CH 11: Effective Team Management Flashcards
Group
Two or more people who interact with each other to accomplish certain goals or meet certain needs. “Not all groups can be teams.”
Team
A group whose members work intensely with one another to achieve a specific common goal or objective. “All teams are groups.”
Characteristics Distinguishing Teams from Groups
- Intensity: with which team members work together.
- Specific, overriding team goal, or objective.
Soft Skills
People-related skills that get team members connected with each other and aligned on carrying out a shared purpose.
Includes: Organizing, collaborating, solving interpersonal problems, and communicating.
Synergy
Performance gains that result when individuals and departments coordinate their actions.
Innovation
The creative development of new products, new technologies, new services, or even new organizational structures.
Manager’s Role
To provide guidance, assistance, coaching, and the resources that team members need, not to closely direct of supervise their activities.
Formal Group
A group that managers establish to achieve organizational goals.
They are:
Cross-functional-Teams composed of members from different departments.
Cross-cultural- Teams composed of members from different cultures or countries.
Informal Group
A group that managers or nonmanagerial employees form to help them achieve their own goals or meet their own needs.
Top Management Team
A group composed of the CEO, the president, and the heads of the most important departments.
Groupthink
Faulty group decision making that results when group members strive for agreement at the expense of an accurate assessment of the situation.
Research and Development Team
A team whose members has the expertise and experience needed to develop new products.
Command Group
A group composed of employees who report to the same supervisor: also called a department or unit.
Task Forces
A committee of managers or nonmanagerial employees from various departments or divisions who meet to solve a specific, mutual problem; also called ad hoc committee.
Self-Managed work team
A group of employees who supervise their own activities and monitor the quality of the goods and services they provide.
Virtual Teams
A team whose members rarely or never meet face to face but, rather, interact by using various forms of information technology such as email, text messaging, collaborative software programs, video conferences, and various meeting and management apps.
Friendship Group
An informal group of employees who enjoy one another’s company and socialize with one another.
Interest Group
An informal group of employees seeking to achieve a common goal related to their membership in an organization.
Group Dynamics
How groups function and, ultimately, their effectiveness hinge on group characteristics and process.
Division of Labor
Splitting the work to be performed into particular tasks and assigning tasks to individual workers.
Group Role
A set of behaviors and tasks that a member of a group is expected to perform because of his or her position in the group.
Role Making
Taking the initiative to modify an assigned role by assuming additional responsibilities.
Formal Leader
Appointed by manager
Informal Leader
Emerged naturally in a group
Five Stages of Group Development
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning
Forming
Members try to get to know one another and reach a common understanding of what the group is trying to accomplish and how group members should behave.
Storming
Group members experience conflict and disagreements because some members do not wish to submit to the demands of other group members.
Norming
Close ties between the group members develop, and feelings of friendship and camaraderie emerge.
Performing
The real work of the group is accomplished.
Adjourning
Applies only to groups that eventually are disbanded, such as task forces. A group is dispersed.
Group Norms
Shared guidelines or rules for behavior that most group members follow.
Low Conformity/High Deviance
Too much deviance and a lack of conformity result in low performance because the group can’t control its members’ behavior.
Moderate Confromity/Moderate Deviance
Good balance results in high performance.
High Conformity/ Low Deviance
Too much conformity and a lack of deviance result in low performance because the group fails to change dysfunctional norms.
Group Cohesiveness
The degree to which members are attracted to or loyal to their group.
Four Factors Contribute to Group Cohesiveness
- Group Size
- Effectively Managed Diversity
- Group Identity and healthy competition
- Success
Group Size
Managers should form groups that are small to medium size (2-9)
Effectively Managed Diversity
Managers need to make sure the diversity in knowledge, experience, expertise, and other characteristics necessary for group goal accomplishment is represented in the new groups.
Business Chemistry
Four primary ways people work.
1. Pioneers
2. Guardians
3. Drivers
4. Integrators
Pioneers
Inspire creativity: look at the big picture and are open to new ideas, willing to take risks, and comfortable basing decisions on intuition.
Guardians
Are cautious about risk and value stability: want to learn from experience and look for detailed data to back decisions.
Drivers
Care about results and winning: get the team moving and want data so they can solve problems and tackle challenges.
Integrators
Focus on relationships: they seek consensus and try to strengthen the team.
Group Identity and Healthy Competition
Promoting organizational or their own identities and engage or eliminate competition.
Success
Managers can build cohesiveness by making sure a group can achieve some noticeable and visible successes.
High Performing Work Teams
Groups that consistently satisfy the needs of customers, employees, investors, and other stakeholders and frequently outperform other teams that produce similar products or services.
Strategies to Create High Performing Work Teams
- Motivating group members to work toward achieving organizational goals
- Reducing social loafing
- Motivating Group Members to work toward Achieving Organizational Goals
By making sure the team members themselves benefit when the group or team performs highly.
Some combination of group-based and individual incentives.
Social Loafing
The tendency of individuals to put forth less effort when they work in groups than when they work alone.
- Reducing Social Loafing
- Make individual contributions to a group identifiable.
- Emphasize the valuable contributions of individual members.
- Keep group size at an appropriate level.
