978-1305502215 Chapter 14 Part 2

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Leading Teams •

that apply to daily behavior, employee output, and performance evolve, letting

everyone know what is acceptable and directing actions towards acceptable

performance. Four common ways in which norms develop for controlling and

directing behavior include:

a. Critical events. Critical events establish precedent and lead to the creation of a

norm. One critical event occurred when an employee at a forest products plant

was injured. This led to the norm that team members regularly monitor one

another.

b. Primacy. Primacy means that the first behaviors that occur in a team often set

team expectations. The team leader at a company raised an issue and then “led”

team members until he got the solution he wanted. This became a pattern of

unproductive behavior.

c. Carryover behaviors. Carryover behaviors bring norms into the team from

outside. An example is the strong norm against smoking in many teams, which is

a carryover behavior developed outside the team.

d. Explicit statements. With explicit statements, team leaders or members establish

norms. This can be a highly effective way for leaders to influence or change team

norms.

NOTES________________________________________________________________________

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VII. MANAGING TEAM CONFLICT

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

goals of another. Of all the skills required for effective team management, none is more

important than handling the conflicts that inevitably rise among team members. When people

work together in teams, some conflict is inevitable; conflict can arise among team members or

between teams. Competition, which is rivalry among individuals or teams, can have a healthy

impact because it energizes people toward higher performance.

A. Types of Conflict

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

the content of the tasks to be performed. Relationship conflict refers to interpersonal

incompatibility that creates tension and personal animosity among people.

2. In general, research suggests that task conflict can be beneficial because it leads to

better decision making and problem solving. On the other hand, relationship conflict

is typically associated with negative consequences for team effectiveness.

B. Balancing Conflict and Cooperation Exhibit 14.9

1. A healthy level of conflict helps to prevent groupthink, which is the tendency for

people to be so committed to a cohesive team that they are reluctant to express

contrary opinions. However, conflict that is too strong and focused on personal rather

than work issues, or not managed appropriately can be damaging to the team’s

morale. Too much conflict can be destructive, tear relationships apart, and interfere

with the healthy exchange of ideas and information.

2. Team leaders have to find the right balance between conflict and cooperation. Too

little conflict decreases team performance because there are no mixed opinions. Too

much conflict prevents the team from cooperative efforts and decreases employee

satisfaction and commitment, hurting team performance.

C. Causes of Conflict

1. Scarce resources. Resources include money, information, and supplies. When

employees or teams must compete for scarce resources, conflict will occur.

2. Goal differences. Conflict often occurs because people are pursuing conflicting

goals; goal differences are natural in organizations. Individual salespeople’s targets

may put them in conflict with one another or with the sales manager.

3. Communication breakdown. Faulty communications result in misunderstandings

among teams. Poor communication results in misperceptions and misunderstandings

of other people and teams. In some cases, information is intentionally withheld,

which can jeopardize trust and lead to long-lasting conflict.

4. Trust issues. If team members believe they are being left out of important

communication interactions, conflict can arise due to perceived lack of trust.

D. Styles to Handle Conflict Exhibit 14.10

1. Teams as well as individuals develop specific styles for dealing with conflict, based

on the desire to satisfy their own concern versus the other party’s concern. The major

dimensions are the extent to which an individual is assertive versus cooperative in

their approach to conflict. The following are styles to handle conflict:

a. Dominating style. Reflects assertiveness to get one’s own way. It should be used

when quick, decisive action is vital on important issues or unpopular actions such

as during emergencies or urgent cost cutting.

b. Avoiding style. Reflects neither assertiveness nor cooperativeness. It should be

used when the issue is trivial, there is no chance to win, a delay is needed, and a

disruption would be very costly.

c. Compromising style. Reflects a moderate amount of both assertiveness and

cooperativeness. It should be used when goals on both sides are equally

important, opponents have equal power and want to split the difference, and each

side needs a temporary or expedient solution.

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d. Accommodating style. Reflects a high degree of cooperativeness. It should be

used when people realize they are wrong, an issue is more important to others

than to oneself, and one is building social credits for use in later discussions.

Maintaining harmony is important.

e. Collaborating style. Reflects a high degree of assertiveness and cooperativeness.

It should be used when both parties need to win, both sets of concerns are too

important to be compromised, and insights from different people need to be

merged. Commitment of both sides is needed for a consensus.

E. Negotiation

1. Types of negotiation. Negotiation means that the parties engage in give-and-take

discussions and consider various alternatives to reach a joint decision that is

acceptable to both parties.

a. Integrative negotiation is based on a win-win assumption, in that all parties want

to come up with a creative solution that can benefit both sides of the conflict.

People look at the issues from multiple angles, consider trade-offs, and try to

“expand the pie” rather than divide it.

b. Distributive negotiation assumes the size of the “pie” is fixed and each party

attempts to get as much of it as they can. This win-lose approach is competitive

and adversarial rather than collaborative, and does not typically lead to positive

long-term relationships.

2. Rules for reaching a win-win solution

a. Separate the people from the problem. Stay focused on the problem and don’t

attack each other.

b. Focus on interests, not current demands. Demands are what the parties want;

interests are why they want those things.

c. Listen and ask questions. Smart negotiators want to learn the other side’s

constraints so that they can help overcome them.

d. Insist that results be based on objective standards. Successful negotiation focuses

on objective criteria rather than subjective judgments.

Discussion Question #6: If you were the leader of a special-purpose team developing a new

computer game and conflicts arose related to power and status differences among team

members, what would you do? Which of the styles to handle conflict described in the chapter do

you think might be the most effective? Explain your answer.

