978-1305502215 Chapter 14 Part 1

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CHAPTER 14

LEADING TEAMS

CHAPTER OUTLINE

New Manager Self-Test: How Do You Like to Work?

I. The Value of Teams

A. What Is a Team?

B. Contributions of Teams

C. Types of Teams

II. The Personal Dilemma of Teamwork

III. Model of Team Effectiveness

IV. Virtual Teams

V. Team Characteristics

A. Size

B. Diversity

C. Member Roles

New Manager Self-Test: What Team Role Do You Play?

VI. Team Processes

A. Stages of Team Development

B. Building a Cohesive Team

C. Establishing Team Norms

VII. Managing Team Conflict

A. Types of Conflict

B. Balancing Conflict and Cooperation

C. Causes of Conflict

D. Styles to Handle Conflict

E. Negotiation

ANNOTATED LEARNING OUTCOMES

After studying this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Explain contributions that teams make and how managers can make teams more effective.

Teams provide distinct advantages in the areas of innovation, quality, speed, productivity, and

The factors that influence team effectiveness begin with the organizational context. This

includes such matters as the overall leadership, strategy, environment, culture, and systems for

controlling and rewarding employees. Within that context, managers define teams and motivate

them. Good team leaders understand and manage stages of team development, cohesiveness,

norms, and conflict to build an effective team.

2. Identify the types of teams in organizations.

Many types of teams can exist within organizations and can be classified in terms of those

3. Summarize some of the problems and challenges of teamwork.

There are three primary reasons teams present a dilemma for most people. First, people have to

4. Identify ways in which team size and diversity of membership affect team performance.

The ideal size of work teams is about seven, although variations from five to twelve seem to

5. Identify roles within teams and the type of role that you could play to help a team be

effective.

Leading Teams •

For a team to be successful it must maintain its members’ social well-being and accomplish the

team’s task. In successful teams, two types of roles emerge: task specialist and socioemotional.

People who play the task specialist role help the team reach its goal. People who adopt a

socioemotional role support team members’ emotional needs. Some team members may play a

dual role and contribute to the task and meet members’ emotional needs. There is also a

nonparticipator role for those who contribute little to either the task or the social needs of team

members. A well-balanced team will do best because it will satisfy team members and permit

accomplishment of team tasks.

6. Explain the general stages of team development.

Team development evolves over definitive stages that occur in sequence and may occur rapidly.

7. Explain the concepts of team cohesiveness and team norms and their relationship to team

performance.

Team cohesiveness is defined as the extent to which team members are attracted to the team and

8. Identify the causes of conflict within and among teams and explain how to reduce conflict.

Conflict refers to antagonistic interaction in which one party attempts to block the intentions or

9. Describe the different characteristics and consequences of task conflict versus relationship

conflict.

Task conflict refers to disagreements among people about the goals to be achieved or the content

Leading Teams •

other hand, relationship conflict is typically associated with negative consequences for team

effectiveness.

LECTURE OUTLINE

NEW MANAGER SELF-TEST: HOW DO YOU LIKE TO WORK?

A person’s approach to a job or schoolwork may indicate whether she or he thrives on a team.

An important part of a new manager’s job is to be both part of a team and to work alone.

Teamwork can be both frustrating and motivating. This exercise helps students understand the

extent to which they prefer to work alone and/or in a team.

I. THE VALUE OF TEAMS

Much work in organizations is interdependent, which means that individuals and departments

rely on other individuals and departments for information or resources to accomplish their work.

When tasks are highly interdependent, a team can be the best approach to ensuring the level of

coordination, information sharing, and exchange of materials necessary for successful task

accomplishment.

A. What Is a Team? Exhibit 14.1

1. A team is a unit of two or more people who interact and coordinate their work to

accomplish a common goal to which they are committed and hold themselves

mutually accountable. This definition has four components: two or more people are

required; people in a team have regular interaction; members of a team share a

performance goal, and people in a team share that goal and hold themselves mutually

accountable for performance.

2. Although a team is a group of people, the two terms are not interchangeable. An

employer can put together a group of people and never build a team. The team

concept implies a sense of shared mission and collective responsibility.

