problem seriously. You want to make people laugh. Your
remarks are frequent, but not relevant. You like to poke fun at others in the group, and
express “off–the–wall” ideas.
• Repetitive Member: You like to hear yourself talk. You think your ideas are good and that
everyone should listen to you. You tend to interrupt others to state your own opinions.
• Negative Member: You are argumentative. You like to argue for the sake of arguing. You
seldom offer suggestions or solutions, but that doesn’t prevent you from criticizing others.
You like to tear apart others’ ideas, even if it means using fallacious arguments or misleading
information.
• Highly Intelligent Member: You know (or think you know) all there is to know about the
topic. You are quite convinced that your ideas are up-to-date and absolutely correct. You can
throw out plenty of statistics, and you use an impressive, though abstract, vocabulary. You
are very interested in finding the best solution to the problem… your solution!
• Unintelligent Member: You don’t seem to be able to keep up with the group’s line of
thinking. You ask them to explain everything to you again. You ask them to go back to points
you have previously discussed.
• Expediter: You are aware of the time limit for this task, and you want to be sure the group
stays focused. You have a watch and you are trying to keep order and ensure progress.
Class Discussion: Class discussion could focus on the various roles assumed by group members, and on
methods of interacting and resolving conflict issues when confronted with a variety of different
personalities.
• Categorize the roles played by students in this group according to those listed in Table 7-5 in
your text.
• Which roles were functional? Which were nonfunctional?
• Did any student fill both functional and nonfunctional roles? Give examples.
• How could these students involve a silent member in the group discussion?
• How effective is an authoritarian leader in a discussion of values?
• What can a group do with a deviant member, such as a clown?
• How can you manage a member who acts like a know-it-all?
• What should you do if one member keeps repeating herself or asks for frequent explanations?
• Is it good to have members with a variety of opinions and experiences in a group problem-
solving situation? Why or why not?
• Is it good to have a variety of personalities within a group setting when problem solving is
involved? Why or why not?
• If you had an entire group made up of people with the same type of personality, what
personality would you want? Why?
• How can you possibly have a productive group experience when you end up in a group with
personality conflicts?
7. Creating a Group Contract
Objective: Students will understand the importance of establishing group norms, functional roles,
and a shared goal early in the group process.
Procedure: If you assign a group project to your students, ask them to create a group contract before
they begin working on the task. The contract should include
• members’ last and first names, in alphabetical order.
• contact information including at least one e-mail address and phone number for each
member.
• a list of norms, including at least three task norms and three relational norms.
• a list of functional roles that need to be filled in this group, with each role assigned to at least
one individual.
• the group’s shared goal.
IM 7-8
After the group has written the contract, all members should sign and date the document. The group
should give you the original. Each student should keep a copy.
As students are drawing up their contracts, circulate around the room, encouraging them to develop
norms that are realistic. For example, rather that stating, “No one will ever miss a meeting,” they
should state, “If we have to miss a meeting, we will e-mail our assignment to the facilitator ahead of
time and get notes from the facilitator shortly after the meeting.”
See the sample contract below.
Group Contract [created: March 12, 20xx]
Team Members / Contact Information
Cook, Blake 519-2432 turtle2@xmission.net
Gamble, Jerry 532-2041 gamje@aol.com
Garcia, Maria 953-2022 mgar@yahoo.com
Leonard, Shelley 892-6988 skigirl@msn.com
Figueroa, Ioane 473-9007 fig_io@comcast.net
Team Norms
Relational norms:
• Encourage participation from everyone
• Respect one another’s opinions
• Refrain from cell phone usage
• Shoulder our fair share of the work
Task norms:
• Arrive at meetings on time; if you must be late, notify facilitator ahead of time
• Come to all meetings prepared for the meeting’s objectives
• During meetings, stay focused on the topic being discussed
• Keep meetings to 60 minutes or less.
Team Member Roles
Relational roles:
Ioane Participation encourager
Shelley Referee
Maria Person to contact if you have to miss a meeting
Task roles:
Maria Facilitator
Ioane Clock watcher
Blake Procedure monitor and distraction monitor
Shelley Scribe
Jerry Proofreader
8. Promoting Effective Communication in Student Groups
Objective: Students will apply guidelines from the chapter to situations that might occur in student
groups.
IM 7-9
Procedure: Review the chapter guidelines for “What Makes a Group a Team,” “Functional Roles of
Group Members,” and “Effective Communication in Groups and Teams.” Divide the class into groups,
and distribute the worksheet (located at the end of this section) titled “Managing Counterproductive
Behaviors in Groups.” You may also wish to refer students back to the sections about “Communication
Climate,” “Descriptive ‘I’ Language,” and “Offering Constructive Criticism” from Chapter 5. Instruct
students to suggest how they would manage each of these situations, using guidelines from the text.
Class Discussion: Compare and discuss students’ suggestions.
• What characteristics of effective teamwork are being violated in each situation?
• What guidelines could you bring to bear to help manage this situation?
• How does your solution demonstrate guidelines for maintaining a supportive communication
climate?
• Have you ever been a member of a student group that experienced a similar problem?
• How did you handle it? Given the information you’ve learned in this class, what would you
do differently now?