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NOTES________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Discussion Question #1: One company had 40 percent of its workers and 20 percent of its

managers resign during the first year after it reorganized from a vertical hierarchy into teams.

What might account for this dramatic turnover? How might managers ensure a smooth

transition to teams?

NOTES________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO END-OF-CHAPTER DISCUSSION

QUESTIONS

1. One company had 40 percent of its workers and 20 percent of its manager’s resign during

the first year after it reorganized from a vertical hierarchy into teams. What might account

for this dramatic turnover? How might managers ensure a smooth transition to teams?

2. Have you experienced any of the five contributions of teams shown in Exhibit 14.2 with a

team that you have participated in? Describe your experience and why you think that the

team was able to make that specific contribution.

Students’ answers will vary.

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?

4. Research on team interactions described in the chapter indicates that when people eat

lunch at 12-person tables, they are more productive and collaborative than when they eat

at 4-person tables, even if they aren’t eating with their own team members. What do you

think would explain this finding?

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.

6. If you were the leader of a special-purpose team developing a new computer game and

conflicts arose related to power and status differences among team members, what would

you do? Which of the styles to handle conflict described in the chapter do you think might be

most effective? Explain your answer.

to.

7. Experts say that for teams to function well, members have to get to know one another in some

depth. What specifically would you do to facilitate this in a co-located team? What about in

a global, virtual team?

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.

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.

Second, people 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. Closely related to the issue of depending on others for success, the increase in

perceived anonymity also increases the likelihood of some members acting as free riders. It may

be much easier to avoid active participation in the team in a virtual setting.

Third, 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. The potential for dysfunction is also increased by the

geographic and psychological distance among members of a virtual team.

Students’ thoughts about their own dilemmas will vary, but most will relate in some way to the

three issues described above.

10. If you were the leader of a newly formed team, what might you do to make sure that the team

developed norms of high performance?

Students’ answers will vary. Probable answers should emphasize the following points.

APPLY YOUR SKILLS: SELF-LEARNING

This and That: Best Team–Worst Team

Students are to think of two teams of which they have been members—their best teams and their

worst teams in terms of personal satisfaction and team performance. Then, in small groups, they

Leading Teams •

will tell each other the stories of their best and worst team experiences, and then go on with the

remaining parts of the exercise. The exercise helps them identify key behaviors that account for

their best and worst team experiences, what factors influence the presence of those behaviors,

what personal changes they should make as individuals to demonstrate more of the positive

behaviors and less of the negative behaviors, and how to help team leaders attain more positive

behaviors and less negative behaviors within their teams.

APPLY YOUR SKILLS: GROUP LEARNING

Teams on TV

Students form groups of three to five, examine a team on a TV show of their choice, and answer

the five questions provided in the exercise. Students then share their observations with group

members, looking for common themes, important themes, and any surprising findings.

APPLY YOUR SKILLS: ETHICAL DILEMMA

One for All and All for One?

1. Vote to exonerate the three group members who didn’t cheat. You’re convinced they had no

reason to suspect Paul Colgan of dishonesty. Exonerating them is the right thing to do.

This may be a viable option for two primary reasons. First, the professor’s policy is open to

2. Vote in support of Hank Zierden’s decision to hold each member accountable for the entire

project. The professor clearly stated his policy at the beginning of the semester, and the

students should have been more vigilant. The committee should not undercut a professor’s

explicit policy.

3. Vote to reduce each of the three students’ penalties. Instead of a zero, each student will

receive only half the possible total points for the project, which would be an F. You’re still

holding students responsible for the group project, but not imposing catastrophic

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punishment. This compromise both undercuts the professor’s policy and punishes

“innocent” team members to some extent, but not as severely.

APPLY YOUR SKILLS: CASE FOR CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Are We a Team?

1. What type of team does the new CIO have? What do you see as the key problem with the

team?

2. How do you think the team evolved to this low level of cooperation and cohesiveness?

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

motivated to remain in the team. Determinants of team cohesiveness are:

3. What suggestion do you have for the CIO to help her turn this collection of individual

regional and departmental heads into a top-performing team? Explain.

Leading Teams •

• Personal satisfaction—the team’s ability to meet the personal needs of its members to

maintain their membership and commitment.

• 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.

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.

ON THE JOB VIDEO CASE ANSWERS

Tough Mudder: Leading Teams

1. Alex Patterson notes that our educational system is often focused on individual achievement,

but when we go out into the work world as adults, almost all of us are required to work in

teams. In what ways does this early focus on individual work make it difficult for us to work in

teams? What should an individual do to become a good team member, according to

Patterson?

2. These Tough Mudder employees appear to be members of a highly cohesive team. What are

some of the qualities described in the video that indicate strong cohesiveness? Include at least

two specific examples in your answer.

Several characteristics of team structure and context influence cohesiveness.

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• Shared goals. If team members agree on purpose and direction, they will be more

cohesive. Everyone involved in Tough Mudder has the goal of overcoming obstacles

through teamwork. All events worldwide support this overarching goal.

• Personal attraction to the team, meaning that members have similar attitudes and values

and enjoy being together. If a person prefers individual activities, that person would run a

marathon rather than participating in a team event. This business attracts people who

value collaboration.

• Team success and the favorable evaluation of the team by outsiders add to cohesiveness.

When a team succeeds in its task and others in the organization recognize the success,

members feel good, and their commitment to the team will be high. When a team

successfully completes an event, there is a significant amount of pride felt both by those

who participated in the event and by those employees who worked together to organize it.

3. Patterson describes the benefits and challenges of working in an open-plan, collaborative

workspace. Do you think you would enjoy working in this type of team-centric environment?

Explain why or why not in your answer.