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Chapter 14 - Teamwork
14-16
WORK-TEAM ROLES
1. Work-team roles can be categorized three ways:
ACHIEVEMENT-ORIENTED ROLES
➢ Chairperson controls and manipulates group resources. This person may or may not be the ap-
pointed leader.
➢ The Shaper is task oriented and helps the group cut through peripheral issues in order to get at
problems and decisions.
MAINTENANCE-ORIENTED ROLES
➢ Team Worker a people-person who is concerned with the personal feelings and needs of fellow
team members.
➢ The Harmonizer helps the team overcome conflict and tries to relieve any sort of team tension.
SELF-ORIENTED ROLES
➢ Dominator manipulates power in order to achieve personal ends.
ROLE CLARTIY AND ROLE AMBIGUITY
➢ Role clarity is the degree to which team members feel that the organization communicates ade-
ROLE CONFLICT
➢ Role conflict is the degree to which team members’ experience perceived conflict between/among
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
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1. Why do you think some people resist the idea of working in teams? How would you deal with
their resistance?
Being asked to work as a member of a team introduces a degree of uncertainty and change, and this gen-
erally makes people uncomfortable. There is also a perception that (a) it will involve more time than if
2. Consider a job you have held to. To what extent did you work in teams, and how effective was
the teamwork? What affected the effectiveness?
3. Experts say that teams are a means, not an end. What do you think they mean? What do you
think happens in a company that creates teams just for the sake of having teams because it’s a fad
or because it sounds good? How can this pitfall be avoided?
Teams are a means of getting things done, not an end result of a company’s strategy. Just having teams in
4. Choose a sports team with which you are familiar. Assess its effectiveness and discuss the fac-
tors, which contribute to its level of effectiveness.
Consideration of this question may be helped by two specific questions: Why do some sports teams seem
to do well over a number of years and others never seem to improve much? Second, why do some teams
with superstars do poorly while those without a star player do well?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
5. Assess effectiveness, as in Question 5, of a student group with which you have been affiliated.
Could anything have been done to make it more effective?
Answering this question needs a systematic approach. First, what was the task or objective of the student
6. Consider the various roles that members have to perform for a team to be effective. Which roles
would play to your strengths and which to your weaknesses? How can you become a better team
member?
As the text points out, team members can play a number of different roles. Individuals who have more
job-related skills and abilities than other team members fill task specialist roles. Thus they tend to have
7. Discuss personal examples of “virtual conflict” and how they were managed, well or poorly.
One example of “virtual conflict” occurred in a team devoted to advancing Civil Rights within a govern-
ment organization. Some team members felt that their input was not being acknowledged or accepted,
8. What do you think are your own most commonly used approaches to handling conflict? Least
common? What can you do to expand your repertoire and become more effective at conflict man-
agement?
People use different approaches to handling conflict depending upon whether or not they themselves en-
joy conflict or prefer to avoid it. Some people really enjoy the tension and anxieties created by a conflict
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
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9. Generate some real examples of how superordinate goals have helped to resolve a conflict.
Identify some current conflicts and provide some specific ideas for how superordinate goals could
be used to help.
A superordinate goal is a “higher-level goal” towards which all teams need to strive. It is a goal that ulti-
mately takes precedence over the preferences of the individual teams. As stated in the text, invoking su-
perordinate goals is often an effective way of reaching a decision when teams each have valid yet con-
flicting points of view.
10. Have you ever been part of a group that was “self-managed”? What was good about it, and
what not so good? Why do many managers resist this idea? Why do some people love the idea of
being a member of such a team, while others don’t?
Student responses will vary. While a group that was self-managed may have enjoyed a high degree of job
satisfaction and would likely experience a high degree of job performance. Self-managed teams are
11. How might self-managed teams operate differently in different cultures? What are the ad-
vantages, disadvantages, and implications of homogeneous versus highly diverse self-managed
teams?
