Ch 1: Types of Teams Flashcards
What are teams
Teams are a group of people who are interdependent vis a vis information, resources and skills, and aim to achieve a common goal
What are the 5 defining characteristics of a team?
- Teams exist to achieve a shared goal
- Team members are interdependent regarding some common goal
- Bounded and stable overtime
- Have authority to manage their own work and internal processes
- Operates in a social system context- so they do their work in a larger organization often alongside other teams
What is a working group?
Learn and share resources and insights, but are focused on achieving individual goals
Why Are TEAMS important in the Organization?
When staff use their skills and knowledge together, the result is a stronger agency that can fulfil its mission
Due to the shared information, resources and skills\
Can sustain enthusiasm and lend support needed to complete tasks
Build productivity & customer service
What are Four challenges of the future that point to the importance of teams
Information Technology- employees are knowledge workers and teams are knowledge integrators
The software helps to find people with the expertise and then you can integrate them
Competition- teams integrate knowledge to gain an edge
Globalization and Culture- mean more effort required , but virtual teams help
Multi-Generational Teams
What are the Types of Teams (or levels of team control) in an Organization?
Manager-led Team- best for simple tasks with clear goals like task force/ less autonomy
Self-Managing or self-regulating team- executive search teams’ managerial task forces-more empowerment/ less manager control-harded to assess progress
Self-directing/ Self-designing team- most potential for innovation/ but time consuming- board of directors
Self-governing Teams- greatest potential in terms of commitment and participation
greatest risk of misdirection if unaware of org goals
What are the types of teams based on their task focus?
Tactical- high degree of task clarity/no ambiguity- as it would pose a problem-surgical team
Problem-Solving- Aim to resolve issues on an ongoing basis- CDC
Creative- aim to make something, think out of the box- IDEO design teams
TASK FOCUS
Teams do one of three types of tasks: tactical, problem-solving, and creative. Exhibit 1-1
describes the disadvantages and advantages of tactical, problem-solving, and creative
teams
Common observations from managers on teams
Teams are not always the answer
Conflict among team members is not always a bad thing
Managers fault the wrong causes for team failure
Good teams can still fail under the wrong circumstances
Manager fault- Misattribution error- the tendency of managers to blame team failure on factors beyond your control
Strong leadership /= strong team
Rather an effective team and a poor leader is better than a good leader and a poor team
According to managers what are the most common team control types?
Manager-led- 42%
Self-Managing- 52%
Self-directing- 6%
According to managers, what are the longevity ratings?
Less than 6 months- 11%
6-12 months- 22
1-2 years 39
3-5 years- 21
Over 5 years- 7
What are the most frustrating aspects of teamwork according to managers?
Developing and sustaining high motivation
Minimizing confusion and/or coordination problems
Fostering creativity and innovation
Team size
Average- 11.75
Mode- 10
Ideal- 5 or 6
Most common type of team
middle management team
cross functions
Operations
Service
Team building skills
Properly determine team issues and make effective teams- use experimental methods- control vs experimental
Dependent Var issue- don’t use effects to determine if teams are effective… so you compare successful teams and see that they had similar edu levels and assume that the ed level is the key factor for success.
But the right way is to do an experiement with an independent variable. So 1 group gets a cetrain level of education, the other does not, then determine if edu was a factor by the results
Avoid Hindsight bias- that I knew it all along(even though you were not able to predict it)- actively learn about
other possibilities, critically examine your assumptions, and be open to a change of mind
once you have the facts
Evidence based management
Expert learning- learn from past mistakes and never make them twice
Types of learning
Single loop learning- interaction will be one dimentional
Double-loop learning( used by a most effective leader, reciprocal interchange between
leaders and teams.
