Chapter 10 Understanding Work Teams Page
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Chapter 10
Understanding Work Teams
Chapter Overview
Teams are increasingly becoming the primary means for organizing
Chapter Objectives
After studying this chapter, the student should be able to:
2. Compare and contrast four types of teams.
4. Show how organizations can create team players.
6. Show how the understanding of teams differs in a global context.
Suggested Lecture Outline
I. WHY HAVE TEAMS BECOME SO POPULAR?
A. As organizations have restructured themselves to compete
more effectively and efficiently, they have turned to teams as a better way to use
employee talents.
B. Teams are more flexible and responsive to changing events than traditional
departments or other forms of permanent groupings.
C. They can quickly assemble, deploy, refocus, and disband. But don’t overlook the
motivational properties of teams.
D. Consistent with our discussion of employee involvement as a motivator, teams
facilitate employee participation in operating decisions.
II. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GROUPS AND TEAMS
A. Work Group.
1. A group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting
and interdependent, who have come together to achieve
particular objectives.
PPT 10.5
Exhibit 10.1
PPT 10.1
PPT 10.3
PPT 10.4
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perform within his or her area of responsibility.
B. Work Team.
1. In contrast to work groups, work teams create positive synergy through
coordinated effort.
a. Their individual efforts result in a level of performance that is greater than
the sum of those individual inputs.
2. Effective teams have certain common characteristics, (which will be discussed
later in the chapter), that managers must ensure exist to achieve the desired
synergy.
III. TYPES OF TEAMS
A. Problem-Solving Teams.
1. These are teams in which members, often from the same
2. They rarely have the authority to unilaterally implement any of their suggested
actions.
B. Self-Managed Work Teams.
1. Unlike problem-solving teams, these teams move beyond
2. Typically made up of 10 to 15 employees who perform highly-related or
interdependent jobs,
a. This team takes on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors
such as
1) planning and scheduling of work
3) making operating decisions
5) working with suppliers and customers
3. Research has indicated that the effectiveness of self-manage teams is not
uniformly positive.
a. Self-managed teams do not typically manage conflicts well.
b. When disputes arise, members stop cooperating and power struggles
ensue, which leads to lower group performance.
C. Cross-Functional Teams.
1. These are teams made up of employees from about the
2. This type of team is an effective means of allowing people from diverse areas
within the organization (or even between organizations) to exchange
Exhibit 10.2
PPT 9.6
PPT 10.7
PPT 10.8
PPT 10.9
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3. Cross-functional teams are somewhat difficult to manage and it may take
significant time for the teams to develop sufficient trust to become effective.
D. Virtual Teams.
2. Virtual teams use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed
members in order to achieve a common goal.
4. Special Challenges of Virtual Teams. The lack of face-to-face contact results in:
a. Less social rapport and direct interaction among members than in other
5. Management Suggestions. For virtual teams to be effective, management
should:
a. Ensure trust is established among team members.
b. Monitor team progress closely.
c. Publicize the efforts and products of the virtual team throughout the
organization.
IV. CREATING EFFECTIVE TEAMS
A. A Model of Effective Teams.
1. Team effectiveness is composed of objective measures
of the team’s productivity, manager’s ratings of the
2. The components of this model build off many of the group concepts introduced
in Chapter 9. Two caveats:
a. Guidance Only. Teams vary and this model is fairly general: it should be
used as a guide, not an inflexible prescription.
b. Assumption. The model’s underlying assumption is that it has already been
determined that teamwork is preferable to individual work.
B. Context: What Factors Determine Whether Teams Are Effective?
1. There are four general categories of key team
effectiveness components (context, composition, work
design, and process variables):
a. Adequate Resources.
1) All workgroups rely on resources outside of the group to sustain them.
3) These supportive resources include timely information, proper
equipment, adequate staffing, encouragement, and administrative
assistance.
b. Leadership and Structure.