The trend today is toward self-managed teams, in which workers are trained to do all or most of the jobs
in the unit, they have no immediate supervisor, and they make decision s previously made by first-line
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
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EXERCISE 14.1 – STUDENT PROJECT GROUP PROCESSES
Objective
To explore how students’ project groups develop through various processes.
Instructions
1. Think about the last time you were assigned to a student group to complete a
course-related project.
Student Project Group Processes Worksheet
Process (refer to page __
for definitions)
To what degree did your student project group experi-
ence this process? Explain.
Forming
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Storming
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
EXERCISE 14.2 – WHICH STYLE OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION WOULD YOU USE?
Objective
To explore which conflict styles students would use in a variety of workplace scenarios.
Instructions
4. Read each of the following workplace scenarios.
Conflict Styles (see page ____ for definitions):
EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
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- Avoidance
Conflict Style Worksheet
Scenario #1: While at work, Maria and her co-worker notice that a laptop is missing from an employee’s
cubicle (note: the employee is on vacation). Maria’s first impulse is to report the missing laptop to the
manager. However, her co-worker thinks there may be an innocent reason for the missing laptop. He
To what degree will this style help (or not help) resolve the situation?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Scenario #2: Assume Paul is waiting to hear from her boss whether she is finally going to receive the
promotion that she has been promised. Paul’s boss just found out that the budget for the new position for
which Paul was slotted has been cut. Consequently, he will not receive the promotion. His boss thinks she
To what degree will this style help (or not help) resolve the situation?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
Excel Pro Drilling Systems
Case Summary:
Excel Pro Drilling Systems sells drilling equipment around the world from factories in Brazil, China,
Czechoslovakia, India, and South Africa. It is profitable but under pressure to improve its impact on the
Chapter Topics Related to the Case:
• Describe how a team such as the Excel Pro Green Team can benefit the company
• Discuss how a diverse group of employees can become a true team
Case Discussion Questions:
1. What went wrong in the formation of the Green Team? What should Excel Pro have done differently?
Suggested Response:
Excel Pro formed the team without a formal leader, goals, or procedures, leaving the team members to
2. What conditions contribute to this team’s cohesiveness? What reduces cohesiveness?
Suggested Response:
The team members share an interest in the topic of environmental sustainability, and they all have Eng-
lish-language ability, despite being from different countries. The team is a little large for discussions but
CONCLUDING CASE
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
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3. What do you think of the points plan? How should Excel Pro’s management help the Green Team
manage its conflict?
Suggested Response:
A four-stage strategy is often successful for mediating conflict: investigate the conflict, decide how to
resolve the dispute, take action by explaining the decision and advise on how to avoid the conflict in the
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
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Example 14.1 – Innovation teams: Manual Sosa, INSEAD professor of technology and opera-
tions management, offers the following recommendations for assembling a creative team: First,
managers should map out the organization’s formal and informal social network. Second, manag-
Example 14.2 – Virtual teams: Michelle LaBrosse, the founder of Cheetah learning, supervises
over 20 full-time employees and over 50 contractors who work virtually. In some cases, these
Example 14.3 – Four stages of group development: The website www.rugbycoach.com dis-
cusses how rugby teams progress through the four stages of group development discussed in the
text. For example, in the forming stage, the coach must figure out which player should play on
Example 14.4 – Preventing team failure: Kathryn Kranen, the President and CEO of Jaspar De-
sign Automation, found that her teams of managers and engineers often got into trouble because
Example 14.5 – Effective teamwork: One example of effective teamwork involved four compa-
nies working together to design an effective way to produce drugs that contain highly potent ac-
tive pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs.) Such drugs require special handling to limit the exposure
EXAMPLES
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Example 14.6 – Managing conflict: Hostage situations present a special challenge to law en-
forcement officers - not only because of the potential danger of the situation, but because most
hostage situations have an extremely high media profile - if they are resolved without harm to the
hostage, the people involved become heroes, but if they are not managed well, they can turn into
disasters, with both loss of life and loss of careers. Unfortunately, the teams that are most likely to
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
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Please see the following additional materials in Connect.
