12.3: Identify the most common threats to effective team performance Flashcards
What are common threats to effective team performance?
Common threats include risky shift, innocent bystander effect, escalation of commitment, and conformity/obedience.
What is the “risky shift” phenomenon in teams?
Risky shift occurs when teams make riskier decisions because shared risk reduces individual accountability. However, teams can also become risk-averse to avoid letting colleagues down.
What is the “innocent bystander effect”?
The innocent bystander effect is when team members feel less personal responsibility because they assume others will act, leading to diffusion of responsibility.
What is “escalation of commitment”?
Escalation of commitment happens when team members persist with a failing course of action despite clear evidence of its failure, often due to prior investments or potential losses.
How can conformity and obedience threaten team decision-making?
Conformity and obedience occur when members defer to authority or group norms, leading them to view themselves as instruments for others’ wishes, reducing personal responsibility and objective decision-making.
What is social conformity in teams, and how does it impact decision-making?
Social conformity occurs when members prioritize harmony and cohesion over critical evaluation, leading to poor decisions.
It often results in groupthink, where members self-censor their views to avoid conflict.
What is groupthink, and what are its potential consequences?
Groupthink is the tendency for highly cohesive teams to suppress dissent and critical evaluation. It can lead to flawed decisions, as seen in historical examples like the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Challenger disaster.
What is the Abilene paradox, and how does it relate to group decisions?
The Abilene paradox describes situations where team members agree to a course of action they individually disagree with, assuming others support it.
This results in poor group decisions driven by false consensus.
What are six tactics high-performing teams use to resolve conflict productively?
Work with more information.
Develop multiple alternatives for debate.
Return to common goals.
Inject humor into discussions.
Maintain a balanced power structure.
Resolve issues without forcing a consensus.
What strategies can help teams avoid social conformity?
Assign members as critical evaluators.
Encourage sharing objections.
Prevent leaders from favoring one action.
Create subgroups with different leaders.
Involve outside experts.
Use anonymous decision votes.
Hold “second chance” meetings after decisions.
What is social loafing, and why does it occur in teams?
Social loafing, or free-riding, occurs when individuals put in less effort in a group than they would individually. It happens because they feel less accountable or assume others will compensate for their lack of effort.
What is the Ringelmann effect?
The Ringelmann effect describes the phenomenon where individual effort decreases as the number of people in a group increases, due to a lack of individual accountability.
How does social loafing impact team dynamics?
Social loafing can lead to reduced team performance, dissatisfaction among high-performing members, and reluctance from others to contribute, creating a cycle of inactivity.
What is self-limiting behavior, and how does it differ from social loafing?
Self-limiting behavior occurs when team members consciously reduce their participation, often due to feeling unheard or undervalued.
Unlike social loafing, it is a deliberate withdrawal rather than hidden inaction.
How can teams address social loafing?
Teams can reduce social loafing by improving identifiability—making each member’s contributions visible, using peer evaluations, and creating contracts with consequences for free-riding.