Exhibit 10.3
PPT 10.10
PPT 10.11
PPT 10.12
1) Team leadership and structure is required in order to get team
2) Leadership is especially important in multi-team systems, where
different teams need to coordinate efforts to produce desired outcome.
3) In these situations, leaders need to play the role of facilitators.
c. Climate of Trust.
1) Members of effective teams trust each other and their leaders.
3) Team members are more likely to take risks and expose vulnerabilities
when they believe they can trust others on their team.
4) Trust in the leadership helps the team accept and commit to the leaders
goals and decisions.
d. Performance Evaluation and Rewards Systems.
2) These modifications may include group-based appraisals, profit
sharing, gainsharing, and small-group incentives.
C. Team Composition.
1. There are five variables in this category related to how
teams should be staffed.
a. Abilities of Members. Part of a team’s performance depends on the
knowledge, skills, and abilities of its members.
1) A team’s performance is not merely the summation of its individual
2) Research has shown the following results when considering the
abilities of members of effective teams.
a) For tasks that entail considerable thought, high ability teams (teams
composed of mostly intelligent members) do better.
b) High ability teams are also better at adapting to changing situations.
c) When tasks are simple, high ability teams do not perform well: team
b. Personality of Members.
2) Teams that rate higher in mean levels of conscientiousness and
3) Conscientious team members are valuable because they back up other
team members and are good at sensing limited support is truly needed.
PPT 10.13
4) Opening team members are better communicators and throw up more
ideas leading to more creative and innovative solutions.
c. Allocation of Roles.
1) Teams have different needs, and members should be selected to ensure
all the various roles are filled.
2) A study of 778 major league baseball teams over a 21-year period
highlights the importance of assigning roles appropriately.
a) As you might expect, teams with more experienced and skilled
3) We can identify nine potential team roles.
a) Successful work teams have selected people to play all these roles based
on their skills and preferences. (On many teams, individuals will play
multiple roles.)
b) To increase the likelihood the team members will work well together,
managers need to understand the individual strengths each person can
d. Diversity of Members.
1) Organizational Demography: The degree to which members if a work
2) Attributes such as age or the date of joining should help us predict
turnover.
3) Surface-level social-category diversity such as race/ethnicity, gender,
and age tend to have negative effects on the performance of teams.
5) For diverse teams to realize their creative potential, they need to focus
on their differences, not their similarities.
6) Culturally heterogeneous teams have more difficulty learning to work
with each other and solving problems, but these difficulties dissipate
with time.
e. Size of Teams.
2) Using the smallest possible number of people who can accomplish a
task tends to be the most effective way of sizing a team.
3) Doing so reduces coordination problems, decreases the chance of social
loafing, and increases cohesiveness.
f. Member Preferences.
1) Not every employee is a team player.
a) Given the option, many employees will select themselves out of
team participation.
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b) When people who would prefer to work alone are required to team
up, there is a direct threat to the team’s morale and to individual
member satisfaction.
c) This suggests that when selecting team members, managers should
consider individual preferences along with abilities, personalities,
D. Team Process.
1. The final key component for team effectiveness is process: specifically six
variables related to how a team completes their task.
2. Team processes should produce positive results: the output should be greater
than the sum of the inputs (positive synergy).
3. Common Plan and Purpose.
a. Effective teams begin by analyzing the team’s
mission, developing goals to achieve that mission, and creating strategies
for achieving the goals.
d. This common purpose, when accepted by the team, becomes what celestial
navigation is to a ship captain:
1) It provides direction and guidance under any and all conditions.
e. Like a ship following the wrong course, teams that don’t have good
4. Specific Goals.
a. Successful teams translate their common purpose into specific, measurable,
5. Team Efficacy.
a. Effective teams have confidence in themselves: they believe they can
1) Help the team to achieve small initial successes.
PPT 10.14
6. Mental Models.
7. Conflict Levels.
8. Social Loafing.
a. Individuals can hide within groups.
b. They coast on the group’s effort because their individual contributions can’t
be identified.