B. Contributions of Teams Exhibit 14.2

Effective teams can provide many advantages in organizations.

a. Creativity and innovation: Because teams include people with diverse skills,

strengths, experiences, and perspectives, they contribute to a higher level of

creativity and innovation in the organization.

b. Improved quality: One criterion for organizational effectiveness is whether

products and services meet customer requirements for quality.

Leading Teams •

c. Speed of response: Tightly integrated teams can maneuver incredibly fast. In

addition, teams can speed product development, respond more quickly to

changing customer needs, and solve cross-departmental problems more quickly.

d. Higher productivity and lower costs: Social facilitation refers to the tendency

for the presence of others to enhance one’s performance. Simply being around

others has an energizing effect. In addition, the blend of perspectives enables

creative ideas to percolate.

e. Enhanced motivation and satisfaction: People have needs for belongingness and

affiliation. Working in teams can meet these needs and create greater

camaraderie across the organization. Teams also reduce boredom, increase

people’s feelings of dignity and self-worth, and give people a chance to develop

new skills, leading to higher motivation and commitment to the organization.

C. TYPES OF TEAMS Exhibit 14.3

1. Functional Teams

A functional team is composed of a manager and subordinates in the formal chain of

command. The team is also called a command team and may include three or four levels

within a single functional department. A financial analysis department, a quality control

department, and an accounting department are all command teams.

2. Cross-Functional Teams

A cross-functional team is composed of employees from about the same hierarchical

level, but from different areas of expertise. The most common horizontal teams are

cross-functional teams and committees. A cross-functional team, or task force, is a group

of employees from different departments formed to deal with a specific task, existing

only until the task is completed.

3. Special-purpose teams, also called project teams, are created outside the formal

organization structure to undertake a project of special importance or creativity.

Companies use special-purpose teams to speed up development of a special project.

These fast-cycle teams are given the freedom and resources to complete projects.

4. Self-Managed Teams

Employee involvement through teams increases the participation of lower-level workers

in decision making about their jobs, with the goal of improving performance. Employee

involvement started out with techniques such as information sharing with employees or

asking employees for suggestions about improving the work.

Self-managed teams consist of five to 20 multiskilled workers who rotate jobs and

produce an entire product or service or at least one complete aspect or portion of a

product or service. The team works with minimum supervision, perhaps electing one of

its own as supervisor, who may change each year. The most effective self-managed

Leading Teams •

teams are those that are fully empowered. Self-managed teams typically include the

following elements:

• The combined skills are sufficient to perform a major organizational task.

• The team has access to the resources necessary to perform the complete task.

• The team is given decision-making authority to complete the task.

• The team assumes managerial duties such as work scheduling, ordering

materials, and hiring new members.

II. THE PERSONAL DILEMMA OF TEAMWORK Exhibit 14.4

1. There are three primary reasons teams present a dilemma for most people.

a. We have to give up our independence. When people become part of a team, their

success depends on the team’s success; therefore, they are dependent on how well

other people perform, not just on their own individual initiative and actions.

b. We have to put up with free riders. The term free rider refers to a team member who

attains benefits from team membership but does not actively participate in and

contribute to the team’s work.

c. Teams are sometimes dysfunctional. Many teams have great success, but others

experience significant failure. The ways in which teams are managed plays the most

critical role in determining how well they function.

Five common dysfunctions of teams are lack of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment,

avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results.

III. MODEL OF TEAM EFFECTIVENESS Exhibit 14.5

1. Work team effectiveness is based on three outcomes: productive output—the quality

and quantity of task outputs as defined by team goals; personal satisfaction—the

team’s ability to meet the personal needs of its members to maintain their

membership and commitment; and capacity to adapt and learn—the ability of teams

to bring greater knowledge and skills to job tasks and enhance the potential of the

organization to respond to new threats or opportunities.

2. The factors that influence team effectiveness begin with the organizational context in

which the team operates—the structure, strategy, environment, culture, and reward

systems. Managers define teams within that context. Important team characteristics

are the type of team, the team structure, and the team composition. These team

characteristics influence processes internal to the team, which affect output and

satisfaction. Good team leaders understand and manage stages of team development,

cohesiveness, norms, and conflict to establish an effective team.

