1.
II. Turning Individuals into Team Players
A. Introduction
1. Many people are not inherently team players.
2. Many organizations have historically nurtured individual accomplishments.
3. What can organizations do to enhance team effectiveness—to turn individual
contributors into team players?
B. Selecting: Hiring Team Players
1. Some people already possess the interpersonal skills to be effective team players.
technical requirements.
2. Many job candidates do not have team skills:
diverse teams.
from diversity in age and education.
C. Training: Creating Team Players
1. Training specialists conduct exercises that allow employees to experience the
satisfaction teamwork can provide.
negotiation, conflict-management, and coaching skills.
2. L’Oréal found that successful sales teams required much more than being staffed with
building.
a. “What we didn’t account for was that many members of our top team in sales had
just on paper, working independently.”
3. Developing an effective team doesn’t happen overnight—it takes time, but good team
training has tangible positive effects on performance regardless of employee and
team training programs.
D. Rewarding: Providing Incentives to Be a Good Team Player
1. An organization’s reward system must be reworked to encourage cooperative efforts
rather than competitive ones.
based on achievement of team goals.
3. Whole Foods directs most of its performance-based rewards toward team
performance.
effectiveness (and thus team bonuses).
b. It is usually best to set a cooperative tone as soon as possible in the life of a team.
c. As we already noted, teams that switch from a competitive to a cooperative
5. These problems are not seen in teams that have consistently cooperative systems.
6. Promotions, pay raises, and other forms of recognition should be given to individuals
who work effectively as team members by training new colleagues, sharing
information, helping resolve team conflicts, and mastering needed new skills.
balanced with selfless contributions to the team.
9. The opportunity for personal development of self and teammates can be a very
satisfying and rewarding experience.
III. Beware! Teams Are Not Always the Answer
A. Teamwork takes more time and often more resources than individual work.
B. Teams have increased communication demands, conflicts to manage, and meetings to
run.
C. The benefits of using teams have to exceed the costs, and that’s not always the case.
D. Before you rush to implement teams, carefully assess whether the work requires or will
benefit from a collective effort.
E. How do you know whether the work of your group would be better done in teams?
1. You can apply three tests to see whether a team fits your situation.
a. First, can the work be done better by more than one person?
i. A good indicator is the complexity of the work and the need for different
perspectives.
ii. Simple tasks that don’t require diverse input are probably better left to
individuals.
b. Second, does the work create a common purpose or set of goals for the people in
the group that is more than the aggregate of individual goals?
i. Many service departments of new-vehicle dealers have introduced teams that
link customer-service people, mechanics, parts specialists, and sales
representatives.
ii. Such teams can better manage collective responsibility for ensuring customer
needs are properly met.
c. The final test is to determine whether the members of the group are
interdependent.
i. Using teams makes sense when there is interdependence between tasks—the
success of the whole depends on the success of each one, and the success of
each one depends on the success of the others.
(a) Soccer, for instance, is an obvious team sport. Success requires a great
deal of coordination between interdependent players.
ii. Conversely, except possibly for relays, swim teams are not really teams.
(a) They’re groups of individuals performing individually, whose total
performance is merely the aggregate summation of their individual
performances.
IV. Summary and Implications for Managers
A. Few trends have influenced jobs as much as the massive movement to introduce teams
into the workplace.
B. Working on teams requires employees to cooperate with others, share information,
confront differences, and sublimate personal interests for the greater good of the team.
C. Understanding the distinctions between problem solving, self-managed, cross-functional,
and virtual teams as well as multiteam systems helps determine the appropriate
applications for team-based work.
D. Concepts such as reflexivity, team efficacy, team identity, team cohesion, and mental
models bring to light important issues relating to team context, composition, and
processes.
E. For teams to function optimally, careful attention must be given to hiring, creating, and
rewarding team players.
F. Still, effective organizations recognize that teams are not always the best method for
getting the work done efficiently.
G. Careful discernment and an understanding of organizational behavior are needed.
Specific implications for mangers follow:
1. Effective teams have adequate resources, effective leadership, a climate of trust, and a
performance evaluation and reward system that reflects team contributions. These
teams have individuals with technical expertise, and the right traits and skills.
2. Effective teams tend to be small. They have members who fill role demands and who
prefer to be part of a group.
3. Effective teams have members who believe in the team’s capabilities, are committed
to be accomplished.
4. Select individuals who have the interpersonal skills to be effective team players,
provide training to develop teamwork skills, and reward individuals for cooperative
efforts.
5. Do not assume that teams are always needed. When tasks will not benefit from
interdependency, individuals may be the better choice.
An Ethical Choice
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objective: Contrast the five types of teams
Learning Outcome: Describe best practices for utilizing groups and work teams in organizations
AACSB: Ethical understanding and reasoning; Reflective thinking
Despite being in different countries, or even on different continents, many teams in
very large proportion of airline, rail, and car transport is for business purposes and contributes
greatly to global carbon dioxide emissions. When teams are able to meet virtually rather than
face-to-face, they dramatically reduce their “carbon footprint.”
In a globally connected world, what sorts of actions might you take to minimize your
telephone calls, and videoconferencing.
3. When traveling to team meetings, choose the most environmentally responsible methods
possible. Also, check the environmental profile of hotels before booking rooms.
4. If the environmental savings are not enough motivation to reduce travel, consider the
financial savings. According to a recent survey, businesses spend about 8 to 12 percent of
Myth or Science?
