Chapter 14 – Teamwork
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14
chapter
Teamwork
Learning Objectives 2
Key Student Questions 3
Class Roadmap 4
Bottom Line 12
Social Enterprise 13
Lecturettes 14
CHAPTER CONTENTS
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1 Discuss how teams can contribute to an organization’s effective-
ness.
2 Describe different types of teams.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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The questions students wrestle with about teamwork come from their own experiences as team members
and team leaders. More and more, students are required to work on teams for school assignments – some
with as few as three or four members, and some with as many as ten or twelve members. Students need to
know:
1. “How can I make sure that everyone on the team carries their own
weight? (How do I deal with social loafing?)”
2. “What should I do when one member of the team is dominating the
rest of the group?”
3. “How can I get my ideas heard by the team?”
Answers to Student Questions
1. Social loafing can be avoided by clarifying team goals in advance, establishing clear expectations for
each team member’s contribution to the goal, giving people work they are interested in doing, holding
people accountable for completing their work, and rewarding well-done work. Students are most of-
Teaching Tip
One of the most powerful exercises you can do in groups is to assign small groups a topic (per-
haps “How can this class be improved?”) and ask them to discuss it for five minutes. At the end
of the five minute period, ask each team to share their ideas with the class, and then ask each
team member to write down the name of the person in their group that talked the most during the
KEY STUDENT QUESTIONS
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Management in Action
How Teams Work at Whole Foods Market
The mission of Whole Foods Market to “contribute to the well-being of people and the planet” is
about more than the products it sells; it also shapes the way the company treats its more than
80,000 employees. Management of employees is based on the key values of personal responsibil-
LO 1: Discuss how teams can contribute to your organization’s effectiveness.
Teaching Tip:
Prior to starting your lecture about teamwork, distribute a difficult 10 item multiple-choice quiz about the concepts in
they think groups do better than individuals on this type of task.
A. Teams can be powerfully effective as a:
1. Building block for organization structure.
2. Force for productivity.
E.G.
Use Example 14.1 – Innovation teams here
CLASS ROADMAP
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B. Teams benefit their members:
1. Members learn about the company and themselves.
LO 2: Distinguish the new team environment from that of traditional work groups.
A. Work teams make or do things like manufacture, assemble, sell, or provide.
B. Project and development teams work on long-term projects but disband once the work is com-
pleted.
E.G.
Use Example 14.2 – Virtual teams here
Multiple Generations at Work
Preparing for Global Virtual Teamwork
Approximately 1.3 million people worldwide soon will be engaged in virtual work. IBM estimates that
nearly half of its 400,000 employees and contractors already work remotely, many from dispersed loca-
tions. Companies are equipping their employees for virtual work with advanced videoconferencing soft-
ware as well as mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
H. Self–managed teams
1. An autonomous work group, in which workers are trained to do all or most of the jobs in a
unit, have no immediate supervisor, and make decisions previously made by first-line super-
visors.
II. Types of Teams
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Management in Action–
Progress Report
Whole Foods empowers employees to participate in planning and decision making with their teams. In
stores, teams make decisions about product selection, merchandising, efficiency, hiring, and compensa-
tion. In hiring decisions, teams contribute to rather than control the process. HR employees screen candi-
dates, and then teams are involved in the interview process. Each employee hired completes a probation-
ary period, after which the team votes on whether to keep the employee. To give employees information
for decision making, Whole Foods shares financial results as well as pay rates for team members. And
incentive pay, such as bonuses, is tied to team performance.
• What advantages does teamwork offer to Whole Foods Market?
Whole Foods uses teamwork to push decision-making authority downward. This could make the jobs
affiliation and esteem. Team members also can contribute to one another’s learning and development by
providing feedback.
• Why do you think human resources professionals conduct the initial screening process for new hires?
• What might be the consequences of having the store teams carry out the entire process of hiring and
rewarding team members?
An HR professional has the specialized knowledge required to make screening and compensation deci-
LO 3: Summarize how groups become teams.
A. The words group and team are often used interchangeably but a real team is a small number of
B. Group Processes
If groups are to develop successfully, they will engage in various processes, including (Exhibit
14.2):
Forming – group members attempt to lay the ground rules for what types of behavior are ac-
ceptable.
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E.G.
Use Example 14.3 – Four stages of group development here
C. Critical Periods
1. The forming stage is where rules, norms, and roles are established.
2. Midway point between the initial meeting and a deadline.
D. Teaming Challenges
1. Emphasizing the team’s purpose
LO 4: Explain why groups sometimes fail.
E. Why Groups Sometimes Fail
1. Teams are launched with little or no training or support system.
E.G.
Use Example 14.4 – Preventing team failure here
LO 5: Describe how to build an effective team.
A. Team effectiveness defined by three criteria:
1. Team Productivity: The output of the team meets or exceeds the standards of quantity and
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B. Performance Focus
1. Commitment to a common purpose.
2. The best teams work hard at developing a common understanding of how they will work to-
C. Motivating Teamwork
1. Social loafing is working less hard and being less productive when in a group.
D. Member Contributions
1. Members should be selected and trained.
E. Norms are shared beliefs about how people should think and behave.
F. Roles are different sets of expectations for how different individuals should behave.
1. Task specialist is an individual who has particular advanced job related skills and abilities.
G. Cohesiveness refers to the degree to which a group is attractive to its members, members are mo-
tivated to remain in the group, and members influence one another.
1. The importance of cohesiveness:
2. It contributes to member satisfaction
3. Cohesiveness has a major impact on performance.
a. The task – if it is to make a decision or solve a problem, cohesiveness can lead to poor
H. Building cohesiveness and High-Performance Norms:
1. Recruit members with similar attitudes, values, and backgrounds.
2. Maintain high entrance and socialization standards.
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7. Tie rewards to team performance.