Discussion Question #2: Have you experienced any of the five contributions of teams shown in

Exhibit 14.2 with a team you have participated in? Describe your experience and why you think

that the team was able to make that specific contribution.

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NOTES________________________________________________________________________

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IV. VIRTUAL TEAMS Exhibit 14.6

1. A virtual team is made up of geographically or organizationally dispersed members

linked through advanced information and telecommunications technologies. Though

some virtual teams include only organizational members, they may also include

contingent workers, members of partner organizations, customers, suppliers, and

consultants. Members use e-mail, voice mail, videoconferencing, Internet and

intranet technologies, and collaboration software although they may meet face-to

face.

2. Many virtual teams are also global teams. Global teams are work teams made up of

members of different nationalities whose activities span multiple countries. Global

teams can present enormous challenges for team leaders, who have to bridge gaps of

time, distance, and culture. Members of global teams may speak different languages,

use different technologies, and have different beliefs about authority, time orientation,

and decision making. Culture differences can significantly affect team-working

relationships.

3. For a global team to be effective, all team members have to be willing to deviate

somewhat from their own values and norms and establish norms for the team.

Carefully selecting team members, building trust, and sharing information are also

critical to success. Virtual teams are highly flexible and dynamic. Team leadership is

typically shared or altered depending on the area of expertise needed at each stage of

the project. Team membership may change quickly, depending on the tasks.

4. One advantage of a virtual team is the ability to assemble the best group to complete a

complex project, solve a problem, or exploit a strategic opportunity. The success of

virtual teams depends on using technology to build relationships, shaping culture

through technology, and monitoring progress and rewarding members. The diverse

mix of people can fuel creativity and innovation. Organizations can save employees

time and cut travel expenses when people meet in virtual rather than physical space.

5. Some critical areas managers should focus on in leading virtual teams include:

a. using technology to build relationships;

b. shaping culture through technology; and

c. monitoring progress and rewarding members.

Leading Teams •

Discussion Question #9: Discuss how the dilemmas of teamwork vs. individual work might be

intensified in a virtual team. What dilemmas do you encounter when you have to do class

assignments as part of a team? Discuss.

NOTES________________________________________________________________________

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Discussion Question #5: Imagine yourself as a potential member of a team responsible for

designing a new package for a breakfast cereal. Do you think interpersonal skills would be

equally important if the team is organized face to face versus a virtual team? Why or why not?

Might different types of interpersonal skills be required for the two types of teams? Be specific.

NOTES________________________________________________________________________

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V. TEAM CHARACTERISTICS

The next issue of concern for managers is designing the team for greater effectiveness. One

factor is team characteristics, which affect team dynamics and performance. Characteristics of

concern include team size, diversity, and member roles.

A. Size

1. Numerous studies have found that smaller teams perform better than larger teams,

although most researchers also say it’s impossible to specify an optimal team size.

Teams need to be large enough to incorporate the diverse skills needed to complete a

task, enable members to express good and bad feelings, and aggressively solve

problems. However, they should also be small enough to permit each member to feel

like an intimate part of the team and to communicate effectively and efficiently. In

general, as a team increases in size, it becomes harder for each member to interact

and influence others.

B. Diversity

1. Research shows that diverse teams are more innovative. In addition, diversity may

contribute to a healthy level of conflict that leads to better decision making. Recent

research also shows that both functional diversity and gender diversity can have a

positive impact on work team performance.

2. Racial, national, and ethnic diversity can also be good for teams, but in the short term

these differences might hinder team interaction and performance. Teams of racially

and culturally diverse members tend to have more difficulty learning to work well

together, but with effective leadership, problems fade.

C. Member Roles

1. For a team to be successful, it must maintain its members’ social well-being and

accomplish its task. The requirements for task performance and social satisfaction

are met by the emergence of two types of roles: task specialist and socioemotional.