V. TURNING INDIVIDUALS INTO TEAM PLAYERS
A. In many cultures and companies, employees have been trained
to be fiercely individualistic.
2. Management’s challenge, therefore, is to overcome the individual resistance
toward team participation.
B. Selection: Hiring Team Players.
1. When hiring team members, in addition to technical skills, candidates should
be screened on their ability to fulfill team roles.
2. Creating teams often means resisting the urge of hire the best talent no matter
what.
C. Training: Creating Team Players.
2. This may require the use of outside consultants who can help employees
improve the employees’ problem solving, communication, negotiation, conflict–
management, and coaching skills.
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.
2. It is usually best to set a cooperative tone as soon as possible in the life of a
team.
a. As we already noted, teams that switch from a competitive to a cooperative
PPT 10.15
3. Promotions, pay raises, and other forms of recognition should be given to
4. Don’t forget the intrinsic rewards, such as camaraderie, that employees can
receive from teamwork.
VI. BEWARE! TEAMS AREN’T ALWAYS THE ANSWER
A. Teamwork takes more time and often more resources than
individual work.
B. Therefore, the benefits of using teams must exceed the costs of
having them. This may not always be the case, and there are three tests to
determine if a team is necessary in a given situation.
1. Complexity of Work. A good indicator of the need for teams is the complexity
2. Common Purpose. For organizational outcomes that require multi-function
3. Interdependence. Teams make sense when the tasks are interdependent and
require a great deal of coordination.
VII. GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS
A. Extent of Teamwork. Teamwork is less pervasive in the
United States than it is in other developed nations.
B. Self-Managed Teams. Self-managed teams may be difficult to
introduce globally. This is especially true in cultures that have a low tolerance for
ambiguity and uncertainty and where employees have a strong respect for
hierarchical authority (i.e., high power distance).
C. Team Cultural Diversity and Team Performance. National and cultural
differences interfere with team processes, at least in the short term. Such cultural
these difficulties dissipate within three months of team formation.
VIII. IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS
A. The introduction of teams into the workplace is an important
trend for managers.
1. Effective teams:
a. Have adequate resources, effective leadership, a climate of trust, and a
performance and rewards system that reflects team contributions.
2. By managing the environment and composition, managers can create teams
that are more effective.
IX. KEEP IN MIND
A. Team composition matters—the optimal way to construct
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PPT 10.17
PPT 10.18
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X. SUMMARY
Discussion Questions
1. Why is the use of teams in organizations becoming more popular?
Answer: As organizations have reacted to external pressures to restructure
themselves to compete more effectively and efficiently, they have turned to teams
2. What is the difference between a team and a group?
Answer: A group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting and
interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives. A work
3. Describe the four types of teams.
Answer: (1) Problem-Solving Teams. These are teams in which members share
ideas or offer suggestions on how work processes and methods can be improved;
although they rarely have the authority to unilaterally implement any of their
4. Describe the four main components of effective teams.
Answer: (1) Context: effective teams have adequate resources, leadership, and
PPT 10.20
4. Analyzing Your Organization (Cumulative Project). If you are currently in an
environment of teamwork, interview or discuss with the team leaders some of the
variables in this chapter, using the following questions as a guide.
a. How do you determine the size of the team?
b. What types of conflict occur? How do you resolve conflict?
c. Does it take longer to complete tasks in a team environment?
d. Do you have “resistors” to teamwork? If so, how do you manage that?
e. What happened to cause management to look at teams as a more efficient
way of doing work?
If you are not in a teamwork environment at your organization, what aspects of
your organization would benefit from teamwork? Justify your answer.
Suggested Assignment
Use the teams structured in the Teamwork. Ask the students to go to Google Docs
presentation template at
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0ASCP6dbp8LXCZGRkMzZoeGpfMTgxY3dicXFo
Y2M&hl=en&authkey=CP_bsocC and select edit on the actions menu at the bottom. When
the edit window opens, ask students to create a new presentation file by selecting
File>New>Presentations (this may require that a student have a Google Docs account. If it