LO 6: List methods for managing a team’s relationships with other teams.
A. Managing Outward
1. Teams do not operate in a vacuum; instead, they are boundary spanning and must interface
with other teams.
3. Team strategies
a. Informing strategy entails making decisions with the team and telling outsiders of the
B. Lateral Role Relationships
1. Workflow relationships emerge as materials are passed from one group to another.
2. Service relationships exist when top management centralizes an activity to which a large
number of other units must gain access.
LO 7: Identify ways to manage conflict.
C. Managing Conflict
1. Causes of conflict among teams
a. Number and variety of contracts.
V. Managing Lateral Relationships
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E.G.
Use Example 14.6 – Managing conflict here
D. Conflict styles (Exhibit 14.5)
1. Avoidance is a reaction to conflict that involves either ignoring the problem by doing nothing
at all, or by de-emphasizing the disagreement.
2. Accommodation is a style of dealing with conflict involving cooperation on behalf of the
E. Superordinate goals are higher-level goals taking priority over specific individual or group goals.
F. Being a Mediator
1. Mediators are “third party” individuals who intervene to help settle a conflict between other
people.
2. Four stage mediation strategy
a. Investigate
3. Recommendations for effective conflict management
a. Don’t allow dysfunctional conflict to build
f. If necessary, enlist the help of HR specialists in resolving difficult conflicts
G. Electronic and Virtual Conflict
1. Avoidance hurts performance
2. Accommodation has no effect on performance
Management Connection –
Onward
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Employees at Whole Foods Market are unified by the company’s sense of mission and shared values.
However, in its appreciation of diversity, Whole Foods also creates an environment in which cohesive-
ness requires some extra effort. Shoppers at Whole Foods may notice that its employees represent many
different backgrounds and have wide latitude for dressing in self-expressive ways. Though appearances
differ, employees focus on achieving team goals (sometimes in competition with other teams). In spite of
this, conflicts do erupt, such as an episode over two employees’ use of Spanish during a team meeting in
Albuquerque.
• How does Whole Foods promote team cohesiveness? What else should it do?
Whole Foods recruits team members who share its corporate values, despite coming from different back-
disagree over issues without personal conflict and animosity.
• How should Whole Foods manage the conflict in its Albuquerque store?
• What should it do to minimize similar conflicts in the future?
Answers will vary depending on students’ opinions about the situation. It is important to note that only
• Do your conflict management ideas involve avoidance, accommodation, compromise, competition or
collaboration?
• Why is this conflict style the best choice for Whole Food?
Answers will vary depending on students’ responses to the previous question. However, they should re-
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p. 472: What do you think makes a team more powerful than a set of individuals?
Answers will vary. As they study the chapter, students will see that teamwork ideally brings together
p.479: What qualities should a team’s goal have?
A team’s goal should be specific and measurable. It should be aimed at a collective end product, rather
than a set of individual products of individual employees.
p. 482: What happens if a team leader builds a cohesive team but fails to set the right goals?
BOTTOM LINE
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Paying for Coworking Space with Social Capital
1. Do you think the model used by Seats2Meet would work in the United States? Why
or why not?
The model may work in the United States, but it is important to keep in mind that Ameri-
2. In what ways can social capital help you in running a start-up firm or doing free-
lance projects?
Student answers will vary, but in general, social capital allows for the exchange of in-
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
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LECTURETTE 14.1: Teamwork and Quality Circles
QUALITY CIRCLES DEFINED
1. A Quality Circle (QC) is a small group of workers that meets voluntarily, once every week or two, to
identify, study, and resolve problems in its area of work.
➢ QCs should be kept small, ranging in size from 4 to 15 members. Usually, a QC has 7 to 10
members.
➢ QCs are composed of workers from the same work area.
➢ Sometimes, the work area supervisor is a member of the QC – but not always.
THE QC PROCESS
1. Most QCs follow a proscribed process, such as the following:
Stage 1. Identify problems and formulate solutions.
TIPS ON HOW TO MAXIMIZE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE QC MEETING
➢ Conduct QC meetings only when needed.
➢ Be sure all QC members understand the overall purpose of the QC.
ADVANTAGES OF THE QC FOR THE ORGANZIATION
➢ Improved work performance, which facilitates the attainment of overall corporate goals.
➢ Workers are more satisfied with their jobs and become more productive.
LECTURETTES
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ADVANTAGES OF THE QC FOR THE WORK TEAM
➢ Workers enjoy a sense of belonging to a QC team, which increases personal motivation.
➢ Workers develop a personal interest and pride in their work.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EFFECTIVE QC
➢ The QC facilitator never attempts to dominate the group, but still provides appropriate direction
to keep the QC on course.
➢ Each QC meeting should be informal and relaxed, but always task-oriented.
➢ QC discussions are open, thorough, and to the point.
LECTURETTE 14.2: Team Roles
TEAM ROLES DEFINED
1. Team roles are different sets of expectations as to how different team members should act. Team
norms are those behaviors expected of all team members, whereas team roles prescribe different be-
haviors for different team members.
TYPES OF TEAM LEADERSHIP ROLES
1. There are two basic types of team leadership roles:
➢ TASK SPECIALIST ROLES – those team members that have the most tasks related skills fill
roles. They offer advice, instructions, and assistance to all members in the group. They help keep
the group moving toward goal achievement.
1 Adapted from Gene Burton, “Quality Circles in the government Sector: A Mitigating Influence on Job Tension, Role Clarity, QWL,