2. People who play the task specialist role help the team reach its goal and often have

the following behaviors:

a. Initiate ideas

b. Give opinions

c. Seek information

d. Summarize

e. Energize

3. Employees who adopt a socioemotional role support team members’ emotional

needs and tend to do the following:

a. Encourage

b. Harmonize

c. Reduce tension

d. Follow

e. Compromise

NOTES________________________________________________________________________

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NEW MANAGER SELF-TEST: WHAT TEAM ROLE DO YOU PLAY?

This exercise helps students identify their contributions as a team member, which are important

to the success of any type of formal team and especially to self-managed teams.

VI. TEAM PROCESSES Exhibit 14.7

A. Stages of Team Development

1. Forming

a. The forming stage of development is a period of orientation and getting

acquainted. Uncertainty is high at this stage, and members usually accept

whatever power or authority is offered by either formal or informal leaders. The

Leading Teams •

team leader should provide time for members to get acquainted with one another

and encourage them to engage in informal social discussions.

2. Storming

a. During the storming stage, individual personalities emerge and conflict and

disagreement create a general lack of unity. People may disagree over their

perceptions of the team’s mission, members may jockey for position, or coalitions

and subgroups based on common interests may form. The leader should

encourage participation by each team member.

3. Norming

a. During the norming stage, conflict is resolved, team harmony and unity develop,

and team norms and values evolve. Consensus develops about who has the

power, who is the leader, and members’ roles. Members come to accept and

understand one another. Leaders should emphasize unity within the team and

help clarify team norms and values.

4. Performing

a. During the performing stage, the major emphasis is on problem solving and

accomplishing the team task. Members are committed to the team’s mission.

They are coordinated with one another and handle disagreements in a mature way.

They confront and resolve problems in the interest of task accomplishment. The

leader should concentrate on managing high task performance.

5. Adjourning

a. The adjourning stage occurs in teams that have a limited task to perform and are

disbanded upon task completion. The emphasis is on wrapping up and gearing

down. Task performance is no longer a high priority. The leader may wish to

disband the team with a ritual or ceremony, perhaps giving out plaques and

awards to signify closure and completeness.

6. The five stages of team development typically occur in sequence. In teams under

time pressure or that exist for a short period of time, the stages may occur rapidly.

The stages may be accelerated for virtual teams.

Discussion Question #3: Suppose that you are the leader of a team that has just been created to

develop a new registration process at your college or university. How can you use an

understanding of the stages of team development to improve your team’s effectiveness?

NOTES________________________________________________________________________

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B. Team Cohesiveness

Leading Teams •

Team cohesiveness concerns the extent to which members are attracted to the team and

motivated to remain in the team. High cohesiveness is normally considered a positive

feature of teams.

1. Determinants of team cohesiveness

a. Team interaction. The greater the contact among members, the more cohesive the

team will be.

b. Shared goals. Agreeing on purpose and direction binds the team together.

c. Personal attraction to the team. Members have similar attitudes and values and

enjoy being together.

d. Presence of competition. This causes the group to want to win.

e. Team success. Success is a favorable evaluation of the team by outsiders.

2. Consequences of Team Cohesiveness

a. Morale is higher in cohesive teams because of increased communication among

members, and member participation in team decisions and activities. High

cohesiveness has almost good effects on the satisfaction and morale of team

members.

b. Productivity tends to be more uniform. Productivity depends on the relationship

between management and the team; cohesive teams attain their goals and enforce

norms that can result in very high or very low productivity.

Discussion Question #8: Some people argue that the presence of an outside threat correlates

with a high degree of team cohesion. Would you agree or disagree? Explain your answer.

NOTES________________________________________________________________________

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C. Establishing Team Norms Exhibit 14.8

1. A team norm is a standard of conduct that is shared by team members and guides

their behavior. Norms are informal and valuable because they define boundaries of

acceptable behavior. They make life easier for team members by providing a frame

of reference for right and wrong. Norms identify key values, clarify role

expectations, and facilitate team survival.

2. Norms begin to develop in the first interactions among members of a new team.

Other influences on team norms include critical events in the team’s history, as well

as behaviors, attitudes, and norms that members bring from outside the team. Norms