“Team Members Who Are ‘Hot’ Should Make the Play”
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objective: Identify the characteristics of effective teams
Learning Outcome: Describe best practices for utilizing groups and work teams in organizations
AACSB: Reflective thinking
Serena will continue to score well because they are on a hot streak, performing above their
average.
Although people believe in the “hot hand,” the score is tied on whether it actually exists. About
half the relevant studies have shown that it does, while the remaining half show it does not. But
will likely help the team.
Considering all the research to date, however, the opening statement appears to be false.
Sources: M. Raab, B. Gula, and G. Gigerenzer, “The Hot Hand Exists in Volleyball and Is Used for Allocation Decisions,” Journal of
Experimental Psychology: Applied, 18, no. 1 (2012), pp. 81–94; T. Gilovich, R. Vallone, and A. Tversky, “The Hot Hand in Basketball: On the
Class Exercise
1 Ask students to read Forbes’ article “Hot Hand in Mobile Advertising,
http://www.forbes.com/global/2012/0312/companies-people-india-technology-inmobi-na
veen-tewari-hot-hand.html and identify what factors are contributing to Naveen Tewari’s
success. Is his success sustainable?
Teaching Notes
This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as
BlackBoard 9.1, Breeze, WIMBA, and Second Life Virtual Classrooms. See
(http://www.wimba.com/solutions/higher-education/wimba_classroom_for_higher_education),
(http://go.secondlife.com/landing/education/) and
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-ke-anna-sk
ipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html) for more information.
Career OBjectives
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objective: Identify the characteristics of effective teams
Learning Outcome: Describe best practices for utilizing groups and work teams in organizations
AACSB: Reflective thinking
Please don’t call me sexist; women are great colleagues and equally effective managers, but I’d
have all been very productive. —Jorge
Dear Jorge,
With all the talk currently focused on gender diversity in organizations, your viewpoint is
refreshingly honest. And your preferences are not uncommon. Researchers who studied 8 years
of employee surveys from a large U.S. organization found that individuals were happier on teams
people who are like them.”
In some ways, the preference for our own gender in teams is an ugly truth. After all, if there
hadn’t been gender diversity initiatives and protections, a majority of professional positions may
still be closed to women in masculine cultures like Japan, Austria, and Venezuela (see Hofstede’s
cultural values in Chapter 5). The value system in many countries has fortunately changed, with
research in Spain indicated that gender-diverse teams realize novel solutions and radical
innovation at a greater rate. Still other research suggested that gender-diverse teams perform
better than male-dominated ones in sales and profits. The contextual climate is key, though. One
metaanalysis found that gender equality and collectivism were important conditions for task
effects of gender diversity.
What all this means for you is that, while you may naturally prefer to work with men, it’s not
good for business. You would be better off putting your efforts into creating an egalitarian
Atmosphere and choosing your teammates based on what they can contribute to your team.
Sources: C. Diaz-Garcia, A. Gonzalez-Moreno, and F. Jose Saez-Martinez, “Gender Diversity within R&D Teams: Its Impact on Radicalness of
(2013): 497–508; and R. E. Silverman, “Do Men and Women Like Working Together?” The Wall Street Journal, December 16, 2014, D2.
MyLab Management
Watch It!
Motivation (TWZ Role Play)
complete the video exercise.
MyLab Management
Personal Inventory Assessments
Team Development Behaviors
Take this assessment to learn more about behavior in teams.
MyLab Management
Try It!
Innovation and Teams; Virtual Teams; Teams
complete the video exercise.
Point/Counterpoint
To Get the Most Out of Teams, Empower Them
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objective: Identify the characteristics of effective teams
AACSB: Reflective thinking
Point
If you want high-performing teams with members who like each other and their jobs, I have a
simple solution. Remove the leash tied to them by management and let them make their own
decisions. In other words, empower them. This trend started a long time ago, when organizations
However, structural empowerment leads to heightened feelings of psychological empowerment,
giving teams (and organizations) the best of both worlds.
Research suggests empowered teams benefit in a number of ways. Members are more motivated.
They exhibit higher levels of commitment to the team and to the organization. And they perform
bad.
Granted, that responsibility also means empowered teams must take the initiative to foster their
ongoing learning and development, but teams entrusted with the authority to guide their own
destiny do just that. So do yourself (and your company) a favor and make sure that teams, rather
than needless layers of middle managers, are the ones making the decisions that count.
Counterpoint
In addition, the organization’s leadership already has a good idea of what it would like its teams
(and individual employees) to accomplish. If managers leave teams to their own devices, how
likely is it that those teams will always choose what the manager wanted? Even if the manager
offers suggestions about how the team might proceed, empowered teams can easily ignore that
effective leadership is all about.
When decision making authority is distributed between among team members, each member’s
role is less clear, and members lack a leader to whom they can go for advice. And finally, when
teams are self-managed, they become like silos, disconnected from the rest of the organization
and its mission. Simply handing people authority is no guarantee they will use it effectively. So,
Class Exercise:
1 Divide the class into pairs of groups of three to five students each.
2 Assign one group of the pair to the Point position and the other to the Counterpoint
position.
3 Ask the pairs to seek additional information from the Internet or other sources about their
assigned position.
Teaching Notes
This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as
BlackBoard 9.1, Breeze, WIMBA, and Second Life Virtual Classrooms. See
(http://www.wimba.com/solutions/higher-education/wimba_classroom_for_higher_education),
(http://go.secondlife.com/landing/education/) and
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-ke-anna-sk
ipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html) for more information.