• Japan: An Idea Takes Root
In many parts of the world flower growers struggle to make a living but in one area of Japan, they have dis-
How have the Japanese flower growers worked together and with the government agencies to revitalize the
flower export business?
The farmers began with one variety of flower and, as part of a farmer’s collective, pooled resources for re-
Working in Teams: Cross-Functional Dysfunction
I. Introduction
Cross-functional teams pose unique challenges to team leaders and members. The “built-in” di-
II. Learning Objectives
1. To assess students’ understanding of a team and how it develops.
2. To identify strategies for improving group cohesiveness.
III. Scenario Description:
Overview: The Executive Director of Operations has assigned Joe Tanney the role of Team
Leader for a high priority project. The task is to generate a proposal for streamlining the anti-
CHAPTER VIDEO
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES
MANAGER’S HOT SEAT (MHS)
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
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Profile:
• Joseph Tanney is the Senior Account Manager and architect at Wolinsky & Williams, a
very large international architecture firm with over 400 employees and six offices
throughout the world.
References: The references included in the DVD are:
• Types of Groups and Teams (PPT 15-3)
Back History: W & W has been expanding at leaps and bounds over the past eight years or so.
The growth has been spectacular and hurried – they have not always taken the time to implement
change in the most efficient fashion, nor have they opened new offices with any sense of continu-
ity of process or corporate culture. Business has been plateauing for about eight months now and
senior management has decided to take this opportunity to assess efficiencies and practices and
The team has been attempting to meet for a couple of weeks but have never been able to agree on
a date. They all agreed to start generating ideas and breaking down the tasks in the meantime –
nobody has done it except Joe, who has created a very thorough analysis of the project. This is
their first meeting – they need to plan a course of action, assign tasks and set deadlines. Simon is
the manager with most seniority and everyone assumed he would lead the team.
Scene Set-up: The group gathers to go over Joe’s agenda regarding the team project.
Scene Location: W & W conference room
The Meeting - Summary: Joe begins the meeting describing the project and soliciting support for
the team to get the work done. Immediately, Cheng and Rosa begin to complain, suggesting they
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
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Afterthoughts – Summary: Joe was annoyed that only Cheng had a copy of the agenda for the
meeting. He also wanted to have everyone commit to and understand the next steps before leav-
ing the meeting. In retrospect, Joe thinks he should have considered the individuals’ personalities
Dossier: The specific artifacts included in the DVD are:
IV. Discussion Questions:
The References and related Discussion Questions may be found in PowerPoint slides 15-1 to 15-9.
Learning Objective #1: To assess students’ understanding of a team and how it develops.
1. What type of team is this team? How do you know? See PPT 15-3.
This is a formal team because the senior management has assigned these individuals to the team.
2. What stage of group development is this team in? See PPT 15-4.
1. Cheng is off subject. What should Joe do?
A. Interrupt
2. Joe is frustrated. He should:
A. Cool down
3. What should Joe have done before, during, and after the meeting to ensure the commencement of
the project is successful?
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
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Joe should have, and did, send out an agenda. He may have talked to each team member individ-
ually to understand their perspective on being assigned to this project team (he suggests this in the
Afterthoughts). For example, he could have found out what Simon knew about similar past pro-
Learning Objective #2: To identify strategies for improving group cohesiveness.
1. What factors of group cohesiveness were present in this team? See PPT 15-7.
3. Joe dismisses Rosa. He acted:
A. Appropriately
4. The team is not proactive. Joe should:
A. Insist they focus
2. What should Joe do now to ensure the team’s effectiveness and ultimate success? Use the Model
of Team Effectiveness (PPT 15-9) to support your answer.
Students should use the items in the model as a guide for suggesting specific actions Joe could
5. Simon feels the project is futile. Joe should:
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
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A. Find out why
6. Simon is leaving. Joe should:
A. Stop him
B. Email him tasks
• Team Roles Preference Scale
• What is Your Preferred Conflict-Handling Style
SELF-ASSESSMENT
